I'm looking at buying an old car (10 years plus) and Looking at the car adverts I'm occasionally coming across cars from traders which are inexplicably a couple of hundred quid cheaper than those in other trade ads and are advertised as "To clear", but seem to be described as being in good condition, even with average to low kind of mileages.
Now looking at these dealers it is obvious they are selling cars on average of at least 2 grand upwards so is it really feasible you would get such a bargain from a trader because they want to get rid of the part exchanges off their forecourts or should I be more suspicious??
The only other time I heard such sales patter was at "deleted" in London a few years back and in that case it was definately pink fluffy dice as the car was a complete state.
{Franco, you're new here, so you *may* not be aware of our no swearing & no naming/shaming policy. Next time it happens though, I shan't be so generous to edit - instead I'll simply delete. DD}
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It could just be that the car has been sitting on the forecourt for ages and ages and the owner wants rid.
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Possible. Clarkson on Top Gear allegedly bought an old but serviceable Volvo trade-in from a dealership for £1. It saved them scrapping it. I'd be dubious about those in the "couple of hundred quid cheaper" bracket; maybe make a cheeky offer.
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Ha, what would be the reasoning behind a cheeky offer on a car that already seems to be underpriced?? I'm not the best at haggling to be honest. I am dubious, but I can see that a place selling more expensive cars might want rid of it.
Anyway speaking of Top Gear, in their guides for buying used cars they say that traders are very unlikely to sell cars that are in bad shape due to possible legal comebacks. Is that true or do some dealers deserve a bit of suspicion??
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".....a car that already seems to be underpriced??"
You're comparing trade ads with other trade ads. It's worth what they can sell it for, which may bear no relation to what they are asking for it.
I've no idea which cars you're talking about but 10-year old mass-market cars generally aren't worth much, given the number of gizmos that can fail. Check prices achieved on E-bay. If you make an offer, they may bite your arm off; they'll only decline it if they're confident they can get more.
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Yeah, I suppose I was looking at average Trade prices for cars that are similar and advertised as being in good condition. Anyway, thanks for the advice.
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I think they say "to clear" because they're not covered by whatever warranty the dealer puts on his other cars. They probably also haven't been serviced or valeted by the dealer, just cars brought in as part-exchanges and it's not financially worth it to do any work to bring them up to standard.
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They may not have an underwritten insurance-backed warranty, but they are still covered by the sale of goods act.....
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Can a dealer get around the sale of goods act by a disclaimer "sold bas seen" "no warranty" or "not in roadworthy condition". A bought a car on similar terms many years ago from a dealer. It seemed ok and it was.
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The point that was made in the Top Gear programme when all three presenters bought really cheap cars was that Clarkson's researcher (who apparently purchased the particular car) discovered that dealerships involved had to pay around £150 to have them scrapped - it was therefore more cost effective to dispose of them for £1 each or whatever price was felt attainable.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I'm still trying to understand what the sales of goods act means to the car buyer in practice?? If the head gasket or something went a couple of months after you bought the car what has that got to do with the dealer unless he knew at the time, which you can never prove anyway??
When a car is sold without a warranty what does the sale of goods act really mean??
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Despite no warranty it still must be "of merchantable quality" - meaning that it must function, and be safe.
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Hmmm, so he just needs to hope it goes OK for a few weeks and the driver doesn't get injured in a crash because of bad breaks or something. It sounds like there's still a lot a dodgy dealer could do to hide faults while staying within the boundaries of safe and "merchantable quality".
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