Advice from the car dealer’s mouth
Tuesday 23rd June 2009, 6:00AM BST.
LETTER: Being a bona fide motor trader in Shropshire for a number of years, I felt I had to comment on the feature in your paper on Friday, June 12 by Ben Bentley.His experience with motor auctions is obviously very limited or non-existent.
He mentions nothing about the “bargains” that have blown head gaskets, or gearboxes with only first and reverse, or the engine that has been cobbled to get through the auction ring.
We’ve all been caught there, dealers and all. There is no mention that most of these cars have absolutely no “comeback” whatsoever.
You pay your money and that is that. So when you have stopped grinning like a Cheshire cat, paid for it and got 100 yards down the road when it boils up or seizes, you will realise what a “bargain” you really did buy.
Then there’s the young lady looking for a Tigra or Puma for under £600. That was a joke, right?
My advice is buy from a reputable dealer where the car is properly prepared and a warranty is given. The choice is yours.
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What the letter writer say’s may well be true! .. but I am old enough to remember the days when the average Joe Blow first got to be able to afford his “Magic Carpet”! …… with wartime restrictions being lifted we saw a plethora of Bomb Site Car dealer johnny’s with their “I’m not here Today and Gone Tomorrow” rhetoric and the so called reputable established dealers who insisted that the only currency with which to buy a “Motor Car” was “Guineas” thereby establishing for themselves a 21 shilling pound! ……..
There are no doubt Car dealerships which are reputable and strive to give value for money but call me jaundiced if you will but there is a slot in my perception that is reserved for Politicians, Real Estate Agents, Lawyers and Used Car Salesmen! ……………
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Granted the report was a bit over the top with the car auctions and correct you have little if any come back.
However shrewsbury is surrounded by used car garages if only the tradeing standards could tell us how many have been reported to them for selling dodgy cars it would help joe public .
I bought a 4 year old car and the clutch went in two weeks tradeing standards got involved as he told me tough, he did replace at a cost of £350 or so he said however the looser changed the battery and that went a day after he give me the car back so cost me £60 odd quid.So in my view you can get conned where ever you go but if you take a good mechanic with you it lowers the odds of picking up a dud.
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