Buying a motor on the buy and sell

Cyrus

just looking thro the cars on the buy and sell, the prices are far cheaper than CBG.

Begs the question why? and has anyone bought a car in the buy and sell before?

bazz26

Most CBG prices are dealer asking prices which are inflated to allow a bit of bargining by a customer. There is more than likely a big difference between the asking price and selling price.

Most Buy and Sell prices are cash prices (no trade-in) by private sellers, not dealers. Again the price is slightlly inflated to allow a bit of bargining but not on the same scale as dealers. Usually the private seller prices the motor more realistically invorder to sell it quickly.

stuka

bought my current car fron B&S about 18 months ago. no problems with it. just make sure you know where the guy lives.

all second hand cars are subject to the maxim caveat emptor... if you buy a dud it's tough.

Ratchet

buy and sell is good but you have to know bit about the cars or bring somebody that knows. Pick few cars and check on-line forums for known problems and issues,

there always reason why people sell cars and one of them is mechanical problem. Nothing wrong if price reflects needed repairs but you can easily buy a lemon.


so , check you car before purchase

I got all my cars from B&S and there are some bargains out there.

Gurgle

stuka wrote:

all second hand cars are subject to the maxim caveat emptor... if you buy a dud it's tough.

Same applies when you buy a second hand car from a dealer, but it costs more.

I always use the B&S, you'll save about 20% on dealer prices.

That 20% will usually fix anything thats broke / worn out and leave you with change too.

Just make sure you get someone who knows what they're doing to give it a good look over and budget a few hundred for sorting out all the crappy little things.

In my experience, the feckers in a garage are always out to take you for a ride while private sellers just want the car gone from the driveway.

landser

Gurgle wrote:

Same applies when you buy a second hand car from a dealer, QUOTE]

that's why he said "all second hand cars"

Ratchet

Gurgle wrote:

In my experience, the feckers in a garage are always out to take you for a ride while private sellers just want the car gone from the driveway.

true , many people trade cars with mechanical greamlins which are sold on to new buyer.

Cyrus

well if i were to buy one id get an aa guy to check it out first! im looking for an alfa 156 and the price diff between cbg and b&s is staggering, i can get a good one for 6k easily it seems ('00 1.6-1.8l sportivo)

just conscious of getting scammed thats all

Ratchet

if you go for ALFA, i would bring the car to Alfa garage for check up as there there is too many things that AA wouldn't pick up.

Seen you wish list

and if I could I would buy CIVIC styled by ALFA:D

As Jeremy said
if honda made people we would never die

Joeface

do not buy ALFA off the buy and sell..........they have a very sort life cycle approx 60000miles and not much more , if go to a dealer for and ALFA u may be able get like a 6 month warrante or something that may help if there are problems..


I have all my cars through the buy and sell,, current Honda integra was a steal and is perfect

Ratchet

Joeface wrote:

I have all my cars through the buy and sell,, current Honda integra was a steal and is perfect

got my integra from B&S with 48K miles 10 months in the country , guy couldn't afford insurance anymore

puntosporting

Joeface wrote:

do not buy ALFA off the buy and sell..........they have a very sort life cycle approx 60000miles and not much more , if go to a dealer for and ALFA u may be able get like a 6 month warrante or something that may help if there are problems..

Please back up that"short life cycle" comment.

Cyrus

id actually quite like an integra but im an accountant, it wouldnt quite fit going to clients premises etc!

ive heard a lot of alfa horror stories but never from an owner?

Eoin Macollamh

Speaking of the buy and sell:

I haven't been able to load their web page for several days.

It is http://www.buyandsell.ie, isn't it?

Ratchet

Cyrus wrote:

ive heard a lot of alfa horror stories but never from an owner?

you should look at alfa forums or buyand sell from time to time

ads pop ot frequently of people
looking for engines
selling 156 with no engine
selling 156 with new engine just fitted

I was monitoring this as friend was loking for engine for his 156

it's a lovely looking car but....

seen O4 alfa few weeks back with Christmas lights look-alike tail lights , it can happen to any car but i never seen jap car with rear light wiring problem

Seth Brundle

Eoin Macollamh wrote:

Speaking of the buy and sell:

I haven't been able to load their web page for several days.

It is http://www.buyandsell.ie, isn't it?

same here but it worked for me just now.

