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BONUS: How to Really Buy a Used Car · Merryn Talks Money

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to Merin Talks Your Money, the personal financial edition
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Speaker 1: of Merin Talks Money. In these bonus podcasts, we get
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Speaker 1: tips from experts across industries on how to make the
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Speaker 1: most of your money.
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Speaker 2: I'm merrinsumset Web.
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Speaker 1: This week how to buy used cars successfully and how
0:20
Speaker 1: to keep your insurance low. I spoke with Ashlie Winston,
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Speaker 1: chief car finder and creator of Palm Deal car Finders
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Speaker 1: who specializes in US and new car and vansourcing, purchasing
0:29
Speaker 1: and valuations.
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Speaker 3: Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today.
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Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you for having me.
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Speaker 1: I've written a lot of columns over the years about
0:39
Speaker 1: buying houses and about how completely insane it is that
0:43
Speaker 1: people go out to buy the most expensive thing they
0:45
Speaker 1: will ever buy, the thing that, if they get it wrong,
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Speaker 1: can destroy their financial life forever, and how they do
0:52
Speaker 1: that without any proper advice. And I'm always saying to people,
0:55
Speaker 1: you know, even if you're buying what you might think
0:57
Speaker 1: is an inexpensive house as opposed to a super rich person,
1:00
Speaker 1: and says, you still need to get someone on your
1:02
Speaker 1: side advising you because it's a huge purchase. Cars seem
1:06
Speaker 1: to me to be exactly the same people will go
1:08
Speaker 1: out to buy a secondhand car which is going to
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Speaker 1: cost them five pounds, ten thousand pounds, fifteen pounds, twenty
1:13
Speaker 1: thousand pounds up at the high end of the people
1:15
Speaker 1: you deal with one hundred and fifty thousand pounds plus,
1:18
Speaker 1: and they'll go out and do it without anybody on
1:21
Speaker 1: their side. They'll go out and get it from a salesman,
1:24
Speaker 1: which is exactly what you do when you're buying a
1:25
Speaker 1: house from an estate agent. You're buying a huge thing
1:28
Speaker 1: with no one on your side. So what you do
1:31
Speaker 1: is you're on the side of the car buyer right
1:35
Speaker 1: one hundred percent.
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Speaker 4: And you've just described it perfectly. Because it's my biggest
1:40
Speaker 4: wind up about this industry, about the used car industry
1:43
Speaker 4: is an exception of property. There is such a massive
1:46
Speaker 4: difference between what the amount of money you spend at
1:50
Speaker 4: the top end and how you get treated down the bottom.
1:53
Speaker 4: Because the car salesman wants the profit in their pocket.
1:56
Speaker 4: That's all they want. They want their commission.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's completely reasonable. I mean, this is how
2:00
Speaker 1: car salesmen make money. They sell cars and they take
2:03
Speaker 1: a commission on the car. So we're not blaming car
2:06
Speaker 1: salesman here this is the world is about incentives, right,
2:08
Speaker 1: The world is about incentives, and that is their incentive.
2:11
Speaker 1: And your job as a car buyer is to recognize
2:15
Speaker 1: that incentive and behave appropriately and if you can't manage
2:18
Speaker 1: that yourself, to ask someone.
2:19
Speaker 2: To help you do it.
2:20
Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 1: So, we recognize incentives in the market. We don't disapprove
2:24
Speaker 1: of incentives in the market unless they unless they result
2:27
Speaker 1: in immoral or illegal behavior. In the main we're pro
2:29
Speaker 1: and cents, Okay, pick up immoral for me?
2:34
Speaker 3: Then?
2:35
Speaker 4: Oh well, we could start with the whole current Flagher
2:40
Speaker 4: Conduct Authority issue, with all the mis selling of finance
2:44
Speaker 4: products that's gone on that Like I said, that's being moral.
2:47
Speaker 3: Okay, interesting, let's do that.
