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Jun 16, 2011 16:36:45 GMT
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I'm in the market for a car, nothing fancy, just a weekend workhorse, something estate with a big boot and something I can drive when the weather is bad and something I can leave parked outside without any worries whilst I am smoking around in my old Merc. I don't really want to spend more than £1k.
So far, these are my experiences:
Suzuki Vitara No 1:
Described by the trader to be in perfect condition inside and out.... one owner, etc.
Upon arrival I found a car with peeling lacquer, deep scratches, missing door lock, snapped boot handle. I didn't bother looking further.
Suzuki Vitara No 2:
Described by the owner as perfect in every way. He was looking for someone to love and cherish the Vitara to the same standard that he has during his ownership. Before making the 40 mile journey to view it, I spoke to the seller who promised me that I will not be disappointed.
Upon arrival I found a car with a mis-matched bonnet and grille, dented slam panel, cracked cambelt cover - all as a result of a heavy front impact. The long tax turned out to be until the end of this month and the very long MoT did not exist. The seller did not have any documents for the car apart from a logbook, which stated that the car was registered to a different person under a different address than the person I was dealing with. Complete waste of time.
Nissan Terrano:
Again a trader, car described to be in great condition!
Upon arrival the old Nissan didn't look too bad. However, the PAS pump was squealing. I called ECP who advised that a replacement (exchange) pump was £190 plus VAT. There was also a coolant leak (matrix leaking onto the carpet) and there was a diesel leak from the tank. I walked away.
Nissan Tino:
Another trader, another perfect car!
Were it not for a badly scuffed front bumper and dented and scratched rear offside wheel arch, the little MPV was actually a decent little car, with 2 owners from new and FSH. However, to hide the scratches and dents, the seller had spread mud over the bumper and arch! The rest of the car was very clean, so this was obviously a cunning way to hide damaged bodywork! The seller was such a complete tool that I had to walk away.
Toyota Avensis:
Another trader, car sounded promising but there was no mention of mileage on the otherwise detailed ad. I spoke to the seller who confirmed that the car has 103k miles on the clock. Sweet.
Upon arrival the car looked great, clean inside and out, no dents, no scratches, looked almost new inside and the a/c was ice cold. The engine started instantly (from cold) and the car drove well. However, the only document that the seller had to confirm the 103k mileage was a current (recent) MoT certificate. A quick VOSA check on my iPhone revealed that in July 2010 the car passed an MoT with 158k miles on the clock, so the current mileage must be nearer 170k. The trader was shocked by my discovery. He blamed the previous owner and denied any wrong doing. Ha! According to the logbook, the previous owner was based in Manchester and the current MoT test was done at a garage located less than 1 mile from the seller's house. Good bye Avensis!
BMW E36 318iS:
I wasn't after a 4 door car, but a genuine four door 318iS is a rare car. The price was right, the trader was nearby, I had to take a look.
The "slightly rusty one wheel arch" turned out to be two completely rotten rear arches and wings, all the way towards the rear panel. No sale.
Vauxhall Astra:
The seller is a Retro Rides member. The car sounds promising and all being well I'll be buying it tomorrow!
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1985 Mercedes W123 230E - 5 speed manual & 2011 BMW F11 520d Touring - 8 speed automatic.  |
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speedy88
Club Retro Rides Member
"Nice Cortina mate"
Posts: 2,281
Club RR Member Number: 118
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Jun 16, 2011 16:52:16 GMT
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Sounds like you had a run of bad luck there. Were these real traders or "traders"?
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Jun 16, 2011 16:57:24 GMT
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Vauxhall Astra:The seller is a Retro Rides member. The car sounds promising and all being well I'll be buying it tomorrow! Lets hope so ;D  |
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1977 datsun 810 180b estate |
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Granadaman72
Part of things
I likes Granada's, Cortina's, Sierra's, Viva's, Marina's....................
Posts: 483
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Jun 16, 2011 17:12:13 GMT
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Ive always found when buying cheap cars there's a lot of shonky stuff to get thru before finding the "right" one. However the adverts do seem to be very misleading at the moment, ive been looking for a cheap Focus for the gf and with £1500 cash i thought it would be a doddle but the amount of howlers out there was shocking despite being advertised as mint, low mileage, excellent etc. You can always take used car adverts with a pince of salt but i don't know whether its the economy, the scrappage scheme effects, or just a lack of decent cheap cars on the market or whatever but they seem to be a bit economical with the truth. In the end we picked up a cracking little 3 door with fsh, all the old mots and tax discs, a huge pile of paperwork and history from the main dealers etc so it was a happy ending. Good look with the Astra btw  |
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Jun 16, 2011 17:17:47 GMT
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Most cheap old cars are a bit knackered, they always were. Back in the day you had rust to worry about as well.
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1937 Austin Street Rod - 1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1976 Rover V8 - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Jun 16, 2011 17:54:58 GMT
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+ buyers usually want a car thats over 10 years old and under a grand to be perfect.
plus how can the scrappage scheme be blamed for sellers being economical with the truth?
thats just how lots of cheap cars are sold, always have always will.
