N/A - Dealership v private sale

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Mon 24 Oct 2016 22:12
N/A - Dealership v private sale - ennogs

I need to buy myself a second hand car. I have about £4,000 to spend.

My Dad and I are in disagreement as to where to buy one.

I say as a dealership adds on about £800 - 1,000 to the price of a car so I would be better buying from a private seller.

My Dad says if I buy private I have no comeback if I buy a lemon or there is something wrong with the car the seller doesn’t disclose. He also claims a lot of motor dealers sell cars they cannot sell professionally as private sales.

I can see my Dads point of view but I don’t want to pay a dealership £4,000 for a car that I could get for about £3,000 on private sale.

If I do buy privately how can I ensure I don’t get ripped off?

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Mon 24 Oct 2016 23:00
N/A - Dealership v private sale - RobJP

Your dad is correct. In law, it goes as this :

Retail sale (dealer, etc), is covered by Sale of Goods Act and Consumer Rights Act, also other acts which cover misdescribed items, concealment of faults, etc.

Private sale is covered by what is called 'caveat emptor' or 'buyer beware'. Basically, unless the seller deliberately lies, then you have absolutely no comeback at all. You could drive away 200 yards, the engine blows up, and the seller can stand there and laugh.

Basically, go for private sale cars if you, or a good friend, REALLY know a lot about cars. By that I mean 'works as a mechanic' or 'builds rally cars at home', rather than 'can quote Clarkson and the 0-60 time of an M3'. Apart from that, you're far better off buying from a garage that has a good reputation.

Yes, you'll pay £800-£1000 more for the car. But you might just save yourself from needing to spend £3k on fixing problems.

It's a judgement call, like all in life. On one side, you have better cover, but higher prices. On the other side, you have cheaper, but no protection at all. Only you can decide what matters more to you.

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Tue 25 Oct 2016 00:08
N/A - Dealership v private sale - SLO76
Forget buying privately unless you really know what you're doing. I've been in and out of the motor trade for more than twenty years and often asked by friends, family and old punters to view cars for them and the number of dodgy and poorly maintained or repaired cars I come across both in private sales and trade would frighten you. At least at a dealer you have legal protection and a fair amount of comeback where buying privately leaves you stuffed if you get it wrong.

You don't always save money either. Despite knowing one end of a car from the other I couldn't find a 1.2 diesel Polo that the steering committee had instructed me that she wanted (and must have) any cheaper privately than the one we bought from Arnold Clark. All depends on how desirable the model is. I do like meeting the previous owner face to face and bypassing the usual dealers tall stories though...

Edited by SLO76 on 25/10/2016 at 00:09

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Tue 25 Oct 2016 21:30
N/A - Dealership v private sale - ennogs

Thanks for all you replies.

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Wed 26 Oct 2016 11:44
N/A - Dealership v private sale - Ian_SW

If you're reasonably good at judging character, for a 5 year old plus car a private seller is often a better bet.

Many people will trade in a car of this age to a main dealer because it's started to have a n intermittent problem, but not tell the dealer about this. The dealer doing the trade in won't really care either as they'll send it straight to an auction and never see that car again.

The independent dealers may or may not pick up on this problem when buying at auction. The reputable and more experienced more likely to do so, often down to model knowledge rather than directly finding it.

Very few genuine private sellers would risk trying to sell a car with this kind of problem themselves, so would either tell you about it when asked, or not even try to sell a problem car privately in the first place.

So, if you can find the car you want, for sale privately from someone who's owned the car for years, and the seller seems honest (most people who live in middle class suburbia are), private could be the better deal.

However, I would say if you can only afford a £4000 car, you may be better buying a £1000 car and keep the other £3000 to buy three more replacements over the next few years when the car fails expensively. The probability of catastrophic failure is actually much the same for all cars over about 5 years old, just the older ones are a bit more generally worn out.

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Wed 26 Oct 2016 11:57
N/A - Dealership v private sale - gordonbennet

If you're reasonably good at judging character, for a 5 year old plus car a private seller is often a better bet.

Sums it all up nicely, if it quacks and waddles its probably a duck andf this applies to private and at least one man band traders, a few minutes spent with a buyer or seller generally talking about stuff is time well spent.

I went to see a car for sale, small trader, the completely rust free vehicle i travelled a long way to see wasn't, and by the time i'd got home the advert had been edited carefully, most people who don't sling themselves under the car would never have seen what i did...to be fair though there were other signs it had seen more industrial use than the advert which waxed most lyrical suggested.

So a useful tip, take a screen shot of the advert you are viewing a vehicle on the strength of, then if you do find a problem you just might have some proper evidence.

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