Buying Private Or From A Trader?

[Jay6]

Hi Guys,

I still searching to buy an IS200 Sport until now I have only been looking at Private cars. I have noticed there are much more trade cars on the market. I have tried to stay away from buying from a trader because I believe they get cars and make them out to be better than they are. (i.e buy from an auction, clean up and they say only got this as a part ex).

Any way should I wait to buy a mint private car or start to look at trade cars as well. Ideally want to spend up to 6000. The car below is from a trade but has caught my attention.

Its a grey 02 plate IS200 sport got 82,000 miles , I do not know whether the cambelt has changed? Is there anything else I should look out for?

http://www.junction7autocentre.co.uk/17771...ction_stock.htm

Any advice would be helpful, would you buy from a private person or from a trader?

Thanks

Jay

[nevarthur]

I still searching to buy an IS200 Sport until now I have only been looking at Private cars. I have noticed there are much more trade cars on the market. I have tried to stay away from buying from a trader because I believe they get cars and make them out to be better than they are. (i.e buy from an auction, clean up and they say only got this as a part ex).

Any way should I wait to buy a mint private car or start to look at trade cars as well. Ideally want to spend up to 6000. The car below is from a trade but has caught my attention.

Its a grey 02 plate IS200 sport got 82,000 miles , I do not know whether the cambelt has changed? Is there anything else I should look out for?

http://www.junction7autocentre.co.uk/17771...ction_stock.htm

Any advice would be helpful, would you buy from a private person or from a trader?

Thanks

Jay

Hi Jay,

Please don't think I'm setting myself up as some kind of expert, it's just that I faced a similar quandry a few months ago when I bought my 2001 IS200SE.

My thoughts were:

I wanted a specific colour. My wife had said I could have what I wanted providing it was blue!

I knew I wanted a car with 2 genuine key fobs that worked, as they are expensive to add later.

I wanted a car with a years MOT.

I also wanted a car with a full service history, and more importantly, proof of it.

If you rule out Traders, you do rule out a lot of cars. Equally, they're not all crooks, in fact, the guy I bought mine off, Adam at Moorlands, I bought a 4 pack of beer for, as he was helpful, and fair.

I don't like the look of the car you sent the link for, for these reasons. It's just my opinion, but:

It's too cheap for its age.

It's not a particularly startling car in that colour.

The ad says naff all about it really. I find if it's not mentioned, it's not good.

You can do better, and it's worth waiting. These are relatively common cars and there are plenty about. If you get a good one, it will cost you less than getting a ropey one 'cos it was a bit cheaper! If you need to keep the costs down because your budget is being pushed, then get a car that has good tyres, a years ticket, has been recently serviced or the place you're buying it from wil do it, and ask for 6 months tax as a haggling point just before you complete the deal.

I hope this helps mate.

Nev

[Jay6]

Thanks for the comments Nev, I quite like the colour, infact ideally I am looking for a black or grey car.

I saw another car today at a local trader, they had just received it. When I looked in the glove box I found the auction ticket that it was advertised on. So the trader had bought it from the auction. It had done 66,000 miles but only had three stamps in the service history book. Although it looked ok I walked away due to the service history.

Any way the search continues... I think I will be patient until I find a decent private car or if someone decides to sell there Lexus from this forum.

Jay

[lexus_IS_200]

my car may be up for sale in mid january

Lexus IS 200 SE 81k Full Lexus Service History - 3 Keys

This is due to me getting a new job with company car

[nevarthur]

my car may be up for sale in mid january

Lexus IS 200 SE 81k Full Lexus Service History - 3 Keys

This is due to me getting a new job with company car

Now that sounds like it would be worth seeing!

Not for me, I'm probably going to keep mine for another 3 years, then replace it with either an IS200 supercharged, or an IS300, or a Toyota Prius. I know, bizarre choice, but they're growing on me!

Nev

[KevLex]

I found a few reasonable ones at dealers when I bought mine last month. All of them had full Lexus service history. Some of them were asking too much even for a dealer. The main dealer had a few to choose from but there prices were even more ridiculous.

In the end I choose one from a dealer who had priced it right and offered me a more than generous trade in on my old car. Even though it had full Lexus service history I was realistic about what to expect from a 7 year old car. On the whole it is OK. Apart from the various boot leaks and the knackered Battery it is far better than any other 7 year old, 90k miler that I have ever owned. If you look closely in places you can see where it has been painted. The colour match is good but you can always tell by looking at the edges. The paint looks like scratch repair rather than accident repair so I was OK with that.

I dare say that there are immaculate ones around but I found that they were either too expensive or too far away.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find something.