What is it with people and MPG's???

jigger · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:33

[TW]Fox;23622744 said:
Not true at all, only the finance one can be relied upon to show up in HPI.

Damage, accidents, etc etc will only show on HPI if the car is a total loss.

You can't know for the sure if the car has had a moody repair untill you inspect it. Asking the owner if the car is on the list is pointless so you need to do those two things before buying, and 1 of them you can't do over the phone...

[TW]Fox;23622744 said:
It's a meaningless question IMHO. Many people either don't know, flat out lie, or just come out with random numbers. We have people on here for example convinced the Civic Type R does 30mpg around town. MPG is such a variable that specific user numbers are irrelevent. He could say 16mpg and you could think 'wow, thats terrible'. But he might only drive it 2 miles day in horrible traffic, in which case 16mpgi s reasonable. Or perhaps he says 35mpg and you think 'its really good' but he drives everywhere at 56mph and only ever does 250 mile trips..

Asking what MPG the seller gets gives you a lot of information about the person regardless of the answer being misleading. It's not a pointless question at all. Unless your thick.

[TW]Fox · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:33

Raymond Lin said:
why do we give no leeway for the possibility that there are people out there who would ask such question? People who are not as much into cars as yourselves, people who has money and just want a nice car.

<snip>

It seems very presumptuous to judge someone by a question they ask just because they don't ask them the way you expect them to.

It might well be 'presumptuous' but I bet he doesn't buy the car. You get random questions like this when selling cars. I had several people ask me the 'mpg' of my 335i when it was for sale. Guess what, none of them bought the car. Guess what, the guy who did already knew what a 335i was and what mpg it was capable of..

Peerzy · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:36

Dr House said:
http://911uk.com/ads_item.php?id=3919

The funny thing its hard time to sell but I have no shortage of people interested in the car, I just have not been able to show it to anyone as I have been out of the uk for about 2 months now.

I fly back on the 31st and have a couple of people waiting to see it so hopefully it will get sold.

Im going to start to stay home before my wife leaves me lol

Just out of interest did you car fail on anything with the 111 point check and was all of the failures covered by last years OPC warranty?

Did they try and sting you with the standard OPC "Oh, that'll need tyres and brakes sir."?

[TW]Fox · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:36

jigger said:
You can't know for the sure if the car has had a moody repair untill you inspect it. Asking the owner if the car is on the list is pointless So you need to do those two things before buying, and 1 of them you can't do over the phone...

Do you only buy cars from crooks or something? I've always asked about damage etc and the seller has always been honest and forthcoming. I asked the seller of my E39 whether it had ever been involved in an accident. He immediatly voluntered the information that he backed his wifes 330Ci into it 4 months previously and had the job done to a high standard by BMW. Excellent, good confidence building measure.

Asking basic questions like condition and asking about major things that might put you off seems very sensible to me.

Asking what MPG the seller gets gives you a lot of information about the person regardless of the answer being misleading. It's not a pointless question at all. Unless your thick.

I couldn't disagree more. Ask 10 people in here what MPG they get and 5 of the numbers they give will be useless, for example.

If you could pick only 4 questions to ask a seller about a car you might buy for a large amount of money in order to decide whether to persue it further then wasting one of them on MPG is just ridiculous.

By all means make 'What sort of mpg do you get?' one of the smalltalk items once you get on the phone to him, but as 25% of your initial questions?!

Dr House · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:56

Peerzy said:
Just out of interest did you car fail on anything with the 111 point check and was all of the failures covered by last years OPC warranty?

Did they try and sting you with the standard OPC "Oh, that'll need tyres and brakes sir."?

Yes they founds lots of small issues but the warranty covered everything. I replaced all the tyres, did the pads and stuff before I took it into Porsche as I knew they would try and stick me with a massive bill. Warranty cost me 2.5k as it was.

jigger · 24 Jan 2013 at 12:59

[TW]Fox;23622996 said:
It might well be 'presumptuous' but I bet he doesn't buy the car. You get random questions like this when selling cars. I had several people ask me the 'mpg' of my 335i when it was for sale. Guess what, none of them bought the car. Guess what, the guy who did already knew what a 335i was and what mpg it was capable of..

A 335i is quite a new car if I'm not mistaken. If it's under warranty, mint and low mileage and you know what your getting then don't need to scrutinise the car.

