OK, so I don't like the idea of buying privately. I'm definitely risk averse, am not entirely convinced that I'm the world's best judge of character, and can be quite happy to believe truly random stories ... So perhaps I'm not the best person to be trying to spot a good van and a genuine seller! Plus I really like my local dealer - they're helpful, genuine, informative and would very much like to buy through them again...
However ... I've seen the van we've finally settled on advertised private locally at a very good price with a private seller. So I figure we have to go and see it.
But I have no idea about what price to offer - esp as the van in question seems reasonably priced to begin with! And how do I make sure he doesn't sell it to someone else between me viewing it and then going back to pay for it? And how best should I pay for it?
We're meeting at his home address, so at least I know that's legitimate....
We recently bought a caravan although wasn't strictly private as they sell caravans for a living wasn't a main dealer either but we did get a 3 month warranty. After viewing the van at their house we were invited in and we spoke about the van and the price they had the van advertised at £3000 I asked what their best price on the van would be and she said the lowest they would go as we were prepared to pay he £3000 anyway we were happy to get it for £100 cheaper
As for making sure it was not sold between viewing we left a deposit but made sure we had written confirmation from them that we had paid a deposit of £200 what it was for and that the balance would be paid when we picked the van up.
we paid in cash as they had no other way to accept payment apart from cheque but again we aske for a receipt to prove we had paid.
The best way to buy privately is with a wad of £20s, bargain hard & make them an offer waving the cash under their nose. Make sure you do a Cris check though to ensure seller has clear title though if you are paying more than a few £100s.
Remember though a private sale is without warranty so check for damp & ideally you want to see a service history of annual services.
So we'll view tomorrow, wield the damp meter, then if all's well offer a (cash?) deposit with written confirmation, come home and pay for a CRIS check and an HPI check, then pay the balance either in cash or building society cheque at the same time as we collect it?
If the damp meter shows that all's well, how important is seeing the service history? Am assured it has a full service history (it's only four years old) but that the relevant documentation may be missing - will the dealer confirm it to me, do you reckon?
Check it out if you think alls well leave a deposit and arrange to collect and pay balance. Arrange for an MCEA approved mobile caravan engineer to meet you and have him check it out before you collect and part with the balance. This is what we did with our then 1 year old van 3 yrs ago - they tend to cost £60-£100 and sometimes that can include the CRIS.
www.mobilecaravanengineers.co.uk
In the light of our experiences as caravan owners we would never ever buy a 'van without a warranty. What might be perfect now might well be leaky or faulty in 6 months time.
The MCEA and AWS guy who services our 'van says that over 50% of the vehicles he services have some sort of water ingress problem and there is no make that is not prone to this. Ever more complex electronics add to the mix too.
We used to think that a damp meter was all that was needed. Now we think a time machine would be handy too!
If no time machine - better have a very good warranty!
Warranty agreements for used caravans or cars.... hmmmm. I'd caution against relying on them too heavily. Most of them are not worth the paper they are written on (hubby works in the motor trade so he knows!).
It's only if you ever had to make a warranty claim, which most people don't, that you'd then find out the hard way that all of the things that you thought were covered actually aren't. The warranty provider will argue/wriggle their way out of almost anything, they are slimey so-and-so's.
The augument usually goes something like this: 'It's general wear and tear, so it's not covered' or 'that component didn't fail prematurely, it's just worn out through use, so it's not covered'.
Trying to get anything replaced under warranty is like trying to get blood from a stone.
------------- 2015 - our 1st year of caravanning with a new baby. Can't wait! :)
If its 4yrs old & has some sort of transferable long water ingress warranty then that will require service history from manufacturer approved workshop. Anybody selling a 4yr old caravan should have original sales invoice & service history, otherwise you might be wise to leave it. It depends on the price & how you feel about it really.
What really does for a caravan is water ingress gone unrepaired for several yrs & as caravans get older they tend not to get serviced, particularly if they do little mileage.
We've never bought privately and they've never sold privately - we're as bad as each other :-) it does have full service history, apparently, though the seller only has the report from this year (though that's kind of the crucial one!).
I always though a building society cheque was the safest method of paying or being paid - am I totally wrong then?
A building society cheque is ok but seller might think its forged & of course he could also think a few grand in used notes is forged. You can do a bank transfer, your bank to his bank but he may want to be tolally certain funds have transferred.
Ie, he wants cleared funds before releasing caravan but you don't want a situtation where buyer has your money...& the caravan. Obviously somebody has to trust somebody...a bit, along the way. In order to save a bit of money you go through all that twice, buying & selling. & this is why people buy from dealers for more money because that way the dealer has all the above aggro, which is what you are actually paying the extra for when you buy from a dealer....
nothing wrong with buying privately but I would advise speniding £100 or so on an engineer to check it out first. I have looked at vans being sold by main dealers with there "3 month waranty" and some of the vans have been quite shocking and expensive at the same time. The way I look at it is that if you buy private you will save at leat £1k against a dealer price, even on an old van. If you spend £100 getting it checked out then so what and at least you know the van is either good or not. If the engineer finds a small problem that can be fixed then you can use this as a bargaining tool. I would be just as cautious buying from a dealer as private, many private sales are genuine anyway and they can point out any defects.
Other advantage of a private sale is you often get extras thrown in like electric leads, steps, awninngs etc which you don't often get from a dealer.
We have recently bought our 1st caravan and bought privately, its just against my principle for others (Dealers) to make vast sums of money from me!! ;)but that's just me..
I think the biggest thing I found I had to do was...Research....Research and more Research... I then set my budget and tried to pick the best I could from there...We settled on a 2005 Abbey Vogue 417 GTS and we got her for a very reasonable price. As for negotiating I think we Brits are a bit shy on this and do ourselves down, its ok as I work in Construction in an Estimating capacity so am quite used to it but I do appreciate others find it difficult, I would suggest the following:
1) Treat the deal as a competitive game, you want to win!
2) Don't show TOO much intrest, be a little coy and always throw in the line "I have another couple to look at"
3) Offer quite a bit lower than asking price, just be a bit cheeky, then negotiate to a price your both happy with.
4) If you can take cold hard cash, there's no better motivator to get a deal done!
Hope that helps, but at the end of the day away from all of the above, if you like what you see, it ticks all the boxes, your happy with the price being asked then do the deal, but its always better to save a bit, helps pay for your trips, or in my case my towbar!!
Cheers
Paul
------------- I refuse to join any club that would have ME as a member!! (Graucho Marx)
Thank you all for your advice! We got it and we are now a two caravan family :-) Looking forward to trying out the new one next weekend and am hoping to get chance to do a nice leisurely transfer of things from the old van to the new one this weekend.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Buying privately, hold my hand!
and we are now a two caravan family :-) Looking forward to trying out the new one next weekend and am hoping to get chance to do a nice leisurely transfer of things from the old van to the new one this weekend.
