Buying a second hand car

[Hester]

 I am in the process of buying a second hand car from a private seller. I would be grateful to hear if anyone else has been through the process. I have an appointment to see a car and wondered if they will always expect to be paid in cash (as one lady informed me, then sold her car before we even got to see it), will they expect us to be ready to buy it there and then if we are interested, any things to be wary of. I am going to see another this week and I think that it may be his ex-partner's car, therefore if it's her name and not his on the carte grise I presume that I should avoid it. Thanks, regards Hester.

[dave21478]

You need to be asking the sellers these questions - not us.

Some people want cash, others will take a cheque, others will insist on a bank draft. Some will let you take the car away immediately, some will want a deposit and expect you to return once payment has cleared. Only they will be able to tell you what is what.

Personally, I go with cash and am prepared to either take the car immediately or forget about it and walk away, but then I rarely pay more than about 1500 euros for a car.

Take a Certificate de Cesson with you, as some sellers dont have one to hand. Figure out how to fill it out before you leave rather than spend 20 minutes peering at the small print and wondering who signs where while you stand in the sellers kitchen.

If the carte gris is still in the name of the previous owner (current seller has not updated it to their own name) do not buy the car despite whatever reasons, excuses or other bullshit they tell you. In this situation, the best-case scenario is that you will have 2 carte grises to pay, one to register it in the current owners name and one to register it in your own name - and this relies entirely on the cooperation of the seller - do you trust them? At worst, it may not be possible to register the car in your own name at all and you have bought a worthless lump of metal.

Make sure it has a valid controle technique, and passed within the previous six months, or if it failed, it failed within the previous two months. Without this, you can not register the car so would have to pay to have it tested yourself.

Its a generalisation, but I find the French to be hopelessly unprepared to sell their car, often expecting you to view it, agree to buy, leave a deposit and then wait until they can put it through the CT, then return at some unspecified point in the future, depending on whether the car passes or fails.

Expect to find cars dirty inside and out, baby seat strapped in the back surrounded by crumbs, glovebox full of junk, boot full of personal effects and so on - its the rare exception to find someone has cleaned and prepared their car for sale.

Oh, and expect to have your pants well and truly pulled down over the price. Second hand cars are much dearer than UK anyway, and plenty of sellers like to try to add a "foreigner tax" to the price when they hear your accent.

[idun]

You should check to see if there is a loan on the car too. Could be on your prefecture web site and is called a certificat de non-gage.

[Hester]

Thank you for your replies. I prefer a bank draft, so will enquire about this, especially as I have to give a day's notice to the bank to withdraw the amount needed. Yes, I did try and ask,but the guy seemed more confused than me. Have checked out the website for the certificate de situation but will need more info from him first. Regards Hester.

[suein56]

[quote user="Hester"]... the guy seemed more confused than me. [/quote]

Dave's advice above is very sound.

When we bought a car second-hand the seller had no idea about anything. As the car only had 6 months CT left instead of 18 we said we would CT the car if he would pay for the repairs if it failed. His answer was to have it looked over by a garage and some repairs done which cost him quite a bit. He wanted a cheque paid in advance; which was scarey but we did this being forewarned that we could retro cancel the cheque if he should turn out to be a dodgy character. He wasn't and all was fine.

We are glad we took along the certificat de cession and told him how to deal with the old carte grise (after superb advice from another Dave (Sunday Driver as was) as the seller really had no idea.

Sue

[dave21478]

I think its just not in the culture to change cars often - certainly not in my area anyway. The second hand car market is very slow here, people tend to either keep their cars a long time or change them every few years at a dealership where all paperwork is done for them, so they have no real idea about how to sell a car privately, from advertising it, to paperwork to payments.

My elderly neighbour told me a while back that in the few years I have lived in this house I have owned more cars than he has owned in his whole life!

[suein56]

[quote user="dave21478"]I think its just not in the culture to change cars often - certainly not in my area anyway. [/quote]

That frame of mind suits me very well; I have had mine from new since 1996, so she is coming up to 18 in June.

Sue

[PaulT]

I have always found that having folding stuff can make a sellers eyes to glaze over and, keen to take ownership of the wadge a good deal can be done.

[Hester]

Hello, everything went OK. checked the car out and then went back a couple of days later.  The acutal owner was much more organised and had all the necessary forms completed and printed off. She preferred a cheque so I paid 14euros for a cheque de banque, but she still insisted on phoning the bank to be sure that it wasn't a fake - don't blame her. Regards Hester.