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Thread: Advice for buying a vehicle off Trade Me

  1. #1
    Manks's Avatar
    Manks is offline Serial procrastinator and general busybody
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    Default Advice for buying a vehicle off Trade Me

    OK, so we have decided not to buy a car right now as we are living in an apartment in central Welly and have no parking. However hubby is trying to find a job and is most likely going to end up doing shift work and not working centrally, so he's after a form of transport. Most likely a bike (of the motor variety) to get around.

    Is there any advice people can give for buying a vehicle off Trade Me? I'm just the world's biggest fretter and worry about being ripped off.

    Was also surprised at how much bikes hold their value over here. A dealer was telling us as much. But I guess we've got to live with the market.

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    I have bought 4 vehicles off Trade Me, and have been lucky with all 4. I bought 2 of them unseen, which is risky, but read the sellers feedback to judge their character. There are some bargains to be had, but some prices are also very high. For me it was a case of watching sales of the type/model I wanted for a number of months to get a very good idea of what was selling and at what price.

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    I've bought one off TradeMe, and it was a pleasant trade all round. Had to travel a bit to view it, and had viewed a few others previously also advertised on TradeMe before making a decision.

    But, since you are in Wellington, why not give www.buyacaronline.co.nz a try? Their website links you to their TradeMe listings. They are Wellington based, and now have a car yard where you can view vehicles in Lower Hutt road, although you could always view stock in Gough Road, Seaview. Andrew's prices are genuinely good, he has very good feedback on TradeMe, and he has genuine passion for cars. He often has some unusual stock too, as well as traditional Japanese cars.

    Good luck.

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    Generally speaking, my Trade Me vehicle buying and selling experience has been good. That said, caveat emptor.

    My usual procedure for buying a used vehicle on Trade Me is as follows.

    First I'll look at the vehicle in person and take it out for a quick test drive. If I like it, I make a note of the registration plate and go back home to run it past a site such as www.carjam.co.nz to see if anything might be suspicious, to check whether it was reported stolen, and also buying the report that details security interests in that vehicle.

    If everything appears to be fine, I'll ring up the seller and ask if he's open for a pre-purchase inspection by an independent garage of my choice (paid for by me). The inspection should reveal the health of the vehicle beyond what a standard Warrant of Fitness check would cover and would cost around $100-$150. However there is no fixed standard or practice for a pre-purchase inspection check so it's best to go to a trusted garage for this.

    If the vehicle has been registered against a loan (as it was with one of my motorbikes), I would ask the seller to call up his finance company and authorised me access to details of his loan, so that I can then ring up the company to find out how much the loan would cost to fully repay immediately. I then pay the seller the balance of the amount for the vehicle.

    If you purchase a vehicle that's secured against a loan, and the seller did not service the loan for any reason, your vehicle can be repossessed by the finance company. For that reason I will always deal directly with the finance company and pay the seller the remainder, and I make this known to the seller the moment I find out that the vehicle has security interests on it.

    And as for motorbikes holding their value - it's generally true for bikes with an engine size 250cc and below because bike riders holding their Learner's and Restricted licenses are limited to bikes of that engine size. That's due to change in 2012 if I recall correctly. Whether or not small-engined bikes will still hold their value at that time is anyone's guess (and I'm guessing, probably not...).

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    Fair go (or maybe a different show--but one of these consumer watch type shows) has had an ongoing segment about buying cars on Trade Me.

    Apparently, cars sold on trade me do not have protection under the Consumers Guarantee Act. They have had debates between Trade Me rep and an Auto Dealership Union type rep over several weeks.

    I am sorry but I don't remember the specifics but apparently, there are some issues of protection that are available if you buy a car in any way EXCEPT on Trade Me. There is talk of trying to bring it all in line.

    Hopefully, someone who knows more will come along and correct me or add details! I didn't know I was going to need that info or I would have paid more attention!
    Personally, I just made a mental note to not buy a car through Trade Me!!

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by GrumpyGoat View Post
    ...
    Apparently, cars sold on trade me do not have protection under the Consumers Guarantee Act. They have had debates between Trade Me rep and an Auto Dealership Union type rep over several weeks.
    ...
    The issue of TradeMe is a bit confusing regarding the CGA.

    If you use "Buy Now" option then you are covered (assuming you are buying from a dealer) but if you buy by participating in the auction then you are not (auctions are not covered by CGA).

    Ian

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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW99 View Post
    If you use "Buy Now" option then you are covered (assuming you are buying from a dealer) but if you buy by participating in the auction then you are not (auctions are not covered by CGA).
    And yet, some dealers will say that because it's listed on and purchased through Trade Me, it's not covered. All a bit confusing!

    If it's a dealer who has listed the vehicle on Trade Me, I wouldn't buy it through Trade Me but view and buy it through the dealer's physical store and pretend I never saw it on Trade Me.

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    We are in the process of buying a car at the moment and did as KelvinAng suggested - watched lots on trademe, so we had a good idea of how much each Yr / km combination were selling for then went to Dealers yards and bargained hard. You can bargain hard if you are prepared to walk away, which we always have been.

    once the deal was agreed, we then got an inspection done by "Car Inspection Services", the AA do one as well, but with this one you go whilst it is being done and chat to the man, he made lots of recommendations, most of which the garage agreed to do. We have since called him up for more advice on one bit and he was really helpful - they are a national company, it cost $140 and was really worth while......

    Just waiting for the final bits to be done before I handover the monies and then we say goodbye to Nissan Wingroad (which isn't great for a family of 5). Good luck

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    buyacaronline are a vehicle wholesaler in that they buy the trade ins thats main dealers dont want. if buying from trademe, do an AA inspection and a VIR check. BTW, I work for a large car dealership.. well until the end of today anyway lol

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    Quote Originally Posted by victoria24 View Post
    buyacaronline are a vehicle wholesaler in that they buy the trade ins thats main dealers dont want.
    You will know more than I as you are in the industry, but I thought the way you phrased the above might sound to some like the cars they have in stock are somehow defective, if main dealers didn't want them. But I understand that dealers often on-sell vehicles which might not fit the profile or brand of their company, or are higher mileage than they are comfortable providing long guarantees on (or don't want to risk taking returns on). This doesn't imply that the vehicles are not fit for resale.

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