Paying for used car - before delivery?

[MasFina]

I'm in the process of buying a second hand car from a small dealer.

They want me to pay for the car in full before they deliver - does this sound reasonable? I would have thought it would be better if I do a bank transfer when they deliver it, but they say it needs to be paid in full first. But then what happens if they don't deliver the car?!

Am i being overly suspicious? The reviews look fine for the dealer but it's still a lot of money @ £11k.

If you look at it from their perspective, would you deliver a 11k car without payment?

Have you seen the car? When i bought mine from the garage i paid a deposit and then the balance before I went to pick it up (because I did it electronically) but it was a big national dealer and I'd seen the car. I can see the caution from both sides of the deal here!

I'd have thought that the easiest way was if I do a bank transfer when they deliver the car, which they're happy to do.

Otherwise it seems like a lot of trust is involved on my part. I've already paid a small holding deposit - nothing much, £100 - and I'd also like to pay a certain amount on my credit card, as it gives me some extra protection.

I've always paid the balance on collection.

I paid the day before collecting.

But I didn't have a bad feeling. If you have a bad feeling trust your gut or buy closer to home so you can collect.

We found ourselves needing a car during the first lockdown. Couldn't see it or test drive it first, really had to put our trust in the place. Transferred a deposit to secure it and the balance the day before delivery... £10k in total. It was delivered and turned out to be the best car we've owned to date. Was nervous though so completely understand where you're coming from!!

Fairy normal to pay in the day/s before delivery or at time of delivery although problems have been known to arises from banks reluctant to transfer big sums of money without reassurance you're not being taken advantage of which is why dealers often ask for payment first, they don't want their staff sitting around for an hour or more why it's sorted out

Are you sure it's a legitimate dealer?

Someone was posting about a scam a few weeks ago. The giveaway is that the car is a very good price for what it is and the seller wants to use some sort of random payment service that's part of the scam.

If it's a real dealer, you've had good information (photos, description and a video walk round/footage of the engine running) and you've paid a deposit by credit card, the risk of it not being as described and not being able to do anything about it is probably low, but it could be a drawn out pain in the arse process to get your money back.