Traders who've stopped officially trading but are still selling from their car lot..

Demon

Demon

Demon

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
8,659
Location
Near Cheltenham
Background: My daughter wants her first car and as my wife used to have a Beetle convertible (14 years old / 85k miles) its no surprise that since the insurance is surprisingly OK, my daughter thinks it would be nice to have something more 'fun' for a first car.

However, like last time, getting a clean example is not easy, they tend to be owned by a certain type of person that is averse/ignorant of mechanical things and generally:
- They never service them
- Trash the interior/exterior
- Think green is the correct colour for a black soft top
- Think the fact it's 'fun' means no matter how poor a condition, it's worth a fortune.

The strategy last time was to simply look at quite a few, eventually you will find one with a service history, having had the cambelt changed when needed and the MOT history shows no major issues and that they'd had minor advisories fixed and in the end we found a nice example that gave very little trouble and was a pleasure to own.

Immediately on looking at cars currently on the market, things haven't changed.. most examples are trashed inside/outside and MOT histories littered with issues, not to mention lack of service history, some not serviced for 50K miles with quizzical responses to things like "has it had a cambelt changed at any point"?

But what's stood out is I've noted there are a significant number of traders who are masquerading as private sellers, far more than normal.. We aren't talking about 'home traders', these are garages with car lots that had been trading, seemingly stopped trading now, yet the photo's of the cars are clearly from their lot (the signage often in the background).

I'd normally dismiss these as I don't like the deceit, however a couple of examples popped up yesterday and this morning where the car looks worth considering, the right mileage, history and condition (based on photos) and IMO worth viewing and on asking about viewing them are being directed to the car lot which they claim is 'storage'..


Thoughts? Should I run for the hills or just go and see them and judge the car on it's own merits?
 
I'd not dismiss them, but if they are pretending to be private sellers they can't command trader prices.
 
Deal with people you're comfortable dealing with. My experience is that "nice" people will more often sell you a decent car.
I've happily walked away several times after looking at cars just because I didn't get a good feeling about the seller.
 
Judge the car on its own merits but be cautious, the price and your statutory rights of issues/return are at risk if they attempt to claim it’s a private sale.
 
HoneyBadger said:
Judge the car on its own merits but be cautious, the price and your statutory rights of issues/return are at risk if they attempt to claim it’s a private sale.
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This - treat it like you're buying from Mr Smith @ 13 Acacia Avenue rather than a dealer.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Deal with people you're comfortable dealing with. My experience is that "nice" people will more often sell you a decent car.
I've happily walked away several times after looking at cars just because I didn't get a good feeling about the seller.
Click to expand...

this !

current car, phoned up and asked questions, like colour etc, then my dad thought we would go and view it, its not too far, got there, looking around car lot, and it wasn't there (alarm bells rang) seller came over , sounded dodgy and said car has been at the valets, we left after more lies !
 
Thanks!

Yeah, I'm approaching it on the same basis as a private sale but am already lowering expectations based on method of sale, however, I found another trader selling one like this, they where refreshingly honest and said they are just struggling through lock down so wound up the business and are slowly selling stock privately.. I’m going to see a few today and see how they pan out.
 
Clarkey said:
I actually have a cream beetle convertible I need rid of. How much you looking to spend on one?
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LOL, bad timing, we saw 5 cars today and ended up getting a 2006 face-lift with 80k miles for £1850.

I initially caved in and just went to a couple of garages that had supposedly excellent condition examples for £3.5k only to find they where pretty much below par in every aspect..

So we found a private one, it's not perfect, but it was much better in most regards to the others with full service history (Inc cambelt) and a good MOT history with a very clean interior and good condition hood, all windows working, all door locks working..

And what suits me perfectly is there is money left over to fix all the minor stuff and make it a very nice example.

Just out of interest what age/mileage and ballpark value would you put on yours?
 
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