2:49
Speaker 4: I know if you said this yourself, when you walk
2:52
Speaker 4: into a car dealer, especially perhaps maybe one of the
2:55
Speaker 4: larger car dealers, and you sell I want to buy
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Speaker 4: that lovely shiny car there, the next question the to
3:00
Speaker 4: ask you is do you want that on finance? And
3:03
Speaker 4: if you don't say yes they want that on finance,
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Speaker 4: then they get very disinterested very quickly, which is completely
3:09
Speaker 4: opposite of what the FCA is trying to achieve. They
3:12
Speaker 4: want everyone to be treated equally and fairly, which means
3:16
Speaker 4: that if you're a cash by you get the same
3:18
Speaker 4: treatment if you're a finance bible. That doesn't happen in
3:20
Speaker 4: the marketplace, and it gets worse because the problem that
3:24
Speaker 4: the financial amasment servers have at the moment is that
3:28
Speaker 4: up until January of twenty twenty one, there's something called
3:31
Speaker 4: discretionary commission agreements which were allowed. And what this effectly
3:35
Speaker 4: meant is that the finance broker could set the interest
3:38
Speaker 4: rate where they wanted it to be, because the higher
3:41
Speaker 4: the interest rate, the more commission they earned. So you
3:45
Speaker 4: had situations whereby you might have a to pick the heartstrings.
3:50
Speaker 4: A retired lady who had worked very hard and went
3:53
Speaker 4: to a car dealership and was told her APR was
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Speaker 4: going to be fourteen point nine percent at a time
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Speaker 4: when most normal people will be getting four or five
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Speaker 4: percent and paying it because maybe she didn't know any better,
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Speaker 4: and the broken would and a massive commission. So I'm sorry,
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Speaker 4: I think that's a moral.
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Speaker 3: Okay, that is a moral, But also, as it turns out,
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Speaker 3: it's not legal.
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Speaker 4: Either, correct. Yeah, And there's and there are going to
4:18
Speaker 4: be so many cases coming up. I mean, it's not
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Speaker 4: the point where the FCA now say, you know, they
4:24
Speaker 4: usually say you have to respond to any any case
4:27
Speaker 4: against you within a set period of time. They've thrown
4:29
Speaker 4: that out the window. If you make a complaint now,
4:32
Speaker 4: you're probably not going to hear back from someone until
4:33
Speaker 4: September October time, and they're okay with that. That's how
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Speaker 4: they judge the volume of complaints.
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Speaker 2: Dia goteris there's going to be that many. There's going
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Speaker 2: to be that many.
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Speaker 1: But you can just go, I mean, let's just talk
4:42
Speaker 1: about how this happened, right, So there's there will be
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Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people now driving around in cars
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Speaker 1: on which they've effectively paid interest rates two percentage points
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Speaker 1: ish and of all the ones that I've looked at,
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Speaker 1: looks like two to three percentage points above what possibly
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Speaker 1: they should have paid. And they should be able to
5:01
Speaker 1: reclaim the difference, right they should.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's actually not that difficult. I mean, I've
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Speaker 4: already seen and actually had calls from the legal firms
5:09
Speaker 4: who want to help you and take a cut of
5:11
Speaker 4: your money. But it's really easy. If you're not too
5:14
Speaker 4: sure whether you had a discretionary commission agreement or not,
5:18
Speaker 4: call the broker or the dealer and ask them. They
5:21
Speaker 4: have to tell you if you did, then just submit
5:24
Speaker 4: a complaint to Financial Ombudsman service and wait a long while.
5:28
Speaker 4: It's going to be a long while. It is as
5:30
Speaker 4: simple as that.
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Speaker 1: So you go to the financial almost Budsmen. I find
5:34
Speaker 1: out a very difficult word to say, almost budsman, and
5:36
Speaker 1: they have Onbardsman and they have a special portal online
5:41
Speaker 1: portal three. So they put all these complaints right, so
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Speaker 1: it's not difficult to do. You should be able to
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Speaker 1: do it yourself and then if you're if you're lucky,
5:47
Speaker 1: you'll get a ground back. The FCA, what they have
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Speaker 1: said is that individual buyers on a ten thousand pounds
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Speaker 1: four year finance package are paying something in the region
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Speaker 1: of pounds more than they needed to.
6:01
Speaker 2: It's real money.
6:02
Speaker 3: This is real money.
6:03
Speaker 1: Martin Lewis that of moneysavingexpg dot com. He reckons that
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Speaker 1: this is going to be as big as a PPI
6:09
Speaker 1: miss selling scandal, and that was forty billion quid and
6:12
Speaker 1: it was a kind of people's qe. You know, everyone
6:14
Speaker 1: got this money back and suddenly there was a consumer
6:16
Speaker 1: spending boom, so maybe we'll get the same again. A
6:19
Speaker 1: consumers spending boom. Is everyone gets their money back.
6:22
Speaker 4: I really hope everyone gets their money back because they
6:24
Speaker 4: deserve their money back because the way they were sold
6:27
Speaker 4: these products is not correct.
