Just seen an ad where someone is singing the praises of the above firm for buying their car and saving the seller 'precious time' not having to haggle but probably getting a 'few' more quid if sold privately. So has anyone used this company and compared it to the deal they might have got selling privately? Not selling a car or anything but I suspect selling the car privately would gain more than the 'few' quid this and similar ads allude to.
Massive rip off - I got a valuation of £982 for my old car (Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi). Stuck it on Autotrader and got £1700 after 1 day - cost me £30 in fees and the time to type an advert and take a few photos.
Come on man you really had to ask? When there is some woman saying that she sold her car with no fuss and got less money (hence they are trying to butter it up) then you know it's a skank. For LOLs when my wife and I got together I ran our number plate through it. They quoted about £2500 less than it was worth (they were offering 5g, it was worth about 7.5 back then). They just prey on people's laziness really.
I actually had a very good experience with them. I had an old clio with all 5 tyres knackered, the electrics were shot, the clutch was knackered, the gearbox was screwed, the radio had been stolen from it etc etc... if anything could go wrong with it, it had it. I asked a few local places and they were offering 300-500 for it... I got £1500 from we buy any car, the only down side was that I had to take it 30 miles away and even though it had some tax and insurance left, it wasn't road legal for the reasons stated above, so I got a friend to tow me the whole way, then just drove it onto the carpark where the representative was so he could see that it actually ran lol
And even then it would appear that the amount you are quoted is very rarely the amount they actually give you... http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...aler-s-price-guarantees-deserve-scrapped.html
The reaso nfor asking was for personal experiences rather than just knowing that there was likely be more of a difference in the so called 'few' pounds difference in offers.
Of course. I could just envisage the bloke turning up at my house, going "nahhh, corr nahhh mate" and then offering me far less whilst kicking the tyres and pretty much slagging off the entire car. It's a patter dude. They tell you that hoping that you will just sell them your car without even checking what it's actually worth. Because if you did you would realise, it's a skank lol.
Wife got rid of her Fiesta through them - quoted £1000 and some change online - she walked away with £742. We walked away smirking as it had a fault with the ECU and would intermittently cut out at inopportune times and had been quoted £500 for a 2nd hand one that would then need to be coded to the car and no guarantee of working completely. They do say "we buy ANY car"
They'd have bought my golf for £100 when it was running - six months later when it wasn't I got £150 for scrap from a local guy who strips and sells bits...
Conversely, they offered £3500 more than I paid for a car a day after I bought it (wasn't looking to sell it, just curious)
We had a 54 reg Fiat Panda with automated manual gearbox which would jump out of gear and say "gear not available" every so often. Quite dangerous when loosing power on the road and require engine restart. I purchased a ODE reader and found the automated clutch actuator pressure drops too quickly. Local garage said it'd probably cost over thousand to fix, not worth it. That website gave us £250, a few old car dealers around £150, a few wouldn't even touch the car when they saw it's automated manual. We finally found the highest one who would give us £400. Next day it's listed on their website for £2000! I just checked, the car has recently passed MOT, meaning some poor soul has bought it. My takeaway from that experience is, value of a car seems arbitrary. Websites like that probably just gives an average amount based on auction price and dealer purchase price. Selling privately should always be your first port of call for a trouble free car.
Actually, in my experience that's what any professional used car buyer does. If you KNOW the worth of your car and stick to your lowest acceptable level, they'll give in eventually. The cheaper the car, the bigger the show. Oh the drama queens i've seen, I've come to regard it as a show The important thing is making sure you know what your car is worth, and accept a realistic offer (these guys need to live too)
Yup their mindset is mugging people off, basically. I have no patience for it really. I would rather clean and valet the car myself and sell it myself.
... which brings us nicely back to the point of the advert; they offer a service for those that don't want to do that.
