Buying a used car in Ireland guide

Flunch · 29-04-2013 1:22pm

Seen two cars I liked on DoneDeal both the same model but different colours. When I looked, the number for both cars was the same. A quick google showed me that this guy had multiple cars for sale across a number of sites. However he is not a dealer. Is this something I should be cautious about?

Sam Russell · 29-04-2013 3:10pm

Flunch wrote: »

Seen two cars I liked on DoneDeal both the same model but different colours. When I looked, the number for both cars was the same. A quick google showed me that this guy had multiple cars for sale across a number of sites. However he is not a dealer. Is this something I should be cautious about?

YES

Carinee · 29-04-2013 8:48pm

Thank you for your quick answer Limerick Man !

thegoodgirl · 02-05-2013 2:05pm

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a bit of a steer here.
I need to get a new car. I have a 03 golf and love it but I am now doing 120KM a day to get to and from work. I seem to be filling up on petrol every other day.

So I'm thinking I'd be better off with a diesal, am I right with this?
My budget would be €6000. Any recommendations?

MickyFinn · 02-05-2013 2:56pm

Hello Everyone

Just a quick word of warning. I recently viewed a car that is popular with taxi drivers. This particular car was advertised as "This car was not a Taxi", so I viewed it, drove it and agreed the deal with the dealer. He said he hadn't a printer but that he had done a Cartell and it checked out fine, I checked the tax disc and it said "PRIVATE", so was happy enough with that.

I was then going to get a mate's mate the check the car out mechanically, just to be sure, but before wasting his time I decided to run the €35 Cartell on it myself. To my horror I found out the car had been a taxi under a previous owner for 3 years, not only that but there was finance outstanding on the car.

I rang the dealer, he said, "What do you want me to do about it?", I said amend the ad and pay me for the report, to which he hung up.

]He has since amended the ad but the car is still effectively owned by the bank.

Please ask the dealer for a print out of a Cartell report, or at least to email it to you. I'm out €35 but it could have been a hundred times worse.

Best of luck....

L-M · 02-05-2013 4:43pm

thegoodgirl wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a bit of a steer here.
I need to get a new car. I have a 03 golf and love it but I am now doing 120KM a day to get to and from work. I seem to be filling up on petrol every other day.

So I'm thinking I'd be better off with a diesal, am I right with this?
My budget would be €6000. Any recommendations?

Is it a permanent thing, the 120 day? It's definitely diesel territory alright, the only trouble is finding a good diesel is hard.

My advice would be to buy another 03 Golf but in TDI. Try get one with some sort of service history and be wary of any "low mileage" ones that are about.

Obviously, it would cost a lot less than 6k, so unless you're actually want to come up the years as well, spending 6k to save a few bob a week would be awhile adding up.

bazz26 · 03-05-2013 12:55pm

MickyFinn wrote: »

Hello Everyone

Just a quick word of warning. I recently viewed a car that is popular with taxi drivers. This particular car was advertised as "This car was not a Taxi", so I viewed it, drove it and agreed the deal with the dealer. He said he hadn't a printer but that he had done a Cartell and it checked out fine, I checked the tax disc and it said "PRIVATE", so was happy enough with that.

I was then going to get a mate's mate the check the car out mechanically, just to be sure, but before wasting his time I decided to run the €35 Cartell on it myself. To my horror I found out the car had been a taxi under a previous owner for 3 years, not only that but there was finance outstanding on the car.

I rang the dealer, he said, "What do you want me to do about it?", I said amend the ad and pay me for the report, to which he hung up.

]He has since amended the ad but the car is still effectively owned by the bank.

Please ask the dealer for a print out of a Cartell report, or at least to email it to you. I'm out €35 but it could have been a hundred times worse.

Best of luck....

You should be doing a car history check on any car you are serious about buying, don't be relying on the seller to provide for it for you as chances are if they are trying to sell you a less than honest car then there is a good chance any report on such car is not 100% either. As a buyer it should be you doing your own background checks. I'd see it as €35 well spent as opposed to being €35 out of pocket.

MickyFinn · 03-05-2013 4:37pm

bazz26 wrote: »

You should be doing a car history check on any car you are serious about buying, don't be relying on the seller to provide for it for you as chances are if they are trying to sell you a less than honest car then there is a good chance any report on such car is not 100% either. As a buyer it should be you doing your own background checks. I'd see it as €35 well spent as opposed to being €35 out of pocket.

True, but a print out includes the order number and reg of the car, you can view the online report with those details, and then print a PDF. Any decent dealer will show you the report, and he gets it for much less than €35.

