Is it safe to buy a car from a dealership 100 miles away?

Iceweasel

I live in NE Scotland.
My current car was bought from Luton.
After seeing videos of the specific areas / parts I was concerned about I paid a returnable deposit to secure it, then travelled South to do the P/Ex.
My previous car was bought the same way but from Croydon some 600 miles from my home.
Both were from a dealership for that marque - warranty and servicing close to home was not a problem.
Unless it was something very, very special I  wouldn't buy from an indie dealership

MikeJXE

I bought my 3 year old Jaguar XE approved used from a main dealer 100 miles away

I rang them and reserved the car with a holding deposit till I got there..

I had a test drive and brought the car home with me

I have have had the car 4 years now with no problems

Barkin

GoldenOldy said:

Just want to make sure local place wouldnt be funny about servicing and warranty etc as we didnt buy it from there, if that makes sense.

To them it's just work that they're paid for. 

Mildly_Miffed

If you buy genuinely completely remotely, and have the car delivered, you have a 14 day cooling-off period during which they have to pay to collect the car.

They wouldn't be liable for other costs arising - tax, insurance, finance etc - and there may be a delay in actually returning the money.

So you might just think it easier to do the day trip and go to them.

Grumpy_chap

For a brand new car, I don't see any reason not to get the one you have seen.  Distance is not critical as it will be covered by the manufacturer's warranty.  I might comment differently for a used car.

sevenhills

GoldenOldy said

We do not have a John Banks near us, but we do have Bristol Street Motors who are a dealer but dont have the car in.
We will go and look at it first.
Just want to make sure local place wouldnt be funny about servicing and warranty etc as we didnt buy it from there, if that makes sense.

I would buy locally, within around 20 miles, I would consider it a risk to buy a car 100+ miles away.
There are thousands of cars to choose from locally, perhaps if I wanted an orange or pink car travelling further would be acceptable.

400ixl

sevenhills said:

I would buy locally, within around 20 miles, I would consider it a risk to buy a car 100+ miles away.
There are thousands of cars to choose from locally, perhaps if I wanted an orange or pink car travelling further would be acceptable.

What risk on a new car? The OP already stated this is the only model that is available with the specification they want.

There really is no additional risk over buying locally in this case.

EnPointe

GoldenOldy said:

Good Morning,
I need to replace my car.
when putting an order in, I have discovered they no longer offer the car with the technical pack i wanted, something to do with delays and chips?
In addition there is a 3 month wait.
I have seen the car i originally wanted , it is an unregistered car but at a dealership already. 

It has all the bits n pieces I need.
However it is over 100 miles away!
What would be the pitfalls if any of going ahead?
The dealership does not have any dealerships local to me.
Would it be foolhardy to buy?
Many Thanks

if it's unregistered it will have the full  Manufacturers  warranty, even if it was preregistered a few months ago to the dealer it'd have the balalnce of the warranty /  have the approved used warranty 

 is there a dealer or  approved repairer for that  manufacturer closer to hand ? as they would do any   warranty work and if  any service plan was a manufactuter  provided one (as is likely on a new or  Dealer stock whether registered or unregistered)  the local dealer would be able to do the work on the plan 

Service and aftersales is where dealers predicatably make their money ,  dealers will choose to lose money on a particular  new vehicle sales if it gets them over  one of the lines drawn by the manunfacturer / importer  or  gets rid of a  new vehicle which has sat for more than the 'ideal' number of days 

sevenhills

400ixl said:
What risk on a new car? The OP already stated this is the only model that is available with the specification they want.

People buys cars unseen, from the likes of Cazoo, so some people don't see buying locally an advantage. But people's issues after distance buying can be seen in other threads. 
Some people specifically like to buy a ford, because they have a Ford dealer locally.
Marks and Spencer have traded for many years, with customers knowing that products can be easily returned. Not so easy if the shop is 200 miles away. 

Nebulous2

I bought a van, as a private vehicle, from more than 300 miles away. They had a batch of pre-registered ones, that were cheaper than anywhere else I could find. 

We went to collect it and liked the look of the town it came from, so when it was due it's first service we decided to go back for a long weekend. 

I'm in a rural part of Scotland, with few franchised dealers, so a service almost always requires a trip and a whole day away anyway.  That gets you used to dealing at a distance. 

Local franchises have been very keen on my business for servicing and compete for it. More recently I bought a car. The nearest dealer couldn't offer what I wanted and when I told the salesman that, the first thing he said was, remember although I couldn't get you a car we would always be interested in servicing it and looking after you in that way.