6:29
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll tell you what Before we move on to
6:31
Speaker 1: talking about cause in particular, which they know the bit
6:34
Speaker 1: you really want to talk about, Let's talk about something
6:37
Speaker 1: else that suddenly looks rather more expensive than perhaps we
6:40
Speaker 1: thought it should, which is car insurance. Now, I was
6:42
Speaker 1: just my car insurance, but has gone up John Steppeck's
6:45
Speaker 1: car insurance but has gone up massively. Our listeners already
6:47
Speaker 1: fed up the back teeth of the need to talk
6:49
Speaker 1: about his car insurance bill. And one of my Twitter
6:52
Speaker 1: followers just sent me something saying, just have my car
6:54
Speaker 1: insurance renewre through from churchill Man sure of nine years,
6:57
Speaker 1: no changes, no claims, premium doubled.
7:01
Speaker 2: What is going on there?
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Speaker 4: Okay, so I've heard terrible stories as well. Do you
7:07
Speaker 4: know what statistically the average increase over the last twelve
7:09
Speaker 4: months has been percentage wise? John to have us hazard
7:11
Speaker 4: A guess.
7:12
Speaker 3: If we asked John's deepic, it's one hundred percent.
7:14
Speaker 4: But I'm going to go eight twenty one percent, which
7:17
Speaker 4: is a lot, but you've got to bear in mind
7:19
Speaker 4: that the average comprehensive car insurance policy in the UK
7:23
Speaker 4: now sits at five hundred and eleven pounds. It's you
7:26
Speaker 4: know again, it's still money, but it's still not massive amounts.
7:29
Speaker 4: So we've seen increases. But there are these stories out
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Speaker 4: there and much I don't want to add fuel to
7:34
Speaker 4: the fire. I have to tell you about a client
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Speaker 4: that we were asked to buy Alexus for last week
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Speaker 4: and nothing made a ten grand car twenty it was
7:43
Speaker 4: a twenty five grand car. And he's in his eighties
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Speaker 4: and his claims history is we're supposed to be putting
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Speaker 4: this not brilliant, and he know that feeling. He couldn't
7:55
Speaker 4: get any quote apart from one where they quoted him
7:59
Speaker 4: and are you ready for this? I am seventy one
8:02
Speaker 4: thousand pounds a year.
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Speaker 2: So these stories, these stores see get a taxi.
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Speaker 4: We also we actually figured that we could get him
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Speaker 4: a Bentley and a driver and make him a lot
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Speaker 4: more money than paying his insurance premium.
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Speaker 1: I hope that's what he did. It's my retirement dream
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Speaker 1: is to have a Bentley and a driver. I really
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Speaker 1: hope he did that. Dreams can come true.
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Speaker 4: Sadly he didn't, but you know he's still has time
8:25
Speaker 4: to change his mind. Ye. So you know they've been
8:27
Speaker 4: increases in insurance, but the main reason is it's the
8:30
Speaker 4: cost of repairing cars has gone up. Car parts have
8:34
Speaker 4: gone up by a third in the last year they've
8:37
Speaker 4: written by about general cost. Repairs have risen by about thirds.
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Speaker 4: Every time an insured repairs someone's car, it cost him
8:43
Speaker 4: a third more than they did previously. Car parts are
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Speaker 4: up between twelve and twenty one percent. So you know
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Speaker 4: it's that's the parts alone. There's there's a major lack
8:54
Speaker 4: of supply. Certain manufacturers are really struggling. Land Rover parts
8:58
Speaker 4: are a nightmare. I know people who had land Rovers
9:00
Speaker 4: waiting for parts for six to eight weeks, parts that
9:03
Speaker 4: the car can't run without. Tesla not so bad at
9:07
Speaker 4: the moment, but historically have had problems getting parts of
9:10
Speaker 4: their cars. I've known as the drivers who waited seven
9:12
Speaker 4: or eight months have their car repaired because they just
9:14
Speaker 4: can't get the part in that they need. And of course,
9:17
Speaker 4: as long as a car sits a repairer, the repair
9:20
Speaker 4: is charging storage courtesy cars. So yeah, Curtsey cards have
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Speaker 4: gone up and it's just that's that's a massive cost
9:27
Speaker 4: as well. Are there any signs of it getting any better?
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Speaker 4: I don't think so. I don't think car prices are
9:33
Speaker 4: going to a car park prices are going to come down,
9:35
Speaker 4: I don't think.