In fairness he lied to me, guess I thought the price was too good to be true and that proved to be the case. If he just said it was a taxi I would have walked away and not spent the €35, so I do feel €35 out of pocket.

faral · 03-05-2013 7:52pm

guys question- Ive found car I like but in the lodge book there is RSA as owner.When I asked why is that seller told me that car was repossessed by bank but there in no outstanding balance on it.or me its absolutely strange

bazz26 · 03-05-2013 8:44pm

MickyFinn wrote: »

True, but a print out includes the order number and reg of the car, you can view the online report with those details, and then print a PDF. Any decent dealer will show you the report, and he gets it for much less than €35.

In fairness he lied to me, guess I thought the price was too good to be true and that proved to be the case. If he just said it was a taxi I would have walked away and not spent the €35, so I do feel €35 out of pocket.

If a seller is trying to hide something around their car's history then there is a high probability that any documentation they provide you could be changed to match their claims. In your case why would the dealer provide a history sheet contrading what he told you earlier about the car? He probably hoped that a buyer would be a bit naive and see €35 as a waste of money and not bother doing any checks of their own.

As I said spending €35 to find out yourself that a car had a different history is money well spent as opposed to spending thousands on buying a car that you were lied to about.

thegoodgirl · 07-05-2013 11:14am

Limerick man wrote: »

Is it a permanent thing, the 120 day? It's definitely diesel territory alright, the only trouble is finding a good diesel is hard.

My advice would be to buy another 03 Golf but in TDI. Try get one with some sort of service history and be wary of any "low mileage" ones that are about.

Obviously, it would cost a lot less than 6k, so unless you're actually want to come up the years as well, spending 6k to save a few bob a week would be awhile adding up.

Thanks for this, yeah it looks like I'll be doing this mileage for at least 18 months. Its killing me in petrol at the mo. I was thinking the same myself but wanted to check if anyone had any receommendstions of other diesal models. I'll try stick with the golf so. Thank you

L-M · 07-05-2013 5:31pm

You'd probably get some for of 1.6 hdi for that money but you would really want to be careful with what you're buying.

I'm driving a 1.6 diesel and combined driving with a good chunk of it long journeys it averages 44 mpg.

I had a 1.9 TDI Gold two years ago, did 20 k miles in it in a year and if driven at 60 mph it used to bring over 50 mpg, but combined driving would bring that down obviously.

kitten_k · 08-05-2013 12:55pm

Great thread Limerick Man.

I am planning to buy my first car in September and am only looking to spend €2k.

What cars would you recommend (prefer hatchbacks).

Also what year and mileage would I be looking at?

faral · 08-05-2013 7:26pm

kitten_k wrote: »

Great thread Limerick Man.

I am planning to buy my first car in September and am only looking to spend €2k.

What cars would you recommend (prefer hatchbacks).

Also what year and mileage would I be looking at?

for less than 2k look ONLY on jap cars.imagine the rest doesn't exist.
most reliable are toyotas to include corolla and starlet.millage around 110-120k preferably with some history,no more than 3 owners and with no serious damage.scratches and dents are accepted as this is normal for cars 10 y+.
of course you can get a starlet for much less than a 1k...this car never breaks

L-M · 08-05-2013 9:00pm

kitten_k wrote: »

Great thread Limerick Man.

I am planning to buy my first car in September and am only looking to spend €2k.

What cars would you recommend (prefer hatchbacks).

Also what year and mileage would I be looking at?

If you got a genuine 01 Yaris you really couldn't go wrong.

In September you would probably Get a 03-04 Micra if you like that.

Bigger options would be Civics/Corollas. You won't get much in the new shape 02/03 Corolla for 2k as they're in high demand.

Mileage is car dependant. If you want to post a few up here close to September we can go through a few options.

kitten_k · 08-05-2013 9:31pm

Thanks Faral and Limerick Man. I will take you up on the offer to look over cars in September.

Esel · 11-05-2013 1:39am

faral wrote: »

guys question- Ive found car I like but in the lodge book there is RSA as owner.When I asked why is that seller told me that car was repossessed by bank but there in no outstanding balance on it.or me its absolutely strange

RSA probably means Royal Sun Alliance, an insurance company.

It might be a car that was stolen/recovered or damaged and repaired.

Either way, I would be suspicious.

Is it being sold by RSA?

Kintarō Hattori · 11-05-2013 7:46pm

Has anyone ever heard of JOC Car Sales? I wouldn't mind popping along to have a look at the below. It looks like it may be missing the petrol cap and it might be a little rough cosmetically but that could be just bad photos:

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/5000692

Kintarō Hattori · 13-05-2013 1:14pm

Looks like the car above is gone. Expanding the options a little, is there anything to pay attention to when viewing the below? Are they a good option, bullet proof?

