Car buying is no fun anymore
Discussion
I used to love buying and selling cars and bikes privately. Shopping around, a bit of a haggle and coming home with a daft grin on your face knowing that you have saved yourself thousands.
I've even bought well and ran a year or so and sold at no loss. Forums, EBay etc made it even easier to find the bargains and do enough research on the seller to be fully confident in what you were buying. HPI checks and a bit of knowledge made it as safe as the dealer option but more fun and potentially a few thousand cheaper. I never hesitated in buying a £20k car, hopping on a train to go hundreds of miles collect a car or bike unseen that the seller had been able to describe to me in detail with all supporting evidence and a rake of hi res pics of all declared blemishes. I've met good people and brought some great cars and bikes, a few of the best through the early days of PH classifieds. To me buying well and the process of the purchase or sale was a big part of being a car or bike enthusiast and it also seemed the same for the people I bought from or sold to.
I sacrificed my nice cars and bikes for the last 4 years as I've been doing a house renovation so have been out of touch running around in an old diesel. House complete and in the hunt for a nice 2-3yo car but the market has shifted hugely in that time.
Cheap leasing and PCP deals have meant that seemingly few people own their cars and most who PCP don't pay the balloon and hand the vehicle back to the dealer. Seems the dealers now are in full control of the used car market so can set the prices, which seem frustratingly high to me when compared with the savings on a brand new car through a brokered deal.
Set your Ebay, AT or PH search to private buyers only and a tiny few cars are available for sale. Car buying services have furthered the competition for a private used car bargain. The few sellers left then expect you to sort out their outstanding finance, still have private plates on the car they wish to retain, or want much more than the WBAC price which they will almost certainly be knocked down on a huge chunk when they take the car for inspection. Must be a tough market out there for the small car traders now, who are also trying to pull nice cars out of this limited pool and find a profit, or just get the scraps such as the extra high milers or the bit too old stuff which the franchised dealerships won't touch or warranty.
I've even bought well and ran a year or so and sold at no loss. Forums, EBay etc made it even easier to find the bargains and do enough research on the seller to be fully confident in what you were buying. HPI checks and a bit of knowledge made it as safe as the dealer option but more fun and potentially a few thousand cheaper. I never hesitated in buying a £20k car, hopping on a train to go hundreds of miles collect a car or bike unseen that the seller had been able to describe to me in detail with all supporting evidence and a rake of hi res pics of all declared blemishes. I've met good people and brought some great cars and bikes, a few of the best through the early days of PH classifieds. To me buying well and the process of the purchase or sale was a big part of being a car or bike enthusiast and it also seemed the same for the people I bought from or sold to.
I sacrificed my nice cars and bikes for the last 4 years as I've been doing a house renovation so have been out of touch running around in an old diesel. House complete and in the hunt for a nice 2-3yo car but the market has shifted hugely in that time.
Cheap leasing and PCP deals have meant that seemingly few people own their cars and most who PCP don't pay the balloon and hand the vehicle back to the dealer. Seems the dealers now are in full control of the used car market so can set the prices, which seem frustratingly high to me when compared with the savings on a brand new car through a brokered deal.
Set your Ebay, AT or PH search to private buyers only and a tiny few cars are available for sale. Car buying services have furthered the competition for a private used car bargain. The few sellers left then expect you to sort out their outstanding finance, still have private plates on the car they wish to retain, or want much more than the WBAC price which they will almost certainly be knocked down on a huge chunk when they take the car for inspection. Must be a tough market out there for the small car traders now, who are also trying to pull nice cars out of this limited pool and find a profit, or just get the scraps such as the extra high milers or the bit too old stuff which the franchised dealerships won't touch or warranty.
Edited by Tucker1 on Saturday 22 April 12:00
Reassuring that someone can tell me that there are still deals to be had on 2-3 Y/O used cars. Will have to be patient, enjoy the sport of looking and haggling harder as well as being more flexible on what I want.
I've been starting to think that I now had no choice but to go for the best possible deal I can with a broker for a new, yet more expensive car than I really wanted just to extract the best overall value for me. Can't be right for a worry free, brand new car with its full warranty, zero wear and tear or need for servicing/tyres etc to make better overall financial sense that a now superseded used one which will need all of the above much sooner and be worth much less when I want to sell. Surely on some used models a price adjustment is overdue.
I've been starting to think that I now had no choice but to go for the best possible deal I can with a broker for a new, yet more expensive car than I really wanted just to extract the best overall value for me. Can't be right for a worry free, brand new car with its full warranty, zero wear and tear or need for servicing/tyres etc to make better overall financial sense that a now superseded used one which will need all of the above much sooner and be worth much less when I want to sell. Surely on some used models a price adjustment is overdue.
I'm totally with the OP here
I've always changed cars often and as a result become good at buying well and not losing come resale (usually a few months later)
Private buyers sellers exist and the ones that do seem to want similar money to what the trade is asking - usually because they they need as much as possible as they still have money owing and are in negative equity.
