Buying private vs trade

[Kryptek49]

Hi, 

I'm looking at buying a HR 350z in the next couple of months. Most of the cars on autotrader are sold by companies instead of private sellers.

From my research on the forum regarding buying a 350z, I should be looking at how well the previous owner looked after the car instead of just picking the lowest mileage I can afford.

 

Would you suggest not buying a Z from a trade seller as I won't be able to get any real background on the car, or if the car has decent service history would it be fairly safe to do so?

 

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

[Ekona]

Always buy on condition and not on mileage, so you're already on the ball there as far as I'm concerned. Ultimately you're just going to have to do as much due diligence as you can and go with the evidence in front of you, as even if a private seller says that they never rag the car from cold who's to say they're telling the truth? At least you have comeback when you buy from a trader, whereas it's much harder to prove what a private seller said unless you ask them to write it down.

 

Traders also bluff, so I wouldn't say one source is more reliable than the other. Look at the car, look at the history and look at the seller (both private and trade), and make your own call. Unfortunately there's no right or wrong answer here, plenty of people have been caught out by both sources. Do your research, go with your gut.

 

 

But don't buy from Junction 17. Ever.

[davey_83]

Also a car form the owners club in most case will have a documented build thread and will be a known car which will have seen at meets/shows multiple times a year. MOT history online is also a decent gauge of how a vehicle is looked after. IE failing on stuff like brake and tyre wear, is a clear indication that the owner doesn't hardly look round the vehicle and keep up on maintenance.

[coldel]

Are you buying the car to play around with for 6 months or you looking for a keeper? Clearly if you want to sell on quickly try and aim for sales points and mileage comes in to that equation (UK buyers are a fickle bunch) but most importantly aim for condition, check all the basic things like clutch changes, common fails being fixed etc. as many can be big numbers to fix. If you do find a few cars post them up and ask as even if they are sat on a dealers forecourt it could have been a member that chopped it in there so you can get some background on it. Also get some beer tokens in and always ask for support from the forum, some one local might come along and take a look at one with you.

[Kryptek49]

18 minutes ago, coldel said:

Are you buying the car to play around with for 6 months or you looking for a keeper?

A keeper - at least for the next 3 years, the Z seems to have everything I'm after so no need to upgrade. Thanks for the advice I'll definitely take this into account. I've been researching common faults like gallery gaskets etc so I think I'm fairly clued up on what to ask for, but when it comes to it I'll definitely ask on here to see if someone doesn't mind coming to take a look with me.

 

48 minutes ago, davey_83 said:

Also a car form the owners club in most case will have a documented build thread and will be a known car which will have seen at meets/shows multiple times a year. MOT history online is also a decent gauge of how a vehicle is looked after. IE failing on stuff like brake and tyre wear, is a clear indication that the owner doesn't hardly look round the vehicle and keep up on maintenance.

Unfortunately the Zeds for sale forum seems to be fairly quiet, it would definitely be my first choice but the chances of the right model/colour/condition/mileage coming up seem to be fairly low compared to somwhere like AutoTrader which has 100+ Zeds for sale

59 minutes ago, Ekona said:

But don't buy from Junction 17. Ever.

Thanks for the advice - I take it you've had a bad experience there then?

I hadn't actually considered that buying a car from a dealer would come with a bit more peace of mind as if you have any issues you can go back to them with it. 

[coldel]

Junction 17 are terrible, a littered history of bad experiences with them across so many forums. If you buy the car and its fine then no problem, but if you take one back then the problems start they do not fulfill their commitments - google it and I am sure you will turn up enough horror stories!