TheSmiths82
Member
It depends on the market, in general a trader needs to make several £100's if not £1k on a sale to make a profit and cover any warranty claims etc. If it is a 12 year old Corsa with 120,000 miles on the clock then the car is end of life, but the trader still needs that £1k profit, the trader has probably spent close to a £1k on the car including MOT, service and fixing any obvious faults. By that time the car ends up on sale for £1995 and you could have probably bought the same car privately for £1k. If it is a new vehicle then obviously the risk is far greater and I would never buy privately.
After buying a Corsa privately (I think I have destroyed my own argument, but have bought many cars privately for my dad which ended up being good value cars) and it always needing garage trips I decided to just buy new. I have owned two cars since 2010 both bought brand new. My current car is 8.5 years old, never failed the MOT and only ever needs minor wear and tear stuff like brakes, tyres etc. I intend to keep it until random things start to go wrong with increasing frequency. The cambelt is due at 10 years old so I will have a think then if I want to spend £500 on that or trade it in for a new car. Man maths! Of course I would like a new car but I have to be able to justify it.
After buying a Corsa privately (I think I have destroyed my own argument, but have bought many cars privately for my dad which ended up being good value cars) and it always needing garage trips I decided to just buy new. I have owned two cars since 2010 both bought brand new. My current car is 8.5 years old, never failed the MOT and only ever needs minor wear and tear stuff like brakes, tyres etc. I intend to keep it until random things start to go wrong with increasing frequency. The cambelt is due at 10 years old so I will have a think then if I want to spend £500 on that or trade it in for a new car. Man maths! Of course I would like a new car but I have to be able to justify it.
