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

~Divine~Wind~ said:
Nah the one on Scotswood road

Benton Asda just as bad like lol?
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Amazingly worse! My dad picked up his latest business motorway muncher from them. I went down and checked it over beforehand and all was fine. Somehow between me checking it and him picking it up they kerbed 2 of the alloys, put several paint scratches in the front bumper and managed to lose the car mats.
They then ignored our calls ref the issues for a long time. They then agreed to replace the mats but did so with a set that didn't fit in the car..
 
Like what I was saying earlier with the e46. Between them taking the pics for the ad and us arriving they had crashed it and damaged the front corner and scraped down the side.
 
grudas said:
so the reason I hate traders etc on the cheaper end especially is the full on lies, or lack of details of every car! and the complete lack of ability to communicate with potential customers.

e.g. from 2 weeks ago when we looked for a car for under £3k for my brother and his partner.

after a bit of searching they decided that the cars that fit their needs were -;

toyota aygo
mazda 2(their favorite)
toyota iq(bottom end of the market with that budget)

so we look around, find a few for sale.

narrow it down to 3 potential ones from traders. - 10-30 car in stock kinda business.

first one the ad has no real info other than "2 owners, recent mot, full history £XXXX"

we call, guy is all chatty and super happy to brag how great the car is etc, so we go and see it first.

literally as soon as I got to the car the rear arch is covered in filler, badly repaired, bad colour match etc..

the interior trim is falling apart, the front shock is leaking etc.. told him we're not interested and we're off, he got very upset and kept repeating "but it's full SH"

so we leave that going to see the 2nd one.

under 70k miles, decent mot history, full service etc low owners, well reviewed dealer.

this guy gives us the keys and walks away, great we can have a good look around the car.

paint faded, interior disgusting even mouldy at parts, car is covered in mud and bird poo etc..

full history etc but no paper work to prove it, check oil level? way under minimum, try oil cap? screwed on so tight I couldn't undo it. Walked away from this one too.

3rd one we see, orange, they love the colour, it's a sport trim so a few fancy bits on it etc.

car looks great, guy is a proper hard on sales man talking the talk etc..

starts the car from cold, redlines it to show me how smooth the engine is - ehem thank you.

anyway, we test drive it etc and there's a very bad clunk from the rear.. i tell him about it, he jumps in the car tells me how "if you dont want it then you dont want it I got someone else to buy it" and drives off to park it up :D walks off without saying anything. Oh well, we leave that too.

4th car we look at is a suzuki swift, was local to the 3rd so we though we'll have a look.

end of story, clutch gone STINKS after normal driving slips constantly etc.. guy is adamant that it is not the clutch even tho it stinks bad, I tell him it is, he gets upset tells me he's been trading since 1995 and he knows whats up.. so we leave.

5th car I find locally, private seller selling his mums toyota IQ for a bit under market value and it just gets in their budget, we go have a look the car checks out.. a few bits need doing aka it's due a service so we knock the service price down from the asking, everything else is fine.

they buy the car and drive away.

wish we went private rather than spend whole day driving around london etc trying to find a decent trader selling something as described.
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The small dealers won't know anything about the car. They buy from the auction network and slap on a three month limited warranty. Then advertise it. If it doesn't sell then they punt it back into the auction network again.

I've been to a few auctions to see how it works and it really is just a numbers game. A small dealer at the cheap end of the market offers nothing of value at all. You could even take out that warranty yourself if you want to.
 
Maybe Carwow doesn't have the answer. I pass my quotes on to my boss. Garage 1 "That was a one off-pre reg which has now sold" ...but we can offer you this +££££. Garage 2 "No, he's got it wrong. That quote is for a hatch (it wasn't). See it says SE, it should say ST (SE obviously being the spec) but we can do you an ST for just a bit more +£££££. Garage 3 "Yes, that right we can do it for that price... but only if you get our finance" This was on a CASH quote.

