Likelihood of a good bargain from a private many-car seller

alihd

I am now looking into the Facebook market to `hunt` a bargain as my first car, i.e. an automatic 2010+ car for less than £4000 that is cheap to run & insure and has low depreciation, pretty much a car from this query.
To the best of my knowledge, and based on my experience in tracking the market in the past couple of months, the Facebook market has more private sellers than Gumtree and others.
For each advertised car on FBM, I can see other things that the seller has advertised on the market. One weird thing is that for most cars, the seller has many cars for sale, even though they are private sellers. For example, the seller of this car has advertised 15 cars (see the picture on the bottom of the post).

I am confused about how to treat those many-car sellers. First of all, how is it that they keep so many cars? Is it a job or ...? Isn't that weird for someone not to be a dealer and yet trading so many cars?

More importantly, is it a good practice to IGNORE all those many-car sellers? From one side, almost 80%-90% of the ads on FBM are from those types of sellers, so ignoring all those ads limits the available options. On the other hand, I don't know where are those many-car sellers standing and whether there is a substantial hope for a good bargain from them? 
My understanding of "dealer vs private" guidelines is that by buying from a private seller I won't pay for dealer's excess profit and can buy a car with a price close to its WeBuyAnyCar or part-exchange value. On the other hand, buying from a dealer gives more comfort, protection, and the chance to test the car using the dealer's insurance (as it's tricky to test cars from private sellers)
However, I don't know which category do those private many-car sellers belong to? They are similar to other private sellers in that they offer no insurance for testing the car and they have all risks of buying from the private single-car sellers. But at the same time, my hypothesis is that they're as professional as the dealers: they are the wolves of the wheel street, so it's easier for them to fool a first-time buyer, hide issues in the car, they are professionals at negotiation, and are never desperate to sell on a bargain price.

Even when the price and specs are good, I have a feeling that something is wrong. I ask myself “Why would they buy a car to sell it on a bargain price? In principle,a car from those professional sellers cannot be a bargain”

Are my hypotheses correct? Any advice about those sellers? Should I completely ignore them? Is it a good decision to only focus on private single-car sellers who are selling their very own car?

HansOndabush

Best avoided mate. The fact that they claim to be private sellers but are obviously traders should tell you they are not trustworthy. What they do is buy spares/repairs cars for next to nothing and then sell them on as if they are all fine. Often you won't discover the faults on a test drive as they are clever at covering them up.
If you are buying private, buy from a genuine private seller.

AdrianC

It's your call.

That seller is undoubtedly a trader. That is in your favour, as it means you do have some comeback against them, legally. BUT you will undoubtedly have to fight for it. However, if it was a genuine private seller, you would have no comeback at all. OTOH, the legal comeback against the seller of a cheap 10yo car is minimal.

If the car is priced similarly to elsewhere - both traders who aren't trying to pretend they aren't, and genuine private sellers - then there's no "loss of bargain" argument. Yes, the trader's making a profit. He clearly bought it more cheaply than you're seeing... Is there a reason you can't also buy at his buy price...?

It's a 10yo car. There will be problems. Why else do people sell 10yo cars?

If you're in or near London, don't forget the forthcoming ULEZ extension. If you never go inside the circulars, then this could be a good time to pick up a bargain Euro5 diesel...

fred246

Definitely avoid. They are stopping to take photographs on roads with double yellow lines whilst at the same time blocking the whole road which obstructs the passage of emergency vehicles. What sort of person would do that?

Supersonos

Anyone one can go to an auction, buy a load of cars and then post them all over Facebook where there are plenty of mugs hoping to get a "bargain". 

No advertising costs, no staff, no premises, no overheads, no need to supply any sort of warranty or aftersales service... and when you don't declare your earnings or pay any income tax it's all just pure profit.  It's the ideal business.

