Private car sales remain steady, but buyer confidence is low

Motorists are still buying millions of used cars from private sellers each year, despite nearly half not trusting the party they are buying from

Nearly 3 million used cars are sold privately to new owners in the UK each year, accounting for around 40 per cent of all used cars on the roads, but a new survey from the RAC has shown little trust in sellers.

Of the 2,300 motorists that the RAC spoke to, 45 per cent of secondhand car buyers believe that the previous owner misled them; with two thirds claiming the car they were sold was faulty.

Half of those who responded to the survey admitted that they bought a car privately in a bid to save money, but one in five of those who believe they were deceived said that this was a false economy, and that the car turned out to represent poor value in the end.

The findings have been released to coincide with the launch of RAC Car Passport, a new platform to help prospective buyers access information about a vehicle before buying it.

Robert Diamond, managing director at RAC Car Passport, said: "Buying a car privately can work out cheaper than going through a dealer and is therefore a popular choice in the UK. But clearly many drivers don't have a lot of trust either in the person they're buying from, or in the car they end up driving away with.

"Buying privately doesn't afford the same levels of consumer protection as buying through a dealership - putting more pressure on making the right purchase of a vehicle.”

Elsewhere in the survey, it was revealed that the issues most buyers are concerned about when buying privately are mechanical faults, whether or not the car is a stolen vehicle and whether or not the car has been written off.

Share this article