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,882
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Jun 16, 2011 18:09:12 GMT
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There should be a law introduced where sellers have to pay the fuel costs of a buyer if they can prove that the car is significantly not as described. This happened to a member on here recently buying off another member. Car described as solid, drove a long way to view and it was rotten as a pear.
I've never had a problem selling cars for good money by fully describing every fault and detail.
Matt
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Lawsy
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,615
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Jun 16, 2011 18:39:36 GMT
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Most cheap old cars are a bit knackered, they always were. Back in the day you had rust to worry about as well. lol, aint that truth.. I'd be expecting things like this on cars under a grand.. |
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mrj
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,662
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Jun 16, 2011 19:28:47 GMT
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There should be a law introduced where sellers have to pay the fuel costs of a buyer if they can prove that the car is significantly not as described. This happened to a member on here recently buying off another member. Car described as solid, drove a long way to view and it was rotten as a pear. I've never had a problem selling cars for good money by fully describing every fault and detail. Matt it is actually possible over here, you can claim the costs you have had when the description is totally wrong; but to claim and to get are two different things... i went to see a Mk.II Audi 80 years ago, it was a bit of a "fishy" trader, the car looked very nice, it was advertised with 120.000 genuine kms, the test drive was ok, it was a very nice car. Under the bonnet a sticker from the last service : 190.000 kms ;D I would have bought the car with that mileage anyway, but in that case i was sure, there were other things wrong... so i walked away, the trader, an italian, obviously had soon a problem with his local godfather and disappeared.... |
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- 1971 VW 1600 TL Fastback
- 1978 Passat GLS Variant
- 1980 Audi 100 5E
- 1981 VW aircooled panel van (sold)
- 1983 VW Jetta Mk.I
- 1984 VW Polo Coupé
- 1984 VW Passat hatchback
- 1987 VW Passat Variant
- 1987 VW Passat hatchback
- 1988 VW T25
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BiAS
Club Retro Rides Member
Insert witty comment here
Posts: 2,231
Club RR Member Number: 147
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Jun 16, 2011 19:29:30 GMT
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I make an unintentional effort to buy the worst possible example of any car I buy, that way if there's an arch that isn't rusty, some item of equipment that actually works or it gets me home from the purchase without blowing up/catching fire/something important falling off then it's a bonus. Admittedly I always shop in the 'couple of hundred quid' category so just having four wheels that are bolted on and holding some air is sometimes a bit optimistic.
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(car+wheels)-rideheight=WIN
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LowStandards
Club Retro Rides Member
Bigging Up The Sum Sum Man Since '99
Posts: 2,658 
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Jun 16, 2011 19:47:47 GMT
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I think the problem lies in the fact cars are now white goods.
Even 3 year old cars are now mainly tat! Scratches, dents, poor maintanance are seen as perfectly acceptable so even older cars are described as mint by these folks even if the doors are hanging off!
I've just bought a 5 year old car as a daily and i had to search through loads and i was looking at the top of the price range. I'd of expected all of them to be mint 10 years ago...
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Jun 16, 2011 20:45:57 GMT
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I had my Vitara described acurately, with photos, i still had two winning bidders on ebay turn up and moan about it, took 3 goes to get a bloke to turn up who wanted an offroader, stupid you cant leave bad feedback for buyers anymore, the first two jumped on it because it was cheap, well it was cheap for a reason blockheads!
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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CIH
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,466
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Jun 16, 2011 20:46:33 GMT
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There should be a law introduced where sellers have to pay the fuel costs of a buyer if they can prove that the car is significantly not as described. This happened to a member on here recently buying off another member. Car described as solid, drove a long way to view and it was rotten as a pear. I've never had a problem selling cars for good money by fully describing every fault and detail. Matt I wasted an entire day and like £70 on train tickets due to a dodgy seller and a B12 Sunny Coupe ZX. Seriously, do they just expect you to buy it anyways ?  |
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Ratchet
Part of things
The user formerly known as Thomas
Posts: 698
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Jun 16, 2011 21:04:52 GMT
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its been like that up here for years really,
anything under 1000 is probably an abused badly maintained shed, and they still want decent car money for it, anything really cheap is probably knackered/ has no/short mot etc i wouldn't mind if people described them honestly tho.. and priced accordingly
used to be able to pick up an ok car for 100 or so, even if it was a bit rusty least most had been looked after (as in cleaned, and serviced, and not used like a skip)
Does annoy me when you try and sell something cheap, (cheap to me is under 300...) and people come come and moan about things not being right, i always describe stuff as best i can but seems some want a mot'd and immaculate runner for £150
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Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.
