Indicators
Posted: Tue 14 August, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism 4 Comments »Recently, a friend of a friend went out and bought a new car – well, new to them, not brand-new. Now, at which of these points would you decide to not buy this vehicle ? (I should point out, one of these is a joke – the rest all happened)
- The vehicle in question is seven years old, and has only 24,000 miles on the clock
- The dealer knocks the car down from £6,500 to £5,000
- The offered warranty on the vehicle is one month.
- The dealer says he was thinking of painting it bright yellow, it was such a damn lemon
- The brakes seize on the car three days after purchase
So – when would you have decided not to buy it?
Assuming that (4) is the joke and bearing in mind that (5) would be too late to decide not to buy, it would depend on what I thought of the vendor. From a large, reputable-looking dealership I bought a 7 year-old car with 21,000 miles on the clock (and it’s been no trouble for 3 years since), but from a smaller (seedier) place I might get a third-party mechanic to take a look.
The warranty thing would be suspicious, as would a dealer desperate to get rid of it.
Indeed, 5) would require the purchase first – but at the same time, it’s still in the (extremely dodgy) months’ warranty, so you could still return the piece of shit.
I wouldn’t be surprised if my mother’s car has statistics like that. And mine would if I had one. But I would be very middle class middle aged and get it checked out by the AA or some mechanic who knows what they’re talking about. But ultimately, if it was the right colour, I’d buy it regardless of all that male technical stuff that just makes my brain ache
I wouldn’t pay £5k for a 7 yr old car!