r/CarTalkUK

I need help. I've bought nice cars that I wanted (the last two have been V6's). But after a few months, or at most a year, I want another one. My current car, I literally lusted over it for 18 months before I bought it, I'd watch videos of it a few times a week in that time, spend an hour on autotrader almost everyday. But after I bought it 6 months ago, I find myself wanting to sell it and get a different car.

I want to be in a place where I buy a car that I want, and I stay with it for at least 3-4 years to start with, let alone "until the wheels fall off". Does anyone else here face this issue? What did you do to overcome it, if at all? Or is it just a phase that will go when it goes?

I've had this conversation with myself, that I'm going to keep this car for the next 4 years. But here I am, 6 months later, back to browsing Autotrader an hour a day. Sigh.

P.S. One possible solution that I can think of is to not keep buying used cars with cash, but rather to lease a brand new one for a 3 year period. That way, I'm locked in for 3 years and can't do anything about it. Sure, there will be a depreciation cost to pay, but I don't think I'm saving much by changing cars every year either. What do you guys think?

I know the engine is pretty good on these, economical and dirt cheap tax. Looks basic as anything but I guess less to go wrong. Hell, it might even be one to do the work on myself, MOT and sell for a small profit.

What do you think?

I’m getting my first car next year I seriously don’t want to have an ugly ass car, I’ve been looking at Lexus and Toyota Soarer that type of vibe you know??

I know NOTHING about cars literally nothing any tips and help would be super helpful

I’m honestly shocked at how difficult this process has been.

I was involved in a non-fault accident earlier this year. Liability has been accepted, but my Audi A3 S line ended up needing around £18,000 worth of repairs rather than being written off.

Even though the car has technically been repaired, I no longer feel like I own the same vehicle I bought. It now has a serious accident history attached to it, dealers are reluctant to value it properly, and I’ve had continuing stress, inspections and further issues after repair.

What frustrates me most is that innocent drivers are told they’ll be “put back in the position they were before the accident”, but how is that true when the resale value and desirability of the vehicle are clearly affected?

I’m pursuing a diminution in value claim because I genuinely believe I’ve suffered a financial loss despite being the innocent party.

Has anyone else been through this in the UK?

Did you succeed?

Or do insurers just expect people to give up?

We’ve got a 24 plate cx5 a month ago it was making some brake noises so took it back for them to have a look and apparently it needs new brakes….im just very curious to know supposedly they make all these inspections before they sell the cars at the main dealers with many guarantees etc how could they sell the cars with very simple maintenance issues like brakes etc it makes you not trust them with even basic things

I bought a used X1 2016 from a used car dealer, within 2-3 weeks of buying noticed noise and rattling on motorway related to throttle. Dealer changed all mounts including gearbox/engine and tracking rods and alignment done. That noise did improve a bit but never went fully. Anyways 4 months forward now noise is loud, a garage checked over and they said my rear differential needs to be replaced as there was metal in diff oil so possibly differential bearings gone. Cost is £3194!!!! I do have handler protect warranty but seeing online reviews I dont know what to do. Should I do warranty route? Call dealer? Or just swallow this and pay by myself?? Please any advice would be appreciated I am desperate. Thanks

I took out a loan a couple of years ago to pay for my car - 2018 VW T-Roc. Currently at 67,000 miles, I do somewhere between 12-15k miles a year. I have £10k left on my loan and pay £330 pm.

I am torn whether to sell my car (estimate valuations are around 10-12k), pay off my loan and get a new lease car, or stick with my T-Roc for another couple of years until it’s cleared, then start afresh.

The main reason for me considering this is the fact the repairs on my car are starting to add up, and might be more frequent as the mileage increases. I’m also unsure whether it’s better to sell now before it depreciates even further. It seems like you don’t have to worry about those two things with a lease car.

I don’t really know anything about leasing, but it seems like there are quite a few costs involved (initial payment, maintenance fee etc).

If you have been in a similar situation, what did you decide to do and why?

My partner is looking at buying a skoda yeti (5k approx budget). She likes the yeti as it's got a big footprint inside for the side. She wants something a little bigger than her current car (skoda fabia Monte Carlo) with some more boot space etc but doesn't want a huge car.

I have a Ford Focus ST that’s 3 years old and has done 14500 miles. I went for a full service and MOT at a Ford garage on Friday, went to pick it up just before it was closing.

