So I’ve found the MX5 I want but it’s being sold by a dealer whose premises look a bit, shall we say, ‘rough and ready’. The car is still under Mazda warranty so I’m not too concerned about it’s mechanicals so long as the body looks fine. 1yr old and under 1500 miles. I would be third owner, but I’m guessing is was a pre-reg so only one real owner. I know the last owners name from a doc that was shared with me but no other details.
But I’m nervous about the exchange of >£20K of cash. Dealer has mostly good reviews with a few horrors as you might expect. I can run one of those services that check for cars that have been written off or still under finance, check VIN number matches etc.
Is there any way I can protect myself against anything else being or going awry? Maybe I have nothing to worry about and I’m being over cautious?!
Not sure how it is in the UK, so maybe this is an answer with no use to you. In The Netherlands, the seller is 6 months accountable for the car when it has defects. Even he gives no warrenty he is still accountable.
What I have done when I bought my car was
did a check on the car via license plate. It gave me the exact number of owners, if it ever was in an accident, if the milage is correct
asked around on dutch MX5 forums if the car was known.
Ask for extra warrenty
What you could do to maybe ease your mind
Ask for extended warrenty
let the car be checked by a third party, here we can go to the RAC and they have this service where you can let tour car be checked.
What are you main concerns ? ( maybe I should have started with this question
Yeah I need to be patient. White 2.0 ND convertibles are like rocking horse poo. Seems few are bought by Mazda dealers so few get fed into the 2nd hand market or get made available as pre-reg. So I have to wait for factory orders to be sold by their first owners.
Would you also be cautious of car sat in a dealership (inside) for a year never having been driven?
I would wonder how a “rough and ready” trader would have a 1-year old low mileage car to sell. Such cars would normally be disposed of through the dealer network (or at least a larger non-franchise dealership).
Can you find out anything about the dealer? Is he registered with Companies House? Are there any mentions (good or bad) of the company or the dealer on social media on elsewhere on the internet?
Do an internet search on the registration number f the car.
I would want to check that there hasn’t been any crash damage - some of the more expensive car check site can tell you whether it was ever recorded as an insurance-funded repair.
If you have details of a previous owner, I’d certainly try to make contact with them and find out anything you can about its history.
As it should still be under Mazda’s new vehicle warranty, I’d bring the VIN into my local Mazda dealership and ask them to confirm the details.
If you do buy it (and there are lots of other MX-5’s out there…) make sure to pay at least £100 on a credit (not debit) card, so that you get Section 75 coverage.
Presumably it will have the supplying dealer number plates still on it. If so a quick phone call to them with the registration number may bring to light anything fishy.
Sorry if this is not of much help but if I was asking questions on the intelweb about how to protect myself in the event of things going wrong on a 20k bank transfer I hope I would have the sense to walk away. If a car that age with so few miles does not have a rock solid history all owners known, insurance write off clearance, my main suspicion would be here in the case of a 3 owner 1 year old car, rock solid finance clearance 2nd place of suspicion repossesion perhaps, and an absolutley trustworthy person selling, I would not be buying. If it does not feel right I’d keep looking and I have been on both sides of the buying selling fence, amateur and professional. Good luck finding your MX-5.
20k+ is a lot to spend if you have reservations about who you are buying it from. You could probably get a really nice approved used car for that, maybe not as new or low mileage but from a main dealer you are much better protected at that money.
One bad review, loads of very good reviews, a very good website! The premises may not be very posh but what is their stock like and what are they like to talk to ?
They are AA approved so get an AA check done on the car
