The distance you'll go to buy a second hand car...
Discussion
No more than 25 miles on the website filters when I'm looking for a new car. But then I live in the M4 corridor so there's usually a selection of decent cars available in that radius.
Like many above, I've wasted too many hours of my life in the past looking at distant s
te so now I'd rather commit no more than a 30minute trip out to see a car and whether it's honest. The advent of the internet has also meant that cars are now priced against a national 'standard' so it's unlikely you're going to find anything being sold really cheap due to any local markets.
My last 4 cars were all bought from within a 20 mile radius of home.
Like many above, I've wasted too many hours of my life in the past looking at distant s
te so now I'd rather commit no more than a 30minute trip out to see a car and whether it's honest. The advent of the internet has also meant that cars are now priced against a national 'standard' so it's unlikely you're going to find anything being sold really cheap due to any local markets.My last 4 cars were all bought from within a 20 mile radius of home.
if it just a normal car (daily), I won't go far at all. When it goes wrong, I want it to be easy to take it back to the dealer. My car was at vw in Nottingham (about 50 miles away), I bought it from the dealer 2 miles from me though as I didn't want the hassle. Maybe I could have got it for less from them, but I'm not bothered.
If it's something different/rare then travelling is most likely necessary.
If it's something different/rare then travelling is most likely necessary.
We did a 4 hour drive to look at a Golf GTI, it looked perfect in the pics, I'd have happily paid full price based on them. I'm not even sure it was the same car after viewing it!
Got there, and within 5 minutes we were back on the road making another 4 hour drive home
This was after asking if there were any problems on the phone the day previously. And we're told it was excellent all round.
To sum up, every panel had a mark or scrape, mould on the rear seats, oil filler cap broken and all sorts of other issues.
I asked what he would take given its condition and got told the price was as advertised.
All of this was while he had his head in his phone, so I told him I'd leave him to it as discussing the car he was trying to sell was obviously not as important as whatever he was looking at on Facebook.
Got there, and within 5 minutes we were back on the road making another 4 hour drive home
This was after asking if there were any problems on the phone the day previously. And we're told it was excellent all round.
To sum up, every panel had a mark or scrape, mould on the rear seats, oil filler cap broken and all sorts of other issues.
I asked what he would take given its condition and got told the price was as advertised.
All of this was while he had his head in his phone, so I told him I'd leave him to it as discussing the car he was trying to sell was obviously not as important as whatever he was looking at on Facebook.
Sold a 306 D Turbo last year. The lad who bought it flew from Belfast to Gatwick and then over to Kent to see the car which owed me £230!
After a brief look around the car and a short test drive, he was on his way to Liverpool to catch a ferry to Dublin, and then drove it back to Belfast!
Woke up the following morning and received a text saying the car had made it back and hadn't missed a beat.
Turns out the 306 D Turbo has a cult following in Northern Ireland, as I had other inquiries about the car from there!
After a brief look around the car and a short test drive, he was on his way to Liverpool to catch a ferry to Dublin, and then drove it back to Belfast!
Woke up the following morning and received a text saying the car had made it back and hadn't missed a beat.
Turns out the 306 D Turbo has a cult following in Northern Ireland, as I had other inquiries about the car from there!
Love this thread, and I've done the same. Bought a mini digger from South Scotland 1 day - last minute bid on ebay, and off to go with a big trailer and an underpowered 4*4. 14 bloody hours in the car. 
Great days.
The particular best bit was accelerating up a hill onto a motorway 3 lane. Truck is very very slow with a heavy load. Audi driver behind is very very cross. Onto the motorway, and he's straight out into lane 2, giving me the coffee beans and behaving like a knob. Failed to see the braking lorry in front of him, and went straight into the back of it. Oh how I laughed....
Took my Dad with me, sandwiches and map, and just a great 'bonding' day.
Great days.The particular best bit was accelerating up a hill onto a motorway 3 lane. Truck is very very slow with a heavy load. Audi driver behind is very very cross. Onto the motorway, and he's straight out into lane 2, giving me the coffee beans and behaving like a knob. Failed to see the braking lorry in front of him, and went straight into the back of it. Oh how I laughed....
Took my Dad with me, sandwiches and map, and just a great 'bonding' day.
