Before you can make any such claim about them being "useless middlemen" I think you have to price in the "added value" that the Sale of Goods Act protection affords and which is ultimately met by the dealer.
That price has to take into account that they are generally selling older vehicles with service histories that might not be ideal and in a number of cases the car could fail completely making it an economic write off leaving the home trader with a toral loss.
On thast basis I would estimate that the SoGA protection afforded by buying from a dealer (as opposed to buying privately) is worth around £600 per car.
There are various other benefits of the home trader purchase over a private purchase centred around the requirements of the Consumer Protection Regulations.
Given the above of confronted with two seemingly identical cars, one offered privately the other by a trader the private sale would need to be priced at least £850 ahead of the car offered by the trader before I would even consider suggesting that the average used car buyer should buy privately.
In a sector which is dominated by cars in the £2000-£3000 bracket often bought for cash by families who can ill afford to lose the money I would recommend they use the home trader every time.
Edited by LucyBC on 20/05/2011 at 17:32
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