About to buy my first ever car, advice requested

[wazzickle]

Hi guys,

I have driven before, a Y-reg fiat seicento passed down to me from my dad, so car ownership is not the question at hand, but rather the process of buying.

I've found a local seat ibiza s that seems to fit my needs and budget - 2008, £2,990, 64k miles, 1.2lr, 5 door. I've ordered an AA vehicle inspection thingy for £190 and went for a test drive on friday. I seem to be taking a gamble on a couple of fronts - totally ok with that, it's a part of the process, I guess - firstly that no-one else buys the car in the time it takes to complete the check (happening on monday, I'm told, which means I'll get the report back on tuesday?), secondly, that the check comes back negative. For those that have done the check, is it likely there will be a handful of things wrong with the car, but that doesn't mean it's not in good enough condition?

I asked the dealer how much he'd accept there and then and he said £2,850. He was quite pushy about the risks of someone buying the car in the meantime but I'm not one to be pushed into making a purchase without due diligence.

What's best practice? How much should I offer as my first bid if/when I get the AA report back? I've found other similar cars on autotrader for around the same price or more expensive, with a couple coming in at £2,100 or thereabouts - but are ~150 miles away. Can I use them as leverage?

Are there any things to do so obvious that you wouldn't bother thinking about them normally, but I might not know about?

Thanks for your help.

[kalniel]

For those that have done the check, is it likely there will be a handful of things wrong with the car, but that doesn't mean it's not in good enough condition?

I've not had that particular check done on a privately sold car, but I've bought a car from a car supermarket which has had an equivalent. Main thing is the finance check so that you're actually buying the car outright, not taking on some outstanding finance too. Likewise if it's been classified as any kind of write-off in the past. Otherwise it depends very much on what they find wrong (if anything) - anything that would be an MOT fail I would insist on the seller putting right before sale.

I asked the dealer how much he'd accept there and then and he said £2,850. He was quite pushy about the risks of someone buying the car in the meantime but I'm not one to be pushed into making a purchase without due diligence.

Quite - it's just about the oldest line in the book to say there's interest so you have to hurry. Don't - there's a huge number of cars out there for that kind of price.

What's best practice? How much should I offer as my first bid if/when I get the AA report back? I've found other similar cars on autotrader for around the same price or more expensive, with a couple coming in at £2,100 or thereabouts - but are ~150 miles away. Can I use them as leverage?

You could, but I'd simply decide whether a car is worth it or not and walk away if the price isn't right. Regarding bartering it depends very much on local market conditions - I wouldn't be afraid of asking for up to 20% off up front but again depends on how much I liked the car and therefore whether I wouldn't only get it if it was a 'bargain'.

Are there any things to do so obvious that you wouldn't bother thinking about them normally, but I might not know about?

Make a note of the tyres on the car when you agree the sale. Check they're the same ones it actually comes with when the keys are handed over. Two keys is very much preferable. One key means there's another one floating around somewhere. Check the car on a level surface and see if the suspension is even. Check oil is neither too low or too high, and importantly doesn't have any mustard like cream around the top. Fire up the car from cold ideally, rev and see what colour the exhaust is - anything other than white for a petrol walk away. For diesel it may be black in which case you're a dirty polluter, but may not be anything otherwise wrong.

Finally don't be afraid to take the car back to the seller if anything crops up in the first few months - especially if you're buying from a dealer, you have a lot of protection from being sold a lemon. One of our past purchases came with a puncture and a faulty brake light - yet we were told it had passed an MOT the day before. We absolutely got those sorted by the dealer.

[EndlessWaves]

I've found other similar cars on autotrader for around the same price or more expensive, with a couple coming in at £2,100 or thereabouts - but are ~150 miles away. Can I use them as leverage?

The cheapest comparable ones I can see of the new model (1-2 letter trim names instead of whole words) are £2.5K. There are a couple at 2.2k but one is 100,000 miles and the other is a former write-off.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-sear...stcode=nr317aa

If any of the 2.5k models are nearly then you may be able to get him down to that but I wouldn't expect much lower than that unless the car has a tatty interior or something. If it's in good condition then £2,750 or even his current offer doesn't seem unreasonable.

