Buying Second Hand Car Question

KimJongUn88

The best time to get a vehicle inspection done is BEFORE you buy the vehicle not AFTER.

lordmountararat

In my experience it is incredibly difficult to remove the lingering stink from a heavy smoking previous owner. You can mask it for a while with a scent 'bomb', but it soon comes back.

akira181

@Grumpy_chap

It's a 13 plate Seat Ibiza Estate, 1.6L diesel with 88K mileage.  I assumed circa 10K/year to be the average.  It's priced at £3300, which gives my budget some wiggle room for basic maintenance and doesn't leave me strapped for bills in the next few months.  Sorry, I never put the car details in the OP because I wasn't questioning the car, more the recourse options if there are hidden major issues, like an undisclosed crash repair or whatnot.

A 5 door motorway cruiser with less than 100k miles in that price range is slim pickings.  Everything I've seen so far in that price range is either 10+ years old, done up to 20k/year, in poor condition, potentially clocked, a 1L 2 door number that's not suitable, or some combination thereof.

I was in the area looking at a different car (a clocked and rattly engine civic) when I saw this ad so I popped in; unfortunately not my hometown or I would have taken it to my mechanic prior to committing to a deposit (wrote local in the OP but meant independent).  I put £300 as deposit with the condition that they fix the EML and get rid of the smell.  The dealer told me before I looked at it that it was recently in and they've been busy, so it was still to be valeted and the EML sorted.  Could be true as they sold 1 car and 2 others went out for test drives in the hour I was there.

I've seen the V5 and it says one owner.  All the service receipts are from 2 garages I think but I forgot to take note of which.  I plan to call them to see if they have a record of the first 2.  As the owner was a heavy smoker, I can imagine that they threw a ciggy end out the window and the wind has taken it back in onto the rear seat.  Only one small burn to put a hole in the fabric, not enough to melt the foam underneath.  Bodywork, alloys, and the rest of the interior are in good enough condition for its age to suggest a "careful" owner with a bad habit.

Even if the ciggy smell can only be masked for a short time, I only plan to keep this for 2ish years so I can live with a rinse and repeat a couple times a year (some people in that thread had success, so fingers crossed).  It's not ideal and I recognise there’s an element of risk here but I think it’s the best choice out of a bad bunch considering what I’ve seen out there so far.  I just can't afford a major repair right off the bat (maybe after 3 or 4 months) and missing work after just starting isn’t going to leave a good impression regardless of the reason.

I need this sorted by next week and my budget isn’t going to get any bigger.  I’m going to have to accept the risk and hope my mechanic doesn’t discover anything major.  Perhaps I’ll clarify upfront (in writing or with a witness) what the dealer will do if that’s the case.

AdrianC

akira181 said:

I've seen the V5 and it says one owner.

What does it ACTUALLY say?

"Number of Former Keepers" is one?
If so, then the name on it now is the second keeper, and you will be the third.

As has been said... get your mechanic to view it BEFORE purchase, not after.

akira181

it says none under previous registered keeper.

ideally, I would get it checked beforehand but the car is not local to me.  It's an hour away by car, even the nicest of dealers would not take kindly to a 2 hour test drive there and back plus however long it takes my mechanic to do the checks.

AdrianC

akira181 said:

it says none under previous registered keeper.

OK.

ideally, I would get it checked beforehand but the car is not local to me.  It's an hour away by car, even the nicest of dealers would not take kindly to a 2 hour test drive there and back plus however long it takes my mechanic to do the checks.

How up for a morning out is your mechanic?

knightstyle

Opp have youlooked at the MOT history for any advisories over the past few years?

akira181

Spoke with my mechanic earlier today, his shop is rather busy so unlikely he'll come with.  He did tell me some things to look for and offered to give the car a once over and check the service has been carried out properly for £30 so can't complain really. 

MOT history is generally pretty decent.  Occasional advisory with usual wear items like pads and tyres, mileage lines up with service history.

Guess all that's left now is to wait till Thursday to see if they managed to sort the issues and gauge their response when I tell them I'm going to have someone check it over for major faults.

gabitzul

You sound like you have your head well screwed on, so I would say go for it, it's not some exotica so parts are not that expensive. If worst come the worst, you can reject within the time allowed - 14 days or whatever it is these days.

Grumpy_chap

All-in-all, the OP has done a fair amount of due diligience.

The risk was that the "one owner" car was not truly - that seems to have been covered off.  This closes out the concern about missing service at the start of life which would not be the case for the car if there had been a change of keepers.

I guess the car has been reasonably looked after by the one owner, but a habit (and careless incident) that leaves it's mark.  The Dealer has committed to sweeten this up.

IF the EML issue is swiftly resolved, and was only the glow plug, then happy days.  The question remains as to whether the one owner only sold now because of the EML issues and challenges to resolve.  Sometimes, a level if risk just has to be taken.

Hopefully the OP got on well today when they spoke with the garage again.