Is the used car trade deserving of its bad image ?

goochy

plenty of used car dealers in the naas road area tend to get bad reports but do plp think while there are plenty of bad used dealers there are also plenty of good ? it seems a lot of the more modest used dealers sell cars for prices similar to private sale prices advertised and cars come with new nct , a small warranty and the option to trade in .

when it comes to used dealers I tend to not rely on their warranties much or what they claim about car but make sure I do history check and get mechanic to check it.

there does seem to be plenty of back street dealers selling fairly recent / fairly valuable vehicles often imported from uk , I would be wary of buying a high value vehicle from many of these places but there more affordable stuff tends to be make sense.

punisher5112

A lot have very shady pasts and were known for hair cuts(Clocking) and other money saving methods and the usual fully servided for you but never touched etc etc.

They may not all be bad but those areas have plenty of them and also like changing names a lot.

Bpmull

My first car I bought of a dealer on the naas road about 2.5 year ago and they were sound done me a great deal got the logbook within a week and the car was in no way dodgy even mechanics after had said it was very straight. Fsh and one owner too looking back id be up a fortune if I had just kept it I actually made 900 quid on it when I sold it on almost a year later sure there is some dodgy dealers on the naas road and there is ones trying to keep there operating cost down and sell reasonably good cars for good prices.

Atlantic Dawn

Last 3 cars I have bought from low end of the market dealers, all turned out ok but I did my homework when purchasing each of them. If you didn't know the background checks to do and a basic understanding of what to look for during a test drive and visual inspection you could be easily ripped off, for every 1 good car I looked at there was atleast 3 that were complete lemons despite being in or around the same year as each other.

I can see from the point of view of some used car dealers where your talking about sub €1000 cars they simply can't invest much time or money in warranty's or getting NCT's when the margins are so tight.

Henry Ford III

It varies but the bad ones are terrible.

keithclancy

Only one person will praise a good customer experience for every 10 people that complain about a poor one.

The problem with the used car market is that the prices cars can be purchased for varies wildly.

I guess its a case of some guy that knows nothing about cars can also get pissed off that his neighbor across the road got the same car for 20% less by knowing his stuff and buying privately or getting a better spec by importing it.

Or the Bangernomics cars that people get and end up doing 200000 km trouble free while someone that buys a 1 year old VW has endless problems with it.

IMO The majority of people want to run a decent business in the long term and have repeat customers, but its not any different in Ireland in my experience to other countries. The market is smaller but thats about it.

FrontDoor

I find them very expensive to be honest.

A UK main dealer purchased car that costs 10k to import might cost 13k on a gravel forecourt around the back of a house here.

I have imported a few cars and know of lots of guys who did the same. On a 20k car, you could be looking at 4-5k of a saving in some cases.

keithclancy

FrontDoor wrote: »

I find them very expensive to be honest.

A UK main dealer purchased car that costs 10k to import might cost 13k on a gravel forecourt around the back of a house here.

I have imported a few cars and know of lots of guys who did the same. On a 20k car, you could be looking at 4-5k of a saving in some cases.

You'll always find things that are more expensive or cheaper in your neighboring country.

Looking at the cost of stuff over the border makes no sense and only serves to piss people off :pac:

FrontDoor

keithclancy wrote: »

You'll always find things that are more expensive or cheaper in your neighboring country.

Looking at the cost of stuff over the border makes no sense and only serves to piss people off :pac:

That attitude has us living on an island where 75% of the people pay 25% more than the remainder for goods and services.

Jesus.

FrontDoor wrote: »

I find them very expensive to be honest. A UK main dealer purchased car that costs 10k to import might cost 13k on a gravel forecourt around the back of a house here. I have imported a few cars and know of lots of guys who did the same. On a 20k car, you could be looking at 4-5k of a saving in some cases.

That goes against everything everyone has been telling me on here for the last year. They've all said that because of our crazy motor tax system, 2nd hand cars are cheaper here than in practically any other Country - incl the UK - and what you lose in tax, you save on the initial outlay for the car.

Someone's telling Porkies...

FrontDoor

Jesus. wrote: »

That goes against everything everyone has been telling me on here for the last year. They've all said that because of our crazy motor tax system, 2nd hand cars are cheaper here than in practically any other Country - incl the UK - and what you lose in tax, you save on the initial outlay for the car.

Someone's telling Porkies...

What car are you interested in?

If it is a large petrol, then that statement may be valid. Otherwise, unlikely.

Jesus.

Would a small engined petrol or a diesel generally be more expensive here than in the UK?

FrontDoor

Jesus. wrote: »

Would a small engined petrol or a diesel generally be more expensive here than in the UK?

In my experience, yes. In some cases, considerably so.

keithclancy

FrontDoor wrote: »

That attitude has us living on an island where 75% of the people pay 25% more than the remainder for goods and services.

Your free to import goods from anywhere in the EU, but complaining that it should be the same price as another country makes zero sense.

Totally different market.

By the way, i'm not living on the Island.

Atlantic Dawn

keithclancy wrote: »

Your free to import goods from anywhere in the EU, but complaining that it should be the same price as another country makes zero sense.

Totally different market.

By the way, i'm not living on the Island.

Goods yes, cars no.

keithclancy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Goods yes, cars no.

You can't import a car from another country then .. why not ?

Atlantic Dawn

keithclancy wrote: »

You can't import a car from another country then .. why not ?

VRT

keithclancy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

VRT

The VRT is just a cost in the country you are in, so you just pay it if you want to import a car, it's not stopping you from doing anything.

Zoney

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Last 3 cars I have bought from low end of the market dealers, all turned out ok but I did my homework when purchasing each of them. If you didn't know the background checks to do and a basic understanding of what to look for during a test drive and visual inspection you could be easily ripped off, for every 1 good car I looked at there was atleast 3 that were complete lemons despite being in or around the same year as each other.

I can see from the point of view of some used car dealers where your talking about sub €1000 cars they simply can't invest much time or money in warranty's or getting NCT's when the margins are so tight.

The issue in many cases is not so much the dealers, but that so many cars in Ireland aren't looked after in the first place. Far too many ordinary folk (more so I'd imagine than dealers) just trying to pass on worn out cars to someone else.

Tails142

The problem with the small car traders is that they probably get the cars at auctions or from trade-ins that main dealers just want to shift on so in a lot of cases they have absolutely no knowledge about the cars history when they are selling it to you.

They take a car in and then give it a polish and clean, jet the engine bay, fix up any missing trim etc and basically make a car that might have looked as though it had been dragged around and never cared for look nice and tidy. So then you, the unsuspecting buyer comes along and thinks oh here's a nice tidy car, previous owner must have looked after it.

FrontDoor

Tails142 wrote: »

The problem with the small car traders is that they probably get the cars at auctions or from trade-ins that main dealers just want to shift on so in a lot of cases they have absolutely no knowledge about the cars history when they are selling it to you.

They take a car in and then give it a polish and clean, jet the engine bay, fix up any missing trim etc and basically make a car that might have looked as though it had been dragged around and never cared for look nice and tidy. So then you, the unsuspecting buyer comes along and thinks oh here's a nice tidy car, previous owner must have looked after it.

Nail on the head.