Buying a used car

Hey! my name is Martin and welcome to my website. I am a mechanic for a leading Volkswagen dealership and want to use this as a forum to share some of my musings concerning the car industry in Ireland. While most of my experience is related to Volkswagen cars, I am hoping to give this site a broader appeal by discussing used cars in general and thought I would kick things off discussing the process of buying a used car initially. As I am sure you are aware this is fraught with dangers for both buyers and sellers but of course the ultimate reward is something between 20%-30% extra in your back pocket if you come through it ok!

The internet is a great place to start your research. One of my favourite car sites is www.carsireland.ie it’s easy to use and I have bought and sold a couple of cars off it to date.

Negotiations (buyers perspective)

Ok so you like the spec, pics and the price is good what next? Well above all else remember you have the power. It can take 2/3 months to sell a used car so never feel under pressure to buy. Consider the sellers perspective, selling a car privately can be a real pain.

Private sellers are usually selling for one of the following reasons.

They are moving abroad (may already have the plane ticket)
They have been given a company car
They want to trade up but the dealer has offered a lousy trade-in offer.

In every case they have a devaluing asset on their hands (less so of course if it’s a VWJ)

Phone calls, Missed Appointments, Viewings

Sellers can expect lots of dumb calls e.g. Classifieds companies contacting them to try and ad in their magazine
Missed appointments are a real pain too, half of my appointments never bother turn up. Sometimes I phone them and usually they have either forgotten, bought an other car or can’t find my house, some just hang-up!
Even when the potential purchaser does show up it usually means skipping the gym, coming home early from work or missing out on a few well-deserved pints on a Thursday night.
On average I have to get at least four viewings for a sale.

Ok so hopefully I have made the point sufficiently, the buyer controls the sale and in most instances can expect to get 20% off the asking price after all a desperate seller is more concerned about when he gets the sale than the actually amount of money.