Main dealer says do not buy - what could he mean?
Discussion
Hi, I just inspected an Alfa Romeo at a second hand dealership, seemed great when I drove it and looked it over, but service book was completely blank. I asked what happened to the service history, and they said "oh, it was serviced by XXXXX, they just didn't stamp the book, in 2016, 2017, etc...." (obviously I have removed dealer name and put in XXXX).
So when I got home, just to check I wasn't being told tales, I rang XXXX and asked them to confirm whether they had indeed serviced it. They confirmed that they indeed had, but then somewhat cryptically said "You should be very, very careful about buying this vehicle, I can't say more than that". I didn't want to push him, as I thought that was quite a good and generous headsup already, although I did say "What would you do?" and he replied "I can't say much more than what I have, but get an AA check done".
I'm now hesitant to go and pay £140 to the AA to get it checked when I've kind of been given a direct "do not buy" advisory, no need for indepth reading between the lines here!! But I'm curious, what could he mean? HPI all seems fine, I saw previous owner paperwork. I am reasonably mechanically astute, and bodywork looked fine and it drove fine, and dealer was offering a one year warranty. I just wonder how I can ever get any comfort buying a second hand car now when everything presents fine, but there are clearly hidden problems that HPI etc aren't covering.
Any theories?
So when I got home, just to check I wasn't being told tales, I rang XXXX and asked them to confirm whether they had indeed serviced it. They confirmed that they indeed had, but then somewhat cryptically said "You should be very, very careful about buying this vehicle, I can't say more than that". I didn't want to push him, as I thought that was quite a good and generous headsup already, although I did say "What would you do?" and he replied "I can't say much more than what I have, but get an AA check done".
I'm now hesitant to go and pay £140 to the AA to get it checked when I've kind of been given a direct "do not buy" advisory, no need for indepth reading between the lines here!! But I'm curious, what could he mean? HPI all seems fine, I saw previous owner paperwork. I am reasonably mechanically astute, and bodywork looked fine and it drove fine, and dealer was offering a one year warranty. I just wonder how I can ever get any comfort buying a second hand car now when everything presents fine, but there are clearly hidden problems that HPI etc aren't covering.
Any theories?
Perhaps they are seeing several repeat trips to the dealership on their DMS and assuming it's a bit of a lemon because of that? I'm not sure why he can't say more than that - to my knowledge, giving some general details on the car and not the owner wouldn't be a particular data protection issue. Might just be internal policy I guess.
Ask for a print out of the service history from the dealer. Ring the previous owner and ask them about the car , ask to see log book To get name . You don’t mention how old the car is . Strange the book not had any Service stamps . Is it cheap ? If it doesn’t feel right I would walk away there will be others Is my advice.
Walk away, not worth the risk IMHO.
Could be any kind of non-obvious issue - intermittent electrical fault that no-one has been able to get to the bottom of, or weather-related that will only show up in cold weather. Or could be rust in a hard-to-spot position, perhaps concealed behind "repairs".
Or could be the dealer know that the previous owner has abused it and thinks it may be troublesome.
Without knowing the model and year of the "Alfa Romeo" it's hard to say, but there may be model-specific issues that have just started to become apparent hence it being moved on (like crank walk on the Maserati 3200GT).
In any case, IMHO you have enough of a hint that it's not worth investing any more time and money in this particular car, I'd say walk on and find another.
Error_404_Username_not_found said:
"then somewhat cryptically said "You should be very, very careful about buying this vehicle, I can't say more than that"."
You owe that bloke a pint, mate. I'd find another car.
Just my 2 cents.
I would agree - if it is not a particularly rare car / spec, then better find another one You owe that bloke a pint, mate. I'd find another car.
Just my 2 cents.
Years ago I test drove a private R107 Mercedes that was advertised locally. When I say test drove I was basically abducted as a passenger whilst he drove for over 1.5hrs, I s
t you not. He was very pushy and the car was reasonably priced anyway. He did mention though a specialist he had used near Stratford upon Avon who knew the car and how good it was. At the time he wanted £6995.00 and there was nothing at said specialist for less than £15k.
Next day wife and I go to Stratford and I mention this car and it’s reasonable price to said specialist. I asked why they wouldn’t buy it remedy any hidden issues and make a bundle. He looked at me and said that he would never say anything negative about someone’s car but I could make my own assumptions as to why they wouldn’t buy it.
I took that as the best bit of veiled free advice I could get and walked away from the car feeling I dodged a bullet.
t you not. He was very pushy and the car was reasonably priced anyway. He did mention though a specialist he had used near Stratford upon Avon who knew the car and how good it was. At the time he wanted £6995.00 and there was nothing at said specialist for less than £15k.Next day wife and I go to Stratford and I mention this car and it’s reasonable price to said specialist. I asked why they wouldn’t buy it remedy any hidden issues and make a bundle. He looked at me and said that he would never say anything negative about someone’s car but I could make my own assumptions as to why they wouldn’t buy it.
I took that as the best bit of veiled free advice I could get and walked away from the car feeling I dodged a bullet.
Tall_Blk said:
MarkJS said:
I’d be wary of buying an Alfa Romeo even when the paperwork screamed the that the car had meticulously looked after. I’d run a mile from this one.
There are other cars (& marques!) out there.
Have you owned one? I ran 2 different Alfa models without any issueThere are other cars (& marques!) out there.
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