Used car buying... why is it so rubbish?

[lordrobs]

OK so I was asked to try and source a nearly new car as my company car replacement. I've not bought a car from a used car dealer since 2004 when I paid £3.5k for a 306. How bad can it be I thought... the answer, pretty bad!

Firstly I need an estate and for every 5 crossover / SUV type things there is maybe 1 estate. Since when did nobody want a regular hatch with a bit more space?

Then there were the cars themselves. Now my budget was tight but I was looking at a well regarded nearly new car centre and approved used stuff and the presentation of the cars was appalling! Polish smeared all over, bodywork damage, missing bits, interiors covered in enough food and coffee stains to keep a rodent fed for life. Honestly I was shocked how they thought it was fine to show them like that with the screen prices in question. Amazingly when you questioned it the car that had pride of place on the forecourt was all of a sudden "awaiting preparation". Funny that when you've had it for months and recently reduced it

Then there were the salesmen. Outright lies, inconsistency and BS were the order of the day. To their credit they were seamless with the bi-polar flip between talking about the £##k car you are buying and the £#k car you are trading in. "Well, its used so it's going to have some marks on it" to "oooh *sucks through teeth* that's a nasty stone chip". The main dealer was a real eye opener for me. I can't quote exactly what I heard when I walked in otherwise I'll get a ban so use your imagination to fill the blanks. "**** OFF! HAHAHAHA! **** YOU!" "You do know there's a customer over there? *LOL*" *giggles and runs off* I'd be strung up for acting like that in front of a customer.

Oh well, rant over and thankfully Carwow has saved the day and I managed to find a new car within £450 of my budget for a nearly new one so we'll hopefully go for that and I can put off going to a dealer for another decade or so.

 

[grudas]

Yup! I go with privste sales, traders etc are all monkeys these days. Avoid at all costs.

 

[paradigm]

Yup! I go with privste sales, traders etc are all monkeys these days. Avoid at all costs.

There are decent used traders and/or dealers out there, but for every good guy there are 100 snake-oil salesmen, so it’s not exactly guaranteed that you’ll run into one selling something you actually want! They guy who I bought the TT off was about as genuine as they come and I’d not hesitate to drive the 50 odd miles back to see him if he had something in stock that I wanted.

 

[LiE]

Audi main dealer I bought my car from was very good and professional.

 

[rodenal]

When I bought the focus the guy I purchased from was very good too. For me it becomes really obvious really quickly which of these guys you can have an honest conversation with (within the realms of someone who wants to sell a product). I won't even drive a car if I'm dealing with a pratt as the after sales isn't worth thinking about.

I think the sales attitude is driven a bit by how people treat car purchasing now. I still think that spending thousands of pounds of money (even a few thousand) is a bit of a big deal, whereas the general shify is very much to "it's only £250 a month mate and I can hand it back anyway". If the customer only cares about a badge and monthly payments there's less drive to have any real knowledge or pride in the product.

Tbf I usually find main dealers a lot more professional than your car supermarket type setup with the big chains somewhere in the middle.....Evans Halshaw being the exception who are the worst company I think I've ever dealt with

 

[IAmATeaf]

Last 2 car purchases have been ok in the end. Got my wife’s Yaris from a VW garage in Oxford and the salesman was really nice. Got my 3 from from “well dodgy” place in Manchester but again I found the overall experience pleasant.

In the hunt for my 3 I did go to various places and have to agree the treatment was just crap. One place I actually phoned up to book a viewing, when I went there they just weren’t interested, just pointed me to the car, didn’t even open it up and nothing about a test drive.

 

[[TW]Fox]

It's fine as long as you keep away from random dealers ime.

For me I'd only buy main dealer or private sale. I don't find the independent traders add any value at all to the process and I'd rather buy privately

 

[Akagi]

I only bother looking at cars from private sellers these days... Car dealers are all full of ****.

 

[Rroff]

When I got into work on Thursday one of the guys was walking around with a face like thunder - bought a car last week, broke down early this week and garage quoting him twice what he paid for it to fix - unsurprisingly the seller isn't responding not that he has much comeback anyhow.

Got my wife’s Yaris from a VW garage in Oxford and the salesman was really nice.

I've so far had good results from anything connected to the VW Das Welt program.

When I bought my pickup though had a fair bit of fun and games, the dealer staff were pretty welcoming and seemed knowledgable, etc. but sometimes it would be a complete run around trying to get put through to the right person and I had have some work done under warranty straight off the bat and to be frank the sales person was peddling quite a bit of BS but I went in knowing what I was getting into (mostly) so it wasn't a problem but a more every day buyer could have been lead up the garden path

I only bother looking at cars from private sellers these days... Car dealers are all full of ****.