Then to top it off when I asked Garage 1 if the car actually existed (he didn't speak to the person who offered the carwow deal as she wasn't available) via the message system on the site I got a call back from a very confused man who wasn't sure why I was told it wasn't available. "I can see it here now infact 1.5 TSI EVO 150BHP FR £18500" Er... yeah, the quote was for a 1.5 TSI SE 130BHP at just over £15k.
 
Only had 3 cars with 2 being used. 1st car I ever got was a clio for 3k, I couldn’t even drive at the time so my dad did the test drive and said it drive’s fine. They did a new mot and service on it which I thought was good until a year later when I put it in again at a local garage and it turns out it needed a new cambelt that was badly worn, both headlights were illegal and some other minor stuff. Cost me £800 to get it all sorted.

2nd car I brought new and was great until it got stolen after 18 months.

3rd car I had to buy quickly due to not having one. Ended up buying another Clio from a small dealer. Tried to learn from my past mistakes, got him to change the cambelt as it was due and service it. Fast forward 2 months and I get a warning light of low oil. Well when I say low I mean none on the dipstick. Sump pan was rusted through in 3 places, called the dealer and they basically told me to bog off and that I had caused it.

Still got the Clio but it’s definitely only last another year or 2. Will probably buy new again as it was definitely the best experience I’ve had.
 
family member has two bodged dealer experiences, one chap up in Glasgow was horrendous. Sold an absolute turkey where clearly the one-hundred+ service checks had not been carried out and the thing looked clean but discovered more and more defects and mechanical issues as the days went by. They tried to be dismissive etc. Ended up being read the riot act re the law and the credit card co got involved too (it's why they want bank transfer only - and why I never do on principle) long story short, family member got a full refund and charlie boy got to pay for picking it up and get it hot water with head office when he got shopped in to them for being, what's the word? A complete chancing tool. Another chap over in hull similarly dodge and pushy. Luckily they saw sense on that one before committing to anything.

we got our car from a relative. Thank goodness is all I can say. The places we'd looked before that were awful. That includes dealers. one car literally dripping oil and stinking of burnt clutch and they would swear it's meant to be like that... To add insult to injury we left to come home and they suddenly started doing rail works and closed the line. A very very long RRBus later we got home and wrote off even trying anymore.
 
I must have been very lucky when buying cars, as I've been through a good number and never had a major issue!

