It’s no surprise to me that women drivers are more apprehensive than men in garages and car dealers. It’s not just that we feel unwelcome in many of them but it’s also because we are so often the butt of the joke, the topless pin-up insulted in the workshop, patronised even when we know what we want and, worst of all perhaps, overcharged or sold things we don’t need and wouldn’t have wanted had we known that, or been given a choice.
What the recession has done is increase the number of motorists actively planning to buy used rather than new cars in the near future, so there is no avoiding the Arthur Daley’s and Swiss Tonis that do exist out there. With almost 50% of used cars bought by female motorists I am always surprised to find that so few get a proper used car check before buying – especially when from a private seller where they have no rights in law otherwise. Recent research carried out for FOXY Lady Drivers Club confirmed that only 20% had got the likes of an HPI check before buying used.
They then join FOXY to help them sort out the problems they inherit… so we mustn’t grumble of course 
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Now we hear that the Government’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to identify the unacceptable number of motorists who complain about used car sales to them (c68,000 cases to Consumer Direct in 2008). This will take the form of a study into this £35bn market to see how its processes fare in terms of robustness, confidence and clarity.
I will be interested to see how this research develops. The industry can certainly be improved but the solution isn’t easy. Think how the recommended service periods have been stretched and stretched for new cars, so that cars get less attention in their early stages but operating costs are reduced and therefore more attractive to fleet buyers. In turn these business cars are then hammered up and down motorways (by and large good for engines…) but with the minimum of maintenance and servicing during the first three years or 60,000m. They are then dumped on the used car market at prices which reflect their future saleability. And if the price is low enough, there’ll always be a market to turn a quick buck and pass it on regardless…
I believe the used car market needs an agreed minimum standard of ‘approved’ used car status where we know that the car comes with a minimum ‘quibble free’ 6 month warranty, ideally a 1 year warranty. There must be a way to do this that takes into account the selling price, auction situations, the (authentic?) mileage and whether the car has been looked after regularly (and that the service history stamps are authentic of course…).
Very few women seem to look at the service record before falling in love with a car and yet who of us can deny that a well maintained car (by a genuinely good garage) will be more economic to run in future and an all round better buy that the cheap car that has been flogged to death with minimum tlc in between.
And I hope the OFT study covers used car warranties too because they don’t all cover as much as you’d think.
I’d also like more motorists to know that a well maintained used car can be as green if not greener than a new car when you factor in the true CO2 costs of its production and delivery to the showroom. Those that can’t afford to buy new shouldn’t be made to feel inferior or to hear their cherished family car described as a ‘banger’ simply because they one that’s 10 years+, eligible for a £2000 backhander if they sign up to the ‘scrappage’ scheme and have it destroyed in exchange for a new car.
After all, we are encouraged to recycle and re-use rather than throw away and buy new. And fleet car buyers will continue to buy new of course which represents at least half of the new car market.
Something for everyone there, to suit our needs and budgets.
FOXY Steph
“It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.”
Peter Ustinov
