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I’ve arranged to view cars with three private sales now and they’ve all fallen through due to someone else nipping in there and buying it,
Often the deals are very good £2600 for a Mazda2 /2009 / 30K miles, A ding down the one side and I wanted to check how much to get fixed..... Every time I’ll ask them when’s good to pop over and view, set the time/day then get an email hours later to say it’s sold.
Is it just a matter of saying ‘Yeah I’ll take it’ without viewing thee days?
I can get where the sellers coming from re tyre kickers but I’ve been pretty insistent on my communications its exactly what I’m looking for, I’ll have a look at it and probably take it there and then
A more car yards keeping a closer eye on autotrader etc and just snapping them up?
Tbh I hate buying cars, I’m just trying to not get robbed in the £3k bracket, hence Petrol Mazda2/3’s or Skoda’s etc
Any tips?
Don't arrange to go and see them until you're ready to leave?
It's much less likely to happen if you say " I'll be there in half an hour" rather than "See you next Tuesday"
Yeah, I was just being polite! Asking them when's a good time to meet and view rather than giving them an hours notice!
Be quicker.
Don't ask when's good just say can I come round now.
First to hand over the readies gets it.
Until you hand over the wedge your nothing more than a.an annoyance and b a negotiation tool for the guy fending. Off a low ball from a bloke standing their holding the readies.
Meanwhile you may think your being quick but your just being placed in a queue incase one of the other 10 he has arranged to see hasn't bought it.
Is 2600 for a 10 year old Mazda with a ding really a great deal ? There will be others .
Thanks Trail_rat!
I much prefer buying to selling to be honest.
At least I can walk away when buying.
Selling you have to put up with all manner of eejits.
But I apply the same principal "when's good" ....."now" don't give em a chance to buy another and be a no show.
There will be others
I think this is sage advice generally when buying a used car. There will always be other cars, unless you're looking for something very specific. It's very easy to let the heart override the head.
When practical, I like to take my tame petrolhead with me when car shopping. Aside from providing knowledge, having someone who isn't emotionally invested in the process is invaluable for sanity-checking your thought process.
I’ve arranged to view cars with three private sales now and they’ve all fallen through due to someone else nipping in there and buying it,
Do you expect the seller to ignore any other interest until you have viewed the car? How is he supposed to know if you are genuinely interested, or even if you will turn up at all? Yes, private car buying/selling is annoying.
Any tips?
Be quick to respond, polite, and if you are genuinely interested, make the seller believe that you are. Don't expect the seller to hold anything for you though. It's not that sort of market, unless you are lucky enough to deal with a real old school gent.
Meanwhile you may think your being quick but your just being placed in a queue incase one of the other 10 he has arranged to see hasn’t bought it.
Equally - can i view it in 4 days time sounds much like "I'm looking at 6 others between then and now and if I get sorted, sorry mate you're dumped"
Thanks all, tbh at the age of 38 I've only ever bought 3 cars ever! Two of them were off people I knew, the other was a Mazda 323 which pretty much no one else wanted, I've been Iucky enough to have a company car since then but that changes at the end of the month.
Plenty of time, just wanted to gauge what I was doing wrong!
I thought this was going to be a rant against those that specify "no tyre kickers/time wasters"...
If the car's as described, I won't be wasting your time, but saying this in the ad makes you look like a dick who's probably trying to hide an obvious fault.
"See you next Tuesday”
Harsh.
Your mistake was that you made appointments at some time in the future to view the cars. People don't make appointments and keep them; you should have phoned, said "I'm on my way now mate!" then tootled along and phoned again just before arriving.
It's hard to be any quicker than next evening if your in Cardiff, you've ridden to work and the car you want to buy is in Bristol. I get your point though.
Its first come first served, put your money where your mouth is.
I always phone and ask when the soonest I can view the car is, go tonight, tomorrow etc, if its good it will normally be sold by the weekend.
Its awkward as I will not generally commit to buy without viewing as its rare a car will be as described and without faults.
Its not uncommon for stuff to be sold whilst somebody is traveling to view/buy!
Dont be worried about walking away from a "bargain" if you dont like the look of it either, if its a normal car there are plenty more out there.
