Take a step back, and think of a 2nd hand dealer quickly.
If he is stocking fine vehicles, he has probably between 1 and 3 million bucks of stock on his floor, and he needs some kind of safe guard.
Each dealer has got contacts, and funny enough, if you look at a dealers floor, you can see what kind of stock he keeps, you get some dealers that know Merc very well, 60% of his floor is filled with Mercs, and the rest are others, this dealer will buy Mercs...
So, if your a dealer, you phone your buddy that buys Merc, and say I have a 06 Merc C 220 CDI with 100,000 on the clock, and it needs 20k in recon (tires worn, lights cracked and so forth). The Merc dealer will give him wht is called a cover price, "I will buy this car from you for 140k", so now the 2nd hand dealer has got some sort of insurance, if he cannot sell it, he has 140k for the car. This probably was a telephone call, the merc dealer has never seen the car, he is going purely by numbers. so the second hand dealer will probably offer you 130 or even 140k for the car, cause he has insurance on it.
This entire transaction went around age and KM's. but that is exactly how it goes down, 20k for Sat nav additionally for SAT nav means nothing, cause at the end of the day, the dealer might have 3 220 CDI's to move, in a hurry, hence the extra's get excluded. the guy will put the car on the floor for the lowest value possible, because he has to sit with it for 6 months perhaps.
Think of it this way, take the 140k cash that the dealer has to pay for this car, if it sits for 6 months, he is loosing interest off of that money, he is loosing future revenues, he could have bought 2 toyota yaris's for that cash and have sold them already, hence the more the car cost, the more risk the dealer takes.
As for private sales, there is so much fraud going around, that this is a really risky business. I have heard stories where guys come to your house to pay you 100k cash for a car, and they do so. 15 minutes later 5 guys burst into your house with guns, and rob you, cause they know you have 100k cash on the property.
Further, there is stolen vehciles, damaged vehicles, code 3 vehicles (written off) all of those wonderful things, if you buy for an accredited dealer you avoid such risks.
Here are some tips for buying privately.
1. You can finance a private vehicle, using AA or Wesbank Private 2 Private finance, use this service.
2. You never do a deal at your house
3. You never deal in cash, tell the gentleman you will pay him in bank garenteed cheque, and you will meet him at his bank to deposit the csh with him.
4. If somebody is buying the car from you, same story, no cash, no bank transfers, bank cheque, and he meets you at your branch with the bank cheque to deposit the cash in.
5. Most dealers will faciliate a private transaction for you on their floor for a small fee, say 3k, they will buy the car, put it through their books, and do the deal, with a profit of 3k for them.
6. If you buy from a bank or through a dealer, you know that the vehicle will be checked against the Natis database, and any "stolen" or code 3 declarations will be picked up.
7. Try and get as many documents in place containing the sellers ID or company CC number, insurance record, old license renewal papers, stuff like that.
8. Try and get a fixed location for the seller, house, work ect, if he does not want to meet you at one of his fixed locations, and say only at a shopping center, or at your place, suspect funnies.
This is how I buy cars, as I change my family car once every 2 years.
1. I have buddies in the trade, that I know by name, I can buy a car from Colin, and Colin knows exactly how I like my cars, clean, neat, and what I am willing to pay for them, and I have a deal with Colin that if I buy a car from you, I can trade it 2 years later having put 40k on the clock, and you are going to give me x for the car.
2. I have a private dealer who I trade company cars with, Stellios always looks after me and gives me the right money for cars, I know how his mind works, he knows whatab I want, so if the money is right, I can sell a car usually in about 30 minutes, because I respect the fact that he needs to make a profit, but I will not buy from him at a premium price either, I have traded about 10 company cars with Stallios over the last 2 years alone,
Know people, go spend time at your local dealerships, if you like Merc, find the guy that likes selling Merc, sit in his office, get to know him, "shoot the shit a bit", its worth it.
