Used car buying advice - trader working from home - UK

ElwoodP

ElwoodP

ElwoodP

Associate
Joined
20 Jul 2020
Posts
6
I've just test driven a car and had an offer accepted (around £10k). The car was listed on eBay classified along with 12 month MOT, 6 month warranty and even the offer of part exchange. So I assume I am turning up at a dealers.

When I arrive it is a residential address, the guy is selling 2 cars from his drive. I have checked with him and he says he is registered as trade and the sale will be a trade sale. I can see he has a Local Business Facebook page, with a history of selling a handful of cars, all photos from outside his house over the last few years. Not huge amounts of activity on there but a few likes on each post and no bad reviews or complaints. I have run an HPI check on the car which has come up clean and he has said that he will also provide one. If it means anything the guy seems nice and comes across to me as being honest.

Could someone please give me advice on any checks I should do to protect myself? If I'd turned up at a dealership I'd feel super comfortable about the sale, the car looks in great condition, drives great, and although it's not the cheapest t deal in the world the price offered aligns with valuations from HPI/Parkers. I'm just a little cautious about his setup selling from his drive (although also sympathetic since I am also work for myself from home!).
 
Theres loads of these guys about and plenty of nightmare stories to go with them. The warranty is usually worth jack **** and when the car blows up a week or two after you bought it, you'll spend an age trying to get your money back with all your calls being ignored
 
Even the dealers often bend over backwards and turn on the charm to get your money - you often see another side of them once they have it.
 
Thanks for the advice. Is there never a legitimate way to have a business selling cars from a residential address? What would make his warranty any different to a big dealership if the business was legitimate? He says he is registered in the trade, but I'm not sure what that means or what to check.
 
Rroff said:
Even the dealers often bend over backwards and turn on the charm to get your money - you often see another side of them once they have it.
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Whilst this can be true, there are also the diamonds in the rough. Case in point:

Back in May my mother was looking to get back on the road after 12 months of not driving (Chemotherapy and hip surgery), wasn't particularly mobile (due to the hip-op) and as such needed a local-ish dealer and help looking around. We spotted a Honda Jazz CVT that fit the bill, and the dealer in question (who has no premises of his own) offered to bring the car to us. Now I'm skeptical of not seeing a car start from cold, but he said not to worry and left the keys with us for half a day so that we could drive it round, and crucially, leave it parked for 4 hours or so, such that I could then hear it start up from cold at my leisure. He then came to talk things over with us, and as my mother was unsure, said he'd hold the car indefinitely (with no deposit) until she'd decided. We ended up buying the car a week later.

Fast forward to September. My mother had unfortunately passed away, the same dealer was contacted and he came to inspect and ultimately buy the car back. He offered a fair amount (judging by WBAC/Motorway/Wizzle offers) and paid me there and then. A fortnight later the dealer messages me out of the blue and informs me that the value of the car has increased and he sold it for a decent amount more than expected, he then sent me additional funds!

Not all independent dealers are scum.
 
i used to be in that game, could be auction cars he is selling. If you go to a car auction you can see all these guys sniffing arond the cars.

i would find one that an old dear lady is selling who had it from new
 
It wouldn't put me off but i'd still treat it as a private sale and expect the price to be reflected accordingly and expect to have 0 recourse.

He can claim he's a trader all day long but at the end of the day having 2 cars on the drive of your house and selling 4 a year doesn't really make you one.
 
sovietspybob said:
He can claim he's a trader all day long but at the end of the day having 2 cars on the drive of your house and selling 4 a year doesn't really make you one.
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Sure that doesn't make him a dealer. I assumed there was a legal definition/trade association to belong to? I read you have more aftersale rights when buying from a trade dealer. I just don't know what being a trade dealer literally means or how to check.
 
ElwoodP said:
Sure that doesn't make him a dealer. I assumed there was a legal definition/trade association to belong to? I read you have more aftersale rights when buying from a trade dealer. I just don't know what being a trade dealer literally means or how to check.
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It means jack all and running a car dealership from your front garden is not sustainable. It'll close down/be called something else/your warranty is nonsense.

Buy the car on its merits but not "over pay" for the protection a proper dealership will offer.

If you smell a rat, run away.
 
Just to reiterate this, for all intents and purposes you need to assume this is a private sale and as such the car will have no warranty with it.

He's bought this car from an auction, got it MOT'd and is flipping it. If there's a problem with the car, he'll just disolve the company and disappear.

If the price and condition is right, then go for it. You could always pay to get an RAC car inspection done, that would give you some warranty (with the RAC) if it later turns out to have a problem.
 
I bought my Subaru from a guy with a similar setup a few years ago and all was fine. However i will agree with others and say the warranty will literally cover nothing unless its a top tier expensive warranty..
 
ElwoodP said:
Sure that doesn't make him a dealer. I assumed there was a legal definition/trade association to belong to? I read you have more aftersale rights when buying from a trade dealer. I just don't know what being a trade dealer literally means or how to check.
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Yeah you are right there is a legal and technical difference to being a trader but in practice it pretty much means nothing for those sort of 'traders' as you'd never really get any comeback :(
 
paradigm said:
Whilst this can be true, there are also the diamonds in the rough. Case in point:

Back in May my mother was looking to get back on the road after 12 months of not driving (Chemotherapy and hip surgery), wasn't particularly mobile (due to the hip-op) and as such needed a local-ish dealer and help looking around. We spotted a Honda Jazz CVT that fit the bill, and the dealer in question (who has no premises of his own) offered to bring the car to us. Now I'm skeptical of not seeing a car start from cold, but he said not to worry and left the keys with us for half a day so that we could drive it round, and crucially, leave it parked for 4 hours or so, such that I could then hear it start up from cold at my leisure. He then came to talk things over with us, and as my mother was unsure, said he'd hold the car indefinitely (with no deposit) until she'd decided. We ended up buying the car a week later.

Fast forward to September. My mother had unfortunately passed away, the same dealer was contacted and he came to inspect and ultimately buy the car back. He offered a fair amount (judging by WBAC/Motorway/Wizzle offers) and paid me there and then. A fortnight later the dealer messages me out of the blue and informs me that the value of the car has increased and he sold it for a decent amount more than expected, he then sent me additional funds!

Not all independent dealers are scum.
Click to expand...
similar being ex mechanic the mondeo was the first non salvage car ive bought , guy bought it down on a truck and left it with us to try , bought from ebay (fixed price) rang me up next day and we liked the car he came back to take payment, so he probably drove a couple of hundred miles in all. car was just shy of 5k and we have had it 9 years always flown through mot :)

he was up front that he ran a valeting company and was allowed to buy the dealer trade ins , hence our car .
 
it's worth getting warrantly independently. I've had bad experience with traders who give free "3 months warranty". Absolute bs
 
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