[Rant] Buying used cars [/Rant]

[Bonefish Blues]

There are still some nice bargains out there to be had. It just takes a little time to find them.

Small second hand cars seem to command strong values at the moment whilst larger vehicles don't so much. Personally i would prefer an older car in good condition than a newer one with big miles.

They are out there, but it's a bad time to be looking for a car. Everything has taken a hike (including barges, too, over recent weeks, colleagues on a bargain barges thread (I kid you not!) report) because of lack of supply.

Good , fairly-priced cars do come up, but you need to be fast on your feet (or pedals) as they can be on for literally hours only before they are snapped up. It's worth casting your net widely too (everyone, but everyone wants a Jazz, for instance) and considering alternatives to the obvious. As an example, one time I bought a Fiat Sedici (a what?) instead of a Suzuki SX4 and bought exactly the same car, off the same line, for about £1500 less. Tremendous little cars in petrol flavour, by the way!

I feel a little smug at the moment as I bought at the height of lockdown when values were depressed, and got a good bargain.

 

[Cycleops]

We both know that about about low miles @wafter but it is still the holy grail for a lot of car buyers.

 

[johnnyb47]

Short journeys are a killer for cars. Years ago "for my sins" i used to use my car to get to work which was barely 2 miles down the road.
The problems i had with it where never ending. It was a diesel and it never got up to temp on a run.Sticking injectors, rotting exhaust, the list was endless. When a new job came along that meant my travelling was greatly increased i sold it on and bought another diesel and dreading what the extra mileage would cost me in servicing and repairs. In the 7 years of ownership I've covered over 100k in it and it hasn't missed a beat. Apart from the usual wear and tear items it's been a pleasure to own. With the lock down I've had plenty of time getting all the niggling things sorted and hopefully it will continue to give great service for the future. Today I've spent the afternoon machine polishing it up, and it's looking very smart (even though the old saying is "you can't polish a turd") The old works VW caddy van used to travel everyday from North Wales to London and the South East and back delivering samples. It had clocked up 500k before it gave up the ghost. It used to pull like a train and never used a drop of oil between services.

 

[Gunk]

If ever I turn up to buy something and it’s shite or not as subscribed. I just immediately say that I’m sorry but this isn’t for me and walk away. I can’t understand going through the charade of inspecting something, where you’ve already made the decision that you’re not going to buy it.

 

[Electric_Andy]

There is a "report ad" function if you feel you need to use it. I've done this before and an ad has been removed. For what it's worth I never buy anyhting that doesn't have good pictures and a good description. If they can't be bothered to post decent pictures for a big purchase, then they probably can't be bothered to maintain a vehicle, or be honest when selling.

 

[wafter]

If ever I turn up to buy something and it’s shite or not as subscribed. I just immediately say that I’m sorry but this isn’t for me and walk away. I can’t understand going through the charade of inspecting something, where you’ve already made the decision that you’re not going to buy it.

In this case I guess it was a mix of curiousity, not wanting to offend the seller (), the opportunity to look round a car of that type (not seen one in the flesh before) and that faint glimmer of hope that maybe it might not turn out to be as bad as it looked. Agree wholeheartedly in principal though and have done the same in the past.

There is a "report ad" function if you feel you need to use it. I've done this before and an ad has been removed. For what it's worth I never buy anyhting that doesn't have good pictures and a good description. If they can't be bothered to post decent pictures for a big purchase, then they probably can't be bothered to maintain a vehicle, or be honest when selling.

Thanks - tbh though there's nothing intrinsically deceptive about the ad; it's just the usual dodgy seller's trick of giving minimal information to avoid having to give an honest description. The summary on the phone was worse due to the extent to which the issues were downplayed.. but again caveat emptor and all that and being a 20 min ride away I figured it was worth a punt.

Agree about the lack of images, although there's always the chance it could be a decent, genuine sale and the reason for their absence is legit; although I suspect in this case it was part of the ploy to "manage" available information. The seller did actually send me some (after I'd left to view the car) and had done a pretty impressive job of failing to show much of the damage.

 

[Milkfloat]

I would hate to sell a car to @wafter , after seeing the OCD when it came to a new bike can you imagine the torture he puts himself though for a car

However, I guess we have all been there and had our time completed wasted. I once did a 400 mile round trip based on advertising photos taken before the seller crashed the car which they neglected to say in the advert, plus the photos of the documentation were for a different car.