I'm based in the SW and the most I've travelled is up to Glasgow, which turned out to be a fruitful trip as I bought the car. I doubt that such a distance will be travelled again. Even so, liking as much car-bang for my buck as possible I tend to buy north of a line from Peterborough through Birmingham. The same car in terms of colour, spec and miles is almost always more expensive dahn sarf by a couple of grand or more. For a similar reason I tend to buy in the autumn or early winter as everything bar 4x4s offer better deals than summer. This sometimes has a downside though e.g. when buying a car I want but don't need...it'll get driven back then cleaned and sat up with a battery conditioner ready for the better weather and absence of road salt. In those cases it's always worth the wait
I'm sat here (browsing the classifieds / Google Maps to hand) and trying to generate some enthusiasm for the next mission, fondly remembering those days gone by where big efforts just paid off and the story ends well.
A mate and I drove down to Chester one afternoon to look at an Astra Turbo (for said mate) and long story short, it wasn't to be... another car not as described / wasted trip. Or so we thought. I'd also looked at buying a Calibra which was near York, plan being Chester for the Astra first weekend, York for the Calibra the following. So, come 5pm, sat in Chester having dinner it was decided 'Baws to it, lets just go get it... it's on the way home... sort of'
Rang the seller of said Calibra who seemed a bit bewildered but none the less, very accommodating chap and so off we went. Few hours later we rolled up and the seller, who was out of an evening celebrating his birthday, cut short his Indian meal to meet two random Scottish guys at his house at 10pm on a Saturday night. Car was spot on, better than expected, deal done within 5 minutes and having told the guy that no, we're not staying locally... we're going home... nigh on 5hrs later, somewhere around 3am I got back to the house and rolled out of bed three hours later for work.
Matey deserved a medal for that effort... though to be fair, he wasn't adverse to a road trip back then too. Like driving to deepest South Wales to look at a 'mint' Cavalier GSi to be met with a seller, V5c in hand thinking this was in the bag and his next holiday was covered. Garage door went up, car came out and 5 minutes later we were driving the 475 miles back home empty handed leaving a seriously confused vendor in our wake.
Ahhh, those were the days... where did it all go wrong!
A mate and I drove down to Chester one afternoon to look at an Astra Turbo (for said mate) and long story short, it wasn't to be... another car not as described / wasted trip. Or so we thought. I'd also looked at buying a Calibra which was near York, plan being Chester for the Astra first weekend, York for the Calibra the following. So, come 5pm, sat in Chester having dinner it was decided 'Baws to it, lets just go get it... it's on the way home... sort of'
Rang the seller of said Calibra who seemed a bit bewildered but none the less, very accommodating chap and so off we went. Few hours later we rolled up and the seller, who was out of an evening celebrating his birthday, cut short his Indian meal to meet two random Scottish guys at his house at 10pm on a Saturday night. Car was spot on, better than expected, deal done within 5 minutes and having told the guy that no, we're not staying locally... we're going home... nigh on 5hrs later, somewhere around 3am I got back to the house and rolled out of bed three hours later for work.
Matey deserved a medal for that effort... though to be fair, he wasn't adverse to a road trip back then too. Like driving to deepest South Wales to look at a 'mint' Cavalier GSi to be met with a seller, V5c in hand thinking this was in the bag and his next holiday was covered. Garage door went up, car came out and 5 minutes later we were driving the 475 miles back home empty handed leaving a seriously confused vendor in our wake.
Ahhh, those were the days... where did it all go wrong!
The fact is that it's cheap to travel long distances. Last March I bought the Daihatsu Shed from Glasgow. Deal arranged with emails 101 pics, 101 questions, pick up for the following Saturday. The railways wanted £156 single. BA wanted £52 single from Gatwick plus £10 for the National Express coach.
It was a horrific slog back as Storm Katie arrived just as I landed in Glasgow. Reassured by pics of 4 nearly new decent tyres on The Shed I could travel at no more than 50-60mph on the way back due to aquaplaning. Leaving Glasgow at lunchtime I pulled into my driveway at 11.50pm. It was hard, it was fun, it was an adventure.
It was a horrific slog back as Storm Katie arrived just as I landed in Glasgow. Reassured by pics of 4 nearly new decent tyres on The Shed I could travel at no more than 50-60mph on the way back due to aquaplaning. Leaving Glasgow at lunchtime I pulled into my driveway at 11.50pm. It was hard, it was fun, it was an adventure.