[virtuo]

He'll definitely take 2,700 for it, and a PITA would get it lower - traders never run on paper thin margins, and if you look at the part-ex price for one of these you'll see they'll have plenty of room to wiggle.

I'd be shooting for new tyres, 12 month ticket and 12 month warranty as well.

[Dashers]

As with any second hand car, make sure it's got its service history up-to-date (doesn't need to be main dealer, just that it has been serviced when it's supposed to and things like cam-belts have been replaced when needed). Check to see what service items are coming up over the next year, you don't want to buy a car to find out that it'll need a new cam-belt within a year.

Push the seller to detail ALL faults and issues. If he doesn't declare any then you have a bit more room to come back and say it's not as described if anything major rocks up.

As above, check wear-and-tear items. (Good) tyres are expensive and not the only thing you have to replace reasonably frequently. Have the wear of the disks and pads checked.

Last off, make sure it's got an up-to-date MOT. It costs very little to get one done, but it covers a lot of things that are tricker to check for people like you and me. Bushes etc.

If it's a one-off, highly sought-after rare classic car, then you may want to buy it up as quickly as possible. Otherwise, don't be afraid of walking away or losing it. There are hundreds of second hand cars out there, another one will come up.

[Jowsey]

Always worth checking the MOT's of the car for historic issues. Can be done online here : https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Don't be scared to ask questions!

Get a HPI finance check done. They can 'say' it's clear but you have no evidence of what he said so getting a report can be £20 well spent. If you're a member of AVForums there is people selling checks for £5 at the moment. I bought one for piece of mind and found out the car dealer had not informed me that he had rolling stock finance on the car.

[wazzickle]

Went with a Mazda 3 in the end.

Main lesson learnt: don't bother with an AA or RAC check, but rather find a local mechanic to do the check for you for much less.

I now have 4 autotrader/experian finance history checks available if anyone is interested.

[Zak33]

Always worth checking the MOT's of the car for historic issues. Can be done online here : https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Don't be scared to ask questions!

Get a HPI finance check done. They can 'say' it's clear but you have no evidence of what he said so getting a report can be £20 well spent. If you're a member of AVForums there is people selling checks for £5 at the moment. I bought one for piece of mind and found out the car dealer had not informed me that he had rolling stock finance on the car.

the stock being financed is normal. Nearly every car you see on every main branded retailer forecourt is financed.

it's not your problem if you buy it and he doesn't clear it.

Traders have the last legal requirement to clear finance and not the retail buyer.

so don't let that stop you.

When buying PRIVATELY its less clear .. so HPI a car.

When a TRADER buys from a PRIVATE punter he HAS to check because he WILL be liable for it. So he will give the seller the EQUITY and then clear the finance himself.

[badass]

A Very, Very important thing to remember:

PAY FOR THE DEPOSIT ON A CREDIT CARD

I repeat PAY FOR THE DEPOSIT ON A CREDIT CARD

The consumer protection laws are all well and good but the kind of dealer that ignores consumer rights is exactly the kind of dealer that declares the business bankrupt when a judgement goes against them.

Let me be 100% clear:
If you purchase an item that costs between £100 and £30,000
If you pay any amount of that on a credit card

The credit card company is jointly and severally liable for the entire amount.

Let me make another thing clear:

I paid a £500 deposit on a CC on a £9000 car. That car had a problem. The dealer tried to fix it then gave up and stopped communication.

The CC company ended up paying me £10,680 which covered my costs and the cost I paid for the car.

[kalniel]

The CC company ended up paying me £10,680 which covered my costs and the cost I paid for the car.

What happened to the car? Did the CC company take ownership?

[Jowsey]

the stock being financed is normal. Nearly every car you see on every main branded retailer forecourt is financed.

it's not your problem if you buy it and he doesn't clear it.

Traders have the last legal requirement to clear finance and not the retail buyer.

so don't let that stop you.

When buying PRIVATELY its less clear .. so HPI a car.

When a TRADER buys from a PRIVATE punter he HAS to check because he WILL be liable for it. So he will give the seller the EQUITY and then clear the finance himself.

Thanks. I ended up contacting the finance company direct and quoting the agreement number on the report and they issued me the same information in an official email. Saying I wasn't liable for a penny. Still gave me a shock! Been meaning to post my picture of it in the thread up top but its all mucky now. Maybe over the weekend!