Dealer's VS Private sellers.

[leodlion]

Just throwing this out to get some feedback.....

When you all are searching for cars, does anyone buy exclusively from Dealers, or vice versa?

Myself I never go near a car dealer, as I always find them only interested in one thing. Getting you money and screwing you over. Ad that to the fact that when I have sold cars in the past, they come round and offer you the most ridiculously low (and insulting) prices you feel the need to tell them to do something the rhymes with "truck off".

I have done the same to some dealers in the past (when I could not find the same car anywhere else..VXR Monaro 6.0l in red if anyone has one for sale :-)) offering a price for a car that is around the price most cars are selling for at the time on this site and the other big car selling site. And they never want to drop a penny.

Years ago in my early days I used to work in a Car auction, and most of the regular buyers were car dealers, which is fine. What used to make me laugh is people buy cars from them, just because they get a so called "warranty" which unless you get very lucky is not good for much at all, as the terms on them are ridiculous.


Would be nice to hear from both sides here, as a lot of people I know refuse to buy from anyone but a dealer just because they think that they are covered for anything that may arise. Yet if that's all they need, just use all the money they have saved from a dealer, and buy a warranty direct on the internet.

Edited by leodlion on Friday 2nd September 04:18

[Bacon Is Proof]

I'll buy from whoever has the car that I want.

[SBN]

Good topic, i think it comes down to what you want and what you can afford.

If for example i want a low mileage mk5 Golf Gti i would find the most examples to be on main dealer forecourts and not for sale privately. This is because most cars for sale on dealer forecourts will be ex lease and the result of a PCP agreement to simply return the car with no penalties after 3 years .

However if i still wanted a mk5 Golf Gti and was limited by budget i would be inclined to look at a slighlty higher mileage example that would probably be for sale privately.

[to3m]

I bought my current car and the car before it from dealers. I did this mainly for reasons that will probably make many scoff! I wanted to be able to buy something that wouldn't need immediate repair, I wanted at least some comeback if something went horribly wrong soon after buying, I wanted to get to give the car a test drive first, and I wanted a nice easy way (that both parties would mostly trust) to give them my money should I find something I liked.

Worth it? Well... on balance... not especially. Not enough to make me pissed off, but I probably shan't bother again. An ability to offer me finance is of no interest, and the warranties I got were, as you suggest, not up to much. I also have reason to suppose that the pre-sale work performed on my current car was also a bit suspect. So much for what I figured would be the advantages of buying from a dealer! Though of course I did get the test drives.

Overall, I suspect I'd be better off buying privately and saving some money. My budget includes a certain amount for repairs and servicing anyway, so this would only increase the amount I'd have left for that, and I'd just have to accept that I'll have to take the car straight away to a garage to see what it might need doing. So all I need to do know is make sure that my next car isn't an emergency purchase.