Morris Minor Owners Club

I've spent the past few days trekking across the West Midlands in search of a replacement for my every-day Astra which needs serious money spending on it.

With a preference for a smallish 4x4 and a budget of £3000 it's not been easy and I've seen a lot of cosmetically tidy but very high mileage cars with some serious rust problems underneath.

Eventually yesterday, I found a local dealer (a one-man business) who's entire stock is 4x4's between 9 and 15 years old. Among them, advertised on-line was a low mileage Suzuki with a pretty good MOT history but a few hundred quid over budget. I went to see the car and found that the price on the windscreen was £500 more than the on-line price. All the other car prices shown corresponded with the on-line prices. When I queried the price difference, he immediately dropped the price saying that the higher price was correct but as he'd made an error with the on-line advert he'd sell at the lower price.

A test-drive revealed that the newly-fitted rear silencer was mis-aligned causing an annoying rattle. He flatly refused to let me take the car until it had been re-fitted correctly.

Then he volunteered to take my Astra as a p/ex and offered me a higher price for it than I'd been asking when I tried (and failed) to sell it privately a few months ago. He hardly looked at the car; didn't even run the engine; just checked it's HPI status.

In the finish, my purchase, including a year's warranty (extended at my expense to two years) has come in under budget. Pretty chuffed so far

I take it Forum Rules prohibit you naming ?

John

I think I'd be happier waiting until our business is concluded. So far I have absolutely no complaints about them but I suppose I won't get the full picture until I've actually got the car in my possession.

I have since learned that one of my neighbours bought from them recently and is very happy with them.

Sleeper wrote: ↑Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:40 pm I take it Forum Rules prohibit you naming ?

John

Not one that I'm aware of

So... I've had the car for a few days now and definitely pleased. Given that it's 14 years old it's incredibly clean inside outside and underneath. Done just under 60k miles (verified) and doesn't look as if it's ever been off-roaded. Was MOT'd earlier this year. Passed with advisories. The dealer cleared all the advisories and supplied it with a fresh MOT prior to sale.

2004 Suzuki Grand Vitara 2.0i petrol. Manual 4x4 If you're In the market for a used 4x4 I'd recommend this company. Not the cheapest maybe, but good quality and good service.
Premier Cars of Cradley Heath, West Midlands.
(with whom I have no affiliation or business links)

Good ,tough,reliable cars if you look after them. It was the original Vitara that triggered my wife's love of4x4's.
And I agree that there are decent honest dealers around, we know of a few. And for the work that they have to do I wouldn't begrudge them a profit on each car they sell!
It's a shame about all the rogues that give the trade such a bad name,we know a few of them too...

re your trade-in motor,palacebear..i have a mate who is a used car dealer..and a fair few of his trade-in's he just sends straight to the scrapyard,if of low value. he dosen't want a load of old bangers cluttering up his forecourt!

Pretty certain my trade-in fell into the category sid refers to. Lengthy list of advisories at the last MOT which I haven't attended to. Almost 100k miles on the clock. Due a timing belt change. Noisy water pump. Camshaft rattle on cold starting.