Hello Everyone
Fairly soon, I plan to change my 4 year old Vectra CDX DTI. I bought it pre-registered from a car supermarket at £8000 under list and its covered 90,000 fairly trouble free miles.
Though I would like a 'premium' car, my budget would only buy a car a few years old, particularly if I want a similar specification (leather, climate etc). As as I do 20K+ miles per year, I'd like as long a warranty as possible and low running costs.
I'm now looking at either a pre-registered or nearly new high volume car instead, such as a Vectra Elite. I've seen a pre-registered one (1.8 petrol) for £13K, which seems a good price to me. This appears to be a couple of grand less than the price of 'nearly new' diesel, but over a few years, the costs of ownership would probably be similar.
Having read about the importance of 'running in' a new car, I am concerned that a nearly new one might have been thrashed, or could be a 'lemon' that the first owner has sold on as quickly as they could. I'd prefer a diesel, but this concern is putting me off a little. Am I being over-cautious about nearly new cars? Any views people may have on this would be welcome!
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With nearly new, lok at V5 to see who first owner is. If it's privately owned, then it could be a lemon so if you are worried, avoid. If it's a company name, especially that ofa large chain of dealers, then it will almost certainly be pre-registered so no more risk of a lemon than buying brand new yourself. NB last place I worked at, one of the directors bought an MG ZT from a main dealer that was registered by them as a demonstrator; their salesmen liked it so much that they spent so much time in it that the Dealer Principal decided that it had to go; our director bought it at just a few months old for about half the list price with a few thousand on the clock and was well pleased with it.
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Many "nearly new" cars have been owned or leased by big companies such as British Gas etc - they are sold on at the best time to minimise depreciation effects after being acquired new at a discount.
The chances of one being a lemon is no more risky than if you went to a dealership and bought a brand new car yourself. In fact any problems which may have occurred would have long been sorted out.
Do the usual checks on an extended road test and a close examination of the vehicle and, if you feel happy, then go ahead. The warranty should still have a considerable life span remaining.
Quite a few of the independent dealers have excellent sources for acquiring "nearly new" cars, often direct from the manufacturer, so it's worth checking out on the internet.
My son travelled 150 miles to get the exact car he required from such a dealer (rare Ford Focus specification, believe it or not), which was sourced from Ford Direct by the dealership and advertised online. It was one of only three he came across in more than a month's searching.
I know many other people who have bought "nearly new" cars, some of them up to 12-18 months old over the years, and none has had any major problems - only the occasional and common minor gripe.
But there's never a gripe over the financial savings to be made...:-)
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One of the biggest sources of nearly-new volume cars like the Vectra is Drive Assist (and one or two competing companies) they suppy short-term rental vehicles on insurance claims (i.e. whilst insured's vehicle is being repaired). I believe they are one of (if not THE) biggest buyer of new Vauxhalls. They sell them on at 3-6 months old.
Check out the V5 of the vehicle you intend to buy.
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Thanks for the advice about sourcing a nearly new car.
Anyone have any thoughts on the long term effect on an engine if a car has been driven hard for its first few thousand miles?
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Don't forget there is Pre reg, nearly new and brand new.
Unregistered cars can be offered by the dealers with very good finance deals. I was offered 0% with 30% deposit on my Nissan Primastar and all I had to do was get the price down to compete with the likes of Vans Direct!
So I got the best of both worlds 0% AND a competitive price.
I suggest you look at all the options strongly.
On the point of running in - the Nissan handbook suggests limiting the engine to 2500 rpm for the first 900 miles. Now having worked in the trade, I know that unregistered cars are driven all over the country by drivers working for dealerships. It was not uncommon to have clocked up some 2 to 300 miles on a new car before it was registered. Now do you think these drivers on the whole would even know, let alone stick to, what the handbook says - I think not!
So my advice is don't worry about people having run the vehicle in properly. Although I am sticking to the advice, as my starting mileometer reading was only 6 miles, I suspect that running the vehicles in was more important in the good old days of built in piston slap and cam bounce! By all means follow the advice laid down when you take delivery of your new car though.
Hugo
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How about a Vectra Elite 2.2 DTi Auto Hatchback in silver, 53 reg with 13775 miles? www.motorpoint.co.uk
or 1 1.9CDTi SRi in blue for £12699, 04 Reg. Same place.
Both will be from National Car Rental or Europcar.
We've got a Motorpoint Vectra on 03 plate, only a 1.8LS, but £8000 with alloys, bought at 6 months old and 12000 miles with full UK warranty, how can you go wrong???
I know it's a Vectra, but cheap as chips and even I've got used to the crazy indicators!
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Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not ready to buy immediately, but have stared looking and intend to change in the next few months, so will keep my eye on Motorpoint's stock. Coincidentally, I bought my current Vectra there pre-registered (its an Opel)and I'd be happy to buy there again.
I've read about some dealers not accepting Opels as trade-ins. I'd hope this wouldn't be the case at Motorpoint as they sold me the car in the first place! Does anyone have any idea about the relative reduction in trade value for an Opel badged car and whether it would be hard to sell on privately? I don't have any unrealistic expectations about how much I'll get for it.
Thanks,
Brian
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Private sale will be better for you in my opinion. Motorpoint don't give great trade-in deals as their margins are very low.
Interestingly, I heard that Opel badged Vauxhall VX220s actually make more 2nd hand than Vauxhall badged ones!
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