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Thu 2 May 2019 18:53

tips on buying a used car - cm2019

I am looking to buy second hand car.

If we buy from a private owner, what should we do before the transfer of funds?

Often sellers want bank transfer or cash out of convenience, right after viewing. What cautions do buyers need to take, what should we check, and what should we do (and not do), apart from seeing the MOT papers, service bills and car registration?

In a nutshell, what must we do before, during and after viewing, before handing over money?

What bargaining power do we have in terms of negotiating down the price?

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Thu 2 May 2019 19:05

tips on buying a used car - barney100

Dealers sometimes advertise cars as privately owned, if you smell a rat walk away. Seems like you may take along a knowledgeable friend or get one of the motoring organisations to give it an inspection. Also study the price of any vehicle you are interested in and compare it with as many as you can find on the net. Good luck.

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Thu 2 May 2019 19:43

tips on buying a used car - elekie&a/c doctor

Verify all the paperwork is correct. Make sure the sellers name is on the registration V5. I would check mot history on gov web site. Also check if car has been subject to any insurance total loss. Remember if buying privately, you have virtually zero comeback.

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Thu 2 May 2019 21:06

tips on buying a used car - SLO76

Make sure the car is registered to the seller at their current address, if it’s not then it’s likely a trader or it may be stolen. Make sure the yellow trade section of the V5 is present too or it’s certainly a trader hiding as a private seller. Accept no excuses for either and walk away. You’ll often hear them say it’s a relatives car or similar but 99.9999% of the time it’s a fly trader.

I’d also look for a car that’s been with the current owner for several years. If they’ve only owned it a short time then they haven’t liked it or there’s an expensive fault lurking. Either way you don’t want it.

Depending on value and the vibe you get from meeting the owner you may want to HPI it too but remember you need the registration number and the chassis vin number too or their insurance won’t accept any claim if it turns out to be stolen or has outstanding car finance.

You get log book loans too which are impossible to detect even with an HPI check so it’s vital the seller stacks up. If they seem dodgy or the address is rough then walk away.

As said already the Mot history is a great thing to look up and this pretty much killed off clocking in the UK but scrutinise mileages to make sure they look right. It’s not unheard of for people to shave miles in between Mots but it’s much less common and lopping huge distances off is rare now.

Faking service histories is one of the ways rogues add value these days so look at the stamps carefully. If it’s just hand written anyone could’ve done it and if it’s a valuable and complex car I’d google the garage who’s name is in the book to see if they exist then i’d call the number you found online to see if they’ve even clapped eyes on the thing. I’ve found many cars with faked histories.

Edited by SLO76 on 02/05/2019 at 21:21

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Thu 2 May 2019 21:55

tips on buying a used car - Andrew-T

What bargaining power do we have in terms of negotiating down the price?

If you intend to part-exchange a car, none or very little. All you can do is haggle a bit and hope. If buying outright, never agree to pay the 'screen price'. When buying privately I always offer about 10% less, and you can usually agree somewhere in between. If you have found any obvious faults or misdescriptions but are still interested, ask the seller to fix them or knock the price down - or go somewhere else.

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Thu 2 May 2019 22:18

tips on buying a used car - SLO76

As far as negotiation is concerned well it depends on many factors. Is the car priced correctly to start with? Don’t get overly focused on discount if it’s cheap already but remember that few people have money sitting in the bank to buy cars without using finance and few borrow to buy privately so when the price is much beyond £3,000 private sales tend to be hard work so it’s very likely you’ll be the only serious viewer.

A cheeky offer often gets it and ignore all the talk of other people coming to view it. My tactic is usually to view them drive off telling them you’re looking at another one then call them later on with a cheeky offer. Gives you time to think and they also don’t think you’re desperate. They can only say yes or no and unless it’s something rare there’ll be another one along shortly.

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Fri 3 May 2019 13:24

tips on buying a used car - Gibbo_Wirral