How to haggle buying a second hand car

jimjames

motorguy wrote: »

I got a friend of mine a fantastic peugeot 406 TD some years ago - full (and i mean FULL) service history, mint, for £500. Instead of keeping it maintained during the year he let it get on top of him a bit and when he took it to get MOT'd the garage said it needed 4 tyres, front pads and discs and an exhaust back box and "wasnt worth spending the money on".

Just sold an immaculate Peugeot 309 for a friend. One owner, 22 years old with FSH for £250 and under 100k miles. Old and maybe dated but incredible value and plenty of life left in it.

Attitudes to older cars are quite bizarre but I've wondered before if it's because money for repairs is needed now immediately yet buying a new car can be done on debt over a number of years. It's not seen that the new car is likely to need same work doing - it's not many that sell a car having fixed all the issues, they tend to sell when they know there are bills coming up.

motorguy

jimjames wrote: »

Just sold an immaculate Peugeot 309 for a friend. One owner, 22 years old with FSH for £250 and under 100k miles. Old and maybe dated but incredible value and plenty of life left in it.

Attitudes to older cars are quite bizarre but I've wondered before if it's because money for repairs is needed now immediately yet buying a new car can be done on debt over a number of years. It's not seen that the new car is likely to need same work doing - it's not many that sell a car having fixed all the issues, they tend to sell when they know there are bills coming up.

Agreed - any car at £3,500 is likely to need work done and some point - and most of it will no doubt be argued by the dealer that its normal wear and tear, so you end up paying it anyway.

Most cars i've bought over the last few years, i've budgeted £500 to get the bits and pieces done i know it will need over the first month or two - and generally i havent been too far away...

lincroft1710

motorguy wrote: »

I got a friend of mine a fantastic peugeot 406 TD some years ago - full (and i mean FULL) service history, mint, for £500. Instead of keeping it maintained during the year he let it get on top of him a bit and when he took it to get MOT'd the garage said it needed 4 tyres, front pads and discs and an exhaust back box and "wasnt worth spending the money on"

All consumables and nothing major!

motorguy

lincroft1710 wrote: »

All consumables and nothing major!

Oh i know. :mad:

It was a fantastic car, but instead of doing the maintenance as he went along, he let it get to be a sizeable sum, then let his mechanic convince him it was "uneconomical to repair"

Tiddlywinks

Stoke wrote: »

There's always room for negotiation.

tacpot12 wrote: »

Agree with Stoke; it is always possible to negotiate on a second hand car.

No - there isn't ALWAYS room for negotiation because negotiation requires at least two parties to have a conversation.

You can ASK for movement on the price / conditions of sale or whatever but the seller can always just say 'no'.

I really don't get this continuing battering of motor traders - profit is not a dirty word you know.

Traders are in business to make a living wage - they have greater overheads than private sellers so it's perfectly reasonable that their prices will be higher to reflect these operating costs. BUT you also have more consumer protection law on your side when buying from a trader.... so you make your choices accordingly.

Not all traders are evil and not all private sellers are naive and honest.

Richard53

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

That a repair will cost more than the value of the car doesn't necessarily make the repair uneconomical.

Very true. It depends how much the existing car is worth to you, which may be a lot more than the market value. A car that you know and trust, even if it needs some work doing, may be worth a lot more than the price guides suggest.


I had a Citroen BX diesel (quiet at the back) which was a superb car and suited my needs exactly. Comfy, economical, everything worked, and amazingly rust-free. At MoT time the mechanic said it needed new suspension pipes at £800, and to scrap it. I paid the money and the car was still running fine two years later when I sold it. I could have scrapped it and spent the £800 + scrappage on a banger, but I doubt it would have been half as good as a car I knew and liked (and had NO other issues apart from the suspension).


It is often said on here that the cheapest car is the one you already own.

walwyn1978

Agreed about sometimes no negotiation on price is possible - depends on what it's up at already and what they want out of it.

We bought a pre-reg Captur this year (16 plate) - registered to the dealership the month before as part of a quota and consequently reduced dramatically from standard list price.

The dealer simply wouldn't move from the advertised price. His argument, and his manager's argument, was that the car had done 4 miles, was built less than 3 months ago and the reduction reflected the fact that apart from there already being one owner it was to all intents and purposes a new car. If I didn't buy it, someone else would the next day or the day after. They had started the week with 10 pre reg (big dealership) and 3 days in they'd already shifted 7 of them. They simply didn't need to discuss a 'deal'. I did manage to push the part ex figure for mine up by £275 and get some extras (they taxed it, tank of petrol and mats) but they're all what I'd call additional to the main deal, which they simply didn't move on.

It was a fair argument - I bought the car, Mrs Walwyn1978 loves it and we saved significantly on the list price of a brand new car. Good times all round.

PabloM

Taking into account previous comments - my view is it's better the devil you know.
If the brakes are the only issue with your current car - if so, I'd sooner pay to get them fixed.
A few years ago I had a Seat Ibiza, bought it new, and after 8 years had done135,000 miles and the turbo blew. Cost £1300 to repair, probably just about what the car was worth as a runner, but having had it regularly serviced it was worth more to me.
My alternative was to spend say up to £5000 on another car but, as pointed out here in previous posts, I wouldn't have a clue about the real history of any car I may have purchased and what I may have had to spend on it.