Discussion
Bit of advise please.
2 weeks ago I bought Mrs Scruff a new used car. It came from a main dealer (manufacturer owned) as an approved used, and we paid in cash.
One of the specific questions I asked the salesman was whether it was previously a hire car or not. His reply was that it wasn't, and most likely it was a head office car.
V5 arrived this week and the first owner is registered as Eurocar. Suffice to say I'm not happy and would not have bought it if I'd known, simply down to the additional wear on the clutch and turbo (without going into specifics it's a small engined city car).
Will write to dealer principle but not sure what to expect here. I'm not naive enough to think they'll take the car back and it was serviced as a condition of sale.
The overall buying process as frankly been terrible - not a good advert for main dealer purchases!
2 weeks ago I bought Mrs Scruff a new used car. It came from a main dealer (manufacturer owned) as an approved used, and we paid in cash.
One of the specific questions I asked the salesman was whether it was previously a hire car or not. His reply was that it wasn't, and most likely it was a head office car.
V5 arrived this week and the first owner is registered as Eurocar. Suffice to say I'm not happy and would not have bought it if I'd known, simply down to the additional wear on the clutch and turbo (without going into specifics it's a small engined city car).
Will write to dealer principle but not sure what to expect here. I'm not naive enough to think they'll take the car back and it was serviced as a condition of sale.
The overall buying process as frankly been terrible - not a good advert for main dealer purchases!
Mr Scruff said:
One of the specific questions I asked the salesman was whether it was previously a hire car or not. His reply was that it wasn't, and most likely it was a head office car.
He said it definitely wasn't a hire car and "most likely" a head office car (whatever that means). He'd never seen the V5 and was just blagging it. Talk to the principle/UK arm of the manufacturer. That's just cheeky.In B4 "it's so hard to make a living as a car salesman" types. :P
Phil Dicky said:
Could that much wear and tear be really caused on a car over 12 months, I know there's tales of them be ragged to death, but how many people would actually do this?
When you're buying at 18 months old - as we did - why would you take the chance? If I'd known it was ex hire I'd either walk away or expect a bigger discount! There are lots of cars out there and I could have afforded to be fussy.Mr Scruff said:
Phil Dicky said:
Could that much wear and tear be really caused on a car over 12 months, I know there's tales of them be ragged to death, but how many people would actually do this?
When you're buying at 18 months old - as we did - why would you take the chance? If I'd known it was ex hire I'd either walk away or expect a bigger discount! There are lots of cars out there and I could have afforded to be fussy.Edited by Phil Dicky on Sunday 11th June 08:04
In the interest of balance, and to expose another PH myth, I bought my then 6 months old E220 Merc in October 2011 with 9k miles as an ex Hertz hire car via Mercedes approved at a very nice discount.
It has now done 294k miles requiring just a water pump and a new rear shock other than routine servicing over that mileage, still running well.
Just because it was a hire car doesn't mean to say it will be trouble.
I also saw the way the Merc dealers management / demonstrators were driven by their staff, no worse than a hire car.
If it has the manufacturers warranty you are covered in the event of a problem anyway.
Irrespective of source, how does anybody know how any second hand car has been driven anyway, unless you buy it from somebody you know who themselves bought it brand new, and even then you only have their word for it, unless you were in the car for every mile of it's previous life
It has now done 294k miles requiring just a water pump and a new rear shock other than routine servicing over that mileage, still running well.
Just because it was a hire car doesn't mean to say it will be trouble.
I also saw the way the Merc dealers management / demonstrators were driven by their staff, no worse than a hire car.
If it has the manufacturers warranty you are covered in the event of a problem anyway.
Irrespective of source, how does anybody know how any second hand car has been driven anyway, unless you buy it from somebody you know who themselves bought it brand new, and even then you only have their word for it, unless you were in the car for every mile of it's previous life
Edited by Monkeylegend on Sunday 11th June 08:58
hman said:
However I don't think an aftermarket warranty will touch an ex-hire car
Most hire cars will be sent back after 6 months, or most likely before the first service is due, whichever comes first, so there should be no problem with a manufacturer approved car and warranty. As for an after market warranty, you only need to read the get out clauses and the issues posted on here to see their worth in a lot of cases.
Mike335i said:
Would an ex hire car, that would have serviced on time and maintained reasonably well, be any worse then a privately owned car? Used is always a risk.
Most hire cars arent serviced at all. They will be put on a long life service schedule and be taken back off their books before their first service is due.Hainey said:
The point is he was lied to and that's the ONLY point.
Got it in writing...?The vast majority of 6mo "approved used" are rentals. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. Even if the V5C had said "Bloggs Motors GB", it may well still have been a hire car. More likely, it would have been some relatively anonymous corporate.
DaveH23 said:
I use hire cars every week and have done for the past 5 years (work). In all this time I have never had a single issue nor driven them as everyone seems to think.
They have probably been maintained to a higher standard than a privately owned one.
This.They have probably been maintained to a higher standard than a privately owned one.
Most hirers are people like myself, hiring for work, at an airport or similar, to go to appointments and suchlike. Not ragged, well maintained, and no problem.
The point is the OP said he didn't want an ex hire car and made a specific statement about it. The fact that used hire cars are out there for sale is not relevant.
for sale
for sale
TooMany2cvs said:
Got it in writing...?
The vast majority of 6mo "approved used" are rentals. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. Even if the V5C had said "Bloggs Motors GB", it may well still have been a hire car. More likely, it would have been some relatively anonymous corporate.
The vast majority of 6mo "approved used" are rentals. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. Even if the V5C had said "Bloggs Motors GB", it may well still have been a hire car. More likely, it would have been some relatively anonymous corporate.
BertBert said:
The point is the OP said he didn't want an ex hire car and made a specific statement about it. The fact that used hire cars are out there for sale is not relevant.
Then perhaps the OP should have taken a little more care than relying on alleged word of mouth, given that the probability was so high.As I said, though, this has only even come to light because the V5C is unusually forthcoming about the previous keeper's main line of business. Just as it would have been before the sale was agreed.
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