Shabby main dealer cars

[Welton]

We're in the market soon-ish (depending on the economy/jobs/covid) to finance a newer family car and given the high cost of anything half-decent around 4 years old (£15K) my biggest fear is how badly its been maintained and what's lurking around the corner for me to deal with.

Keep having a half-arsed look at Kia Sportage's (kinda sized thing we want) and one popped up recently I like the sound of: 2017 car, previous business use, 110K miles and £12k due to high miles - now I don't mind that sort of use, its been up and down motorways for 3 years, that's fine by me and probably would have had any warranty issues already dealt with by now. All it needs is a loving home and lots of TLC going forward.

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by Welton

We're in the market soon-ish (depending on the economy/jobs/covid) to finance a newer family car and given the high cost of anything half-decent around 4 years old (£15K) my biggest fear is how badly its been maintained and what's lurking around the corner for me to deal with.

Keep having a half-arsed look at Kia Sportage's (kinda sized thing we want) and one popped up recently I like the sound of: 2017 car, previous business use, 110K miles and £12k due to high miles - now I don't mind that sort of use, its been up and down motorways for 3 years, that's fine by me and probably would have had any warranty issues already dealt with by now. All it needs is a loving home and lots of TLC going forward.

Our other car is a 2017 Sportage (an auto diesel '3' with a panoramic roof). It's a very nice car indeed, the only mild disappointment is the fuel consumption.

[foggyjames]

I despair at how hard it seems to be to get a decent paint job done for a sensible price, pretty much anywhere. I had both bumpers done on my V70 last year, and two different places. Both were ****e jobs, for different reasons.

I went to look at a 56-plate Ocean Race P2 XC70 at my local dealer back in 2011, before I bought my old 05-plate V70 D5. It was up for £3k over the book price, and it was a complete shambles. Stone chips all around the arches and up the side, and the thing was two different shades of blue, front and rear. I told them what I thought of their overpriced car (which they wouldn't let me drive more than around the block anyway!), and went and bought a much smarter one for £10k less(!) which promptly did me 200k miles with very little trouble.

I've had much better results buying cars privately than from traders, and that continues to be my preference.

cheers

James

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Welton

We're in the market soon-ish (depending on the economy/jobs/covid) to finance a newer family car and given the high cost of anything half-decent around 4 years old (£15K) my biggest fear is how badly its been maintained and what's lurking around the corner for me to deal with.

Keep having a half-arsed look at Kia Sportage's (kinda sized thing we want) and one popped up recently I like the sound of: 2017 car, previous business use, 110K miles and £12k due to high miles - now I don't mind that sort of use, its been up and down motorways for 3 years, that's fine by me and probably would have had any warranty issues already dealt with by now. All it needs is a loving home and lots of TLC going forward.

If you could stretch the budget a bit more, buy one with lower mileage (less than 100k) & you'll still have a decent warranty.

Lets say that particular car you mentioned had 80k on it for example, you'd still have 4 years left of the 7 year warranty (Kia offer a 7 year/100k warranty). As is stands now, there's no warranty on that vehicle with it having over 100k on it. Just something to consider.

Financing a car with a good chunk of a warranty remaining offers you peace of mind. Obviously, there's limitations to what's covered & what isn't like any cover, but generally, Kia's warranty is very good.

Kia is a wise choice, given the manufacturer warranty is much longer than other brands offer.

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

If you could stretch the budget a bit more, buy one with lower mileage (less than 100k) & you'll still have a decent warranty.

Lets say that particular car you mentioned had 80k on it for example, you'd still have 4 years left of the 7 year warranty (Kia offer a 7 year/100k warranty). As is stands now, there's no warranty on that vehicle with it having over 100k on it. Just something to consider.

Financing a car with a good chunk of a warranty remaining offers you peace of mind. Obviously, there's limitations to what's covered & what isn't like any cover, but generally, Kia's warranty is very good.

Kia is a wise choice, given the manufacturer warranty is much longer than other brands offer.

Kia are excellent. I was noseying on the Internet the other day and found you can lease a new diesel Sorento for about £280 a month which seems like a lot of reliable motor for the loot?