Buying and keeping an ageing 911 is a completely different beast.

Scania · 24 Jan 2013 at 13:01

I've never been asked my cars MPG figure by somebody who actually bought it, plenty who didn't buy it, did.

My old e38 was a classic example, I sold it cheap, and due to the price, got a few punters who didn't appreciate what it actually was, one seemed surprised it was so big when he came to view it (and winced at my rough estimate of 25mpg) another nearly cried when I showed him a couple of £400+ bills for servicing etc which, for the work done, was actually reasonable!
Given I sold it for about £2200 iirc, it figures to me that buyers in that price bracket would take mpg as a big consideration, but it does surprise me its on the mind of a 911 buyer!

The chap who bought it asked about common e38 issues, never once mentioned the MPG and turned up in an e32 735i to buy it - he clearly knew what to expect from such a car.

Peerzy · 24 Jan 2013 at 13:05

Dr House said:
Yes they founds lots of small issues but the warranty covered everything. I replaced all the tyres, did the pads and stuff before I took it into Porsche as I knew they would try and stick me with a massive bill. Warranty cost me 2.5k as it was.

I'm considering if I should warranty mine when it's up this May. The warranty is 'only' £1.3k for 2 years on my car (plus the £200 111 point check) but it's the fact I have to get it serviced with them which is a lot more expensive and they are likely to be uber picky about tyres and brakes and demand they are replaced before they actually need to be.

Firestar_3x · 24 Jan 2013 at 13:09

jigger said:
A 335i is quite a new car if I'm not mistaken. If it's under warranty, mint and low mileage and you know what your getting then don't need to scrutinise the car.

Buying and keeping an ageing 911 is a completely different beast.

The 335 came out in 2007 iirc, the 997 in the op is a 2006 car.

Fr0dders · 24 Jan 2013 at 13:19

[TW]Fox;23622996 said:
It might well be 'presumptuous' but I bet he doesn't buy the car. You get random questions like this when selling cars. I had several people ask me the 'mpg' of my 335i when it was for sale. Guess what, none of them bought the car. Guess what, the guy who did already knew what a 335i was and what mpg it was capable of..

I'm with Fox on this

"how many mpgs do you get" is the sort of question asked by time wasters.

People who buy a car with no idea what they are buying, no idea what size engine it is and just buy "that one" usually walk into a dealer or garage forecourt and then find whatever is on that forecourt that is within their price range.

They don't go emailing questions to people on autotrader.

[TR]SweetSpotOz · 24 Jan 2013 at 14:04

Dr House · 24 Jan 2013 at 14:09

Peerzy said:
I'm considering if I should warranty mine when it's up this May. The warranty is 'only' £1.3k for 2 years on my car (plus the £200 111 point check) but it's the fact I have to get it serviced with them which is a lot more expensive and they are likely to be uber picky about tyres and brakes and demand they are replaced before they actually need to be.

You would be stupid not to at that price. If you plan to sell the car it will make the car much easier to sell and as the porsche gets older it WILL throw the odd 1k bill at you. I know my one has had lots and lots of little things replaced under warranty.

You can keep the service cost down by taking your own oil and ask for a discount. It should get down to about £200 quid + oil.

Tyres - as long as they are N-Rated you should be fine. brakes are not such an issue if you have a good relationship with them. My rear brakes were badly corroded inside and they did not ask me to change them (I did in the end). Also ask for the 111 point check for free as they will find stuff wrong with the car and bill the warranty company for it.

Firestar_3x · 24 Jan 2013 at 14:09

markyp23 said:
Obviously people who ask about MPG just get the bus. You know, because they obviously never buy cars.

People who talk about "people who buy 911s don't xyz" obviously don't know the spectrum of people who buy 911s.

Please oh mystical one inform us on what people who do buy 911's do ask.

It's a pointless question to ask, not just for this 911 but for other cars for the following reason.

1) The owner could lie / not know / make it up
2) The owner could have a different driving style to yours
3) The owner might not drive outside of the city
4) The owner might only drive long distances
5) The owner might not of had the car long enough to quote a meaningful average figure

Any of the above will result in the wrong figure being given.

What you should do is look online or on the many many publications and get the offical figures, i imagine many of the real buyers of a 31k 911 might just have enough brains to do this, or like has already been said, not care.

Six6siX · 24 Jan 2013 at 14:26

Its an interesting question.