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Speaker 3: And this is this a global supply chain problem?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, for a lot of parts it is. Yeah, And
9:41
Speaker 4: you know it gets worse because then parts can't be
9:43
Speaker 4: shipped in the quickest way, they can't come ray, the
9:45
Speaker 4: sewers canal at the moment. There's all you know, a
9:47
Speaker 4: lot of a lot of manufacturers were in Ukraine. It's
9:49
Speaker 4: a whole lot of different factors that have come together
9:52
Speaker 4: to make it. Yeah, a pretty pretty bad situation.
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Speaker 3: Okay, So is the lesson that don't buy a Landrover
9:57
Speaker 3: and don't buy a.
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Speaker 4: Tessler say that without getting sued on a podcast? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
10:04
Speaker 4: I wouldn't buy a Tesla And I now expect all
10:06
Speaker 4: the Tesla lovers to come and hate me for saying
10:08
Speaker 4: that that comment. Land Rovers have a separate issue as well.
10:12
Speaker 4: Land Rovers have been accused of being stolen left, right
10:16
Speaker 4: and center, and the reality is not all that bad.
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Speaker 4: But speaking to an insurance broker a month or so ago,
10:23
Speaker 4: who said that if you live in London and you
10:25
Speaker 4: have a new shape range Rover, Sport or range Rover,
10:28
Speaker 4: if it's parked on the street, forget it. It's parked
10:31
Speaker 4: on the drive twenty grand a year, so.
10:35
Speaker 1: It's parked on the street. You can't get insured at
10:37
Speaker 1: all on the drive every years.
10:40
Speaker 4: What they is what they started now land Rover has
10:42
Speaker 4: since launched. They have since put a lot of time
10:44
Speaker 4: and investment into their own insurance products because they want
10:46
Speaker 4: to solve the problem themselves. So that I think land
10:49
Speaker 4: Rove insurance being silly money at the moment, will change,
10:53
Speaker 4: but I think general for all of us, I think
10:54
Speaker 4: it's going to be the way it is now for
10:56
Speaker 4: the foreseeable future.
10:58
Speaker 1: Tell me where the value is in the secondhand car
11:00
Speaker 1: market at the moment. Now, what's happening in the market
11:03
Speaker 1: as a whole? We have this period, didn't we post
11:05
Speaker 1: pandemic when secondhand car prices weren't absolutely berserk because you
11:08
Speaker 1: couldn't get new ones? And now that's turned around a
11:12
Speaker 1: little bit. What's the market looking like looking like as
11:14
Speaker 1: a whole? And where are the bargains? Where's the place
11:17
Speaker 1: to look?
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Speaker 4: It's a fairly recent thing that the values have started
11:20
Speaker 4: to come down, and they've kind of leveled out a
11:22
Speaker 4: bit now in the used car markets. I mean, there
11:25
Speaker 4: are certain things that are still struggling. I mean it's
11:28
Speaker 4: I think it's the same with any situation whereby when
11:30
Speaker 4: an economy is not been as good as it has
11:33
Speaker 4: been previously. Although I think we all believe it's going
11:36
Speaker 4: to get better for this year, but things like, you know,
11:39
Speaker 4: the top end of the market, the Ferraris and the
11:41
Speaker 4: Bentleys are a bargain right now because no one really
11:43
Speaker 4: wants to be buying them.
11:45
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm interrupting. I'm interrupting.
11:47
Speaker 1: What do you mean by a bargain in the context
11:50
Speaker 1: of a Bentley, the prices have come down by.
11:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, yes, they're that expensive. So you know, where's
11:57
Speaker 4: the Bentley would have been six months ago, sixty thousand
12:01
Speaker 4: pounds It might be as low as forty five to
12:03
Speaker 4: fifty now, And that's in percentage terms. It's a huge decrease.
12:07
Speaker 4: Some electric cars are even worse because there's been a
12:10
Speaker 4: lot of bad pr about electric vehicles lately, and it's
12:14
Speaker 4: not very fair. I was at a family gathering yesterday
12:17
Speaker 4: and two separate members of my family were saying, oh,
12:19
Speaker 4: they could never have electric car because they can't handle
12:22
Speaker 4: the charging. Now, I ran an electric car for three years,
12:26
Speaker 4: and I ran it because I wanted to figure out
12:28
Speaker 4: how you wrap your head around charging it. And when
12:30
Speaker 4: you've got past that herd or it is actually really
12:32
Speaker 4: easy to run an electric car. But the values are
12:37
Speaker 4: falling through the floor. Probably the most extreme example I
12:40
Speaker 4: can give you about electric vehicles is we source an
12:43
Speaker 4: Audi e Tron, which is ow this big kind of
12:46
Speaker 4: family four by four electric vehicle. We sourced it for
12:49
Speaker 4: a client probably a little of a year and a
12:51
Speaker 4: half ago, and at the time you had to wait
12:54
Speaker 4: a year for a brand new one, so we paid
12:56
Speaker 4: a couple of thousand pounds less. This cor would have
12:58
Speaker 4: been brand new as seventy two thousand pound. Eighteen months
13:01
Speaker 4: down the line, the client wishes to change over something else.
