Tag Archives: HPI

buying a new car

Buying a new car in 2014?

swiss_toniIf you’re planning to buy a new car in 2014 you’d do well to read these used car buying tips from vehicle information expert HPI.

This matters because few motorists realise that this isn’t a regulated business area.

To be precise, if you buy a car from a private seller you have few rights in law when things go wrong hence the number of complaints in this area.

Even if you decide to buy a used car from an unknown dealer or showroom, without any Approved Code process being included, she who buys on the basis of a pretty looking car may well be left with a bitter taste if the car in question turns out to be a lemon…

Sadly, instead of the government or the automotive industry sorting this area out, motorists are expected to check this, that and the other for themselves. This ‘caveat emptor’ policy costs the motorist each time of course, simply to ensure that a car sales business is selling a car that’s fit (ie safe) for purpose. Sadly the reality is that few motorists expect to be left so vulnerable in this area so they don’t know to check out complaint numbers before parting with £’000s of their hard-earned money.

This is not a new thing – it has been going on for years and is another area of the UK motor industry we are deeply ashamed of.

How not to be duped by dodgy dealers

Motorists stand more of a chance of being duped by an independent car dealer as 3 out of 4 complaints received by Citizens Advice trace back to an independent used car dealer. Yet there are many reliable used car dealers when you know what to look out for… Apparently 4 out of 5 used car complaints have at least one hidden fault costing an average of £225 to fix and a staggering 1 in 9 faulty used cars bought are said to cost over £1000 to repair. In fact, more than £353 million was spent on faulty vehicles over the past 12 months, according to Citizens Advice, and HPI reckon that statistic might be on the light side…

Shane Teskey, Senior Manager, Consumer Services for HPI, interprets this eye-watering statistic for us:

“Last year 2.7 million used cars were sold privately in the UK and Northern Ireland, which could equate to over £480 million pounds spent on faulty cars being repaired. Too many used car buyers are falling foul of dodgy cars from shifty sellers. Don’t be hoodwinked into parting with your cash without conducting rigorous checks. People rarely buy a house without having a survey, so why would they happily buy a car without having it inspected?”

HPI goes on to reveal that, in their experience, 1 in 5 cars need a cash injection of £550 to keep them on the road, leaving the buyer significantly out of pocket. Something as seemingly straightforward as replacing worn tyres can cost £320 for a Focus or similar. All of which goes to show the value of having an independent vehicle inspection conducted before purchase.

By checking over 200 individual items on a car, an HPI Inspection, carried out by a highly trained vehicle assessor, will help consumers choose a vehicle that’s roadworthy and safe to drive as well as one that’s been in an accident and subsequently repaired. It will also expose any faults such as worn brakes, exhausts and tyres and uncover any hidden defects to the interior and exterior body panels. With prices starting from just £99.00, used car buyers will be spending much less than the cost of buying a banger in disguise.

HPI’s Top Tips for avoiding a wreck

1/ When he says… “It’s just back here…”

We say. “Make sure you are viewing the car in full light and at the registered keepers address. Or is it parked against a wall, under cover with dim light, in a backstreet alley? Scratches and dents are harder to see in poor light, or if the paintwork is wet. A common scam is to sell vehicles from car parks or lay-bys – don’t fall for it.”

2/ When he says… “It’s been spruced up just for you”

We say “Beware a clean engine bay. Most sellers will clean the car from top to bottom to display it in its best light. However, sometimes this can be a ploy to disguise things such as leaks. A trained vehicle inspector stands a better chance of spotting any leaks than the untrained eye.”

3/ When he says… “It looks just like new”

We say “And some parts might be. New fittings that are not appropriate for the age and mileage of the car should make you take a second look. If the car has had new pedal rubbers fitted, or a brand new gear knob, is excessive wear and tear being hidden?”

4/ When he says… “She’s ready to go out for a spin”

We say “Be wise to the warm engine prior to the test drive. Ideally start the car from both hot and cold. If the engine has been running prior to your test drive, there may be an issue around cold starts that is being hidden.”

5/ When he says “Let me show you that”

We say “Beware of vendor demonstrations. They know just how to flick a switch, turn a knob or pull a handle to ensure correct functionality of a system. Best try the item yourself.”

