I'm soon likely to get pestered into looking for a car for my 18 year-old son (not a simple task!), so have been perusing the Autotrader website for a few ideas.
I've always put 'national' in the search distance - usually being willing to travel pretty far to view the right car - which made me wonder how far other Backroomers would normally limit their search......
Casting the net wide ensures that the best 'bargains' can be found - but it can be a long way to go to view a 'lemon' :-(
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I think it depends on the popularity of a model when new; how much you want one particular model and the likely price.
Looking for my cars I look nationally, but then I drive slightly rarer cars, which are generally above £15,000 and I usually look for one model.
If I was looking for a five year old Focus, I would not travel much more than 40 miles from home.
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I'm with that...bought a nice cheapo on EBay for £280, fifty miles away and in a town with a station. Makes collection easier.
Ted
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40 miles was about right for me. You have to remember that it's a 40 mile radius - always further by road than Autotrader's 'as the crow flies' figure. I found a 60 mile radius was turning up cars around 100 miles away by road, for example, cars in North London or Lancashire, when I'm in Lincolnshire. Too far to get there and find the seller hasn't been completely honest with their description.....
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Like Espada it depends on the rarity of the car. Usually start with "Nationwide" to see what is available and then to"Nearest first" to see what is available close to home.
However as I am in SW London, 20 miles SW is half an hour whereas 20 miles NE would take a couple of hours.
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If I'm after a specific car I go for national... but the recent search for a small auto where I wasn't bothered I did 30 mile radius... for me thats the other side of Brum (Coventry) and thats far enough... strangely the car we got was 3 miles away... I did look at one near Cov, phoned the guy up, got a better description and an address and then went out to him... what he didn't tell me on the phone was that they didn't have it yet... I was not impressed!
Edited by b308 on 10/02/2010 at 15:32
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I'm searching nationally at the moment for something, I'm prepared to go and look at cars which I can get to and back in a day. So from here in Tropical Reading, it's no further than about Bolton really.
The most likely candidate I've found so far is in (blasted) Chester. Harumph. Oh well, I'm prepared to travel for the right car.
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The most likely candidate I've found so far is in (blasted) Chester. Harumph. Oh well I'm prepared to travel for the right car.
That's my usual reasoning, Alanovich, but I sometimes think you're under more 'pressure' to buy if you've travelled a long way to view.
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This one's at a main Skoda dealer, so I'm reasonably confident it'll be a right'un.
Still got to get to blooming Chestersheershire though. Ho Hum, I don't often go north of the Goring Gap these days. What an adventure. Is it still safeish up there?
After enjoying my Mazda 6 on the M6 though, I might change my mind on the way up....
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I prefer not to travel more than a handful of miles.
It has taken me eighteen months to find a car after I've decided to change.
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I bought two cars via autotrader in the last three months.
With the lancer I set national - to obtain a min max price bracket, then reduced to 60 miles for serious enquiries. Its a fairly rare car so that didnt leave too much to travel to.
For the lads new car, I was buying it, and I had a low max budget (i was buying it for him so he was given no choice over model - Long story) so I set 10 miles max, any car, max 500 quid.
He ended up with a very plain, very ordinary remarkably good nick 93k cav 1.6ls for 400 quid.
Edited by Altea Ego on 10/02/2010 at 17:01
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I drove 100 miles each way to look at two cars, before going 170 miles to buy the one I settled on. But I was looking for something a little unusual.
All were main dealers (I was looking for something up to a year old). Saved at least 15% on local (South East) dealers.
Edited by Marlot on 10/02/2010 at 17:29
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For buying a relatively recent car from a main dealer, I have twice met them half way between us so have bought blind. To be honest my second experience was less good than the first, but I took less care over the questions I asked so it is a little my fault. Does work well though and saves a lot of hassle.
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I live in Cheshire, the last car I bought was from Newark, before that Sunderland, Leicestershire, Harrogate, one mile up the road.
Anywhere really, make it a day out :o)
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I've been over to Dublin today and hooked up with a colleague. He met me at the airport in a very nice UK registered Audi A6 Avant. I remarked on it as the last time I saw him he had a different car.
He'd very recently flown to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to buy it and driven it home via Stranraer and Belfast. It was a very pleasing car but he must have really wanted that one.
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I always search nationally and then narrow down the vehicle attributes rather than the distance. I suppose if I was searching for something popular like an Astra I would probably put 100 miles.
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I recently looked for my new Discovery nationwide. TBH in Cornwall people want a huge amount of cash for these, there isn't much choice and a solid demand for them. In fact I think that they've appreciated over the last few months. Even the main dealer in Saltash don't have any in stock, nor do the specialist 4x4 dealers in Tavistock - you just dont' see many for sale in my area at the moment.
So I cast my net wide, or rather searched on ebay, and found the ex BAA Police one in South Wales. It took me a day to get up there, view the car, get the cash and drive back.
I guess I would have set the limit on a full day to get there and back. Also you have to factor in your time and costs, as judge whether or not buying the car is a real saving. In my case the saving was comfortably into 4 figures, which aint bad for a days work and £80 on the train.
TBH E bay is better for vehicles in my opinion. The seller gets unlimited space to list it, so he can be totally descriptive about faults etc, which most of them seem to be.
When I sold my Morris Oxford in 99 the buyer came from ROI to buy it. I met him at Bristol Airport. He gave it the once over and handed the cash over. I then caught a train back home. He drove it through Wales and across on the ferry.
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Is it still safeish up there?
Safer than darn sarf IMHO ... :-) You can still get the train to Chester too.
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I drove from Durham to a trader in South Wales to swap a friends aging Rover (worth no more than £500) for an 18 month old Xsara worth £5000. Both parties over the phone were honest in descriptions, made a full day of it with my 6 year old daughter and a foster child. Picnic on the way down and "treat" at McD's on way back. Took a risk as log book "hadn't arrived" from the "seller". However it was true as it had been a business repo by Black Horse Finance - service log etc all arrived in post a week later.
You should factor in cost of getting there and back - £200 screen saving isn't that great after you take day off work, train/petrol cost. I will sometimes look at using the trip to do something else too - visiting friends or relatives or having a day out at historic castle/garden etc. Whilst SHMBO is enjoying afternoon tea I might be doing the deal. She can then drive back in ours and me in the new car, or swap done and off we go in a new car. Simples? I wish!
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'Still got to get to blooming Chestersheershire though. Ho Hum, I don't often go north of the Goring Gap these days. What an adventure. Is it still safeish up there?'
Do those of us 'up here' a favour and stay where you are.
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Ho ho, the legendary Scouse sense of humour. Glad to see you can take a joke, as well as give us the "fabulous" Jimmy Tarbuck.
See you soon!
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about 150 miles. But if it is a case of a few thousand quid difference then I would be happy to jump on a cheap plane and go where needed.
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Don't buy from a dealer more than 10 miles away - that way its easier to bring it back if there's anything wrong with it.
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One of my work colleagues drove from Berkshire,all the way up to Dundee(approx 400 miles!) to look at and purchase a Mint condition Leon Cupra R.He had also the previous weekend driven up to Barnsley to look at another. He walked away from that one in thirty seconds, as its condition did not match the photos and also as promised in a phone call.
150 miles is the furthest I have driven to look at a car. I also walked away from that due to the six month old car on the dealers forecourt being of poor condition.
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National search, well sort of
then flew to Heathrow and drove back to NI
its tough living in the provinces
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