Be Careful!

[Anonymous]

I purchased a VW Beetle from a seller on this site in May. She appeared to be a very pleasant, mature student in her 30's, but who will remain unnamed.
I looked at the MOT failure certificate but I did not look at the date on it. She told me that the car needed £500 spending on it to get it back on the road and as she was a student, she could not afford to keep the car. I believed her, bought the car and hired a transporter to collect the car. If only I had telephoned the garage where the MOT failure had been done. They would (as they did two weeks later) have told the car needed £5000 spending on it!!! :(
Please anyone buying a car, check it out properly first. Take someone with you who knows what to look out for!
I have worked in the motor trade myself and should have known better. I am a mature student myself with little money so £500 pounds down the drain was a lot of money to me.
Take care and beware of the conmerchants!!

[Anonymous]

I read the story about purchasing of the VW beetle and thought the message posted about the vendor was way out of line and very damaging. Surely,when purchasing any car you would undertake a mechanical survey and seek an opinion from a garage about how much work needs doing-why would take the vendors word for it? Common sense surely, especially on an old car!!I can understand that you've had to shell out more money but thats your fault not the vendors-I'm sure she was honest with you.Your message has put me off selling my car on this website-might end up selling it to someone like you.

[cartech]

There is no sense to take vendor's word for the car condition - they may no even be aware of the problems. If you want to buy a used car, you need to have at least rough idea what to look for. For example check this website - they have checklist with photos what to look for: http://www.samarins.com/check/index.html
Then, you need to make a list of few cars of your interest and check them one by one. This will give you good idea what to look for, because it's so easy to find when you compare one car to others.
Then, finally when you find one you satisfied with, take it to the garage.
Remeber, mechanics at the garage in general tend to find more problems than the car has - they want to sell you some job. Take it to the guy you trust. You will have better chances to find a good car this way...
Good Luck!
Cartech