6/ When he says… “Comes with new tyres”

We say “Replacement tyres may have been fitted because of uneven tyre wear, masking steering, suspension and alignment concerns. Undoubtedly new tyres are usually expensive and will look good but they can mask significant defects.

Finally, always check the Vehicle Handbook

HPI’s final advice is to make sure the MOT and service record handbook refers to the vehicle you’re looking at. Be very cautious ie walk away if ANY details appear to have been altered or show signs of being tampered with.

Finally, if you’ve had a good or bad recent car buying experience via a UK car dealer please tell us via http://www.foxychoice.com/good-garage-feedback-for-women.php. We hold Club members’ hands through any complaint process; the least FOXY can do is tell others about any instances where an unscrupulous car dealer clearly doesn’t give a toss about the road worthiness of the car in question and/or has compromised your personal safety here.

buying a new car, car dealerships

The used car shopping game

Most women know there is a 50% chance of buying a bad car when they go shopping for a secondhand one even when it shines so appealingly on a dealership showroom forecourt.

But who of us has heard of Akerlof’s economic law? Very few I’d suggest yet it applies well in the Used Car Market. I first read about this in Tim Harford’s book ‘The Undercover Economist’ – it explains that when one party to a sale has inside information and the other does not – markets do not work as well as they should.

Hence the 72k used car complaints recorded by Consumer Direct last year I suppose, costing innocent customers an estimated £85m to put right.

Take for example the case where a car dealer buys his stock of used cars, knowing fairly well from experience whether they are good or bad individual buys. Price, mileage (genuine or otherwise), service history, type of mileage, colour, condition; that sort of thing dictates the price he’ll charge knowing what he can make it look like with a bit of elbow grease and tlc.

But the customer doesn’t have the same background insight when she walks into the showroom. If she makes a low offer and gets the car, perhaps it was a lemon because the inside knowledge the salesman relies on is telling him that’s all it’s worth so take it… whereas a good car is worth more, hence his holding out longer for the asking price.

Clearly Akerlof knew his used cars (this works in other markets too of course) and that this is a hit and miss game that buyers and sellers play.

In general, used cars tend to be cheap and poor quality borne out by complaint levels in this area. Sellers want as high a price as possible so they’ll hold out for a better price for a good car but they can’t prove it is a good car so often the good car will sit around for longer.

Whereas a buyer who doesn’t understand the game goes away with a bad car unwittingly, thinking she has got a good deal. She hasn’t of course because the serious bills will start to arrive just as soon as any promising warranty runs out. That’s called Murphy’s Law. Marketers describe the sickening customer realisation that they’ve been shafted as ‘customer dissonance’ and I imagine we’ve all felt that at some time of our lives and determined never to go back…

The reality is that savvy car buyers don’t play a rigged shopping game like this one but there are many unsuspecting customers who don’t know the rules of the used car market and do end up playing here. Sadly many of them are females who trust the dealer who tells her what he needs to, to get the car off his forecourt.

Akerlof’s point is a serious one because this isn’t just a market where shoppers get ripped off, it’s a market that isn’t working properly because buyers want proof of value and VERY often sellers can’t prove this.

Of course the sensible advice is to buy a used car with a HPI type of finance check and then get it inspected for its mechanical fitness (at a discounted rate c/o DEKRA if you are a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club) within the 6 months when you may be able to get a dealer to take it back or put things right, based on proof.

A reassuring female factor is likely to be an Approved Car stamp by a franchised dealership but the reality is still that the dealer salesman knows a lot more about the car than the customer and they need to sell it for as much as possible because their commission income is involved.

Certainly the customer needs more ammunition on her side so she can wise up in these instances. Depending on the value of the car I’d definitely counsel investing in checking out the mechanical condition of any secondhand car c/o car inspection experts, Dekra, as soon as possible after purchase; only then will you know if it’s a plum not a lemon.

FOXY

Please see OFT advice here and remember that if you are a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club we’ll help you sort any used car complaints out – the last resort is that we’ll share really bad feedback within the Club so that other women don’t go there in future.

buying a new car, women drivers

Welcome OFT study into used car market

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 ;-).

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

“It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.”
Peter Ustinov