Long Distance Travel to View a Car

[TW]Fox · 27 Aug 2014 at 12:44

panthro said:
The service book was stamped but there were no invoices.
.

This will almost always be the case on any car you buy from the motor trade and many you buy privately.

panthro · 27 Aug 2014 at 13:15

[TW]Fox;26809918 said:
This will almost always be the case on any car you buy from the motor trade and many you buy privately.

I know, what i should have stated is that this was contrary to what the seller told me.

The seller/dealer told me that:
The car was clean.
No mechanical parts were broken/worn to his knowledge.
It has bi xenon headlights
All tyres were the same and in good condition.
It had 84k miles on
The service book was stamped with some invoices from the previous owner.

[TW]Fox · 27 Aug 2014 at 13:36

He told you there was no wear to mechanical parts on an 84k mile car? Obvious flashing bs light that.

Adam · 27 Aug 2014 at 13:40

Did you tell the dealer you were unhappy you had traveled so far and his description was incorrect? If he had dropped the price would you have bought it?

If it only needed a clean, a new wiper and a couple of tyres it could have been worth it.

panthro · 27 Aug 2014 at 13:45

[TW]Fox;26810241 said:
He told you there was no wear to mechanical parts on an 84k mile car? Obvious flashing bs light that.

No, I asked him of all lights, wipers, electric windows etc were working, normal things you'd ask over the phone that people tend to omit from an autotrader advert.

Why do you have to be so bloody pedantic? It's not like I've never bought a car before FFS. It was in a bad state and not as per the description in the advert.

Also, the interior smelt like my old Fiat Coupe, which isn't grounds for not wanting a car, but it really put me off because it brought back all the bad memories.

panthro · 27 Aug 2014 at 13:46

Adam said:
Did you tell the dealer you were unhappy you had traveled so far and his description was incorrect? If he had dropped the price would you have bought it?

If it only needed a clean, a new wiper and a couple of tyres it could have been worth it.

I told him that he knew I was coming to see the car, the least he could have done is make sure it would start (the battery was dead) and give it a clean. I also told him all the things that were wrong with the car, which was why I wasn't interested. He said he'd look at dropping the price but I said no thanks.

Sasso · 27 Aug 2014 at 14:37

ahhh sorry to hear that OP

they probably knew all the things weren't to your spec but said they were anyway just to get you down there and try for the sale. It's no inconvenience to them, 15-30 mins of one staffs time for a potential sale opposed to the hours out of your day in traveling to them just to straight up reject it.

had similar situation not that long ago. opened my eyes and I now approach everything with the attitude "they're probably trying it on"

Uriel · 27 Aug 2014 at 19:36

Nothing makes a worse first impression than the car not starting. It's bad enough when you make a 15 minute trip and that happens.

matt99man · 29 Aug 2014 at 18:22

I traveled 300 miles to view a tvr chimaera fully expecting to buy it and came back with nothing. Ended up buying one a couple of months ago from a massive 35 miles away! Haha

Alibaba99 · 29 Aug 2014 at 19:47

Uriel said:
Nothing makes a worse first impression than the car not starting. It's bad enough when you make a 15 minute trip and that happens.

I actually had one run out of fuel about 4 miles after leaving the dealers compound. I realised pretty quickly that something wasn't right but I was on a dual carriageway and had to travel up to the first roundabout before I could turn around and the car died on the way back. Fortunately a passing motorist gave a lift back.