I noticed the paper work said “other” on the front tyres and Pirelli on the rears, and I thought it was odd but never questioned it as I was more interested in getting it back and heading home. On my way home, about 10 minutes away, the tyre sensor misalignment warning comes on. (Which since then comes on and off on every journey I make) Get home and realise my two front tyres aren’t the Pirelli P Zeros, they’re some generic brand.

Phoned up in the morning and they say the technician that did the job isn’t there, phone up on Monday.

Phone morning, get a call back late that evening. Starts off weird, do you know anyone called ****, I say no, they ask what my name is, I answer. “I thought you didn’t know anyone by that name?” I didn’t think you’d include myself ffs! Anyway, it transpires she asks because the log entry for the call back has named me something rude that she didn’t want to repeat back to me.

Lady essentially says they’d never take tyres off for the service and MOT, and asked if I’ve taken it anywhere else to get work done, and without trying to get mad, I agree with her that there should be no reason to take my tyre off, but here we are. She’s say it’s too late in the day to investigate but try tomorrow.

Oddly enough, I get a curtesy call by Ford the next day asking about if I was happy with my service.
Tell them the whole story, she’s shocked but says she’ll log it.

So, firstly, what are the chances that a service and an MOT would require to take my tyres off, and they’ve accidentally put them aside and maybe another ST with ST rims but shitter tyres happened to be getting work done and they’ve switched them over innocently, or something?

Secondly, if that case isn’t a scenario, why have they taken my tyres off and replaced them?

Thirdly, what can I do about it, seriously, if they don’t take it seriously and investigate it?

Fourthly, what’s the odds that I’m not getting my tyres back?

Disclaimer: This is a long read, so I apologise…

TLDR: I’m mentally exhausted, and I just want to buy a decent car for my wife, for a decent price and not get shafted…

I’m currently trying to buy another car for my wife. Unfortunately, the bargain-of-the-century Skoda Yeti I got for her a year or two ago met its end recently when she clipped the corner of the drystone wall outside our house. There’s still some internal dispute as to how hard she hit it, but rather predictably, it ended up being my fault (somehow)! The insurance company wrote it off, sight unseen, and we got a very favourable payout, which I won’t even begin to argue with. Worse things have happened at sea, so to speak, so we’ve decided to go halves on a new shape Hyundai Tucson, the NX4. Being the de facto mechanical authority in our household, I was given criteria to stick to such as “I want a red one with heated seats”.

I’m no stranger to buying used cars, and I can put my hand on my heart and say I’ve never bought a lemon (I’ve created a few, but that’s my journey of acquiring mechanical knowhow); I’ve been running slightly above average bangers for years, and my Father knows exactly how to drive a hard bargain (pun intended), so we both know what to look for, what to say to close the deal, when to stop talking and more importantly, when to call bull and walk away. However, despite years worth of experience collectively dealing with all sorts…

What, in the actual f***, is going on with dealers at the moment…? Even main dealers, dare I say it.

I’ll give 3 of the most standout examples of my experiences over the past month, and I’ll let the audience decide. There have been many more, not vehicle related, but funny nonetheless, such as rolling up to a dealership which wasn’t exactly nearby and the car, despite being in pristine condition on the photos, had been keyed overnight along with 7 others, badly prepared cars with birds*** all over the roof, nearly being sideswiped by a cyclist on a test drive who then wiped out in the middle of the road, requiring an ambulance, and one salesman making me a much needed cup of coffee and then proceeding to trip over a carpet edge and throwing mildly hot liquid all over his desk, including partially onto my leg.

Vehicle 1: Approved Used Hyundai, respectable dealer (voted dealer of the year, year unknown, according to a load of half cut people at a car industry end of year sales dinner circlejerk), Full Hyundai Service History, apparently.

I called this place up one morning and asked for some more information. I went through my bog standard opening script of is it still available, how many owners, what mileage was the last stamp at, is the car known etc… all boxes ticked, aside from one service stamp at 40,000 miles, which is the belt change. I gave my usual disclaimer of “I’m old school and I like to put hands on a car before I commit to anything, and I’ve been doing this a while, so I’ll be over in the morning”… basically don’t muck me around. The old saying of “you can’t bulls*** a bulls***ter” always springs to mind when I give my disclaimer, and it’s a good telltale to know whether the sales guy will be bricking it when I come over.

