I'm thinking of buying a pre-registered new car with only delivery miles. Other than not being the first name on the registration document, are there any disadvantages of buying pre-registered? The first name on the registration document I guess would be the name of the broker or dealer, depending on who I get it from.
Cheers
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Lad, I have bought 2 pre reg cars and have never found anything to disadvantage the deal. Only thing I am aware of which I thankfully haven't had to worry about, is that I believe most car insurance will replace your car with a new one in its first year if it is written off. However, if you are not the first registered owner, then they will only give you book value.
Mark may be able to clarify this point exactly.
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Just make sure you get an absolutely 'cracking' deal and that the car is appropriate to the Model year, IE: if it bears a 54 plate then make sure it is the model year for that date. I can't think of any other example than that of the BMW 3 series.
In LATE 2001 it underwent a facelift. You will see some 3 series on a 52 or even 03 plate which are NOT facelifted, so although they are registered in 2002 (or whatever) they are in fact 2000 model years. Just something to be wary of.
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Make sure the car is full UK spec, some car supermarkets such as Motorpoint also sell imports that don't always meet full UK spec.
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There are a number of drawbacks with pre-reg.
At this time of year there is a fair chance that it will have been registered on the old 54 plate so although it's new it doesn't appear to be brand new. This also leads onto the fact that some of the warranty will have dissapeared whilst it has been stood.
If the vehicle has been registered to either a fleet or a rental company they usually have to 'keep' the car for a certain period (often 3 or 6 months) to try to stop them doing deals like this. You may not receive the V5 until after this period.
As others have said it may be an older model - when the ruling that all new cars need ABS there was a lot of physical stock that didnt have ABS and these were pre-registered in vast numbers the day before the ruling came into force. Once the vehicle had been registered it was technically used so the new ruling didn't apply.
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Personally I think pre-reg is a good idea, saving thousands on a car that's a few months old with hardly any mileage. However, you need to be careful - too many people get caught out by not knowing exactly what the car they're buying should have as standard equipment (uk).
A similar point should be made about "nearly new", especially from car supermarkets - many people buy cars from such places without checking that the service history book is stamped & then have all sorts of trouble trying to get any repairs done under warranty. Remember that the garages are in it for one thing - making money & if they can save a few quid by not chasing up documentation etc, they will. It's up to you to do your homework & know exactly what you should be getting for your money, otherwise you might just get stung !!!
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There are other reasons but most cars are pre-registered to meet the manufacturers sales targets. They accept that they will lose money against a brand new sale but in the overall scheme of things they still make money on the car, just not as much. This represents good value for a buyer - you just have to outweigh the points about spec, warranty and insurance against the new price and the extra depreciation.
With some cars the savings are considerable, with others they are not.
I went to an auction last week and saw MG TF roadsters with one mile on the clock on a 54 plate going for less than £10k.
Yesterday on the net I also saw pre-reg 100 mile Golf GT TDi 140 5 drs for £17k. A car broker can get you a new one, UK spec, for £16,800.
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Thanks for all the replies. The enquiries that I've made have all said that the car would be an 05 pre-registered UK car (2 of these were from ukcarbrokers and ukcardiscount). From what I can gather from the replies, have I got nothing to worry about as the car would be UK spec, full warranty, being 05 registered etc i.e. as if I bought brand new from a main dealer here only not having my name as the first owner. Is this correct?
How about when I come to sell the car in a few years time, would having 2 names on the V5 affect its value?
Cheers
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You had better check if it is an actual UK car or a UK spec car - it could be an import built to UK spec, which would usually mean a shorter warranty period.
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