1971 vw beetle 1200
1978 international loadstar 1700 4x4
1987 landrover 110
1994 Yamaha FZR600r
2010 honda CBF100GT
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Jun 16, 2011 21:06:08 GMT
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There should be a law introduced where sellers have to pay the fuel costs of a buyer if they can prove that the car is significantly not as described. This happened to a member on here recently buying off another member. Car described as solid, drove a long way to view and it was rotten as a pear. I've never had a problem selling cars for good money by fully describing every fault and detail. Matt I wasted an entire day and like £70 on train tickets due to a dodgy seller and a B12 Sunny Coupe ZX. Seriously, do they just expect you to buy it anyways ? Yes, they do expect that, and to a degree, people do - this is the problem with buying online. Pre-intrnet, I and I would guess most others, bought cars within a fairly local radius, so if it turned out to be a nail... no big loss, just go home and find another. Now, thanks to ebay etc, people travel much further. The last few cars I have bought have all involved an easyjet flight and an afternoon of faffing with trains to get to the seller. This leaves me in a pickle if its a nail, as getting home again becomes a major hassle and expense so i tend to buy them anyway. Fortunately, I have not yet encountered a complete heap that I wouldnt buy, just minor-ish niggles that were not advertised but not unexpected in the price range I shop in. |
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1986 Panda 4x4.
1990 Metro Sport.
1999 Ford Escort estate.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,205
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Jun 16, 2011 21:25:14 GMT
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It applies to new cars as well TBH. Before I got my Mondeo V6 3.0 (to replace the troublesome one before it (that was described as a good car, but was riddled with faults), I must have seen 3-5 Mondeos of the same age (a work criteria (minimum age...), with all but one being described as mint. The first car (a TDCi) had a rattle canned rear 1/4 panel and door, and the engine when fired up clearly had injector issues (misfires/smoking etc.). At least it was in Brum. Second was in Luton. Again, a minter or so the dealer said. It had signs of paint but I could live with that. What I could not live with was a rattling DMF, inoperative Sat Nav (with on a Denso unit can be a sign of worse things to come (it also does the heating/AC etc. which on this car was also a little iffy)) and a knackered seat adjuster in addition to 4 good tyres including 2 which had tread pretty much painted on TBH!. He very quickly knocked off a good chunk of cash, although I decided not to go with it. Repairing one heap was bad enough for me! The final car (V6) was local with the seller saying the outside was ok and that it drove fine bar it being an ex SOCA car. It had a couple of marks on it, but the interior was very good, and overall, it was alot tidier than the dealer cars I saw. The drive of it was also much better than I expected. So that's how I ended up with that, albeit with no haggling. I thought I would give those examples to suggest that everyone has different perceptions of a minter. FWIW, I think secondhand values across the board have stagnated or gone on the rise. Decreasing new car sales may be the answer. Go to France/Spain and see how much secondhand cars cost... Saying that, the bloke who bought my 306 was very impressed by it. Maybe I should have lied more about it like the rest, or I am too picky! cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300562527942 |
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kevfromwales
Posted a lot
the conrod's REALLY out the block now!
Posts: 3,909
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Jun 16, 2011 21:38:38 GMT
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just buy cars for scrap money, then if you end up turning up and the car is a turd, then you can frag it at no major loss, and you've got out of it case in point, my bluebird, sub 200 quid, national express was 40 quid, and it was exactly as ed described - but if it wasn't saveable, then it would have fragged for 150, and I'd had a day out at brean and I've just arranged to buy a 100e, again for buttons, if it turns out to be completely shagged (don't think it will be though) then I can pull the motor, chrome and bale it (even if it is a good un, the motor is still coming out, and I might well be looking for a reliant rialto... ) |
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Almost on the road: b11 sunny breadvan, e36 tds, 325i skidcar,
nearly there: ford f250 tathauler, suzuki alto, u11 bluey
not for a while: ford pop, 32 rails,
not in this lifetime: ruby, '29 hillman
''unfortanatly I'm quite old and scruffy and in need of some loving. my drive shaft needs a new boot....''
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Tim
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,340
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Jun 16, 2011 21:39:38 GMT
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Below a grand it's purely a rust/mechanical check :-) Aesthetics are a second concern.
I've suffered with one lemon from here and two good cars, most expensive was a smidge over £500
The lemon was very cheap though :-)
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Jun 16, 2011 21:52:14 GMT
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probably because most of the decent well maintained older cars were traded in and scrapped under the scrappage scheme
all the people who could afford a new car would have also afforded to maintain their old car too
couple of dealers i know cant get hold of any decent older cars only old wrecks are offered in a p/x s
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crazymonkey
Posted a lot
ummm....what was I doing again???
Posts: 1,981
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Jun 16, 2011 21:57:06 GMT
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been lucky with cheap cars. last car a mk6 escort 1,6 was alright. Cost me the grand sum of £150 with 8 months MOT but no tax and needed a wheel bearing. total cost £280. fixed the bearing in a day and the electric window that didnt work was fixed by bending the pins on the contact of the switch ;D
Both rear arches were rusty and one was in primer and the car was covered in scratches and interior was "average". drove fine though and in the 2 months we had it never had a problem. sold it for £270 which didnt think was bad. guy came up looked at it...seen the rusty arches (his words "typical ford" didnt give a damn) drivers door lock doesnt work ...again not bothered, he just wanted a cheap car with a decent mot that he's not worried about his brother smacking up (apparently a habit of his lol). thats the sort of buyer everyone wants.
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whoever said dogs were man's best friend....obviously never heard of cable ties
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