Renault clio Advice needed

[ToxicBunny]

Of course I don't have a girlchild.. i have no child

But even so, I've seen quite a few decent cars in the 35k - 50k range on Autotrader....

 

[furnic]

Of course I don't have a girlchild.. i have no child

But even so, I've seen quite a few decent cars in the 35k - 50k range on Autotrader....

You have? I was very disappointed with the auto trader - I have the one finishing week 25/6 and most cars appear to be retail, which is silly as who pays retail on a second hand car?

There are some nice deals on the AA Auto trader site and occasionally on gumtree but that site is full of sharks.

PS I am still chuckling about your non cool factor, I am so tempted to buy her some old Nissan just to see the look on her face, except I'm to scared from the DADDDY how could you sob part....

 

[ToxicBunny]

Paying retail on a second hand car does have its benefits..... if its from a large enough dealer.. you do have recourse if the car is a complete lemon.

Organise to borrow a friends really clapped out all nissan or something just for the laugh... I think it would be well worth it, and make the surprise of her getting a better car that much nicer.

 

[BigBear]

I think what he meant was most of the cars where, retai-eg dealerships not private sellers. Which is very tru, there are only a handfull of cars in the autotrader that are private sales.

 

[sand_man]

so the car I saw was in fairly good condition, it is a 2003 so ok its 5 years old but has 70,000k on the clock, which looks average, but it has had one owner and generally it looked well looked after, not really much nicks etc.

Does the vehicle have a full service history? Last service would have been done at 60 000km yes and the next would be at 75 000km, that's if the service interval of 15 000km applies.

It has a worn cv joint- is that bad?

Find out from your local dealership what that would cost to repair and take the cost off the price you prepared to offer. Include the hand brake issue in that too...

The owner also said they had to have the onboard comp reset as some stage but everything was fine.

That gets done at the servicing so make sure the service book specifies a 60 000km service with a dealer stamp to authenticate. You can also phone the dealership where the car has been serviced and ask them if they did any extraordinary work on the car in the past or at the last service. They normally have detailed breakdown of all work done on vehicles serviced at their dealership.

the dude wants R55,000 which sounds ok - it is slightly less than dealer price as I have looked at various dealers but I think a bit up on trade

Trade as quoted in that little booklet of theirs that comes out every so often is only a guideline. With the markets as depressed as they are now he won't get close to trade from a dealer and especially not if he is not trading the vehicle in on a new one so if trade on this car is 43k according to the book a dealer might offer him 25-30k if he's lucky!!!! That's how bad things are and inparticular with Renault depreciation. I would offer him trade....Maybe 43k and pay cash if you've got it or alternatively if you finance it get a plan where you finance the full purchase price of the vehicle but you deposit the 43k cash into an account linked to the Hire Purchase agreement whereby you affectively have an interest free loan. The bank offsets the interest on the financied vehicle with the cash in the account, same principle as an access bond. If you need the money is available but once you use it you start paying interest. Nedbank call it their Nedcredit plan...

Once again I reiterate shop around, don't be in a hurry, be patient and shop around, aaautobay.co.za and autotrader.co.za are your best bets... With aaautobay you can avoid the dealer network, deal with mostly private sellers who are very prepared to negotiate on price and the vehicle will have been inspected by the aa themselves.

Also SA Warranties offer very decent warranties which cover major mechanical failure at a reasonable price so look into that as well...

 

[Turiko]

I would suggest avoiding the french cars like the plague..

They can cost a FORTUNE to repair if something goes wrong.

I second that. And they are not the most reliable either.

You can also phone the dealership where the car has been serviced and ask them if they did any extraordinary work on the car in the past or at the last service. They normally have detailed breakdown of all work done on vehicles serviced at their dealership.

I picked up a 2003 Opel Corsa GSi last year from Kilokor Motors in Newlands. Happened to drive past there and saw the car and turned around and went to have a look. I did all my usual checks and I liked what I saw. Did test drive- was very happy. So I bought the car and took it to my mechanic. Verdict: Car was really well looked after, nothing wrong. I've been going down to Durbs with it... happy happy. Third time lucky. My first two cars (my second one was from a DEALER!!! with full service history- It was a demo model) were both lemons! The first Mazda they stole, so I was thankful for that because the entire engine was finished. The second one, I got stuck on the highway at 60000km directly after a service and the thing was very heavy on juice from day dot. 230km to the tank We could no longer afford it!

 

[sand_man]

230km to the tank

You sure it wasn't a tank??!!! What size was the tank? 50litre? 55litre? That's like 4km per litre, wow, horrendous. When the car got stolen you could have gone looking for it, you probably would have found it just down the road, abandoned and out of juice

 

[BigBear]

The trade value given in the M&G book, is more for use in trade situations eg trading a vehicle in @ a dealership.

Retail value is what it should sell for on the used car market in general and what private sellers should actually base they're price on, but people seem to have gotten used to just asking enough to better the deal offered by the dealership or to cover the outsatnding finance.
Dealers also have no regard for the book value and wil take any amount off and don't think they will actually check the tables @ the back to adjust the price for low and high km's.

They offer you the least, they possible can and sell them @ retail prices to make @least 10000+ profit per car, if you ask some guys @ dealerships that you have a good relationship with they will tell you how much they want to make of the car-profit fuelled business.

 

[bboy]

renault=no service, no parts, lots of headaches