Before I hung up, I asked the sales guy to check up on the service stamp and we finished up by agreeing that he would give me a call later on that morning once he’d finished his other enquiries, as they were understaffed due to sickness and holidays (fair enough, these things happen). We also agreed that in the meantime, he would send me a video of the car along with the service book so I had something to go on (better than nothing).

Midday came and went… 1 o’clock came and went… so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided to give him a call, and it went something like this…

Me: Hi there, I called you up earlier about the Tucson you have on your forecourt, and I was just giving you another call to see where we’re at.

Salesman: Hello, vehicle’s still with us, still available, and we’re just moving some stock around so you’ll be able to take it out for a test drive tomorrow. Did you like the video I sent through to you? Happy with the car?

Me: That’s fantastic. It looks like a good vehicle, so I’m happy to make a trip over there tomorrow to have a better look. When we spoke last, I was querying the service stamp that wasn’t in the book, I’m sure it’s just one of those things that got missed during the service, but if it’s been serviced by Hyundai since new, that’ll be easy to check I guess… I just want to dot the I’s and cross the T’s…

Salesman: I’m glad you like it, it’s a great vehicle and I’m sure you’ll be pleased when you see it tomorrow. We’re understaffed at the minute, so I’ll have to come in on my day off, so please excuse in advance the fact that I might be wearing my non-work attire. Do you know what time you’ll be coming?

Me: 9AM

Salesman: That’s great, I’ll book you in so I can deal with you personally.

I smelt a rat around about here - there was a bit more chit chat in addition to what’s here, but I had a strong feeling he was trying to skirt the issue of this missing stamp, and hope I’d forget about it. He scored highly on building a rapport with me, but as far as trust-building went, he scored middle to average

Me: Not a problem, I don’t have any problem with people wearing normal clothes at work, as long as it’s respectable; we’re all on the same level then. The day and age of wearing suits to work are long gone, apart from the banking sector obviously… a colleague of mine once said, albeit aimed at a different industry “never trust someone wearing a suit”…

Salesman: Hahahahaha, never a truer word was spoken. I’ll just go and check that service stamp on the system for you… hold on for a minute…

Insert cheesy hold music

**I knew by this point the service hadn’t been done and was wondering whether he’d have the balls to come back and tell me**

Salesman: Hello again, I’ve just checked on the Hyundai system, and I’ve been talking to our service engineers the whole time you were on hold… the entire time… and it appears that the service at 40,000 miles wasn’t performed, so the engine warranty would be void. Hang on one minute, I’ll just put you on hold again…

Insert cheesy hold music

Evidently he wasn’t talking to the service engineers the entire time, instead probably figuring out a way to fob me off

Salesman: Hi there, I’ve just been made aware that this particular vehicle has actually sold earlier on this morning, so I’m terribly sorry for the confusion there…

Me: Oh, okay, that’s disappointing. Just for my records then, the key service at 40,000 miles wasn’t performed, and so the vehicle has now been sold with a void engine warranty?

Salesman: That’s correct.

Me: Okay, thanks for your time. I guess a full Hyundai service history and a book full of Hyundai service stamps aren’t actually the same thing then.

I hung up at this point, completely stunned

Vehicle 2: Non-approved dealer, vaguely respectable due to being in business for many years, non-Hyundai full service history at the same, respectable garage. Not advertised on Autotrader, which was a bit of a red flag, but not alarm bells, and I found it by chance when I was driving past one day.

Disclosure before reading: the vehicle was relisted correctly, and has now been moved on, final destination unknown, as it disappeared from their forecourt as of last week. Hopefully to auction…

I’ve not long since calmed down from this one, as it really wound me up. I don’t mind being lied to; I have a good nose for bulls***, it’s par for the course when you get down to independent dealer level, but the sales guy I dealt with for this particular vehicle very nearly got a face full for pretty much everything.

This vehicle was actually down the road from me, so I called in one afternoon on my way back from wherever it was I’d gone. I’d given them a heads up that I was coming and did my usual opener. All boxes ticked, price was good, service history was good as they’d supplied the garage name, and I knew it as it was local.

I did my usual OCD inspection on it, and started getting a bit annoyed when the guy kept coming out to eyeball what I was doing and asking stupid questions / trying to make small talk. I like to be left in peace when I’m looking at things and I have him ample notice, and there’s nothing worse than a guy who couldn’t be bothered to wear at least a polo shirt to work trying to prevent me from uncovering something which would make me immediately say “nope” and walk away. Nevertheless, I told him once more to give me 5 minutes and he thankfully got the message… when I’d uncovered a few things worthy of further questions, I went inside, where the conversation unfolded something like this (but not quite as polite)…

Salesman: How was the car? Did you like what you saw?

