Tips on buying long distance

boyse7en

I need to buy a car and there is nothing suitable in my area. This means I will have to travel several hours to see/buy a car.
What's the best way to go about getting the best price?
Should I try and negotiate a price before I go and see the car? If the dealer knows I have travelled a couple of hundred miles to see the car, he knows I am keen, and will therefore not negotiate much on the price.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Best to view the car before any negotiations take place, and don't let the seller know you are traveling hours to see it either.

If I was selling a car and someone phoned me for my "best price" I would say the advertised price. Any proper negotiations must be done in person after a test drive to ascertain exact condition and if there are any faults, unless the price is unrealistic in the first place.

Suppose he knocks off £200 on the strength of a telephone call and when you test drive it you find it needs tires, brake pads, bushes exhaust etc, he is unlikely to drop the price any further.

If he knows that you will have taken a 6 hour round trip, then he may not be willing to drop the price at all as he knows that you would rather not of waste 6 hours of your life and probably £50 in fuel for £100-£200 off the price.

I would view the car that you can afford and happy with the advertised price, and any reductions in price are a bonus, assuming there are no faults and its advertised accurately.

maninthestreet

So what is so special about the car you want that you need to buy it from a car dealer so far from where you live?

Johnny_Barnes10

I'd ask for at least my travel costs to be knocked off (I mean ask for say £100 off etc, not travel). I brought a Bora from Yorkshire, I'm in Wolves.

Didn't see before buying, but got £200 off it. If they weren't prepared to knock anything off I wouldn't of bothered. Obviously a risk, but I was prepared to take it based on the history and condition of the car.

boyse7en

maninthestreet wrote: »

So what is so special about the car you want that you need to buy it from a car dealer so far from where you live?

Nothing much, but I need a large diesel estate, and have a budget of up to £3000. Looking at Honda Accord, Saab 9-5, Volvo V70, Toyota Avensis. Up to about 150,000 miles, and a 2004/5/6.

Within 100 miles of me I have virtually no choice at all. And once you get to 100 miles (about 2.5 hours drive), I might as well go 200 miles, as it still requires a day to get there and back.:)

maninthestreet

I think we can all see where this one is going - OP buys an 8 year old car with 100,000+ miles on the clock from a distant dealer for a bargain price.
A few days after they buy it, something goes horribly wrong with it, and contacts the dealer demanding they fix it. The dealer offers to inpsect the vehicle at their own premises, but the OP think the dealer should pay the costs of transporting the vehicle to their premises, which the dealer declines. Cue the OP coming back onto these forums asking 'What rights do I have??'......

fishpond

maninthestreet wrote: »

I think we can all see where this one is going - OP buys an 8 year old car with 100,000+ miles on the clock from a distant dealer for a bargain price.
A few days after they buy it, something goes horribly wrong with it, and contacts the dealer demanding they fix it. The dealer offers to inpsect the vehicle at their own premises, but the OP think the dealer should pay the costs of transporting the vehicle to their premises, which the dealer declines. Cue the OP coming back onto these forums asking 'What rights do I have??'......

I think you have summed that up nicely.

Chances are with that sort of mileage, there will be niggles if not catastophic failures.
Pesonally I would wait and get one a lot closer to home.

Johnny_Barnes10

I agree, I took a gamble with mine. Looking for one now and don't want to travel more than around 20miles or so to get it.

boyse7en

Well, thanks guys for making wild assumptions about me. I would much rather get a car closer to home, but there are none suitable available.
I just put into Autotrader the parameters of diesel estate, up to £3k (any brand, any model, no minimum price, no other caveats or stipulations at all) and I get the grand total of 7 (count 'em, seven!) results: 2 x 1997 Peugeot 406s, a Renault Megane (too small), Peugeot 307 (too small), a 1994 Vauxhall Monteray, a Focus with 190,000 on the clock and a Citroen Picasso.
Which would be your choice out of them for a risk-free buy?

The same criteria on eBay gets me a choice of nine (steady on!) including a VW Caravelle, a Discovery, a Ford Fusion and a Peugeot 407 (which everyone says not to go near with a bargepole)

I'm not doing this to be difficult, I'm doing it due to lack of options. You might live near a nice big city or conurbation, with loads of choice of dealers and cars. But I don't, so I'm trying to make the best of it that i can.

agrinnall

I don't disbelieve you but you must have chosen to live in a very remote spot if there is no town big enough to have several new and second hand car dealers within a couple of hours journey. I live in the Highlands and even from here I'd have a good choice of cars within an hours drive (although I actually bought mine 2 hours away as it was the only place that had the specific model I wanted at that time).

Have you checked to see if all of the dealers closer to you are actually advertising their vehicles on Autotrader? If not then it might be worth making a list of where they are and spending a day driving round to see what's available.

Dukesy

My car was hit and written off in December and we had one hell of a time finding a replacement. I wanted an exact replacement and my car is not too common to start with, whilst finding one that was of comparable quality was even more difficult.

We hunted on various sites (autotrader, ebay, pistonheads etc) and found one that seemed great. Spoke to the owner and agreed a price dependant on viewing but when we turned up, having travelled nearly 200 miles it just was not what we expected, and then to top it all off, it wouldn't start. I have never heard anything backfire so loudly in my life. It boiled down to the battery being flat, but there were other issues that we hadn't been expecting with it too (I really don't believe was trying to mislead us - I just don't think he really knew what he was talking about).

We left it at that and drove home. Wasted day, wasted journey, wasted fuel but this is the sort of thing that happens when distance buying.

Next weekend we went to see another, this time only 120 miles away. Again, agreed a price, dependant on viewing, over the phone with the very knowledgeable sounding owner. Absolute little cracker of a car.

If you really want a particular car, you just have to be prepared to take the risk. Try and find as much out as you can beforehand, but sometimes things just aren't what they should be.