so the reason I hate traders etc on the cheaper end especially is the full on lies, or lack of details of every car! and the complete lack of ability to communicate with potential customers.
e.g. from 2 weeks ago when we looked for a car for under £3k for my brother and his partner.
after a bit of searching they decided that the cars that fit their needs were -;
toyota aygo
mazda 2(their favorite)
toyota iq(bottom end of the market with that budget)
so we look around, find a few for sale.
narrow it down to 3 potential ones from traders. - 10-30 car in stock kinda business.
first one the ad has no real info other than "2 owners, recent mot, full history £XXXX"
we call, guy is all chatty and super happy to brag how great the car is etc, so we go and see it first.
literally as soon as I got to the car the rear arch is covered in filler, badly repaired, bad colour match etc..
the interior trim is falling apart, the front shock is leaking etc.. told him we're not interested and we're off, he got very upset and kept repeating "but it's full SH"
so we leave that going to see the 2nd one.
under 70k miles, decent mot history, full service etc low owners, well reviewed dealer.
this guy gives us the keys and walks away, great we can have a good look around the car.
paint faded, interior disgusting even mouldy at parts, car is covered in mud and bird poo etc..
full history etc but no paper work to prove it, check oil level? way under minimum, try oil cap? screwed on so tight I couldn't undo it. Walked away from this one too.
3rd one we see, orange, they love the colour, it's a sport trim so a few fancy bits on it etc.
car looks great, guy is a proper hard on sales man talking the talk etc..
starts the car from cold, redlines it to show me how smooth the engine is - ehem thank you.
anyway, we test drive it etc and there's a very bad clunk from the rear.. i tell him about it, he jumps in the car tells me how "if you dont want it then you dont want it I got someone else to buy it" and drives off to park it up
walks off without saying anything. Oh well, we leave that too.
4th car we look at is a suzuki swift, was local to the 3rd so we though we'll have a look.
end of story, clutch gone STINKS after normal driving slips constantly etc.. guy is adamant that it is not the clutch even tho it stinks bad, I tell him it is, he gets upset tells me he's been trading since 1995 and he knows whats up.. so we leave.
5th car I find locally, private seller selling his mums toyota IQ for a bit under market value and it just gets in their budget, we go have a look the car checks out.. a few bits need doing aka it's due a service so we knock the service price down from the asking, everything else is fine.
they buy the car and drive away.
wish we went private rather than spend whole day driving around london etc trying to find a decent trader selling something as described.
(that probably should have made me reconsider...). Gave it a long test drive, went over it in detail, surprisingly no obvious issues other than a cracked rear light. Made sure to pay the deposit on a credit card, and crossed my fingers. Took it for a full service and inspection and nothing wrong with it at all. Kept it for 3+ years until it started making some gearbox noise, at which point I was getting bored anyway, so after doing the maths, traded it in for a brand new Zoe.