[DaveNP]

I know this is a Volvo forum and we shouldn't be bigging up other brands, but we have been well pleased with the CEE'D bought as a 3 year old and passed on to my daughter at 10 years old, we replaced it with a 1 year old Stonic. The Stonic had issues with an exterior temperature sensor and the Radio/SatNav but both were fixed under warranty with no argument. Before buying the Stonic we visited the local Kia dealer's two sites but then bought from another a short drive away, on each site the cars available looked in good condition and well presented and the staff were helpful and pleasant, I've not tried buying a car from a Volvo dealer but if the attitude one gets in some when buying parts is an indication they could learn a bit from Kia.

[Welton]

Fair point about that Kia's mileage and expired warranty - I even joined the Kia Forum and they were a bit "oooh the warranty".......

In theory if Kia's are as good as they say then you shouldn't need the warranty but I agree £12k is a lot without any back up.

I agree DaveNP about Volvo dealerships; the one I purchased from and the more local one I used for servicing initially were condescending and snobbish - I could tolerate that attitude if they were masters of their trade but the reality was far from it.

[acshortt5]

Originally Posted by foggyjames

I despair at how hard it seems to be to get a decent paint job done for a sensible price, pretty much anywhere. I had both bumpers done on my V70 last year, and two different places. Both were ****e jobs, for different reasons.


cheers

James

Quite a while ago I had my front bumper completely repainted by the local main dealer bodyshop who did an excellent job and I didn't pay a penny either as the neighbour had scraped it while parking ;-) Could really do with him scraping the rear bumper for me at some point...

On another note I was quoted silly amounts for respraying the bonnet, not surprising really as it's a big surface area to prep & paint (due to horrible laquer peel around the screen wash jets) luckily I managed to find a silver V70 being broken with a decent bonnet so drove over and did a swap along with £50 cash... for every problem there is a solution + a yorkshire solution which saves money.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Welton

Fair point about that Kia's mileage and expired warranty - I even joined the Kia Forum and they were a bit "oooh the warranty".......

In theory if Kia's are as good as they say then you shouldn't need the warranty but I agree £12k is a lot without any back up.

I agree DaveNP about Volvo dealerships; the one I purchased from and the more local one I used for servicing initially were condescending and snobbish - I could tolerate that attitude if they were masters of their trade but the reality was far from it.

Buying one with a warranty makes sense. Even if it means stretching the budget a bit to buy one with less than 100k so you're covered, it just gives you that extra piece of mind.

I don't know the mileage that you do, but try to match your budget to one that's still relatively new & with the lowest miles possible. That means you'll be within the 7 year period age wise & it'll have less than 100k, so double whammy!

Remember, the warranty works on a "whichever comes first" basis. Therefore, if your car hits the 7 year old mark, but hasn't done the 100k yet, its classed as being out of warranty because it hit the age restriction first. If you hit 100k before the car is 7 years old, its no longer under warranty because you hit the mileage restriction first.

My Dad had a 52 plate Kia Carens. It was a petrol, automatic & had mod cons like air con etc (everything worked). Bear in mind, it was only purchased as a "stop gap" car, as his Ford Galaxy was written off & he needed something to toddle about in & it just happened to be for sale locally.

Anyway, it cost £600 with a good MOT on it & mechanically it was perfect. Body wise, it was clean, but there was some corrosion on one of the sills (not a huge issue, as it could be fixed easily). The only issue he ever had throughout ownership was that it needed a new radiator, which at the time on a 16 year old car that was used every single day seemed very reasonable indeed. Apart from that, the only other expense was servicing really.

The time come when my Dad needed a bigger car, so he bought a V70 D5 (P3 shape) & he traded the Kia in as part of the deal. There was nothing wrong with it - A perfect run around for someone really. It had a private number plate on it, which the previous owner sold with the vehicle originally. So before the decision was made to trade the car in, the reg was put on retention & the original plates went back onto the car. Then we decided to test the water & put the private plate up for sale. Someone paid £500 for that private number plate!

It was a very cheap car indeed.