13:05
Speaker 4: We managed to get back for him from our poly
13:06
Speaker 4: exchange partners. After trying everything we could. Thirty thou pounds
13:11
Speaker 4: went from seventy two grand to thirty grand in the
13:14
Speaker 4: place the eighteen months, and they continueing to fall. So
13:17
Speaker 4: right now, electric vehicles are are They're not a bargain,
13:21
Speaker 4: but they're getting cheaper.
13:22
Speaker 1: Isn't this about people recognizing how difficult it is to
13:25
Speaker 1: get new batteries and of zie understanda moving into a
13:29
Speaker 1: bit where you're going to say, you don't have to
13:30
Speaker 1: anything about cars, maren, but you know the batteries need replacing.
13:34
Speaker 1: They're extremely expensive. The whole thing is quite difficult to repair.
13:39
Speaker 1: And so people are beginning to see that the second
13:42
Speaker 1: hand electric car is not something you really want.
13:45
Speaker 4: I'd actually flip it on its head because for me,
13:47
Speaker 4: electric cars are much simpler than a petrol car. Because
13:51
Speaker 4: if thing of a combustion engine, how many thousands of
13:53
Speaker 4: parts are in there? Electric motor has got a fraction
13:56
Speaker 4: of the parts in there. You know, when Tesla first
13:59
Speaker 4: started out, they weren't producing the best quality cars. In fact,
14:02
Speaker 4: their bill quality was pretty shoddy to say the least.
14:06
Speaker 4: Yet there weren't massive reliability issues because electric cars are
14:09
Speaker 4: just so much simpler, so fewer parts and there are
14:11
Speaker 4: To give an example back to Tesla, there are testas
14:13
Speaker 4: on the road that have got one hundred and fifty
14:16
Speaker 4: two hundred thousand miles and still retain most of their charge.
14:20
Speaker 4: But there are other manufacturers. When I drove a mechanic
14:23
Speaker 4: and mind bought a Nissan Leaf that was ten years
14:25
Speaker 4: old and done thirty thousand miles and it's battery range
14:27
Speaker 4: with down to about third of what it was previously,
14:30
Speaker 4: And a part of it depends on how you treat
14:31
Speaker 4: the battery. And cars are getting better. So the technology
14:34
Speaker 4: is progressing, but I wouldn't necessarily say that electric car
14:37
Speaker 4: is going to not last as long. And the feedback
14:40
Speaker 4: I get it's about the charging of it, not necessarily
14:42
Speaker 4: reliability of it. But I think as the year goes,
14:46
Speaker 4: I think twenty twenty four carries on electric vehicle parks
14:49
Speaker 4: are going to carry on reducing to such a level
14:51
Speaker 4: that I think people who don't want evs are going
14:54
Speaker 4: to be buying them because actually they're I think they
14:56
Speaker 4: end up being cheaper than their petrol and diesel equivalents.
14:58
Speaker 4: People bindly just because they're cheaper. Thing that's gonna be
15:00
Speaker 4: an interesting time to live in.
15:03
Speaker 2: Interesting.
15:04
Speaker 1: So you are pro Bentley's pro electric cars at the moment,
15:07
Speaker 1: but I think you're anti hybrid?
15:08
Speaker 2: Is that right?
15:10
Speaker 4: Am I anti hybridsh I have to come out? Yeah?
15:14
Speaker 1: I mean I look at people who have hybrids and
15:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is the point You just made your
15:18
Speaker 1: car a whole load heavier, and I know, I know,
15:21
Speaker 1: you never plug that thing in.
15:22
Speaker 4: You're okay. So there's three types of hybrids, and what
15:25
Speaker 4: you've mentioned there is a plug in hybrids and plug
15:28
Speaker 4: in hybrids. I do of an issue with because you've
15:29
Speaker 4: just made the point exactly right. You are towing around
15:32
Speaker 4: the weight of a combustion engine and an electric drive train.
