Buying a used car.

MalMonroe

Hello, I am looking for a used car. Something not too expensive that I can use for that old cliché - 'a little runaround'. But I want it to be worth the money - say around £2000 to £3000. And I should be able to get what I want for that, I think. I'm a wee bit scared!

Because I'll be paying in full, I've decided I'm going to do a bit of haggling. If it works great, if not I've not lost anything. But most dealers like a bit of haggle. And I'd never buy from a private seller. Simply because there's no comeback if they are unreasonable - many are. I've learned from that experience.
 
I just wanted to say to anyone else who may be in a similar position - before you begin to haggle or buy a car, please do carry out an MOT status check before making an offer. 

Even when a car is sold with an MOT - most are - there could be 'advisories' that have not been attended to - some I've seen are minor but some aren't. Like tyres reaching the end of their lives and other mechanical things that I don't understand!  There could also be a 'recall' on a vehicle and the MOT check will tell you about that too. You can also check the likely insurance costs.

I prefer vehicles that have a list of green passes as far as the eye can see. One or two red fails may be okay as long as they are way back. The MOT check will also tell you how many miles a car has done. I don't like those where the mileage is over 90k. I know that some cars can go on forever but I don't want to buy one that's going to collapse on me after a couple of months. 

Another thing I'm doing is checking the vehicle tax because one or two cars I've seen have high tax figures, some have zero and some have really small costs.

I've been looking on 'autotrader' (not advertising though as I remain neutral of course) and of the ten cars I selected for further consideration, only two have what I think are good MOT records, reasonable tax and insurance costs and decent mileage. 

I'm just thinking that we motorists have a duty to ourselves to try to ensure that we're not sold a heap of junk and so if you're thinking of buying a used car but haven't thought of checking - or weren't aware that the information is out there - please do the small checks because it's better than just accepting what you're told by car seller/dealer.

I'm also distance-buying as many dealers are offering delivery nowadays. Some charge for it (quite reasonably) but others don't. And that does offer good protection if you're not happy with what you've received. You have the right to refuse it for up to 14 days after delivery.

So, here goes! Good luck to anyone who is in a similar position. Here's the link to the checks - https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla

I'd only use the government checker because I trust them (strange but true!)

PS No need to respond to this message but I do hope that it's helpful. As ever, only my own experiences, never advice.

Ebe_Scrooge

To throw in my two-penn'orth .......

MalMonroe said:

say around £2000 to £3000.

I'd never buy from a private seller. Simply because there's no comeback if they are unreasonable

You're right in that there's (almost) no comeback against a private seller.  But at that end of the market, you really should be looking at private sales.  If you're not mechanically-minded, take along a friend who is.  Or a tame local mechanic who'll give the car a once-over for the price of a few pints.  A kosher dealership has to buy the car (usually from auction), bring it up to a halfway-decent standard, pay staff, showroom rental, loads of other costs, offer a warranty (even if it's only 3 months or whatever), and still make a profit.  You could buy the same car privately for a quarter of that price.

MalMonroe said:

please do carry out an MOT status check before making an offer.

Yup, this can give a clue as to a car's history.  As well as going some way to verifying the mileage, it shows how it's been looked after.  Passed first time, every time?  Previous owner looked after it and replaced stuff as and when necessary.  Loads of failures every time?  Previous owner took the attitude of "Bung it in for the MOT, repair what needs repairing, that'll do for another year".

MalMonroe said:

I don't like those where the mileage is over 90k. I know that some cars can go on forever but I don't want to buy one that's going to collapse on me after a couple of months.

Depends a lot on the type of use.  When I was young, you'd expect a car to be pretty much dead after 100K miles.  These days, 200K is not at all uncommon.  And 100K for a sales rep's car that's spent all its life on the motorway, with sod-all stress on engine, brakes, steering, suspension, gearbox, and regularly serviced is a very different proposition to something that's only had 30K put on it by a little old lady who pops to the shops once a week and revs the guts out of it from cold when reversing out of her drive and holds it on the clutch when waiting at lights (sorry, terrible stereotyping there, but hopefully you get my drift).

MalMonroe said:

Another thing I'm doing is checking the vehicle tax because one or two cars I've seen have high tax figures, some have zero and some have really small costs.

In the grand scheme of things, the vehicle tax is a tiny percentage of the overall cost of running a car.  Yes, it's nice if you get a bill for £30 a year instead of £240 or whatever, but overall it's such a tiny proportion of the overall cost, you really shouldn't let that sway your decision.

MalMonroe said:

I'm also distance-buying as many dealers are offering delivery nowadays. Some charge for it (quite reasonably) but others don't. And that does offer good protection if you're not happy with what you've received. You have the right to refuse it for up to 14 days after delivery.

Does make it inconvenient if you need to return the car to the seller to have something fixed under warranty.  New cars - you can usually take it to your local franchised dealer, even if you didn't buy it from them.  Older cars, you usually need to take it back to where you bought it from, annoying if it's a couple of hundred miles away.

I hope this post doesn't cause offence - just wanted to put forward some alternative viewpoints.  As always, it depends a lot on your budget and your priorities :-)

jimjames

MalMonroe said:

Hello, I am looking for a used car. Something not too expensive that I can use for that old cliché - 'a little runaround'. But I want it to be worth the money - say around £2000 to £3000. And I should be able to get what I want for that, I think. I'm a wee bit scared!

I'm also distance-buying as many dealers are offering delivery nowadays. Some charge for it (quite reasonably) but others don't. And that does offer good protection if you're not happy with what you've received. You have the right to refuse it for up to 14 days after delivery

At the £2k end of the market then buying at a distance from a dealer seems like a very bad idea. Maybe a private seller it would be fine as you have no comeback so you don't need to worry about returning the car. But for an older car if you buy from afar you would have to return it to get anything repaired and at that price the chances they'd do anything are fairly low. Just because the law says they should do something doesn't mean they will and you then have no car and the hassle of taking them to court.

Have a search of the forum for people buying cars of that value and getting no help from the dealer.

sheslookinhot

Buying a banger from a backstreet dealer offers little protection in reality.