The Lemon Fool

Does anyone have inside knowledge of the car world. I'm after buying a used car (Hyundai, not that it matters) and have found a few pre-reg cars at a favourable price. One place has cars with just 20 miles on the clock but were registered 18 months ago. I can understand pre-reg cars being 3 or 4 months old but should I be suspicious of an 18 month old vehicle ? It doesn't make sense to me. I will contact the garage at some point but I wouldn't expect the full truth from any car showroom.

Posted on DAK and not on "motoring" as I expect a better response on here. TIA.

Redmires wrote:Does anyone have inside knowledge of the car world. I'm after buying a used car (Hyundai, not that it matters) and have found a few pre-reg cars at a favourable price. One place has cars with just 20 miles on the clock but were registered 18 months ago. I can understand pre-reg cars being 3 or 4 months old but should I be suspicious of an 18 month old vehicle ? It doesn't make sense to me. I will contact the garage at some point but I wouldn't expect the full truth from any car showroom.

Posted on DAK and not on "motoring" as I expect a better response on here. TIA.

TBH I think you will get a better response on the motoring board so I will move it but leave a shadow here.

A pre-reg 18 months old is a bit strange and unless it was VERY cheap I don't think I would be tempted. How much off list price are we talking?

John

Eighteen months does sound unusual.

I have bought pre registered cars, last was about six months old, less than twenty miles on the clock, and I paid about two thirds of list.

As I'm sure you know, many are pre registered by dealers to ensure they meet manufacturer's targets, but having one hang around that long sounds strange, and would make me wonder why they'd not managed (or tried) to shift it sooner.

Having said that, why would it be worse than buying a "used" eighteen month old car, except, perhaps, from having flats on the tyes, and possibly some internal rusting in the engine?

And perhaps the air con has might leak away if the seals are not lubricated by being used?

Mmm...

Perhaps the car in question was damaged in transit or stored somewhere in a compound that had flooded and it took the dealership 18 months to get around to getting it sorted. An eighteen month old pre reg car will also have a shorter warranty than a new vehicle.

I won't post a link as I don't want to breach any guidelines but it's a Hyundai dealer in Somerset. They have a few cars pre-reg in 2018 and a couple in 2017

Hyundai IONIQ
1.6 GDi (105ps) SE Hybrid DCT
£16,989
Mileage: 20
Fuel type: Hybrid
Transmission: Automatic
Colour: Marine Blue
Registered: 31/10/2017
Registration: RE67 ***

New price is £21790

Redmires wrote:[i]Hyundai IONIQ
1.6 GDi (105ps) SE Hybrid DCT
£16,989

Or, for another fifteen hundred quid, a 19 reg current model built to your specification?

https://www.buyacar.co.uk/hyundai_ioniq ... 6380.jhtml

Hint: There's a facelift coming very soon. Might account for bargains.

BJ

If there is a facelift coming you might be better keeping an eye on some of the car supermarkets. They tend to buy job lots of the pre facelift models from the manufacturers/dealers when they get the new model in.

I've seem Motorpoint have some cracking deals on this basis but you might need a bit of patience.

(I've no connection with Motorpoint, I'm sure other companies do the same thing.)

I'm familiar with Motorpoint as my wife had a cracking deal from them on a Ford Kuga a couple of years ago. They were good to deal with as well. My lease car goes back in 3 weeks time and I could survive for a couple of weeks after that so stretching into March could be possible. I've also got my eye on the Toyota Auris as that's end of life next month when the replacement comes out.

I have no interest in new cars, but it may have been answered here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 698894&i=0
If not, ask.

V8