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