15:36
Speaker 4: Self charging hybrids, the ones we don't have to plug
15:38
Speaker 4: them in. I go hots and cold about and I
15:41
Speaker 4: go hot and cold because if you look at it
15:43
Speaker 4: on paper, they actually are better, and it varies manufacturers
15:48
Speaker 4: to manufacturers. So Toyota have always done hybrids. Toyota love hybrids.
15:52
Speaker 4: They everything they do they do hybrids. And at the
15:54
Speaker 4: same time Toyta were doing hybrids. Ford for example, we're
15:58
Speaker 4: sticking one liter three clid the turbo charge engines in
16:01
Speaker 4: their car. And even though on paper the toyt was
16:04
Speaker 4: getting better fuel economy and better SEO two output, in
16:08
Speaker 4: the real world there's very difference between them. And the
16:11
Speaker 4: hybrid has uses materials for all over the world. They're
16:15
Speaker 4: not very electric cars. Hybrids plug in hybrids. The material
16:18
Speaker 4: that takes to make the cars is incredibly damaging for
16:22
Speaker 4: our environment.
16:23
Speaker 1: Okay, we need focus. We need focus because we have
16:25
Speaker 1: to answer these questions for John. Because John needs a
16:28
Speaker 1: new car, right not on your car, a new old car.
16:31
Speaker 3: So should he trade this thing in now?
16:34
Speaker 2: Or is the environment going to get better?
16:36
Speaker 3: And should he trade this nasty thing in later in
16:38
Speaker 3: the year.
16:39
Speaker 4: I actually think the market is going to pick up
16:41
Speaker 4: a bit as a year goes by, So I think
16:43
Speaker 4: used car, so as his upgrading, it's the cost.
16:46
Speaker 2: Of change, is upgrading?
16:48
Speaker 4: Well, I can't downgrade from from this current car, can he? No?
16:53
Speaker 4: So you know, so it's cost of change. So yes,
16:55
Speaker 4: right now he'll get less for his get less part
16:58
Speaker 4: of changes current car, but he'll buy his new car
17:00
Speaker 4: for less mine as well. So yes, now is the
17:01
Speaker 4: time to do it. I think as a year progress
17:03
Speaker 4: is Yes, he'll probably get a little bit work back
17:05
Speaker 4: for more for his current car, but he'll pay more
17:08
Speaker 4: for the new car.
17:09
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what John's going to do when he
17:12
Speaker 1: goes to buy the new car. You've actually got a
17:14
Speaker 1: great guide to this center. I don't I don't want to,
17:16
Speaker 1: you know, pick up actually too much. But if you
17:18
Speaker 1: go to his website, there is a great guide to
17:20
Speaker 1: how to buy a used car. And obviously if you
17:22
Speaker 1: don't want to read that, that's okay, because actually's going
17:24
Speaker 1: to tell you right now one of the most important
17:26
Speaker 1: things you need to have in mind if you're going
17:28
Speaker 1: to trade in your unsuitable car for one that will
17:31
Speaker 1: make children like him more.
17:32
Speaker 4: Absolutely so. I mean, the guide is twenty eight pages long,
17:36
Speaker 4: and I try to keep it short from some of
17:38
Speaker 4: that is appendices. So there's a lot you can learn
17:41
Speaker 4: about how to buy a buyer cars. It's free to
17:43
Speaker 4: download from our website, so anyone's very welcome to distill
17:48
Speaker 4: it down into three top tips. I'd say top tip
17:52
Speaker 4: number one is to buy a car from someone you
17:54
Speaker 4: get on well with, which sounds like a weird thing
17:57
Speaker 4: to do. And I know we all like to buy
18:00
Speaker 4: to give our money to people we like, but there's
18:02
Speaker 4: something about that level of trust in your gut when
18:05
Speaker 4: you're spending so much money that's got to be right,
18:07
Speaker 4: you know, if something doesn't feel right or deal just
18:09
Speaker 4: seems good to be, to just walk away. Yeah, and
18:13
Speaker 4: you mentioned houses when we're talking at the start. You know,
18:16
Speaker 4: houses are very different. Every house is different from well
18:18
Speaker 4: not every house, but virtually every house is different from
18:20
Speaker 4: it from another house. Cars are cookie cutter things.
18:23
Speaker 1: You know.
18:24
Speaker 4: If you buy a black BMW three point thirty I
18:28
Speaker 4: M sport with beige interior, it's the same as every
18:31
Speaker 4: other one. So you know if one, if one deal
18:33
Speaker 4: is not working out, you'll find another one out there.
