Hi all!

Now I have always been a bit put off by things I have heard about car yards and dealerships but the last car I bought from a private sale was a 350z that was due to be seized and crushed a month after I bought it. I had to go through the police and clear the title and produce evidence that I was not working with the previous owner to avoid the car getting crushed.
Obviously I should have checked this before I bought it but the guy seemed genuine so I didn't even think about it.
I went out to Berwick Chrysler Jeep a week or so ago and took a near new Chrysler 300 S for a test drive and they were very nice and helpful and said they could throw in a bunch of stuff; Free servicing 1 year manufacturers warranty and 1 year dealer warranty, 1 years rego etc.
It all sounds really good and I like the car, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with these guys?

I know there is pro's and cons in each but I would like to know peoples experience and what to keep an eye on for both?

Here's what I'm looking at atm:

 

Pros of a reputable dealer:
Car should have been checked out but not necessarily
Some have a certain buy back period
Some offer a dealer warranty in addition to the mfg warranty

Pros of a private sale
Price

But whether you do a dealer or private sale you should run a CarFax or other similar background check

 

When you've "dealt with dealers", after a while you can almost smell a good one. The last car I bought was for my daughter from an asian guy in Morley near Leeds, and I could see he had thought about the whole scenario from a buyer's angle and covered all the ground, making it 'easy to buy'; this was one of the phrases I used to teach my salesmen when I was a sales manager many years ago.

This man had ensured that a free 7-day insurance went with all his cars, the car-lot was next door to a major post office where a tax disc could be bought, and the cars all were properly prepared, clean, started immediate and drove properly.

We bought her a Vauxhall Vectra-matic, agreed a price on the part-ex. Punto, paid by debit card -- the whole job was done and dusted in around an hour, inc. the test-drive. Since a year now, the car has not proved to be a lemon.

In contrast, other dealers around Leeds have proved to vary from the indifferent (cars on the forecourt with flat batteries, not valeted etc.) to the downright comical (one dealer in Armley Rd. actually wanted a deposit before we could test-drive it! -- and this car's reg. # could not be traced in the usual way...)

Leedsman.