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Original poster

buying used car privately, advice

28 replies

SalBySea · 06/02/2009 16:41

hi

I have never owned a car (sad at my age I know but lived in London for years so never needed to in the past)

an apparent bargain has come up at DH's work, colleague returning to their home country selling an X reg ford focus for £2,400 (54,000 miles)

What do I do. How do I test drive if they are only insured for named people to drive it. How do I find a good mechanic to check it over.

Am pretty clueless about cars in general and buying them so need a "for dummies" crash course on how to go about it

DH is not a car person and none of our friends or family members who have any expertise in cars live near

OP posts:
snice · 06/02/2009 16:54

Know nothing but bumping for you!

cfc · 06/02/2009 20:02

Hi,

I think you could get a better deal, tbh. We've just bought a 50K mile, 53 plate renault laguna estate for £2,400 so have a look around...

Anyway, the RAC will provide a mechanic to meet you there to look at the car - google them, I think the AA also offer this service. Or you could get in touch with a mechanic in the area, but I don't know what type of garranty they offer which the RAC or AA could offer.

You must check that you are insured on that person's policy 3rd party at the least. If you're not, then ask that they put you on the insurance and listen to them do it (it's really easy to do that over the telephone and what we did to drive the car we recently bought home before checking out other offers on the net). If you like, get the details of the car and owner and ring up an insurance company and see if they could insure you for the day (fully comp is better) but they might not do this...

You should also consider getting a HPI check done on the car, google it and you'll see what you need from their website.

When you buy the car, or if!, you need the seller to sign the V5 document (usually they send it off, but I would prefer for me to do this as I trust me!). You'll see a space at the bottom in red where he signs and dates. You need both sides of the V5 doc. You complete new details of new owner and send to DVLA.

Obviously you'll need to check out the logbook, but if he's had it since new and you trust him it should be ok.

Erm, trying to think of other things...having just been through this ourselves!

If you can't ensure that you are insured then perhaps you could drive it on private property so you're not as open to hitting other people!! Or having someone hit you.

Good luck with it!

C.

southeastastra · 06/02/2009 20:06

get the aa to check it over? sometimes dealers hide as private sellers but apart from that, sounds like a bargain

thisisyesterday · 06/02/2009 20:07

dunno whereabouts you are, but we're selling an X reg ford focus for less than that atm!

we're in south east

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:10

go onto parkers guide online - without looking online I think it's overpriced.

Get the AA to inspect it for a £100 - I had this about 5 years ago and it allowed me to negotiate them way down.

callalilies · 06/02/2009 20:11

Agree doesn't sound like much of a bargain at all at the moment tbh.

southeastastra · 06/02/2009 20:12

why? 54,000 x reg?

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:12

I've just gone on Parkers, the 1.6 is worth £470 - £600

thisisyesterday · 06/02/2009 20:14

i don't think you can tell much about the price without knowing all the details of the vehicle.

when we were researching potential price for ours we found plenty of them, same age ranging from £1800 up to £3000
all depends on what condition it is, what interior it has, what extras it has, service history etc etc

thisisyesterday · 06/02/2009 20:15

weeslee,. I just went on and got £1600!!

thisisyesterday · 06/02/2009 20:16

for a 1.8 zetec, 5 door. which is what we have.

as I say, without knowing any more than it's X reg and a focus it's virtually impossible to say whether the price is good or not

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:16

yep the Parkers guide invites you to choose certain options (you need to know the exact spec, model, mileage, condition to get an accurate price)

www.parkers.co.uk

callalilies · 06/02/2009 20:18

1.8 zetec 5 dr. Even good condition is £1800.

southeastastra · 06/02/2009 20:19

i bought a focus 1.8 82,000 miles a year or so ago for £2,500 was a bargain. isn't parkers for insurance write offs?

callalilies · 06/02/2009 20:22

No not for insurance write-offs.

Haven't car prices been diving recently though? A local dealer here was advertising that they were selling new cars at cost price only, no profit, presumably just to get rid of them.

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:23

Ok, I chose a 1.6 Flight d X reg 2000 - the price is Private Poor £420 up to Private Good £695

I chose the lowest spec on an Escort - you need to know what the actual car is to make it accurate.

Just seen it's a Focus - 98 lowest spec starts at £1045

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:27

Parkers gives accurate worths for all cars - Glass's guide (which the trade uses) has even lower prices so when I was buying at auction I used the Glass's guide to know what the trade were prepared to pay.

I have got huge bargains at auctions by bidding just over what the trade will pay - however I have never paid more than a Parkers price for anything.

I've only bought fifteen cars this way though so I'm not exactly expert - used car prices through toilet which I could see last week when I went to Enfield car auction with a friend.

Original poster
SalBySea · 06/02/2009 20:47

its a ghia 5 door hatchback 2L

the parkers guide will only give me the price for 80,000 miles and this car has 54,000

We wanted a second hand focus but had thought we couldnt afford one before this one came up, I guess we werent shopping around properly!

OP posts:
thisisyesterday · 06/02/2009 20:49

buy mine, buy mine, i'll do it for £2000 lol

WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 06/02/2009 20:55

ok, it's £150 more for each 10,000 less miles so add £450 quid to the value.

Then you will have a reasonably accurate valuation.

southeastastra · 06/02/2009 21:00

try it out sal, if they're funny about you driving it, sit next to them, you can tell by the engine sound if the car is sound

callalilies · 06/02/2009 21:07

They'll probably be expecting to haggle anyway I would think, rather than people offering the full asking price straight-off.

Original poster
SalBySea · 06/02/2009 21:28

another question, how does the actual transaction take place

I obviously wont be paying that much in cash so it'll be cheque

do they trust me and hand things over pending the cheque clearing

Or do I trust them and hand over the cheque and get the car etc once its cleared?

OP posts:
callalilies · 06/02/2009 21:30

They will probably either want cash or a banker's draft which is good as cash.

BarkingHarriet · 06/02/2009 21:44

Just read the last couple of posts, not all of the thread, but don't be surprised if they want to wait for a bankers draft to clear - yes you do have to have the money in your account to draw the draft, but it's not unknown for them to have been stolen and in that case the bank will bounce it.