  • First car was a Mitsubishi Galant, cost me ~£1,200 from a tiny indie at the back of an industrial estate. Ran fine for a couple of years with no major issues until the input shaft bearing went, fixed that, and fine again for a year or so until I got rid due to changing jobs and upping my annual mileage to ~30k.
  • Replaced the above with a 1.6tdci focus for £1,700 from an indie, in 3 years/~70k miles it only cost me consumables and a rear shock, until some tit on a motorbike decided he liked it so much he wanted to be inside it :rolleyes:
  • Replaced with a Legnum VR4 (another new job, ~6k miles/year) from a private seller on the owners club, can't remember exactly how much I paid, but pretty sure it was under £2k. Had one issue with this, a random ECU fault which fixed itself after reseating the ECU.
  • Traded in the above after my insurance quadrupled on renewal, replaced with a Volvo V40 from another indie - great condition, exactly as advertised, ran fine for 2 years until I wrote it off swerving into a parked car to avoid a cat which ran out in front of me.
  • Replaced (on very short notice!) with a 20 year old Primera bought for £450 from some very dodgy private seller. After some "discussion" I managed to knock £50 off because the dash lights weren't working. Replaced the fuse when I got home, sorted. Ran fine for 2 years until it failed it's MOT due to needing significant welding because of corrosion. Sold for £200 to someone wanting it for banger racing.
  • Replaced with a Mazda 6 for £1,700 - was a bit of a distance from home, but just round the corner from my mother-in-law's, so we went to see her for the weekend and picked it up then. Dealer was honest with me on the phone, told me the bodywork wasn't great and it needed a clean - went to take a look and it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd made out. A couple of weeks later started getting a noise from the engine - phoned him about it expecting a fight, he told me to bring it in so he could take a look. Drove down, again expecting a fight, but he said to leave it with him for a week and offered me another car to use in the meantime. A few days later he calls saying they'd fixed the issue (can't remember what it was, but a common problem on that engine). Picked it up and kept it for ~3 years with no further issues.
  • New job again, commuting 80 miles a day, and the Mazda was thirsty! Replaced with a 10 year old Civic, bought for £3k from a "dealer" operating out of a portacabin on some industrial wasteland :eek: (that probably should have made me reconsider...). Gave it a long test drive, went over it in detail, surprisingly no obvious issues other than a cracked rear light. Made sure to pay the deposit on a credit card, and crossed my fingers. Took it for a full service and inspection and nothing wrong with it at all. Kept it for 3+ years until it started making some gearbox noise, at which point I was getting bored anyway, so after doing the maths, traded it in for a brand new Zoe.
  • Brand new Zoe, ~£20k no issues here, dealer was good, the usual push the extra GAP, paint protection etc. but otherwise as to be expected from a brand new car.
  • 10 year old Fiesta for my GF - £1,500 from a small indie, hasn't done much mileage as she's just using it to learn in, but drives absolutely fine, no issues other than a couple of paintwork scuffs that the dealer made no attempts to conceal or gloss over.
  • 2 weeks ago I bought an 11 year old Octavia from a dealer 80 miles away, without a test drive or even seeing it in person. A bit dubious about this, but went ahead after a detailed video walk round, plenty of high res photos, and a lengthy discussion on the phone. Car turned up and it's exactly as advertised, no issues at all, in great condition, other than a small scratch and some dings on the loading area, the bodywork is pristine - looks like it's done half the mileage it actually has.

Based on everyone else's posts, it sounds like I'm due several lemons in the near future? :p

Maybe to do with where in the market you're buying I guess. Looking at nearly new/4-5 year old cars I suppose you're going to be more picky, and expect near to new condition, whereas my purchases have all been in the 8+ years/60k+ miles @ <£3.5k price range, at which point dents & other cosmetic issues, and minor faults are to be expected?
 
The Running Man said:
Last private car i was about to go and view, 5 hour round trip, I paid a local mechanic 40 quid to go and view it for me.

Looked great in the pics...but rotten.

Money well spent.
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Or it was absolutely mint, well priced and the guy told you it was duff then bought it himself to flip for another £500 profit :p
 
paradigm said:
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.
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This, there are some good ones but they tend to be long established, think decades under one name.

there are hundreds of chancers though.
 
I love buying cars privately.

You can normally pick out a good private car just by the pictures and the description - a 2 minute conversation with the owner then normally confirms your thoughts. These adverts normally stick out from a mile away because for every car with a decent description and photos, there are ten with a couple of blurry photos and a description that consists of two lines. Also, when you buy a car privately, you can normally get a fair bit more off the price with a bit of bartering than you can ever do at a trader or main dealer. People are always worried by buying cars from private sales, but I think if you buy them from the right person you're fine. Most people don't want to sell a lemon onto someone because they don't want the headache of you coming back and bothering them and also knowing where they live!

I think the worst places to buy cars are from traders. All of the drawbacks (paying for overheads/not meeting the last owner/having things covered up prior to sale/dealing with nob head salesmen) and none of the benefits of a private sale or main dealer warranty to back it up.
 
Avoid any with the number plate covered as well lol. You can't check the MOT history before you go and the chances are it's horrific.
 
Gaygle said:
I think the worst places to buy cars are from traders. All of the drawbacks (paying for overheads/not meeting the last owner/having things covered up prior to sale/dealing with nob head salesmen) and none of the benefits of a private sale or main dealer warranty to back it up.
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Exactly my thoughts. My appetite for ever using an independent dealer is zero, nor would I ever want to try and claim from the sort of 3rd party “warranty” they they offer.
 
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