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4984851

faral · 14-05-2013 1:13am

Esel wrote: »

Is it being sold by RSA?

RSA figures as owner, guy said that he works in RSA and he "re-bought" the car but he didnt like to change ownership as it was purely for trade.Anyway he is still advertisig this car and even lower the price but I dont take any risk.

faral · 14-05-2013 1:18am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Looks like the car above is gone. Expanding the options a little, is there anything to pay attention to when viewing the below? Are they a good option, bullet proof?

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4984851

mazda 3 has a very good opinion,only few things you need to consider-first engine-personaly I woudnt go for 1.4 but 1.6,its more vivid and consupmion is almost at the same level
second check out for signs of rust which are quite common in mazdas 2003-2007
other tan that it should be ok

Kintarō Hattori · 15-05-2013 1:37pm

Chaps,

Murphy Chambers out in Dundrum, are they a respectable dealer? I've looked online and can't see anything negative about them.

Exile on Grafton St. · 15-05-2013 11:38pm

Hi Folks,

I'm in the middle of an arguement with my other half regarding buying a new car.

A friend has a 2001 Mondeo that is hardly driven (31,000). It's being offered for €350. The clutch is slipping and it will need an NCT in June.

My wife's concerns are that we have a Suzuki Liana and a Mazda3, both reliable (2005). I want to trade up to something bigger because we have a second baby on the way and boot space in particular, will be tight.

She feels we don't need anything bigger, even though we'll now need a twin buggy. Also, she suspects that although it has very little mileage, the clutch slipping is a sign that the age of the car will tell against it and we'll have a load more of repairs down the road. There's also the added cost of yearly NCTs and extra tax (its a 1.8 litre).

Any advice would warmly welcomed.

evolutionqy7 · 15-05-2013 11:46pm

Exile on Grafton St. wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I'm in the middle of an arguement with my other half regarding buying a new car.

A friend has a 2001 Mondeo that is hardly driven (31,000). It's being offered for €350. The clutch is slipping and it will need an NCT in June.

My wife's concerns are that we have a Suzuki Liana and a Mazda3, both reliable (2005). I want to trade up to something bigger because we have a second baby on the way and boot space in particular, will be tight.

She feels we don't need anything bigger, even though we'll now need a twin buggy. Also, she suspects that although it has very little mileage, the clutch slipping is a sign that the age of the car will tell against it and we'll have a load more of repairs down the road. There's also the added cost of yearly NCTs and extra tax (its a 1.8 litre).

Any advice would warmly welcomed.

Their good for boot space and comfort.

I had a 1.8 Zetec Petrol and ask anyone their thirsty machines + tax is deer. Only reason we got it in the start cause of big boot and comfort. Gone back to a hatchback now.

Id say the clutch slipping could be more to do with a bad driver, look around to see how worn are the seats and steering wheel and driving position, those should be nearly new with that little mileage. Could be just a clocked back car, generally don't see cars with a clutch slipping around that mileage. Just to be safe id bring the car to a garage and get a proper mechanic to check the car out for you.

paulmcgrath · 16-05-2013 10:06am

Is there any good posts in this thread or any other threads with any advice on hire purchase schemes.

If they are worth while, experiences, deals, new or used etc

Im pretty new to this part of town.

L-M · 17-05-2013 12:09pm

You can start a new thread in motors on it!

jfh · 17-05-2013 12:19pm

lads, would ye give your opinion on this;
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4962953

i've always driven old yokes but want something with a bit of panache, like the look of the accords, seems pricewise not too bad?
many thanks
john

faughs · 27-05-2013 10:23pm

Hey all.

Looking a little advice. I am currently on the look out for a new car. I have roughly 7000eur to spend. I am preferably looking for a diesel hatchback do you have any suggestions or should I post this somewhere else? Thanks for your help.

Bits_n_Bobs · 31-05-2013 10:48am

Can someone give me the pro's and con's of paying for a car by electronic transfer? The guy I am thinking of buying it from has poor English but from my conversation with him I think he was saying that he preferred this as a method of payment. I'm thinking with a draft I can give it to him and watch him sign the log-book in person, which obviously won't happen with an electronic transfer - is there some sort of recommended process for this?

Sam Russell · 31-05-2013 11:16am

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

Can someone give me the pro's and con's of paying for a car by electronic transfer? The guy I am thinking of buying it from has poor English but from my conversation with him I think he was saying that he preferred this as a method of payment. I'm thinking with a draft I can give it to him and watch him sign the log-book in person, which obviously won't happen with an electronic transfer - is there some sort of recommended process for this?

Don't. You lose control of the money.

Buying a used car in Ireland guide

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