Dealer vs Private

[Martin-Fiesta-MK6-1.4]

OK, i'll keep it short, How much extra do you pay when buying from a dealer and not private? i saw a private car for sale for close to a grand less than roundabout the same spec car from a dealer, would a 5-6 year old car really cost me £1000 to repair in a year?? are dealers secretly selling us the 1 year 'free' warranty??

[alexp999]

£1000 more for a dealer is about right in most circumstances.

You have no consumer protection buying it privately. They also have over heads to pay for, not just recovering the value of the car.

I personally would never buy privately unless I knew the person.

[Luke4efc]

55 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

£1000 more for a dealer is about right in most circumstances.

You have no consumer protection buying it privately. They also have over heads to pay for, not just recovering the value of the car.

I personally would never buy privately unless I knew the person.

I think I'd prefer buying private, as long as you know what you're looking for nothing should go drastically wrong within the first few months. Quite a lot of dealership cars are bought from auction anyway, only exception is part-ex and leased cars. Wouldn't like to buy a car after somebody has leased it, there's no chance they followed the engine break in procedure. Rented cars are always the fastest as they say. Let's be honest, you wouldn't dare take your car to the redline very often, but if it's not your car then you don't care if it blows up when you give it back.

[alexp999]

The problem is that I don't properly know what I'm looking for.

Much more confident with my consumer rights. :)

[Luke4efc]

6 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

The problem is that I don't properly know what I'm looking for.

Much more confident with my consumer rights. :)

Indeed. I love it when dealers seem dead cross with you for lifting the bonnet and checking the levels and looking for leaks (head gasket, rocket cover etc.). I also plugged in my OBD2 scanner after one test drive and the guy looked at me as if I was stupid.

[isetta]

yes it is about consumer protection rights really, that's the added benefit you get for your extra money (and it will possibly have been valetted, and HPI and insurance write off checked).  It happens so often that someone has a problem with a car and they have a cheap bodge fix and sell it quick before it goes wrong again, only for the next owner private buyer to have a problem a few weeks later with no chance of getting the seller to do anything about it. Some cars are worse than others - diesels with dpf problems. ford 1.6tdci with turbos failing and leaking injector seals. So private is a bit of a lottery, even if you think you know what you're looking at it is impossible to check everything properly outside someone's house

[Martin-Fiesta-MK6-1.4]

Thanks for your input, i was thinking the major thing to test for when buying private is head gasket failure and you can buy a test kit for 30 quid or so, if the head is ok then theres nothing That much worse

[zain611]

1 hour ago, isetta said:

yes it is about consumer protection rights really, that's the added benefit you get for your extra money (and it will possibly have been valetted, and HPI and insurance write off checked).  It happens so often that someone has a problem with a car and they have a cheap bodge fix and sell it quick before it goes wrong again, only for the next owner private buyer to have a problem a few weeks later with no chance of getting the seller to do anything about it. Some cars are worse than others - diesels with dpf problems. ford 1.6tdci with turbos failing and leaking injector seals. So private is a bit of a lottery, even if you think you know what you're looking at it is impossible to check everything properly outside someone's house

Would agree with you. When me and dad went to check my fiesta I have now we looked around the body (bodywork is immaculate excluding a few pin dents) and the car drove nicely. It's just a day after buying when we noticed the car would puff white smoke for a few seconds after being started after several hours. We think it's a leaking injector.  The owner said its had a new clutch, timing belt, water pump, new seat cables and it's been remapped. Sadly there's no paperwork to prove that. The owner said he'll send it but nothing. It kind of made me not very happy with the car but after 3 to 4 months of driving it I'm kinda getting used to it and happy with it. Clutch to me feels great, no slipping and it properly catches when engaging it. Stuff like remap I just have to investigate. 

 

What I'm saying is there are some people who may lie or not give prove of certain work which may be done. With my car for example the guy bought it for his wife and said he did this work so she doesn't break down. I'm sure with dealers they give you a warranty. Thankfully at the moment the car drives lovely but the injectors may get sent off to get reconditioned. 

Also there may be people like myself who can't afford a car with a dealers asking price 

[Freddy42]

Definitely dealer.  I would only buy privately if the price was so low that I could afford to forget it if something went drastically wrong.

[TomsFocus]

Personally, I'd rather stick to private sales...only ever had trouble from dealer cars, they don't know what they've got, just either traded in or bought from auction...buy privately and you get a seller that at least knows the car.

