Bangers chat

[Silas Loom]

There's an app... trying to remember the name of it, but it scrapes AutoTrader et.al. and can report the dealer's prices over time. Like I knew I couldn't get much off our car when we bought it because it had already been reduced by £2k. I got a whole £500 just because they wanted it off the lot by then.

Is that CarGuru by any chance? That won’t let me sort by WAVs.

 

[Chz]

Is that CarGuru by any chance? That won’t let me sort by WAVs.

No, it was Total Car Check. You can't search for cars in general, it's just for looking up price history on a particular number plate so you have an idea if the dealer's already discounted it and you don't have much room for maneuver.

 

[Silas Loom]

No, it was Total Car Check. You can't search for cars in general, it's just for looking up price history on a particular number plate so you have an idea if the dealer's already discounted it and you don't have much room for maneuver.

Oh, that’s interesting! The two private sellers on my radar have erased their number plates from the photos, which stops Total Car Check and the gov.uk MOT lookup. I suppose there could be a reasonable excuse for not wanting the number plate to be visible in public, but it makes me feel more comfortable with the transparent approach that dealers take.

 

[Silas Loom]

I’m really surprised by how many of the WAVs in my price range are diesel. These are not vehicles that do a lot of bombing up and down the motorway. They will spend a lot of time unused.

We bought an ex-fleet 2014 diesel Merc in 2017 because we thought it was the environmentally sound thing to do. A year later, diesel drivers were reviled as particulate monsters and our car, which was mainly used for very short trips, was pretty much permanently in limp mode, despite regular and expensive particulate filter replacements. So, we’ve learned our lesson: petrol or electricity only.

I can see why fleets were still buying diesels for their road warriors in 2014, but why on earth were Motability (which pays for most conversions and takes on the resale risk) still betting on diesel for disabled drivers in the 2010s? Weird. And a serious restriction on my choices in a very niche market.

 

[Chz]

Because it's long enough ago the that diesel downsides hadn't come home to roost for most people. It's generally thought that you'd be mad to buy a diesel for less than 10k miles a year now, but back in 2012 they were selling them to little old ladies that never did more than pop over to Morrisons in them.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Oh, that’s interesting! The two private sellers on my radar have erased their number plates from the photos, which stops Total Car Check and the gov.uk MOT lookup. I suppose there could be a reasonable excuse for not wanting the number plate to be visible in public, but it makes me feel more comfortable with the transparent approach that dealers take.

I'd handle with care.

There is concern in some quarters about showing a registration number (Google Street View tends to blur them, and most estate agents will blur them if they take a photo of a house with a car parked outside) - there is the risk that someone will see a car and generate a 'clone' and this reduces their chances of doing that, but on the other hand, a car is visible all the time it's on the road.

When selling a car, it does at least hint as having something to hide...

 

[Silas Loom]

I'd handle with care.

There is concern in some quarters about showing a registration number (Google Street View tends to blur them, and most estate agents will blur them if they take a photo of a house with a car parked outside) - there is the risk that someone will see a car and generate a 'clone' and this reduces their chances of doing that, but on the other hand, a car is visible all the time it's on the road.

When selling a car, it does at least hint as having something to hide...

And who is going to clone a WAV? I’m fairly sure that despite their popularity in fiction, from Davros to Strangelove, there aren’t really that many disabled supervillains or bank robbers.

 

[Silas Loom]

Because it's long enough ago the that diesel downsides hadn't come home to roost for most people. It's generally thought that you'd be mad to buy a diesel for less than 10k miles a year now, but back in 2012 they were selling them to little old ladies that never did more than pop over to Morrisons in them.

I should have known better in 2017, really. Anyway, helpful to have my assumption that diesels are a no-no confirmed.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

And who is going to clone a WAV? I’m fairly sure that despite their popularity in fiction, from Davros to Strangelove, there aren’t really that many disabled supervillains or bank robbers.

dunno really.

i hadn't really thought about it, but if you were robbing a bank, it might attract less suspicion and let you park nearer a bank

there was a brief spate of mail-bag robberies from trains in the 60s or 70s where one villain would pose as a wheelchair user, back in the days when trains had guards vans, carried mail-bags, and when wheelchair users were heaved in to unheated guards vans with no access to carseys...

 

[Silas Loom]

dunno really.

i hadn't really thought about it, but if you were robbing a bank, it might attract less suspicion and let you park nearer a bank

there was a brief spate of mail-bag robberies from trains in the 60s or 70s where one villain would pose as a wheelchair user, back in the days when trains had guards vans, carried mail-bags, and when wheelchair users were heaved in to unheated guards vans with no access to carseys...

Ah, that’s why TOCs are so reluctant now to provide ramps or personal assistance to heave wheelchair users into trains. Bitter experience and an understandable interest in not being coshed.

 

[hash tag]

That’s my usual approach, although goodwill could come in handy given that because the conversion aspects are very niche and need specialist maintenance, the vendor manages everything to do with the warranty - including their travel between the East Midlands, where for some reason all the conversion shops are based, and London.

Theres a thought...what about trying the conversion specialists to see if they know of any cars knocking around. It is just possible that someone has mentioned to them they were thinking of getting rid of their converted car. They might not be on the websites but by word of mouth. Worth a punt?

 

[Silas Loom]

Theres a thought...what about trying the conversion specialists to see if they know of any cars knocking around. It is just possible that someone has mentioned to them they were thinking of getting rid of their converted car. They might not be on the websites but by word of mouth. Worth a punt?

I’m sure that if I knew someone in the trade and I was very patient I could be tipped off, but converters only really engage with people who are specifiying from new, and in most cases Motability picks up the tab so they don’t end up with a lasting commercial relationship. I did call a converter today to ask about the headroom of their Zafira conversions, and got through to a very knowledgeable bloke who was happy to chat WAV engineering as long as I wanted, but they had no interest in me as a customer.

It’s quite a stratified market, I’m discovering, and it’s heavily driven by Motability, who dump most of the barely used or end of lease cars on the market, where they are sold by specialist garages at £20k+. Users who buy these and then sell them in a few years - which is the end of the market I’m at - sell through channels like Autotrader, but I think the specialist garages also pick up the ones which get back into the motor trade as trade-ins, which is why they also have limited stock at £5k-£10k. You get a very small number of WAVs in mainstream garages, but they don’t really know how to sell them.

I think that when you get below £5k valuations, WAVs are like most other mobility devices - they end up sitting unused in an elderly person’s garage until they die, at which point the kit is too knackered to be safely sold to anyone with disabilities, and it is junked.

 

[Ax^]

And who is going to clone a WAV? I’m fairly sure that despite their popularity in fiction, from Davros to Strangelove, there aren’t really that many disabled supervillains or bank robbers.

if you have a blue badge you can park right outside the bank


that handy for bank robbers