Joeface

In reponse to puntosporting

i my self love alfas the are just beautiful and test drive a new one ...wonderful
great reponsive engine ..but they just dont last ..it could be the tspark engines, it could be the use of sub standard Fiat suppliers for there parts, but after about 60000miles the electrics start to give trouble , like the windows and stuff and then that spreads to the rest of the electics , all are fixalbe but not worth the hassle if u buying second hand ,
even search the net u will see the same thing all Alfas are good for the first 60000miles after that there just worthless

alias no.9

Joeface wrote:

In reponse to puntosporting

i my self love alfas the are just beautiful and test drive a new one ...wonderful
great reponsive engine ..but they just dont last ..it could be the tspark engines, it could be the use of sub standard Fiat suppliers for there parts, but after about 60000miles the electrics start to give trouble , like the windows and stuff and then that spreads to the rest of the electics , all are fixalbe but not worth the hassle if u buying second hand ,
even search the net u will see the same thing all Alfas are good for the first 60000miles after that there just worthless

The single biggest reason for engine failures in alfa's is negligance.

The t-spark is a high performance engine in a high state of tune. Like most high performance or highly tuned engines, it consumes oil. To own an alfa you need to understand it, it needs care and will reward you for looking after it. It needs to be checked for and topped up with oil regularly, and synthetic oil at that.

The next stage in neglect is failure to change the cam belt, now recommended to be done every 32,000 miles and if neglected, it will kill your engine if it breaks.

Another problem with earlier t-sparks was the cam variator, easily diagnosed by the engine sounding like a diesel, there has been a redesign of the part that has overcome the problem.

As for the electrics, I have yet to meet a 156 owner who has had electrical problems. If you want electrical problems, go talk to mkIV golf owners about their central locking.

Ratchet

negligance - yeah , you may say that

but this extra need of attention is not fully represented by the performance of the car like it was years ago ,when we had old alfas

Alfa's variator was bit of a joke when looking at Honda's VTEC which must be made from Titanium as none of them officially failed not mentioning oil consuption of any jap cars which is minimal comparing to Alfa frying pan.

So why people buy Alfa?

car looks GOOD and most of guys are not aware or not interested in extra maintaince task, oil checks , variator checks specially if you buy new car which will happly survive first 3 years.

yeah ok,some things are normal service checks and should be done frequently but looks like it's more then most people would expect from the car

which should as well build as it looks

lomb

with all this talk of maintainence of typical irish cars i quote this from another thread

I had a clio that I treated like **** (never serviced for over 2 years and 45000 miles) did absolutely no work on and the car drove like the first day I got it. so I think renault should be in the good list.

so somehow i doubt an average alfa here will get 700 euro cam belt changes and synt oil every 6000.

ibanez

The buy and sell is fine for buying cars out of but like the others said if you can bring someone with a knowledge of cars with you to look over it .The savings you can make are huge. Nobody should pay dealer prices for the car they want most dealers dont have a ****ing clue what the real values of cars are.

Dagon

The best piece of advice I've heard recently is that you should just get the car details and ring up the NCT centre, and they will give you a full report on the health of the car, including the mileage (which may have been altered by a few thousand)!

Saves a lot of time and money!

Ratchet

Dagon wrote:

The best piece of advice I've heard recently is that you should just get the car details and ring up the NCT centre, and they will give you a full report on the health of the car, including the mileage (which may have been altered by a few thousand)!

Saves a lot of time and money!

well it's more info OK if you want to check the milage or engine emissions but you have to consider that:

-if anybody does clock the cars, they will do it before first NCT and only some dumb spanner will try to do this after but still possible when looking at mercs,bmw and other hackney prefered cars. even if they trim few miles ,how do you know is right?

e.g. 2000 BMW 520 with 60k registered at first NCT test could really have 90k which was altered, then owner can trim it again after NCT by few miles before selling the car. Unless you cantact previous owner you will have no idea what to expect.



-condition of the car will change during the NCT period specially during 2 years and this will apply to cars with NCT running out
-there would be no point to alter the milege on the car which had numerous nct's done before.

Seth Brundle

ibanez wrote:

Nobody should pay dealer prices for the car they want most dealers dont have a ****ing clue what the real values of cars are.

dealers charge what the market is willing to pay1

trotter_inc

Bought my Mitsubishi Colt from it last year - got a really good deal - I suppose you're taking a chance because you've no warranty, but Id take that chance again - get a mechanic to give it a good once over before you buy and you should be fine.