Posted 24 January 2024

Private car for sale

Hello,

I'm looking to purchase a Mazda 3 after 2014, 2.0 petrol. I was looking on FB Marketplace but there are a lot of fake accounts selling cars in my area. Also not many private sellers on Autotrader selling a Mazda 3 in Nottinghamshire. Any idea please where I can find more Mazda 3 for sale from private sellers?

Thank you to everione taking from their time to respond
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  2. u664541's avatar
    WBAC and their ilk has killed the private market
  3. darkstryder360's avatar
    eBay and Gumtree. Bought/viewed plenty of cars on both.
    1silviu1's avatar
    Author
    eBay, most seen are cat S or N
  4. Amaise's avatar
    I thought WBAC pay well below market price, so people just sell their car over to not deal with private buyers? Kind've like cex I guess
    headfullofcrisps's avatar
    They do, they give you a quote and then when they see it they try to pull it apart, with stone chips and small surface scratches, curbed alloys and the like, I wud never use these again tbh, they did it to one of my pals and his car was immaculate.

    My argument was if u want a new car pay a new price, I don’t like them dirty tactics tbh but I do understand that some people want top dollar for their car which isn’t really realistic. (edited)
  5. IAmATeaf's avatar
    You are limiting your options by only looking locally. I live in NW London, my wife’s car I got from a dealer in Oxford and for my car I travelled to Manchester to view and purchase it.
  6. harrythefish's avatar
    A straightforward 2L petrol hatchback, manual shift, no turbo in sight and maybe some Japanese-inspired quality and reliability. OP is a man after my own heart on car choices, this very model is my imagined next car. Only turn off is the high annual VED.
    1silviu1's avatar
    Author
    Thank you you mentioned this, this is something important to have in mind when purchasing a vehicle
  7. Isaac_McCafferty's avatar
    might be worth broadening your search radius, if you can find multiple cars on route it makes it more worth while the journey
  8. TheUrbis's avatar
    Not a particularly popular car to begin with, and at that age I'd imagine most get traded in rather than sold privately.
    1silviu1's avatar
    Author
    I'm ready to buy a newer one, but still not too many options on decent prices.

    My search is for a petrol car without turbo, manual gearbox, without DPF and not a small 1-1.4 l engine.

    The only options I found: Mazda 3, Honda Civic 1.8 and Toyota corolla 2.0 hybrid.

    If anyone else know another car I can look into.

    Toyota hybrid I'll buy only with warranty(from dealer) as they have the 10 years warranty if you keep service the car with Toyota. This will be the last option as it will be more expensive.

    Honda, my missis complain that she can't sit properly in the driver seat to be able to see the speed.

    Left is only Mazda...
  9. slimy31's avatar
    I'd avoid marketplace like the plague, it's just a joke now. Have you tried gumtree, that's sometimes ok for local sales.

    Just as an example though, 2014 to 2016 Mazda petrols on autotrader. There's nearly 200 trade and only 20 private. I agree with one of the above comments, WBAC seem to have just cleared everything out.

    Have you thought about other marques? A Ford Focus would be an obvious comparison but there's also VW Audi group (the Leon is a particular favourite of mine). Kia and Hyundai both do similar sized cars and having had a Cee'd and an i30 as rental cars I can recommend them as lovely drives. They are small engines though but they can still shift. The days of needing a two litre engine to drive up a small hill are gone.
    1silviu1's avatar
    Author
    Thank you for your advice

    On the other side I think people don't change their car as much as they did, all small engines have turbo and on an 6-10 years this is the first thing that will fail.

    Another option will be to look into some car auctions to see what i can find there.
  10. zworlds's avatar
    I have a Ford Focus for sale!
    lolex's avatar
    How much please.
  11. Murdock's avatar
    I went through this a month ago. I don't think it's just a Mazda issue. I wanted a different used car brand and was amazed how few are sold privately these days (I've had a company car for the last 10 years). I assume most people just go to webuyanycar etc when it's time to sell and the cars go back through the auctions and onto dealers forecourts. I ended up paying the extra by buying from a used car forecourt.
    1silviu1's avatar
    Author
    It is possible to avoid the hassle of selling it.

    First I test-drive at the beginning of December: autotrader.co.uk/car…sra and I was ready to offer 18k but they didn't accept any less. Car is still for sale, price is not bad bad but i was at the limit of my budget and they were not prepared to take any less...

    Now I'm not sure anymore if I will buy anything over 10k and I will look for something older. (edited)
  12. Onlydongles's avatar
    WBAC is the biggest Ripoff merchants that I have come across.

    eg. They offered me £45 (Yes Forty five) for a 2004 Toyota Corolla Automatic (1.6 litre with 70K miles) which I then sold a week later privately for £1700.

    Go figure.
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