I would not pass over somebody who was willing to pay now so somebody else could come and view later and might buy. (If I have said I will hold something for somebody I will, and have done in the past, however that is rare after now after having people piss me about). I am upfront about it being first come, first served, if its still here you can view later, call to check before leaving.
You snooze, you loose 🙂
Do you have a local garage / independent you use?
Mine in Stirling seems to run a little trade in making offers for customers cars on behalf of other customers. I think there is usually £50 in it for him to make an introduction, but he does seem to have ear to the ground on a good car or two that his customers have. Last time I was in he was saying he had three customers looking for V70's like mine....
Thanks all, I'm ideally I'm looking at £3k / <50k miles / Minimal rust and dents so they're a bit few and far between,
Petrol Mazda's and Skoda Fabia's seem to fit the bill.
You snooze, you loose
Although this sounds harsh, this is essentially all you need to know.
Any issues you have getting there to buy the car aren’t the sellers concern tbh, if someone else gets ther with the cash first, they are going to sell it.
Thats the nature of private sales, and it one reason why buying from a dealer is more expensive, but a lot easier.
If they are a bit more rare and desirable you might have to be prepared to jump whenever something comes up, alerts on gumtree, ebay etc, cash waiting and view that night or tomorrow, whenever the seller is avaliable.
Last car I bought that I wanted a rarer specific model i phoned the seller and he was happy to sell it to me if I collected it first despite the fact that somebody was driving up from England to view it.
I have also loaded cars onto trailers at night in the dark/rain to make sure I got it as there was a queue of people going to buy it the next day.
I have a 2007 Mazda 3 Sport, 58k (IIRC) which I (well my wife) has owned from new and always been regularly serviced. Has a few little dings and the alloys have started to lose the coating but it reliable and runs well. I could be tempted to part with it if you are interested? (In Harrogate so not a million miles away)
I sold a motorbike a few weeks ago and the number of time wasters was crazy. There must be some folk who's hobby it is just to text people selling stuff and place stupid offers or arrange to view then never turn up.
Don't text or email. If you're keen then pick up the phone and talk to the seller. They are more likely to take you seriously. I know it's a generational thing, but I just feel it's easier to muck someone about when you're not actually talking to them.
Bigyan- wonders what kind of specific motors you do shady deals at night for.
Mrgrim- it’s probably depending on what your motorcycle is/was that attracted those types, was it an Aprillia by any chance?
plus they might know just how expensive the motorcycle game is therefore were lowballing you hoping to burn rubber without a care for replacing with monies set aside for new treads.
Bigyan- wonders what kind of specific motors you do shady deals at night for.
Lol, all 100% legit, it was first come first serve so I got there first or it would be gone by the time I finished work the next day. Car came up for sale in the morning on a forum, I saw the advert at lunch time and told the guy I could collect the car that night so I organized a trailer and got it that night after work. There was 2 pages of people trying to buy it by the time I had the car home that night. The engine was worth 2x the purchase price plus the rest of the car broken would be about 5x the purchase price, hence buying sight unseen, I have done that a couple of times as a gamble to get a cheap car.
More just illustrating you have to be prepared to move fast. There are also loads of small traders, legit and driveway plus breakers who are watching for cheap cars, they have ready cash.
Thats the nature of private sales, and it one reason why buying from a dealer is more expensive, but a lot easier.
I'm sure a dealer would sell to the first person to proffer the cash.
Buying elderly but low mileage cars isn't always that good a policy, as they'll have done a lot of stop/start short journeys.
Speed is the key. I once sold a caravan in less than an hour on Gumtree. I placed the ad as I got on the train in Perth and had the cash in my bank account before I got off the train in Glasgow - collection was next day. I had loads of folk saying can I look at it tomorrow, day after etc. The person who bought it just said I'll have it, what are your bank details and the deal was done.
Lesson 1 - the deal is done only when the cash is in your hand / bank.
Lesson 2 - don't ask too little for a caravan you through was effectively worthless<span class="Apple-converted-space"> 🙄</span>
I’m sure a dealer would sell to the first person to proffer the cash
They would, but things move slower at dealers due to the prices being higher, opening hours being restricted etc.