When I was a kid I'd suggest stuff for my Dad to go and look at and it was a struggle to get him to go more than about 10 miles! My BIL was similar too, not wanting to go too far because the seller might have sold the car before you got there!
When I'm looking, I usually set the search to 30 miles on AT, but I have always lived in well populated areas. I am usually looking for stuff that would be readily available too.
OP, I can understand why you would have to travel further as you seem to be a bit more isolated and are looking for something a bit more specific.
My mate lives in NW England and has bought two cars from Kent. The first was a 1977 Lotus Elite, the second was an Impreza Turbo. While I didn't necessarily agree with his choice of car, I could understand him travelling for the Lotus, but if I'd been in the market for a Subaru at the time, I would have been prepared to wait a few weeks or pay a little more to get something local to me.
When I'm looking, I usually set the search to 30 miles on AT, but I have always lived in well populated areas. I am usually looking for stuff that would be readily available too.
OP, I can understand why you would have to travel further as you seem to be a bit more isolated and are looking for something a bit more specific.
My mate lives in NW England and has bought two cars from Kent. The first was a 1977 Lotus Elite, the second was an Impreza Turbo. While I didn't necessarily agree with his choice of car, I could understand him travelling for the Lotus, but if I'd been in the market for a Subaru at the time, I would have been prepared to wait a few weeks or pay a little more to get something local to me.
rossub said:
I'm driving 600 miles to Devon tomorrow and driving 600 miles back home on Monday.
Can't say I'm looking forward to it. Neither car is motorway friendly!
Fair play! Can't say I'm looking forward to it. Neither car is motorway friendly!
As for buying locally, I was looking for a V70R or even a decent later spec T5 but there are none... to put it in to perspective, if I do under 100 miles, estate, petrol, under £5000 and 0-60 in under 8 seconds... Autotrader throws up 13 possibilities. But that's a broad spectrum ranging from a 325i to a Jaguar X-Type so again, start getting more specific... ie fast Volvo / fast Audi im estate guise and there's bugger all up here!
So yes, fully prepared to make the trip for the right car but it just seems like so much of ball ache these days... maybe it is a lack of time and patience that make me loathed to commit to such adventures, add to that the fact that there seems to be more people out there who are far from honest and it rapidly starts to look like a chore rather than an enjoyable experience.
Don't get me wrong, I will still do it and I have a lot over the pat couple of years... my current T5 came from Blackpool, my sisters GSi came from York (after a couple of failed trips to Dunoon (ferry included!) and also Peterhead) and recently my V70R (the last one) came from Newcastle and Mrs Davie's Astra came from Berwick upon Tweed, so yes despite being in the Central Belt, car buying still does necessitate a day out to buy something specific.
But and it's a big but, the novelty is rapidly wearing off... so maybe I will ask if some local PH's could have a once over of anything specific before I write off another day. Currently chasing a V70R in Manchester but not had any contact with the seller for a while now so that looks like another dead end.
I need my mojo for car buying back... though some of these hero spec trips are helping, plus I haven't been forced on to a Megabus yet so there is hope!
OK, so I live in SW France, but drove for 12hrs to Holland to view and buy the TR3a.
Was in the UK for a month before Christmas looking for a Mercedes SL (R129), but could not find the right car.................so drive back to France and then further down to Spain (where we spend a few months over the winter).
.........Been in Spain for two weeks, when we find what we think is the right car back in the UK!
It's with the SL SHOP, so I know it's going to be a good car.............now got to get back to the UK to collect it!
I think that either makes me a 'Petrolhead'............or maybe just mad.
Was in the UK for a month before Christmas looking for a Mercedes SL (R129), but could not find the right car.................so drive back to France and then further down to Spain (where we spend a few months over the winter).
.........Been in Spain for two weeks, when we find what we think is the right car back in the UK!
It's with the SL SHOP, so I know it's going to be a good car.............now got to get back to the UK to collect it!
I think that either makes me a 'Petrolhead'............or maybe just mad.
Somerset to South of France, drive to Portsmouth, foot passenger to Caen, hire car from Caen (twingo )to north of Montpellier, purchased car, drove back to Caen, ferry, leave new car in Portsmouth car park, Somerset in my car, train back to Portsmouth, drove new car back home.
kackered !
)to north of Montpellier, purchased car, drove back to Caen, ferry, leave new car in Portsmouth car park, Somerset in my car, train back to Portsmouth, drove new car back home.kackered !
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