I am looking to buy an older upmarket car for about £10-£12k. It's a make known for expensive bits and services if things go wrong, but that's a price I'm prepared to pay. I've found a dealer who offers these at two prices, details below. The difference between the two prices is usually £1500 to £2000, whether the price is £6,000 or £26,000.
I'm interested to know what people think of the options. I'm not particularly mechanically minded myself.
"We normally have two prices.
The retail price and the cheap price.
The Retail price: At the retail price we send the car away to a good specialist, ask them to service the car and look for faults that need correcting. We then correct those faults and stand by the car for 3 months or 3,000 miles to make sure nothing was missed in the service. This standing by the car doesn?t just cover things breaking, it covers wear and tear items as well - but no, not petrol! We can put extended warranties on the cars for up to 4 years with the claim limit being the value of the car (not the usual £500 or £1,000).
We use people totally independent to us who themselves have exemplary reputations. We are the only car dealers they have come across who spend the necessary amount on car services and repairs - their words not ours. We give no limits to amounts available for servicing, no instructions to "turn a blind eye," and understand why jobs have to be done and what they cost. Sure if a car is 20 years old we are clearly not going to revert it to "as new" condition but we listen carefully to their recommendations and act on their advice.
The Cheap price: The cheap price is for the car exactly as it stands, no guarantee, no pre-sales service, nothing. You are guaranteed clean title to the car in terms of ownership but that is it. We make no exceptions. If the engine blows up on the way home then we will advise you on the best way to go but not dip into our pocket to effect a repair. Do remember though that you are buying the very same car which we are happy to put in for a service and then stand by.
The third way: There is a third way to buy a car from us. You can pay the cheap price and then get us to service the car on your behalf. You pay for the service at cost to us. From then on you are on your own. The money saved will have to go towards putting anything right that happens within the Three months or 3,000 miles we would have stood by the car at the retail price. To take the risk out for you, should the service bill exceed the difference between the Cheap and Retail prices we will step in, pay the excess and revert the sale to a retail sale. In other words your maximum liability is the retail price.
There is no ulterior motive behind offering cars in this way. Different people want to buy cars in different ways with varying degrees of hand holding, this allows us to cater for everyone. Take the car however you like with as much or as little work done to it for you."
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Hmm. The second way is contrary to your statutory rights. The best thing you can do is if you choose option two is to wait until the end of march when the legal requirement is that a car seller must fix problems that occur within the first 6 months so you get the cheap price with reasonable rights. Have they said who the specialist is? My car was supposedly put right by a specialist before I bought it and they managed to fit the cam belt incorrectly, break the battery tray and never managed to get it running properly. They serviced it and put the incorrect grade of plugs in and also cracked my windscreen on my second visit to to try and sort all the problems out that were supposed to be done straight away.
What car is it?
teabelly
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I'd rather not say which make at this stage. Dealer's been around for years and gets a good reputation. I'm after some objective views, not influenced by people who may be able to identify the dealer.
Presumably after March, they'll stop offering the cheap price anyway.
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That'll be www.911virgin.com then ;)
Depends which model you're going for I suppose. The older they are the simpler. I was driving a 915 this weekend, surprisingly quick for a 30 year old car.
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You may think that. I couldn't possibly comment ;-)
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If you are going to buy one for £10-12K, why not transfer the amount onto a credit card and buy it using your credit card. Then see what protection your card company can give you?
Of course I could be writing rubbish.
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If they really do what they say and will get a car into really good condition and replace all failed items regardless of wear and tear then it could be worth paying the extra and going the first route for peace of mind. I would be tempted to ring around a few specialists and ask them how much work a car of that age & mileage could need doing in the first year or so and see what the worst case scenario disaster would be. If there could be very expensive problems that the warranty would fully pay out for then it makes it a much better proposition than if the likely costs of repair were relatively low.
The dealer I went to made all the noises of getting the car into really good condition but once I had paid my money they were completely different and wouldn't do anything and just fobbed me off along to the warranty company who would only replace completely failed items in contrast with what the car dealer said they would do ( dealer said any problems with the car and I guarantee they will sort you out, any trouble with them, talk to me and I will get them to do the work, all BS unfortunately!)
I know in Cheshire the trading standards department have a good garage scheme. If the county this dealer is in has one of those schemes and this dealer is in it then I would be a lot more confident with going with option one for the peace of mind.
teabelly
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Since the company has now been identified, a pity really, then you will have to be aware of what you write.
Please be careful.
Mark.
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I haven't seen a selling policy like this before. It is very interesting.
Effectively, the dealer is saying "If you want all these warranties, protection, statutory rights etc then we will have to really check and prep our cars, which you must pay for"
Put like this, it seems a pretty reasonable policy. if the dealer has a good reputation, it is probably because those who go "on the cheap" have no unreaslistic expectations, and those who go for the full price are getting a good service.
I wonder how much documentation a buyer would get re the amount of work /parts replaced etc? Also, wouldn't the dealer be at risk of a big loss if he had a lemon on his forecourt, sold it at the high price, sent it away for a service and found out that it needed a new engine of something?
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"Since the company has now been identified, a pity really...."
Not really - it's not a "name and shame" situation is it.
It's an interesting site for Porsches, plus they are a good bunch.
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