Dealers have the same cars for weeks sometimes, private sales, prices right sell in hours.
Good point about the old and elderly low milage cars and stop/start. Not always the case, as I rarely drive mine and when I do it will be a long haul drive ie airport, France or Ireland.
edit - can't be bothered
Careful Nico you'll set off the experts (doing the low mikes but old this has bit me in the arse both times I did it )
I'd be especially warey on a 10 year old Mazda as despite looking good uptop they tend to rot in the seat rear belt mounts and rear inner arches where you'll never see unless you get it up on a ramp like.
I am not sure how much 'stop/start' cars are adversely effected though - ours has had almost exclusively stop/start motoring for the last six years (originally school drop offs now its the second car that gets used by me when time/weather/laziness dictates I don't ride to the train station for my commute). In that time all that's been required (apart from one warranty job on failed ABS) has been the battery (twice), front disks & pads and some rotor arm or steering bush or something like that for the n/s front. It's always started first time (apart from when the batteries were failing) and runs really quite nicely.
Mileage will affect resale, but if I am buying a cheap car to use I would buy on condition.
Too many variables beyond less wear and tear on low miles, service history and type (eg long life), storage, usage etc. I would rather have a well serviced higher mileage car that has had a new clutch and all new balljoints/bushes than a low mileage care with a 90% worn clutch and perished bushes that I will have to replace.
Hahaha yeah it's always a chuckle to arrive at a car that's 10 years old and done 20k to find it's been serviced once.
They often don't even try and hide it "it's 1 year or 25k miles intervals"
Oh yes thanks but no thanks.
Yup, and only been used to pop the the shops, as if this is a good thing.
So the crank case will be full of condensation, the engine/oil never gets hot and the oil is changed rarely, what a good combination.
Tearing down a long life 1.8t engine, sludge city. Tearing down a 170k engine that has had the oil changed regularly, always warmed up, driven hard and find no visible bearing wear, minimal bore wear.
In my case, it gets serviced annually, not based on mileage. And as I say, it has been pretty much faultless in 11.5 years of ownership.
Indeed but you know it's history and have had it since near new and have looked after it , you can't put a price on that
When your buying someone else's you have zero idea beyond what's presented and unless there's itemised/dated receipts I'll not be falling for stamps/someone's word ever again.
Buy on condition, Noted!
Sorry Johndoh, Cardiff to Harrogate is a bit to far
No worries. My wife doesn't want to sell it anyway 🙂
Why private?
Trade = 6mths of legal cover (they have to prove a fault *didn't* exist when they sold), despite what any warranty says.
Lot's of Avensis or Auris at that price.
From a seller’s side, I suffered a bit of messing about before telling anyone who called that I had people looking right now and they needed to check the advert was still live before setting off. One bloke promised to buy at the price without physically seeing it, I moved loads of stuff so he could see it at a time convenient to him, turns up offers £500 less.
After that, it was strictly who turned up with the right amount of cash. We sold it to a lovely couple at the price we wanted so it worked out in the end. But there are so many time-wasters out there. From my view, I just wanted it over with - don’t like buying or selling and I didn’t want to be juggling appointments.
Buying - we ended up getting my daughters one off a fab little lockup/portacabin near brum. Great price, nice fella, no issues. Way better than main dealer.
Mildly off topic but I wasn’t sure what to make of those ‘dealers’ you had to call and make an appt before you could view a car and they were pretty aggressive in terms of ‘do you definitely want to buy it’. Stayed well away from that.
Alex
yeah i’ve noticed a few adverts like that, i just scroll onto the next one, it’s a buyers market.
Money talks, bullshit walks. Get in there first.
I advertised my last car at about £1200. The amount of folk asking how much I'd take without viewing, or if I'd hold the car until such and such a date. First guy came to view and he was a man mountain, too big for the car and he was a bit gutted. Next guy viewed in the dusk, test drive in the dark, offered enough for me to not need bother wasting my weekend with the anyone else.
Others had shown interest earlier but didn't view quick enough.
Offers without viewing get ignored.