Dealer to private sale in less than a month suspicious?

sonicthebadger* · 18-04-2018 05:49PM #1

Hi all,

Going to look at a car soon and I did a quick history check on it, turns out it was bought by a dealer in early March and then by the seller, it will be a private sale, about three weeks later. What is potentially going on here? Anyone work in the motor trade see this happen before or maybe even all the time? It has a very attractive price for the model and year.

Thanks!

mullingar · 18-04-2018 05:54PM

If the dealer wants rid of a problem car, it's usually thrown into an auction or sold off as private

sonicthebadger* · 18-04-2018 05:56PM

Cheers Mulingar, the car is over 15 years old, would that be enough to class it as a problem car or would it need to have something wrong with it?

colm_mcm · 18-04-2018 05:58PM

Could have just been bought by the seller as a trade car to flip.

dingding · 18-04-2018 05:58PM

Can you post a link to the car.

I would think a 15 year old car would be sold without / limited warranty.

There may be something that is required. How is it with the NCT, you can check on the NCT site to see when the NCT is due.

If it has a large engine and the tax is just up, the tax amount might have come as a surprise to the seller.

Is this the car

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/mini-cooper/18499904

Atlantic Dawn · 18-04-2018 06:16PM

There's a risk someone bought it at auction and it was a complete shed of a car and they want rid of. It could also be a car someone who buys and sells picked up for peanuts at an auction and is simply flogging on for a few quid. Without inspecting the car hard to know.

EPAndlee · 18-04-2018 06:23PM

Dealer probably sold it to a fella that buys and sells cars. Only way of knowing what the car is like is going to look at it

noel100 · 18-04-2018 06:42PM

Friend of mine buys cars from dealers usually cheap cars 8+ years old and he'd do what ever work on them that they need and have them NCT-ed. Sells privately no warranty or guarantee.
Garages just want rid of them and sell them at cost. This guy deals with a couple of garages buys 4or 5 at a time and doesn't have to pay the garage till he clears them. Doing this for years.

FishOnABike · 18-04-2018 07:53PM

Could have been traded in by the original owner buying a new or newer replacement car in a garage and the garage selling it on cheap to an intermediary because it's too old to have on their forecourt. Some garages just don't want older cars on their forecourt affecting their image.

The intermediary then flips the car for a few hundred profit.

Like any older car give it a good inspection and test drive with someone who knows their way around cars if you don't. You can pick up a cheap car that will give you years of trouble free motoring or you can pick up a total lemon. It depends on the car.

FishOnABike · 18-04-2018 08:08PM

noel100 wrote: »

Friend of mine buys cars from dealers usually cheap cars 8+ years old and he'd do what ever work on them that they need and have them NCT-ed. Sells privately no warranty or guarantee.
Garages just want rid of them and sell them at cost. This guy deals with a couple of garages buys 4or 5 at a time and doesn't have to pay the garage till he clears them. Doing this for years.

I've got over six years and 100,000+ miles on an older car like this. I reckon it's cost me nearly as much in tyres by now as the car cost me to buy.

Mechanically it's still going strong and I'm only replacing it now because it's cheaper than it would cost to repair rust that has developed on the inner panels in the rear wheelarches, living near the coast and the few cold winters with lots of miles on salted roads doesn't help.

I've had a reliable car that has cost less per year than a set of new tyres. If you do your homework you can get some real bargains.

corks finest · 19-04-2018 06:22AM

6 owners ? I'd stay away

R.O.R · 19-04-2018 07:45AM

That looks like the sort of car that was taken in as a p/x, standing the dealer either nothing or very little.

Rather than sending it to the auction it could have been sold to one of the mechanics for buttons, and they'd do a bit of tinkering in their spare time (or just possibly giving it a damn good clean) and sell it on for a bit of profit.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 24-04-2018 08:12AM

It really depends on the make/model and spec of car it is. Some cars are best avoided when they get to that age but others are more desirable. Unless its some sort of exotic or rare sports car then I wouldn't care how many owners it had as 15 year old cars are naturally going to have several owners.

I bought a 7 year old Legacy in 2012, it had 7 owners before me. I drove it for 5 years without a single issue.

Care to tell us what car it is?

Dealer to private sale in less than a month suspicious?

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