I'd always fancied moving into small time trading but as said - there's a lot of people fighting over small scraps of meat. I can't be arsed with all that.
I've always changed cars often and as a result become good at buying well and not losing come resale (usually a few months later)
Private buyers sellers exist and the ones that do seem to want similar money to what the trade is asking - usually because they they need as much as possible as they still have money owing and are in negative equity.
I'd always fancied moving into small time trading but as said - there's a lot of people fighting over small scraps of meat. I can't be arsed with all that.
ZX10R NIN said:
There are still deals to be had cash is still king, even with the dealers, pay 3/4 of the price on card or transfer but do the rest in cash & proper discounts can be had but you have to be prepared to haggle harder than you used to. 
I thought it was the opposite.Dealers want you to take out finance for which they get a kick back from the finance company.
Margins are tight with cash sales.
I'm with you OP - i prefer the 'hunt' and purchase to the ownership experience much to the annoyance of her indoors.
There are still bargains out there, but they seem to be in the lower price brackets - i'm a tight ass so have a self imposed budget of up to 5k usually and you can still find some great bargains out there as people think cars are worthless after 100k or 7 years old - WBAC and dealers off such low prices you can oftern snap up a bargain by giving them a few quid more and saving them the hassle.
I think a lot of people have moved away from AT and the more traditional selling ads - see more and more stuff moving the local 'facebay' groups where you don't have to pay to advertise or sell like ebay. Does mean more work to hunt them down, and actually tend to be closer to home than before.
I signed up to a cheap 2 year lease on a Scirocco last year after selling my previous car after 4 weeks, which didn't go down well - its been great in the sense that i know its not going to cost me anything, but i'm already looking again at whats on the market and what i could get next.
There are still bargains out there, but they seem to be in the lower price brackets - i'm a tight ass so have a self imposed budget of up to 5k usually and you can still find some great bargains out there as people think cars are worthless after 100k or 7 years old - WBAC and dealers off such low prices you can oftern snap up a bargain by giving them a few quid more and saving them the hassle.
I think a lot of people have moved away from AT and the more traditional selling ads - see more and more stuff moving the local 'facebay' groups where you don't have to pay to advertise or sell like ebay. Does mean more work to hunt them down, and actually tend to be closer to home than before.
I signed up to a cheap 2 year lease on a Scirocco last year after selling my previous car after 4 weeks, which didn't go down well - its been great in the sense that i know its not going to cost me anything, but i'm already looking again at whats on the market and what i could get next.
The biggest issue for me is that there is lots of rubbish out there for all price ranges. Maybe I got lucky a years ago or my standards have got higher lately. It seems that there is more trash on the market from traders et al etc.
The people who know they have a good clean car are willing to hold out for the right buyer, irrespective of them being a private seller.
Take my last example. It's at the very bottom of the scale but I'll make my point
This time last I was selling my Clio 172. It was on 79k, with some service history and it was a very clean car. Even a Renault specialist commented on it being one of the cleanest he had seen.
I really did not care if I got rid of it or not. If I didn't I'd have a spare car and a potential future track toy. That and IME clean cars are hard to come by unless you are lucky (right place at the right time, search ALOT!).
With that in mind I put it up for an ambitious £2.25k. To my shock and horror I got £2k for that same week. The buyer who bought it tried haggling arguing that 182s were that money. When he saw mine he did admit that other 172s that he saw around the £1.5k were rubbish. Yet all of the Clio owners will say £800 will get you a minter.
The funniest thing? I only bought the Clio as a stop gap car in 2015 as I could not find a good TT 225 for sale at around the £3k mark (again, people say that's clean car money). I almost kept the Clio after seeing 5 duff M3s, from traders and dealers....
That said cheap and good cars are out there. My sister's Saab 9-3 drop top is one of them
The people who know they have a good clean car are willing to hold out for the right buyer, irrespective of them being a private seller.
Take my last example. It's at the very bottom of the scale but I'll make my point
This time last I was selling my Clio 172. It was on 79k, with some service history and it was a very clean car. Even a Renault specialist commented on it being one of the cleanest he had seen.
I really did not care if I got rid of it or not. If I didn't I'd have a spare car and a potential future track toy. That and IME clean cars are hard to come by unless you are lucky (right place at the right time, search ALOT!).
With that in mind I put it up for an ambitious £2.25k. To my shock and horror I got £2k for that same week. The buyer who bought it tried haggling arguing that 182s were that money. When he saw mine he did admit that other 172s that he saw around the £1.5k were rubbish. Yet all of the Clio owners will say £800 will get you a minter.
The funniest thing? I only bought the Clio as a stop gap car in 2015 as I could not find a good TT 225 for sale at around the £3k mark (again, people say that's clean car money). I almost kept the Clio after seeing 5 duff M3s, from traders and dealers....
That said cheap and good cars are out there. My sister's Saab 9-3 drop top is one of them
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff