Length of time reasonable to hold car with deposit

[Keith Lard]

I've had my eye on a this motor on AT for about 3 months. Its a trade sale and a nice example and today I noticed it has been reduced massively by £2k from £10k. Won't have the funds available until beginning of next month.

What's an acceptable timescale to hold a car with say a £100 deposit. Is 4 weeks pushing it a bit and is there any guarantee he'll hold it.

[Somnophore]

Yes it's pushing it but you can always ask, £100 deposit would usually only hold it 7 days max

[macky17]

I think he'd want more than £100 to hold a car that long. I had a private seller hold a car for 7 weeks for me but the deposit was nearer £2000. Has to be a large enough amount that he won't want to give it back even if someone else makes him an offer in the mean time.

[shirt]

for that amount you've no chance. i'd say a few days max.

[E30M3SE]

I would not hold a car for 4 weeks with only £100 deposit, £500-£1000, non refundable, possibly.

[anonymous-user]

For an 8k car I would suggest that the dealer will want significantly more then that - more in the region of 1k I would suggest.

Although if he makes an agreement and gives you an invoice with your deposit on it(whatever the amount) and it states on that invoice that the car will be sold to you on full payment then I don't see why not.

I'm sure though that if this ever got messy and you never ended up paying the final balance and he then sold the car after 5 weeks or so you would not have recourse. I expect the court would say that the full balance should be paid within a "reasonable time". What's reasonable to one, may not be the same for another. This is just my opinion by the way.

Only thing to do is ask him I guess and make sure you get a written agreement if he is willing to do it. I would suggest not though.

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 6th July 17:11

[uncinquesei]

We would normally hold a car to the end of the month. Signed order, 500 quid deposit is enough. Gets invoiced into current month then. Any longer and may want full payment at month end but that would apply where the delay isn't waiting for money, obviously...