Paid an extra ~£500 for my Focus back in 2014 (6 years old, 47k) from a dealer rather than private for the warranty...  Within the first month it needed a DPF, reverse light switch, wheel alignment and a pair of tyres (inner edges worn to threads), of course none of that was covered by the warranty as it's wear and tear.  So I'd have been better off buying privately and keeping that £500 for the repairs!  

In a separate incident, I bought a car online to be delivered (was ill at the time and in an awkward situation) - the dealer lied about the car having full history, about the mileage, about the interior of the car (should've had leathers and was pictured as so online, but not when it arrived!) and about a 'tiny scratch you'll never notice' which was 4 inches long and through to the primer.  I should mention, this car was only a year old and had less than 10k on it!  Turned out they'd been using it as a courtesy car while it was for sale.  The delivery driver was also very unprofessional as he left in a brand new car (probably another for sale!) spinning up the tyres in a residential street...  I mean, there's a time and a place for stuff like that!  I returned the car for a full refund and will avoid this large dealer chain in future.

Also just remembered the 2nd car I ever bought, very naive and didn't know much about cars at the time, it was 9 years old and about 65k...  There was a dodgy MOT put on it by the seller (still took over a week to get the dodgy MOT put on), it needed various suspension parts as they were knocking and squeaking when I finally did get it, various interior parts were broken (parcel shelf etc) but the worst thing was it was sold with a blown headgasket.  Left me stranded a week later when the pressure built up so much it burst a radiator hose.   Dealer wasnt interested when I told him and stopped answering my calls after just one!  I'm not one for violence but it turned out this dealer had been selling lemons to the wrong people...couple of months later, someone broke into his (very large and remote) house and beat the crap out of him...oh well...  

Bought a car from a lady that had only done 4 miles a day in it for about 4 years...no service history at all, very cheap car though and only bought as a stop gap...most reliable car I ever owned still to this day...   Of course, I have bought lemons privately as well lol, but none quite as bad as the dealer cars so far.  

Dealer cars aren't any better than private ones in my experience of buying over 30 cars.  Yes if the engine drops out within 3 months they should pay for it, but frankly, most things aren't covered by warranty so you're essentially just paying for a better valet and the ability to pay by card instead of cash.  Whatever car you buy, it's best to do all the checks you can (this is where I fail as I suck at social situations, panic and forget literally everything about cars) then negotiate money off the price OR have the things fixed before you collect.  And make sure you leave some money in the budget to fix any unexpected breakages, don't go right to the budget just because it's from a dealer and appears to have some sort of warranty.

[alexp999]

@TomsFocus the warranty is irrelevant in most circumstances, it's the fact you have consumer protection for 6 years from purchase.

Most businesses don't want you to know or fully enforce your rights.

I bought a lemon from a dealer once (not manufacturer franchise, just independent used car sales), I forced them to take it back for a full refund after a few months once I realised and additionally pay me for all the work I'd had done on it, insurance cancellation fees, etc.

I'd have been stuffed without my consumer rights.

[TomsFocus]

6 years seems a long time?  Surely you'd struggle to prove that the car was sold with the fault(s)?  I don't know anything about the consumer rights stuff admittedly!  

Does it cover just the whole car or parts of it?  In the case of the Focus DPF for example, there weren't any warning lights on for it, just that the engine fan kept running on from the day I bought it and it was intermittently stuttering/juddering (although, of course it was fine on the test drive lol), it was only by plugging in Forscan that I found the fault so I would have no way to prove that it was actually blocked when sold?

[alexp999]

The goods must be of satisfactory quality and last a reasonable time is the jist of it. It can effectively cover the whole car, but it's also what is deemed reasonable, you can't claim for tyre wear after 5 years for example.

The law puts a limit on a claim of 6 years from the date of purchase.

The first 6 months from a purchase, the seller has to prove a fault was not present at the point of sale.

From 6 months to 6 years the buyer has to prove the fault was present at the point of sale.

You pay for a independent engineers report which proves it and then can claim that additional cost back against the seller.

If you pay a portion of the goods (must cost at least £100) on credit card (I always put £100 on a car deposit on CC, even if I have to pay  a surcharge), you also get section 75 protection under the consumer credit act. This extends all your consumer rights to the lender and makes them jointly liable.

I've had the full cost of an oven refunded after 3 years, plus the engineers report charge, plus fitting, all paid for on a section 75 claim before.