Me: The car’s excellent, there are a few battle scars though, nothing my Machine Mart dent removal kit can’t sort out though, but I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.

Salesman: That’s great, it’s a 5 year old car so you’d obviously expect some age related marks on it, but it’s been taken care of and serviced regularly.

Me: Yes, I can understand that, however would you know anything about the tailgate not lining up properly?

Salesman: What do you mean?

Me: I’ve had a closer look, and I’m just trying to work out why there’s a 5mm difference in panel gaps between the tailgate and quarter panel on each side. There’s also a bit of play in the fuel filler cap, and there are some plastic panels that have some play in them and aren’t properly mounted on the bodywork. I’ve done an HPI check and there’s no mention of a write off.

At some point here, the salesman must have known that I knew, but everything about him from minute 1 p***ed me off. I have a particularly good eye for detail and if I hadn’t have got my calibrated finger nail out to do some measurements, instead of just kicking the tyres, I’d never have spotted it

Salesman: I know what that is, sometimes the manufacturers miss vehicles in their QA procedure in post-assembly, so maybe this was the one that slipped through the cracks. As you’re aware, the vehicle hasn’t been written off.

Me: Okay, that’s good to know, I’m happy with that, so let me have a walk around and a think. I’ll come back inside shortly.

At this point, I knew I’d stumbled upon a steaming pile of bulls***, so I made a call to the garage that did the servicing to see what the deal was, which was an interesting conversation to say the least

Me: I’ve had a think, and I’ve made a few phone calls. Do you know anything about the history of the car prior to you getting hold of it?

Salesman: No, we know it’s had one owner since new and that’s about it.

Me: Well, let’s just say this, I do.

Stunned silence

Me: I know for a fact that this particular vehicle was involved in an accident at a crossroads not far from here about 4 months ago. I remember the road being closed. It’s been repaired, to a very high standard, as I’ve called the garage that looked at it after it was rear ended. I couldn’t find anything in the advert about any crash repairs so I was wondering if you had any documentation to show what was done, please consider your answer.

Salesman: I thought this was all mentioned in the advert?

Me: No, it wasn’t.

Salesman: We will get that rectified immediately.

Me: Please do, that’s sketchy ground you’re treading on there. You know what, I think I’ve seen enough now. Thank you for your time.

I walked out fairly swiftly before I lost my rag any more

I still can’t believe the odds of this happening, that a car that was rear ended down the road, was repaired by a garage that I knew, and then ended up on a forecourt 5 minutes from my house, and as I said above, it’s still in the back of my mind that a dealer was selling a crash damaged car as a perfectly sound one (not a Cat, but my point still stands). The timings of everything lean towards the dealer buying the car off the owner who had the crash, but I didn’t stick around much longer to see whether they had all the paperwork. I physically felt ill after this and stopped my search for about a week so I could calm down.

Vehicle 3: Non-approved dealer, wildcard on my list, but everything seemed to be in order apart from outstanding finance… it was worth a call at the very least, even if it was for my own entertainment. This is a short one, and I don’t even know what it highlights… apart from never buy a car with outstanding finance on it.

Me: hello, I’ve seen a vehicle on Autotrader at your dealership, and I would like some more information, if possible.

Salesman: Yes no problem, let me get those details up for you.

Me: I can see the car has outstanding finance, could you tell me a bit more about that please?

Salesman: There is no outstanding finance on this vehicle, you must be mistaken.

Me: I don’t think I’m mistaken at all, I think you may be mistaken.

Salesman: The vehicle in question was never under any finance agreement, I think you may have seen a different vehicle and confused it with our vehicle. We only supply vehicles of the highest standard.

Me: I fully understand your commitment to supplying quality vehicles to keen buyers such as myself, however I’m just wondering how I can be looking at 2 different HPI checks which both say that this particular vehicle has outstanding finance.

Salesman: I’m sorry, I’m afraid you must be mista…

Me: Sorry for interrupting you, but I’m in full control of both of my eyes. It has outstanding finance on it.

Salesman: Is there another vehicle that you would like to see from our stock, what is your budget?

Me: …

I didn’t even respond to that and just hung up