Personally I won't touch private any more unless it is something hard to get, etc. - the last few times I've looked/enquired it has been quickly obvious the seller is trying to pull a fast one and/or they are selling in seemingly complete ignorance something that isn't what they think, etc.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

I’ve generally had good experiences buying cars the last 4 have been 300-400miles away.

I did get stung in my last attempted purchase from a BMW dealer with an under a year old 540i G31 deal agreed car described as perfect (I should have known at this point it was going to go down hill)

I’d already agreed to sell my old car to a work colleague who’s lease was going back so all good as the trade in offer was 2k under book car being bought was in the middle of available examples but with a great spec.

Travelled almost 400miles to pick it up and the car was a mess. I could put up with the couple of door dings as I knew I could get them out but the bonnet and front bumper were covered in stone chips and the interior was badly marked. It looked like the previous owner let a small dog run around it. Front door cards were heavily marked at the bottom from being hit by shoes on the way in/out, all four doors had chips on the edges.

Had to walk away as I couldn’t have put up with the condition. The dealer was surprised as to him these were minor marks. It was a total pain to reverse the purchase as they wanted a bank transfer in advance to pay for it and had registered/taxed it in my name.

It has put me off buying unseen as the photos/video of the car didn’t show the marks up clearly and it left me without a car as I wouldn’t go back on the deal to sell mine.

 

[Akagi]

You paid for, registered and taxed a very expensive used car without looking at it first?

Sounds like something I'd do if I had more money...

 

[Rroff]

It's fine as long as you keep away from random dealers ime

Whenever I've been into places like that it is like the staff just can't be bothered almost like I'm being inconvenient just being there and more than once had them run out give me some abuse after I got bored of endlessly waiting and walked away.

 

[Akagi]

I've had car dealers shout abuse at me when I call them out for lying about the description and pointing out its flaws etc... Went to view a 320D with a friend of mine, it has no coolant in it. NONE. It wasn't low, there was none in it. I pointed it out and no matter what I said they just came back with "It just needs a top up mate" - Unfortunately we only noticed this about 20 minutes in to looking around the car, and when we said thanks but no thanks they swore at us etc...

Also had someone call me a ****** (fornicator) for walking away from a car with a gearbox whine and a busted heater matrix because in their eyes there was "nothing wrong with it mate"

 

[Firestar_3x]

I've had car dealers shout abuse at me when I call them out for lying about the description and pointing out its flaws etc... Went to view a 320D with a friend of mine, it has no coolant in it. NONE. It wasn't low, there was none in it. I pointed it out and no matter what I said they just came back with "It just needs a top up mate" - Unfortunately we only noticed this about 20 minutes in to looking around the car, and when we said thanks but no thanks they swore at us etc...

Also had someone call me a ****** (fornicator) for walking away from a car with a gearbox whine and a busted heater matrix because in their eyes there was "nothing wrong with it mate"

Sounds like an attitude problem from both sides tbh.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

You paid for, registered and taxed a very expensive used car without looking at it first?

Sounds like something I'd do if I had more money...

When you put it like that it does sound a bit silly.

The bank transfer was a new one on me as I’ve usually paid by card had to do the same when buying my wife’s car recently. Both dealers wouldn’t take the money any other way.

When looking for a certain model with a good spec you need to be prepared to travel. Looking at it first when it’s 300-400 miles away would be difficult.

I was surprised how bad a sub year old car was although I currently have a 1 month old loan car that is keyed down one side, parking ding in the drivers door and marks on the door card and it has only just passed 1000miles.

 

[Akagi]

Sounds like an attitude problem from both sides tbh.

If I drive 200 miles to look at a car after multiple assurances that its one thing and it is actually another thing, they have wasted my time and money. I'm probably not as aggressive as you're imagining... More sort of "Yes but you said it was X and Y but its Z" and "You said it had X and Y but it doesn't have X or Y" rather than "YOURE A ****ING LIAR IM GOING TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY"

 

[Firestar_3x]

Riiiight.

So knowing the typical Acme POS you usually end up buying and thus deducing the quality of the "individuals" these cars are purchased from we can conclude your probably not dealing with the most capable in society to start with.....

People hate being wrong, and people especially hate being told directly, multiple times, especially if they have already backed themselves into a corner. You ****** him off by the sounds of things, is it right he swore at you, no, is it understandable, probably, could have handled it better so he didn't, i imagine so.

People don't generally go around swearing at people they want to sell something to without reason.

 

[Akagi]

Read my updated post...

 

[Firestar_3x]

Then i would have probably run over his dog.

Yes waste of time, but i suppose most people don't know jack-all about anything.

 

[Rroff]

People don't generally go around swearing at people they want to sell something to without reason.

To be fair I've had that exact experience - all I've done is browse a few cars, ask to see the details on one, sit there watching them messing about in the office for 10+ minutes obviously doing nothing important, even see them playing card games on the computer, then remind them politely I'm still waiting, sit there another few minutes, then start to walk off only for them to hurl abuse after me.