Would you buy a one year old car from a private seller?

MyRealNameToo

Private sale will always be notably cheaper than dealership… you have little statutory rights, doesnt come with any form of warranty, they have no duty to disclose anything unless you specifically ask and even then they can be vague in replies as long as they dont lie. Dealerships normally do prep on the car, dealing with minor things, private sellers dont. Dealers offer finance to increase the number of people able to buy it therefore pushes the price up (as well as another revenue stream) whereas private are cash only.

As long as you remember its all on you to do the checks and factor in its a sunk cost if you do a HPI check and find there is still finance secured on the vehicle etc then you can get a better deal

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979200#Comment_81979200

Central records only record if the vehicle has been written off or stolen. They dont record if its been in a major accident and on a jig to get the chasis pulled straight again etc… as a nearly new car the damage to total loss it is substantially more than your old banger where a simple zip scratch would probably write off the car were someone foolish enough to try and claim for it.

rubble2

Thanks for all the replies, on reflection I think I will stick with buying from a dealer.

Although the private sale is cheaper it is not by that much and factoring the cost of carrying out status checks etc. and the fact that we would then have to sell our current car rather than p/x it, I think we will give it a miss.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979936#Comment_81979936

Similarly you will typically get less on PX than private sale so widen the gap but there is less hassle and potential problems with PX. Always comes down to how much you value your time/convenience