On the one hand, it can be a useful question, provided you are familiar with the car to some extent and it is supported with other questions (i.e. you have done your research beforehand).

Knowing how the current owner drives the car (city driving or long runs), it potentially tells you about the condition of the car. If the engine is running healthy, it will achieve a better mpg figure.

Finding out the condition of the car through other questions, it tells you about how the current owner drives their car (short trips, city driving, motorway runs etc)

Knowing the type of journeys the car is being used for, it tells you whether the current owner takes it easy or goes foot to the floor and drives it hard.

It may prompt the seller to mention something else of use - for example, they could mention that they got better mpg running on V-Power so only use that now. Or they have tried different brands of tyres that made a difference to the mpg. I've certainly had this sort of conversation with many sellers before.

It could genuinely be someone who just wants to buy a particular brand of car for a particular budget and has just seen the car you have for sale and liked the look of it. They may not know much at all about it - it isn't entirely unheard of!

On the other hand, it does often point to someone who is just wasting time or who doesn't follow up initial questions or is a scammer. I wouldn't dismiss it as such right from the word go though.

[TR]SweetSpotOz · 24 Jan 2013 at 15:19

Peerzy · 24 Jan 2013 at 15:23

Dr House said:
You would be stupid not to at that price. If you plan to sell the car it will make the car much easier to sell and as the porsche gets older it WILL throw the odd 1k bill at you. I know my one has had lots and lots of little things replaced under warranty.

You can keep the service cost down by taking your own oil and ask for a discount. It should get down to about £200 quid + oil.

Tyres - as long as they are N-Rated you should be fine. brakes are not such an issue if you have a good relationship with them. My rear brakes were badly corroded inside and they did not ask me to change them (I did in the end). Also ask for the 111 point check for free as they will find stuff wrong with the car and bill the warranty company for it.

I thought the 111 point check always cost £200 no matter what?

I got a quick quote for a service the other day and they quoted £800 (nothing major needs doing as fair as I know, so that's just a basic service).

Tyres are N rated and only have 8k on them since new and all have like 5mm left but it's the brakes I'm worried about them just saying all 4 need changing at a cost of £LOL.

Firestar_3x · 24 Jan 2013 at 15:33

markyp23 said:
Who's being mystical?

They ask whatever they like i.e. anything, mpg, warranty or otherwise.

You inferred we have no idea the sort of people who buy 911's and what questions they ask, so i'm asking you, what questions do they ask?

Joe T · 24 Jan 2013 at 16:21

Dr House said:
http://911uk.com/ads_item.php?id=3919

The funny thing its hard time to sell but I have no shortage of people interested in the car, I just have not been able to show it to anyone as I have been out of the uk for about 2 months now.

I fly back on the 31st and have a couple of people waiting to see it so hopefully it will get sold.

Im going to start to stay home before my wife leaves me lol

Are you able to edit ads on that site? If so, you might want to fix the large number of typos in the ad, and improve the use of capital letters and punctuation. Someone spending £31k might get the wrong impression of the owner.

[TW]Fox · 24 Jan 2013 at 16:57

markyp23 said:
Obviously people who ask about MPG just get the bus. You know, because they obviously never buy cars.

People who talk about "people who buy 911s don't xyz" obviously don't know the spectrum of people who buy 911s.

You are missing the point. The point isn't that anyone who even thinks about MPG wouldnt buy a 911. This is obviously not true.

The point is that somebody who asks just 4 questions about a car like this and dedicates one of them to asking 'what is the mpg' is almost certainly not a serious buyer. It's just not something somebody with half a brain would dedicated 25% of his opening questions to.

Like I said above, it's the sort of thing, if you are that desperate, the crops up when having a casual chat with the seller by telephone or when stood on his drive looking the car over.

There are many more important things that a serious buyer would want to know as a qualification question before viewing than 'how much mpg do you get'. None of which the guy in the email in the OP has asked.

When selling a half decent car you get loads of emails like this with trivially odd questions whilst ignoring far more prudent questions.

Funnily enough you never tend to hear from them again when you answer.

iaind · 24 Jan 2013 at 17:02

I can see it being a normal question to ask if it was a particular type of car. If it was my car, for example, a normal run of the mill diesel - it's absolutely a normal question to ask in that way.

But in the context of a 911, it does seem to suggest a timewaster