18:36
Speaker 4: But yeah, you know, to buy for someone you like,
18:38
Speaker 4: and please pick up the phone to them. Don't just
18:42
Speaker 4: look on their website or send them a message. Pick
18:44
Speaker 4: up the phone. You really want to find out whether
18:45
Speaker 4: you can measure someone. Talk to them on the phone.
18:48
Speaker 4: It's it's the best way to do it. And you know,
18:50
Speaker 4: if your spidery sense tingles is not right, absolutely move on.
18:53
Speaker 4: So that's number one. Buy a car from someone you
18:55
Speaker 4: get on well with. There's always always dumb.
18:57
Speaker 1: Me proud, okay, And talk to them on the phone.
19:00
Speaker 1: People are so bad at talking on the phone these days.
19:02
Speaker 1: Just pick up the phone. You get more of a sense.
19:04
Speaker 4: Number two, get proof the car exists. The biggest scam
19:08
Speaker 4: out there at the moment is criminals who will create
19:11
Speaker 4: a website it's a clone of an existing car dealer's websites,
19:14
Speaker 4: so when you google them you see that it's that
19:17
Speaker 4: they're the real person, but it's a space. It's a
19:19
Speaker 4: spoof website with a spoof number the advertised cars that
19:22
Speaker 4: are genuine cars, and people get they're called up, or
19:26
Speaker 4: they go online, or they don't call up. They place
19:29
Speaker 4: an order for this car, they're expected to be delivered,
19:31
Speaker 4: and the car is never there, and their money disappears.
19:35
Speaker 4: And it happens, It happens. It happens a fair amount.
19:38
Speaker 4: I ran an experiment in probably about fifteen years ago
19:41
Speaker 4: where I placed an advert an auto trader for a
19:44
Speaker 4: car that was twenty five percent below the value. And
19:46
Speaker 4: I can't tell you how many calls and message having,
19:48
Speaker 4: people going, I want to buy the car now, or
19:50
Speaker 4: send you the money now. You know, it's make sure
19:53
Speaker 4: the car is physically there. Now. That may mean going
19:56
Speaker 4: to go and physically see the car. It may mean
19:58
Speaker 4: using a car finding service. You know, of course I
20:01
Speaker 4: can recommend a great one of those to go and
20:04
Speaker 4: do it at work for you. Or it may mean,
20:07
Speaker 4: you know, buying a car from someone that you know
20:09
Speaker 4: is reputable, like a large outlet. There are lots of
20:13
Speaker 4: these direct car sales companies out there now, although they
20:17
Speaker 4: haven't fed quite as well as they would do because
20:19
Speaker 4: I think that the car PI public has proved these
20:22
Speaker 4: these disruptors that actually we want to go and see
20:25
Speaker 4: our cars. You know, Karzam went into administration. There are
20:29
Speaker 4: three big ones around the start of lockdown, Karzam, Sinch,
20:31
Speaker 4: and Kazoo. Karsam went into administration back in twenty twenty two.
20:36
Speaker 4: Kazoo has gone from europe wide to UK wide to
20:39
Speaker 4: restructuring its debt in December, never being profitable. Since are
20:45
Speaker 4: a large part of the Constellation Automotive group, their site
20:49
Speaker 4: as being one of the reasons why that group's using
20:51
Speaker 4: lots of money. You know, fine to go and see
20:54
Speaker 4: a car yourself, but please please do that. Just take
20:56
Speaker 4: care of you, you know, making sure the car physically exists.
20:59
Speaker 4: So that's number two.
21:00
Speaker 1: And then can I interrupt on that test because one
21:02
Speaker 1: things I have actually read your user guide, you know
21:05
Speaker 1: read it.
21:06
Speaker 2: One of the things that you say.
21:07
Speaker 1: In them is to never agree to meet someone halfway.
21:12
Speaker 1: Private buyer will often say, gosh, it's a long drive
21:15
Speaker 1: for you, I'll meet you halfway.
21:17
Speaker 2: We'll meet at the cost at the worst shopping center.
21:21
Speaker 4: It's something that used to happen. I might be taking
21:23
Speaker 4: a lit bit my age here, But you meet someone
21:25
Speaker 4: at service station with a bag of cash. Why do
21:27
Speaker 4: you want to show gotture service station and meet someone
21:30
Speaker 4: who knows where you're going there you can have cash
21:31
Speaker 4: in your pocket or now to do a bank transfer. Yeah, yeah,
21:35
Speaker 4: it's personal safety. People. Please remember that you're ready for
21:39
Speaker 4: number three. I am do your homework and that means
21:43
Speaker 4: that you run a car date to check on the
21:45
Speaker 4: car you're buying yourself, to make sure everything stacks up.
