Buying used car for delivery

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sat 4 Sep 2021 12:44
Buying used car for delivery - Guitarspark

My wife is looking for a new (used car). There's not lots of choice locally but, looking on Autotrader, there are lots of garages and companies that deliver the car to you - you look at the photos and buy online.

No doubt covid has fuelled this way of buying, but how 'safe' is it to buy this wat? Is it to be avoided or is there enough protection for the buyer if said car turns out to be not as good as photos and videos show?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 4 Sep 2021 13:22
Buying used car for delivery - Falkirk Bairn

Salesmen tell lies

Pictures can be well selected / chosen

Nothing beats an eyeball and looking for the faults /damage / respra y etc ................

I have 2 sons who have bought nearly new £30K+ cars from 250 miles away - the cars were premium models and were nigh on100%.

Fall out on one 530M sport

The agreement was the car would be as shown in the piccies + transported North - it was driven, spray washed at a local garage - all hell let loose. Ended up with cars being valeted in Aberdeen before he accepted delivery & money off - he had paid £400 IIRC for transported delivery.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 4 Sep 2021 14:55
Buying used car for delivery - SLO76
While you do have legal protection I would never advise buying a car or a van unseen. Salesmen will always talk their product up and increasingly I’ve noticed the standards of used stock plummeting. Little or no service records and poor quality cheap paint repairs are more the norm than not due to the first keeper only effectively renting the car on PCP or contract lease. Go and view any prospective purchase, even if this means a days journey.

Remember also that any warranty claims will need to be done at the dealer who supplied it so unless they have a local branch you’ll have a nightmare having to transport the car back to them.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 4 Sep 2021 16:20
Buying used car for delivery - madf

Many will be honest.

But dishonest ones will take pictures showing faults in poor light so you cannot see them if inexperienced. (Paintwork shoddy)

A "full service history" may be promised but it may well be a history of jobs not done - in other words, not serviced properly.

Personally I would trust every car salesman implicitly:

to mis-describe a car and omit to tell you anything unfavourable.

eg "4 new tyres" sounds great but if they are the cheapest Chinese ditchfinders they will be of no use in winter rain and snow.

Of course, if you are experienced you will know what to look for - but then you would not be asking us...

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 4 Sep 2021 21:59
Buying used car for delivery - catsdad

Both my last car purchases were 18 month old manufacturer approved used cars. One a Civic, the other a Golf. Each required faults rectified which were not evident on collection but showed up within hours. In both cases rectification took three return visits at 20 miles a time. Had I bought at a greater distance these would have been extremely inconvenient and expensive as travel was at my cost.
Also although most faults on cars of this age will be covered by the original manufacturer warranty this is not always the case. For example the Golf had a serious boot leak that on investigation had been poorly repaired previously so was no longer covered by VW warranty but was down to the selling dealer. They sorted it but it took two weeks of hassle.
In conclusion buying from distance is an added risk with potential costs. You may be lucky but if you do have faults it’s a pain if there are long distances involved.

Edited by catsdad on 04/09/2021 at 22:00

Reply | Report as offensive | Link