 

[Cycleops]

Always amuses me when a car is advertised as “lady owned” or “lady owned since...” Do they think females look after a car better than males or drive them or treat more carefully? The latter may be true.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Always amuses me when a car is advertised as “lady owned” or “lady owned since...” Do they think females look after a car better than males or drive them or treat more carefully? The latter may be true.

On a poll of 1 female I know quite well that latter statement is utter nonsense!

Skip on wheels madam?

 

[johnnyb47]

I went to have a look at a car once at a dealers garage. It was advertised at £2000 and stated it was in excellent condition, mechanically and body work wise.
It was an hour away from home and went to look.
It was a right old lemon. Rot setting in all the usual places and a clutch suffering from a leaking slave cylinder, that was a nightmare to change as to it being right behind the dash board.
The trader was a real joker, trying his best to emphasise how well the car was, and all its attributes in his cheap primark nylon suit.
I,m quite a placid guy who prefers to avoid confrontation, but on this occasion i let rip and gave him a piece of my mind.
This was the third car in a row were I'd wasted my time travelling to see only for to be miss described.. After ranting on about its poor condition and the B/S advert, the cheeky bugger turned round and said "what do you expect for 2k"
An honest description for a start in your ad!!!
In the end i ended up buying a local car the following week from a friend.. No service history but i knew him well and his good abilities to working on his own car. The car turned out to be a cracking motor and lasted me many years of reliable motoring.

 

[wafter]

I would hate to sell a car to @wafter , after seeing the OCD when it came to a new bike can you imagine the torture he puts himself though for a car

It's a bit of an odd one for me tbh since I've never really bought a runabout shed before; when circumstances were different I had access to workshop facilities so the standard was a nice old hot hatch (before they all became silly money) bought on condition and maintained on the cheap with trade parts and free labour.

I think I've managed my expectations approrpriately though - for a grand's worth of 15yr old sub100k shopping trolley I expected honest, mechanically sound (maybe with the odd little job needing doing) with a few dings / scrapes. I didn't expect it to look like it'd left the route of a forest rally stage at speed

 

[Drago]

I gave my Smart car to my disabled Niece, but she's been accepted for uni so won't be learning to drive for a while, so gave it back.

so, I was lumbered again with a low mileage, long MOT (with zero advisories) very good condition Smart cabrio that I didn't need. I advertised it on Autotrader, because the buyer never gets to see your actual email addy or phone number, so little chance of harassment when it explodes 8 years after they've bought it and try to blame you. Autotrader even value it, based upon the model and mileage, and I advertised it at £400 under that figure as I wanted it gone.

And then the phone started ringing with chancers. Promsises to turn up and view never materialised, people offering my £500 less without even seeing it ("why would I want to do that?", I asked, and the female chancer, who couldn't give a reply.)

in the end only one sensible person turned up to look at it, the eejuts having been sent packing. He loved the car, and was telling me about one he'd viewed the previous day for a lot more money that was a right shed. He bought it for the asking price.

So, yeah, some sellers are twits, but the majority of people claiming to be buyers are liars, chancers and time wasters as well, so it's only to be expected that the majority of sellers might be the same.

 

[wafter]

I gave my Smart car to my disabled Niece, but she's been accepted for uni so won't be learning to drive for a while, so gave it back.

so, I was lumbered again with a low mileage, long MOT (with zero advisories) very good condition Smart cabrio that I didn't need. I advertised it on Autotrader, because the buyer never gets to see your actual email addy or phone number, so little chance of harassment when it explodes 8 years after they've bought it and try to blame you. Autotrader even value it, based upon the model and mileage, and I advertised it at £400 under that figure as I wanted it gone.

And then the phone started ringing with chancers. Promsises to turn up and view never materialised, people offering my £500 less without even seeing it ("why would I want to do that?", I asked, and the female chancer, who couldn't give a reply.)

in the end only one sensible person turned up to look at it, the eejuts having been sent packing. He loved the car, and was telling me about one he'd viewed the previous day for a lot more money that was a right shed. He bought it for the asking price.

So, yeah, some sellers are twits, but the majority of people claiming to be buyers are liars, chancers and time wasters as well, so it's only to be expected that the majority of sellers might be the same.

Summarised more succintly I suspect as "most people are dicks"

 

[Cycleops]

To bring all these points about low miles and lady owners together here’s another ad I noticed this old merc from 1971 obviously put up by a trader for £15k. Who on earth would want to buy it at fifteen hundred quid let alone at the asking price? Okay it’s only 11k mikes. And it’s LHD & a V8.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans...p_ios&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ios_social

 

[Gunk]

Ooh I would happily smoke around in that