21:48
Speaker 4: You know when a car dealer says, or actually any
21:52
Speaker 4: sellers's full service history. Remember the three words full service
21:56
Speaker 4: history are the three most abused words in the used
22:00
Speaker 4: car industry. Everyone says full service history. But you need
22:03
Speaker 4: to know whether your car is due sercing every year
22:06
Speaker 4: or every two years. I had to find out from
22:08
Speaker 4: the seller that it had its service on a date,
22:11
Speaker 4: B date, C date and E data and it all
22:14
Speaker 4: checks up and it's all fine, and they have all
22:16
Speaker 4: the paperwork there. And a third bit of you're doing
22:19
Speaker 4: your homework is have a look at who you're buying
22:22
Speaker 4: the car from. Look, if you're buying it from someone privately,
22:24
Speaker 4: it's not so easy. But if you're buying from a
22:26
Speaker 4: daler look at their online reviews. If they're on somewhere
22:29
Speaker 4: like auto Trader, they cannot edit those Auto traded reviews.
22:32
Speaker 4: You know, have a look at that. You know, do
22:34
Speaker 4: your homework, make sure that that there isn't someone out there.
22:36
Speaker 4: And if someone has a negative review, same with any company,
22:40
Speaker 4: A good company worth it, so will apply that negative
22:42
Speaker 4: review and offer their point of view and be fair
22:43
Speaker 4: about it and not too ranty. So yeah, look at that.
22:46
Speaker 4: So yeah, those are my three top tips. You buy
22:50
Speaker 4: a car from something you get on with, make sure
22:53
Speaker 4: the car physically exists, and do your homework. And for
22:55
Speaker 4: another ninety five tips, download the guide for free.
22:59
Speaker 1: So now everyone's listen to you and they're excited to
23:01
Speaker 1: hear about your knowledge. There in their mind they're thinking
23:04
Speaker 1: how many cars does I actually have, what kind of
23:06
Speaker 1: cast does he have, etc. They're also thinking for themselves,
23:09
Speaker 1: if I actually could buy one car right now to
23:11
Speaker 1: add to his fleet, that would be a really amazing
23:13
Speaker 1: car and would definitely offer value.
23:15
Speaker 2: Not a Bentley. We talked about Bentley's what would it be.
23:18
Speaker 4: Off a value?
23:19
Speaker 1: Well off a value in the sense that it would
23:21
Speaker 1: offer value in terms of both the experience and the price,
23:26
Speaker 1: and crucially hold its resale value.
23:30
Speaker 4: So I'm sorry to give you two answers on this
23:32
Speaker 4: because a that's not a question to ask me. For me,
23:36
Speaker 4: I want to buy a car that's going to keep
23:37
Speaker 4: its value, it's going to do well. I'll be looking
23:39
Speaker 4: at a nineteen eighties Ferrari or something weird and bizarre
23:42
Speaker 4: like that. But I don't think most people should go
23:44
Speaker 4: out and buy a car like that because it's just
23:47
Speaker 4: not what they're looking for for a normal person. And
23:50
Speaker 4: I am not normal when it comes to the world
23:52
Speaker 4: of cars, because my tastes are very weird for a
23:54
Speaker 4: normal person. I actually really like Hyendys and Keys. They
23:59
Speaker 4: especially the used market. They're really well screwed together. They
24:03
Speaker 4: come with great equipment levels, they're good value, and they
24:06
Speaker 4: come with massive long warranties. Will I ever buy a
24:09
Speaker 4: kir or Hynde. Maybe it's not. They're not gonna be
24:12
Speaker 4: top on my list because I'm really into my cars.
24:14
Speaker 4: But for most normal people, I think that's where the
24:16
Speaker 4: value for money is right now.
24:18
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today,
24:22
Speaker 1: an incredibly useful pleasure. Thanks for listening to this week's
24:29
Speaker 1: Maren Talk to Your Money. If you like us, show, rate, review,
24:31
Speaker 1: and subscribe wherever you listen to the podcasts.
24:33
Speaker 2: Also digest topics you want us to.
24:35
Speaker 1: Hit in the comments section. This episode was posted by
24:38
Speaker 1: me Maren Sunset Web. It was produced by Samasadi, additional
24:41
Speaker 1: editing by Blake Maples and special thanks of course to
24:43
Speaker 1: Ashley Winston