Car very comptetively priced

Prothet_of_Doom

Ask the dealer to see who the last owner was (name and address should be on V5)

I took a photo of the V5 of a car I was very interested in, and found the contact details of the previous owner on Linkedin. He was very happy to tell me both good and bad. I bought the car.

Herzlos

Most hire companies use an alias on the paperwork, but it's worth looking at the previous keepers details anyway and google if you can.

My dad bought a 2-year old car registered to a rental company and it's been going fine for 2 years so far. It was pretty high spec though, but not all rental cars are thrashed senseless.

WellKnownSid

For me the issue isn't whether it's a hire car - it's whether the sales person is spinning a yarn. Especially with the apparently short warranty.

If it all turns out to be honest, then great.

forgotmyname

Who was the previous owner? A name or a company?

Maybe the cars a lemon? Parents had a Ford Fusion and said it was the worst car they have ever owned.
Back to the dealers several times for silly faults they tried to fob them off with as being normal.

They sold it as a big loss and bought a Golf instead and still have the Golf.

w00519772

I bought the car last Tuesday. When I arrived home I found that:

1) there were no mats
2) there was no spare wheel

I could of sworn there were mats when I took it for a test drive. In highnsight should I of taken the mats and spare wheel from my part ex car? The mats were very good quality in the part ex and relatively new.

BigBopper

w00519772 wrote: »

I bought the car last Tuesday. When I arrived home I found that:

1) there were no mats
2) there was no spare wheel

I could of sworn there were mats when I took it for a test drive. In highnsight should I of taken the mats and spare wheel from my part ex car? The mats were very good quality in the part ex and relatively new.

To be fair they probably weren't there when you set off for home.

w00519772

BigBopper wrote: »

To be fair they probably weren't there when you set off for home.

I realise that. A few days passed between the test drive and picking up the car.

Strider590

I would say it's more likely to have been the garage "run around", they often do this so that they've got a good stock of nearly new vehicles. The sales staff get a free car to drive around in, it costs the garage next to nothing and then they sell it after a year.

Rain_Shadow

w00519772 wrote: »

I bought the car last Tuesday. When I arrived home I found that:

1) there were no mats
2) there was no spare wheel

I could have sworn there were mats when I took it for a test drive. In highnsight should I of taken the mats and spare wheel from my part ex car? The mats were very good quality in the part ex and relatively new.

You didn't notice there weren't any when you picked the car up?

pinkteapot

Good suggestions above. I like the one about tracking down the previous owner!

We bought a one-year-old car with 11k miles and I was nervous, wondering why someone got rid of it after a year (given the depreciation). We've had it four years so far and have had no problems with it. It's a Mondeo and the dealer said the owner relocated, didn't do motorway miles anymore, so wanted to downsize to a little runaround. We ended up taking them at face value and, touch wood, the car's been fine.

Warranty point above is valid though. It should have the remainder of the manufacturer's warranty on it - ours had two years left IIRC.