Dealer or Private

Mr_Singleton

hanging around here for any length of time shows that buying a second hand car from a dealership isn’t a cast iron guarantee that you’ll get years of trouble free motoring.

So,

Was wondering what sort of premium would you pay for a manufacturer authorised main dealer car ( BMW, Mercedes, Volvo) over the exact same car from Mr. Smith 2 streets over who’s selling privately?

Am guessing the budget is around £10k.
Thanks

macman

As a rough guide, the dealer will be looking to make £1K on a car he's selling at £10K.But fine to consider dealers at that budget. All depends on requirements for finance, warranty, etc.
Once you get below £3-4K, I'd be buying privately every time, as there's little left for a dealer after taking a £500 or so profit.

ratrace

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

hanging around here for any length of time shows that buying a second hand car from a dealership isn’t a cast iron guarantee that you’ll get years of trouble free motoring.

So,

Was wondering what sort of premium would you pay for a manufacturer authorised main dealer car ( BMW, Mercedes, Volvo) over the exact same car from Mr. Smith 2 streets over who’s selling privately?

Am guessing the budget is around £10k.
Thanks

There is no such thing as a cast iron guarantee all cars break down minor or major repairs needed, the difference is that when a car is under warranty you dont foot the bill the dealer does, but its still a broken car

No one ever will guarantee you years of trouble free motoring a car is a machine that is prone to wear and tear

have you looked at cars for under £1,000 with full mot that way run them for a year and if they do break down then sell as spares and repeat bangoromics i think it's called check it out good way of saving money providing you buy a sensible car

Mr_Singleton

ratrace wrote: »

have you looked at cars for under £1,000 with full mot that way run them for a year and if they do break down then sell as spares and repeat bangoromics i think it's called check it out good way of saving money providing you buy a sensible car

It’s for a young lady off to university and her mother says “reliable, reliable, reliable” which is a fair point. Having a broken down car miles away and money hungry mechanics dealing with a female student isn’t going to be pretty.

I’m not too fussed about the money as I expect the eventual car won’t be high on the list of boy racer types, so a private seller with a fsh might be a better deal than a dealership ie lower mileage.

Trying to get a sense of the trade offs between the 2 routes.

ratrace

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

It’s for a young lady off to university and her mother says “reliable, reliable, reliable” which is a fair point. Having a broken down car miles away and money hungry mechanics dealing with a female student isn’t going to be pretty.

I’m not too fussed about the money as I expect the eventual car won’t be high on the list of boy racer types, so a private seller with a fsh might be a better deal than a dealership ie lower mileage.

Trying to get a sense of the trade offs between the 2 routes.

I understand the reliability aspect so in that case if reliability is on top of the list then a small car such as a ford ka, fiat500 skoda citygo etc.... a newish still under warrenty can be as little as £100 - £150 per month on finance etc...

buying private can be good but its always sold as seen with no comebacks, so if the car does break down even if its something as simple as a faulty battery or a blown fuse she will still have to take it to a garage or have some sort of breakdown cover

so all in all we are talking about a level of risk going down the dealer route is less risky than going down the private buyer route from a breakdown/reliability point of view (not talking if the price dealer is selling it at is worth it) if she is anything like my sister who has no knowledge about cars, then the newish car under warranty maybe the best bet

unholyangel

I'd actually go further and say if you're going to buy private, you may as well purchase from an auction and save yourself some cash. Its where most dealers obtain and/or offload their stock (maybe a audi dealer but accepted a vauxhall in part exchange so they bump the vauxhall to auction).

Although I'd say only do the above if you know or have someone who knows what to look for in cars.

Personally, its not a question of how much of a premium would I pay to buy from a dealer, its how much would I want to save if buying private. If its 10k private I'd expect 13K~ dealer. And 10k dealer I'd expect 8K~ private.

System

unholyangel wrote: »

I'd actually go further and say if you're going to buy private, you may as well purchase from an auction and save yourself some cash.

Only at big auctions. At small local around the £3k-4k the prices tend to be more than you can buy privately on Facebook simply due to the fact that a large number of those in the auction house are private buyers.

Saw the same happening at John Pye's IT auctions years ago when Joe Public got whiff of the place. It got to the point that after the buyers fees and VAT you could walk into PC World and buy at full retail off the shelf cheaper because the private bidders would forget about the ~40% on top of the hammer price in fees/VAT and massively overbid.