What is a good deal on a used car?

[Alf W]

I always buy a Parker's guide and use that to give me a good idea on the difference. It is also useful for reminding yourself never to buy a brand new car.

Useful for winding the permies up at work by highlighting the Aston Martin and Bentley pages and then asking them if they want to have a look.

[doodab]

Your negotiating skills far outshine mine. All I ever get is tank of fuel and an airfreshener.

As a rule, I never buy a car that needs an air freshener.

[Bagpuss]

WHS - why do so many people these days seem so adverse to buying/selling privately?

We've been scanning the autotrader etc lately for a new (used) car and there seems to be far more traders than private sellers out there these days. Once upon a time it was the other way round... is it just that people can't be bothered and want/need a quick turn round?

That is my experience lately too. Seems since the expanse of cheap credit, punters are more inclined to go for a poor deal. I looked into buying a second hand car from a main dealer (only ever bought new from dealers via brokers I would usually buy second hand cars privately ). If anything the shady sales tactics are worse than they ever were and more than ever I'm determined not to buy from them. Almost all are doing bait and switch deals, which I think is now illegal. One main dealer insists on the customer paying £100 to do an HPI check and for some sort of indemnity, erm hang on this isn't a private sale.




bait and switch definition;
An illegal tactic in which a seller advertises a product with the intention of persuading customers to purchase a more expensive product. When a seller uses this tactic, they frequently tell the customer that the original product is sold out or no longer available (even if the product is indeed still available), and push hard for the customer to purchase the costlier product. This tactic can be considered false advertising if the seller is not actually providing the original product, but if the item is available but the seller strongly encourages the customer towards another item, in general no legal action can be taken.

[AtW]

Or just relax and pay the screen price and take the rock bottom part-exchange value.

Wave a hand at the salesman like he's one of your lackys, whilst looking away.

You are a contractor after all.

I hope DimPrawn will never get banned!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

WHS - why do so many people these days seem so adverse to buying/selling privately?

?

Same reason there are so many totally ignorant people who don't know the difference between adverse and averse I guess.

[stek]

Same reason there are so many totally ignorant people who don't know the difference between adverse and averse I guess.

You do have to put these things into prospective, though.....

[Fred Bloggs]

Contractors buying used cars? Jeez............ whatever next. Must be a recession on.

[realityhack]

+1 for Parkers. You can get guide prices for trade-in from their website.

Also - check honestjohn for model-specific advice.

[d000hg]

WHS - why do so many people these days seem so adverse to buying/selling privately?

• Buying: some chance of some sort of warranty and that it's been serviced
• Selling - the buyer won't come complain at you if it breaks down immediately
• Both - time

Personally I'd say time is the biggest thing. Getting an extra £100 for having to spend a few hours showing the car to several potential buyers doesn't really attract me, I could work those hours and make >£100.

[Bagpuss]

• Buying: some chance of some sort of warranty and that it's been serviced
• Selling - the buyer won't come complain at you if it breaks down immediately
• Both - time

Personally I'd say time is the biggest thing. Getting an extra £100 for having to spend a few hours showing the car to several potential buyers doesn't really attract me, I could work those hours and make >£100.

For Warranty, many of them are very limited and could be sourced privately, moreover an AA inspection for around £100 would identify anything likely to go wrong (don't expect that dealer cars are any more likely to pass such an inspection).
As for service, private cars have services too. Can't see how not having a fresh tub of £20 oil and a £5 filter should be a deal breaker.

For selling..can't think of many cases where the difference between a dealer and a private sale would be £100 outside of sub 1k bangers. If you trade in you lose the chance of any sort of discount on the new(er) car, so effectively it's still a significantly worse price.

Fairly typical real world example
E.g private sale on old car = £5500
part ex in at £5200 on a non discounted 15k car
no part ex price=14k,
effective price for your old car =4,200, loss= £1,300 over private sale and negotiation on new car price

If you don't part ex you would get a trade price of roughly 20% less than a private sale, so circa 4,400, loss = 1,100.


If time is an issue ebay, or other auction schemes are available which would yield a better price than passing it on to someone who wants a large margin.

Of course these days many people probably wouldn't know how to get a good deal on anything let alone be able to do any background research into what and how to buy a car. So maybe your points are exactly how many think. I suppose though as money becomes tight we may see a return to common sense.