My advice is to buy from a truly personal seller and give the car a professional check-over before buying, or pay a little more and buy from a reputable dealer.

knightstyle

Just make sure the seller is the registered keeper and look at their insurance document.  That will sort out genuine private sellers from sellers of auction trash.

couriervanman

If/when you do buy via Facebook/gumtree which I think you will take someone along with you to give the car a good once over/test drive ideally a mechanic, but don't come back on here 1 week later complaining the head gasket has gone 

JamoLew

At least 7 of those pictures are taken in exactly the same place -- as already advised - AVOID

alihd

couriervanman said:

If/when you do buy via Facebook/gumtree which I think you will take someone along with you to give the car a good once over/test drive ideally a mechanic, but don't come back on here 1 week later complaining the head gasket has gone 

This is a bit off-topic to the question, but still an interesting point. Nonetheless, I don't understand what is your conclusion?

I understand that I could be unlucky, but how do we compare the expected loss (statistically) with the potential gain/profit?
For example, if I buy this car (an automatic Peugeot 107 2008, 42K Mileage) for £2000 (or probably a few hundred less after haggling), then obviously it is a bargain because dealer prices on Autotrader for the same car is about £2800-£4500. Now the question would be how much is it likely that I inspect and test the car (with my moderate knowledge), don't see an issue, buy it, and then some issue raises and I have to pay to fix it. If, on average, the car costs another £1000 for repairs after the purchase, then it still costs the same as buying from the dealer. Am I missing something?

couriervanman

alihd said:

couriervanman said:

If/when you do buy via Facebook/gumtree which I think you will take someone along with you to give the car a good once over/test drive ideally a mechanic, but don't come back on here 1 week later complaining the head gasket has gone 

This is a bit off-topic to the question, but still an interesting point. Nonetheless, I don't understand what is your conclusion?

I understand that I could be unlucky, but how do we compare the expected loss (statistically) with the potential gain/profit?
For example, if I buy this car (an automatic Peugeot 107 2008, 42K Mileage) for £2000 (or probably a few hundred less after haggling), then obviously it is a bargain because dealer prices on Autotrader for the same car is about £2800-£4500. Now the question would be how much is it likely that I inspect and test the car (with my moderate knowledge), don't see an issue, buy it, and then some issue raises and I have to pay to fix it. If, on average, the car costs another £1000 for repairs after the purchase, then it still costs the same as buying from the dealer. Am I missing something?

"I understand that I could be unlucky, but how do we compare the expected loss (statistically) with the potential gain/profit?"

Trust me.....buy one of those cars and you wont see any profit

AdrianC

alihd said:

couriervanman said:

If/when you do buy via Facebook/gumtree which I think you will take someone along with you to give the car a good once over/test drive ideally a mechanic, but don't come back on here 1 week later complaining the head gasket has gone 

This is a bit off-topic to the question, but still an interesting point. Nonetheless, I don't understand what is your conclusion?

I understand that I could be unlucky, but how do we compare the expected loss (statistically) with the potential gain/profit?
For example, if I buy this car (an automatic Peugeot 107 2008, 42K Mileage) for £2000 (or probably a few hundred less after haggling), then obviously it is a bargain because dealer prices on Autotrader for the same car is about £2800-£4500. Now the question would be how much is it likely that I inspect and test the car (with my moderate knowledge), don't see an issue, buy it, and then some issue raises and I have to pay to fix it. If, on average, the car costs another £1000 for repairs after the purchase, then it still costs the same as buying from the dealer. Am I missing something?

Not IMHO.
Let's look at what that money could be getting you elsewhere...
Only cheaper one on Autotrader - 130k, 2006, trader - £1650 - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012297473624
40k miles, 2009, Cat D - £2,100 - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202101158012382
80k, 2008 - £2,150 - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202101218218769
88k, 2008, trader - £2,300 - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202011276545885
74k, 2008 - £2,400 - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202101178061259
They're all 107s. There's not a single C1 semi-auto, all the Aygos are more expensive.

So the question is why is it right down at the bottom end of the pricing? It's a 13yo very low mileage granny-spec car. That alone should be bringing warning bells up - I'd prefer one of the ones with more mileage.

The very fact that it is so much cheaper than it "should be" says that your hope for any legal comeback if it turns out to be a pup is next to zero.