Buying Used from a Dealer

'Franchised' Dealers

Most franchised dealers now offer used car schemes supported by manufacturers, such as Ford's 'Ford Direct', Vauxhall's 'Network Q' and VW's Retailer Approved Used Cars. Where the warranty is backed by the manufacturer (Ford Direct) rather than being simply an insured warranty, these give peace of mind but can come at a fairly high price.

Nevertheless, once you've shopped around a bit and got the feel of prices in the car supersites, it's worth paying the franchised dealers a visit. They have been known to beat supersite prices, and if their prices, inclusive of a cast-iron warranty, are only a few hundred more than the supersites, you may be better off doing a deal with the franchised dealer.

Many also have their own websites, enabling you to browse their stocks from your living room.

Where you want to part-exchange your old car, franchised dealers almost always give better part-exchange allowances than the supersites. But here you need to compare the total 'cost to switch', not merely the part-exchange allowance offered.

Supersites

By far the biggest is the one that started it all: Car Giant in White City, London which has now taken over most of Hythe Road Industrial Estate and offers between 3,500 and 5,000 cars. CarGiant sells both 'nearly new' ex-rental and pre-registered cars, and ex-fleet cars up to 5 years old. The choice is so huge and the prices are so sensible that, for many private buyers, it's not worth the time and effort of trying to beat them by buying at auction.

Specialist Dealers

These are dealers who specialise in a particular type of car, usually sports cars, prestige cars or 4x4s, but you also find '7-seater Centres', 'Mini Centres', 'Mondeo Centres' and so on.

To maintain attractive stock levels, they usually have to pay more for their cars, especially at auction, and this is likely to be reflected in the prices they ask.

You have to weigh up the convenience and time-saving they offer you against these slightly higher prices. And if they have any sports or prestige cars on offer that are less than three years old, you should question the wisdom of buying from them rather than from a franchised dealer. (Why have they got the car rather than a franchise?)

The best specialists are keen enthusiasts of a marque, such as Porsche, BMW or Volkswagen, with workshops on the premises.

Independent Dealers

These are your old-school car dealers, seen by the hundred on London's Romford Road and stretches of the A24 through Tooting, Balham and Clapham.

Some of them are really nice people. Some of them are right old rogues.

'home' Traders

These people are much maligned, usually by magazines with a vested interest in maligning them. (Obviously if a magazine's main source of income is from advertising by dealers, it isn't going to recommend the little guys who undercut those dealers.)

A proper trader who openly trades from a home of his own is bound by all the same consumer protection laws as a dealer with large, expensive premises. He'll be watched fairly carefully by the local Trading Standards Office. The only way he can make an honest living is by offering deals that beat those on offer from the big boys.

That 'home of his own' bit is important. If he's operating from rented accommodation you may have no more comeback against him than from a 'traveller' working from a big shiny caravan.

Make sure he invites you into the house (to make sure it really is his house). And if he's the least bit aggressive, shifty, bad tempered or has a vicious looking dog on a chain, make a polite excuse and get the hell out of there.

Never buy a car in a car park or a lay-by, or from a dealer working from a mobile phone number who brings the car round to your house. Always make a History and Provenance Check on cars offered by home traders, and look for verification that the mileage is genuine.

For this purpose, a fleet car's computerised service history print-out is a far better bet than a lot of stamps in a service book. For example, unless the car is a notorious tyre eater, such as a manual Volvo T5, if the tyres seem to have been changed every 5,000 miles you'll know this doesn't add up.