Private or Dealership

[Badboy4life]

Just wanted some advise. If you guys were to buy a second hand car which of the two options would make better sense

1) Private (e.g Gumtree, Olx, etc)
You can get really decent cars (low mileage) for MUCH less than that of a dealership. If you are interested in purchasing privately you can arrange for the vehicle to be inspected by a reputable garage for peace of mind, thereafter, depending on the findings you can determine whether to buy or not.

2) Dealership
The only positive I can think of is that if there is something wrong with the vehicle (within a month or two after taking delivery of it that is) you can take it back and request that the issues be sorted out. Bear in mind only a few dealerships do this and not make you whistle for months on end. I don't want to name shame but we do a lot of work for BIG NAME dealerships in our area and you wont believe the cr@p goes into their pre-owned/used car sales lot.

What do you guys think?? I also know a lot of people that reported to the consumer protection act, they never get very far and they are sitting with cars that they cannot drive or sell.

 

[wolfman7]

From my experince, don't expect the law to help you. only you can help yourself. Rather be safe than sorry.

if the car is within motorplan and you lucky to find a clean one privately, then the deal can go smoothly, nevertheless the finance process through a bank for private deals can be a headache. Disadvantage here is that if something goes wrong, you chasing some dodge guy trying to get him to be a stand up guy, basically you'll be screwed.

Dealerships are none the better, but a name brand dealership has brand reputation and at least you know where they are just in case you need to break some windows and what not.

advantage here is the deal gets concluded very quickly.

I would say in each situation, you have to get someone to check the car out, if you not very clued up on this stuff.

 

[///Moose]

Personally majority of my purchases have been privately but you also need to do the necessary checks.
I dont trust dealers especially in the lower price ranged cars.
If you getting a newer model with plan etc then the dealers are fine for peace of mind.

 

[wolfman7]

personally i hate dealerships, they operate in a blatant daylight robbery style.

you buy a vehicle from them today, ask them for a trade in tomorrow and that value will be 50-75% of what you paid for it.

 

[Nastaliq]

Its not which makes better sense for me, its which is riskier.

I have bought a car privately. I had it checked out, some things needed to be fixed which the seller agreed to do. He did what was required and I bought the car after getting my own mechanic to approve repair work.
The risk went like this:
High - repair work needed |
Medium - seller agreed to perform repairs, but medium risk if repairs weren't done to standard |
Low - repair work performed and up to standard - independently verified.

I bought a car from an auction as well, i asked a contact at BMW to check the VIN, no comments, but it was about 12000km since the last service and the Mp was active.
The risk went like this:
Very high - buying on an auction is very chancy, a lot could have gone wrong since the car was last into a BMW dealership. The fact that it starts on the floor, but you cant drive it means there's really no way to properly tell what condition the car is in, even if you take a mechanic with you, all he can do is listen to it idle, but that doesn't indicate that the whole suspension is in shit condition.
Medium - auctioneer stated that if there were huge material issues with the car, they sometimes would honour repairs provided i did my homework and didn't know about the issues before bidding. I had done the checks so I was covered, but there is always that chance that I would have to whistle in the wind to get it sorted.
Low - once i bought the car, I took it for a road worthiness, lots of things got checked - report clean. I then took it to BMW and asked them to transfer the MP to me, which involved the check, but offered R100 to the tech if he could find me an issue, which he couldn't.


I have also bought a car off the showroom floor for an extremely competitive price (many would argue that there's no such thing as a competitive price if its on the showroom floor).
Risk went like this:
Medium - Car was new, with delivery mileage, I asked not for it to be washed, polished or waxed or "valet", which at dealerships means "we don't wash it", we send it away, but that just means that the car is being washed with a hosepipe and chamois offsite, and vacuumed with a nice thick coating of silicon on the tyres.
Low - car was kept as i asked, and taken off the showroom as soon as I signed the OTP. It was inspected for bubbles on tyres, rim damage and new car niggles.


For me, it all has a lot to do with how much inherent risk there is associated with the purchase(regardless of the method - pvt, dealer,auction etc), and how you mitigate that risk through pragmatic measures.

You also have to factor alot more things into the above, like make, model, year, extras, common reported faults, service history, condition, availability in the market, spares, dealership principles, financing, insurance, storage, delivery, collection, payment, scams and a whole other 1000 things.

There have been guys that buy a car on order, and after two months don't want it anymore, where BMW makes them runaround, and has the car more the owner.
Then there's guys who buy a car from a 2nd hand dealer, he knows and trusts or even a pvt sale, the car is loved and looked after, and is the best purchase the guy has ever made, he will never buy from a dealer again.
Then there's also lovely stories where the dealer does what they should be doing, offers a good deal, with a no fuss sale and service that matches. the purchaser thinks he will always buy cars from this dealer.

There are dealership horror and praise stories, we even have a thread on here. then there are those that have pvt horror and praise stories.

With everything in-between as well.

For you, you need to consider all options and decide which one, when all things are considered is least risky for you as an individual.

 

[wolfman7]

true, i have sold 3 vehicles through gumtree, no hassles, but i have found that there are more scammers out on gumtree lately, than 5 years ago.

and 2 out 4 vehicles i bought through a forum. at least there is a higher probability of the owner taking very good care of the vehicle because he is an enthusiast

 

[Badboy4life]

Agreed on all points so far.

I just wanted to see how people's mindsets are these days and what factors play a role when it comes to this decision

 

[Nastaliq]

Bear in mind, the opinions people will present will be heavily biased by the experiences said individuals have had with dealers, pvt sales, auctions, which may not adequately present all the facts when expressed here.
also, as there are no hellopeters - for PVT individuals all you get is the dirt on dealerships, when there are unscrupulous pvt sellers out there.

there are dealers also now advertising on gumtree, purporting to be private sellers (in many cases offloading lemon cars) etc, so these and the thousands of scams out there mean its vital for each and every buyer to independently verify everything a salesman tells you, be it at a dealer, or a pvt seller telling you the cars history and provenance.

If you don't double-check and verify, and you get duped, you are the idiot, remember, the salesman that duped you is getting paid to dupe you, you only lose if you get duped. There's nothing in it for you, if you blindly trust a salesman (even if you know the guy or hes family) and you get screwed.

 

[andre320D]

You left out:

3) From a fellow fanatic.:rollsmile:

 

[Nastaliq]

Remember, not everyone who owns a BMW is a fanatic, and not every person on this forum is a fanatic either.
Most make their first post when their key doesn't work, or they hear that first mystery sound, start a thread, people respond, they don't come back until the next problem.