Buying a car and having it delivered (ie without seeing in person)... is it wise?

Stubod

Mickey666 said:

Quite right . . . because car development has left the manual clutch far behind.  Perhaps the average driver can't adjust to such technology

..or maybe they don't want to take a chance on the reliability (VAG units) and end up having to pay £3k+ for a replacement unit if it fails?

AdrianC

Mickey666 said:

AdrianC said:

Mickey666 said:

As for a 'juddery clutch' . . . are people still buying manual cars these days? 

Many modern "automatics" have clutches. They just aren't controlled by the driver's left foot.

Quite right . . . because car development has left the manual clutch far behind.  Perhaps the average driver can't adjust to such technology

Perhaps the technology is making up for the incompetence and lack of mechanical sympathy of modern drivers?

Mickey666

AdrianC said:

Mickey666 said:

AdrianC said:

Mickey666 said:

As for a 'juddery clutch' . . . are people still buying manual cars these days? 

Many modern "automatics" have clutches. They just aren't controlled by the driver's left foot.

Quite right . . . because car development has left the manual clutch far behind.  Perhaps the average driver can't adjust to such technology

Perhaps the technology is making up for the incompetence and lack of mechanical sympathy of modern drivers?

Sigh.
I'm guessing you also think that synchromesh was a similarly backward step when it obviated the need to double de-clutch.  

If auto boxes are good enough for F1 drivers, they're good enough for me.

Mickey666

Stubod said:

Mickey666 said:

Quite right . . . because car development has left the manual clutch far behind.  Perhaps the average driver can't adjust to such technology

..or maybe they don't want to take a chance on the reliability (VAG units) and end up having to pay £3k+ for a replacement unit if it fails?

I've never had to pay for a new autobox in 35+ years of driving automatics.  I did have a head gasket blow once though, so my experience is that ICEs are less reliable than auto-bxes.

Still, drivers with your mindset must be panting at the prospect of EV simplicity and reliablity, so that will no doubt help the transition away from the ICE and the need for gearboxes altogether. 

Grumpy_chap

Buying a car and having it delivered (ie without seeing in person)... is it wise?

This is something I've never done.  I was tempted when we purchased my wife's Fiesta but, in the end found a vehicle closer to home and test-drove, then purchased, in the conventional manner.  That was heavily influenced by FiL commenting on the high risk, wife was nervous and set the doubt in my mind, even though it was a pre-reg car from a major main-dealer chain with reputation to protect.

Personally, I still have some caution about the approach, but I have just seen that my next-door neighbour's son has just purchased in this was and it went really smoothly for him.  He purchased from a large dealer chain, and the car was driven-delivery from the vendor site 200 miles away.  In a way, he has better cover than a purchase face-to-face as it was all a remote purchase so the right to reject in the first couple of weeks is higher than an "on-site" purchase, plus the garage is not going to let the car out with a known fault that will fail a few miles down the road as the result would be their driver stranded and the sale falls through.

Having seen that experience, I would now consider this for a reasonably new car from a major company with reputation to protect.  As the car in question gets older and the dealer less established, my caution rates would increase.

Polly05

I am considering doing this. It does increase the choice available to me. I have a short list of cars that I fancy, intend to find ones locally, sit in them, maybe test drive them. Then order the trim level/colour I want from a company online.