Buying a used EV privately - what to consider?

One of the reasons a new Model Y RWD is so popular atm - @47K roughly the same price as 1-2 year year old comparable EV

Firstly what is your daily commute?

Do you own your own home and do you have an off-street driveway where you can get a home charger installed?

What is your typical weekend long trip, round trip in km?

If you regularly do trips above 300km in Winter you may need to public charge regularly and public chargers are busy at peak times. Only about 1/3 enough.

In terms of warranty you get longer with new. Used may have different length warranty depending on make and model. Most have maximum mileage limits too.

Hyundai/kia tend to have 5 year everything warranty + extra for only battery, others are similar typically less for everything. You do hear the odd horror story of faulty EVs but generally they are far more reliable than petrol or diesel and if you buy used from a dealer they often add extra warranty. I prefer to buy private, take a risk and always have a couple of thousand in the bank in case I need a big repair or to buy another temporary car to get me going. If you don't want that risk then get something with "everything" warranty.

Answer the above personal questions first to see if an EV would work for you.

There is absolutely no way I'd buy a 45 grand car privately.

Zero customer rights. The, very small, chance of a cloned car. Actually getting them the money. Transfers Have to clear. Drafts can be forged etc.

Double check with seller what cables they are including - ideally you want a type 2 and a granny (3 pin) cable. Sometimes sellers want to hang onto them as spares or whatever.

If you're getting a charger at home, then granny cable is less important but type 2 is handy for on street charging

I know of 2 cloned cars in the last 10 years.

Both of them had vins altered on the car to match fake log book of real cars from car showrooms. Would have been a lot easier to spot in the 90s as a fake log book back then be fairly crap.

It's probably 0.01% probability and I'd have no problem risking up to 20k.

You going to revolut someone 45 grand at their house with no comeback. Off you go.....

Something is wrong with the car and it's been unsuccessfully in and out of garages for 2 years......

It's all small risks but not risks I'd take with 45k in the 90s or now.

Plenty poorly repaired write offs on irish roads also and they don’t always appear to be declared with cartell type checks either. Clocking hasn’t gone away and pcp finance hasn’t helped. As always buy with your eyes wide open particularly with private sales via the likes of DoneDeal. €45K is a lot of cash to try and recover if you get caught.

Thats interesting, policy is limited to 2.5k per claim, but that would cover a lot

I had a policy like one of these and it was virtually impossible to get them to pay out on anything. I think it was carprotect and underwritten by a UK firm. Don’t waste your money on one.

Every car has a risk of a wheel falling off. Why do they do PDIs on new cars and people make mistakes.

Yep.

That's it. Really don't see any value in buying a car from a dealer when it can be bought for significantly less private once there is a decent amount of manufacturer warranty. That is of course with doing history check including outstanding finance check.

Even buying from dealers you can have issues with warranty claims. Often people bring cars back 5 or 6 times for attempted fixes. No fix is more common in petrol or diesel but getting dealers to sort out warranty issues can be a big fight. At least as a private buyer you have saved say 4000 euro so you can bring your car to local shop or specialist to have fault properly diagnosed and fixed. Many dealers struggle to fix cars as all good mechanics typically leave and go out on their own. They also don't tend to work on older cars unlike specialists. While warranty can be handy it's not all it's cracked up to be.