Having sold my Legacy this weekend ,im now looking for a replacement, so all day Sunday spent trawling the trader /gumtree /piston heads and evilbay

I viewed two yesterday both nothing like what was listed ,locally I might add

Then today after some good chats with a seller some 85 miles away , I took the drive, spent 50 minutes under and around said car and the test drive was all good I was sooo close to chucking money at him , but noticed a distinct lack of cold air through the aircon ,not a gas problem but a compressor issue .When asked about it the reply was ” yeah its not worked for a while ” how close I was to strangling him ,

So I wasted close to 5 hours (ok I sneaked out of work so not a total waste) but I have to ask how far is to far ?

sofa, pc. no further.

I did an 8 hour round trip to buy mine (twice) once to view and test drive and once to pick it up. I did the deal over the phone first.

Between me and my dad we have made some fairly crazy journeys for boat, car and motorbikes!

We live in the Highlands, North of Inverness, and travelled to Plymouth via The Wash and outer London to view a boat which wasn’t as good as we expected. We returned via The Wash to view another which we bought.

I made 2 trips from Edinburgh to Norfolk on consecutive weekends to view my current car, as with Hanchurch, I had agreed a deal before travelling.

MOst recently, the old man made te journey South again to Millbrook to buy a motorbike which got towed back the full length of the country over night.

It is something that we are fairly used to now, it seems to be the only way for us to get a bit of a choice when buying things like cars. We are also very picky in what we want.

I went for a look at a campervan in North Wales from the North East, didn’t buy it. Had already been to west Cumbria to see one. Ended up only travelling 40 miles for the right one in the end.
Mate of mine bought a Merc SLK on ebay without looking, a trip would have been an whole lot less trouble, lost 10k on it. Pillock.

I bought a car last week and travelled 90 miles to get it.
Got a lot of info over the phone before and only went that far because after 2 months of trawling the net it was the one that matched what I was after.

There was a local one that was nearly what I wanted but it was worth the travel.

stevedoc – Member

So I wasted close to 5 hours (ok I sneaked out of work so not a total waste) but I have to ask how far is to far ?

I would go as far as I can if I want that car.

I would simply walk away if I find out something the seller “forgot” to say.

Yes, as far as I can go.

Luckily bought mine within 5 miles or may be less …

I’ve never really travelled far to buy one – sold a van once, a guy flew from germany to edinburgh, then train to glasgow to buy it then drive it to newcastle (threw in my map book for free) to the ferry and across europe to get it home……. for a £340 12 year old, high milage mot failure with blowing injectors and no real steering. Bless him.

100 miles or so for the right car.
Currently have 3!
One from Chester, one from Stoke and one from Rotherham.
We live in Leeds.
Always worth a trip for a nice motor.

250miles each way for my last car. I reckoned that I save ~£k’s one the deal though compared to the main dealer equivalents near me

Not far. 40 miles max probly.

Live near Bradford, furthest I’ve ever travelled for a car was Bolton. The Lancashire Bolton, not the Bradford one. Just bought my latest in York. Would consider Newcastle area as the in-laws live up there.

I don’t think the cars I buy are rare enought to be worth more than 50 miles each way, aside from the above example

Last two cars, I went to Ipswich and St Albans for. We live in Newcastle… As noted above, always worth travelling for the right motor, especially if you’re going to own it for many years.

However, get as much info as possible over the phone and stress how far you’re coming and how pissed you’ll be if it they are not up front about something!

Flew from Belfast to Luton, then drove to Oxford, bought it. Then to wales, boat to Dublin, then up to belfast. That far enough for you?

Depends on the car. A friend travelled to London from Glasgow to look at a V8 Esprit (and walked away) – seems reasonable though to get the right car for something like that.

Another friend was looking at diesel Mondeos/Mazda 6s and was talking about looking at some about 100-200 miles away, which is clearly ridiculous.

Bath to Aberdeen – 1000 mile round trip.

But most of my last ones were from London – 180 mile round trip.

bought our van without having looked at it in the flesh 30 mins after it appeared online… were on the way to the airport and the trains were running late. GF was worrying her pants off and trying to get hrough to the airline whilst i was talking to the seller. done the deal whilst going through passport control.

we live in Munich. motors are expensive here (perhaps because it is one of the most affluent areas of europe?) and we were after something that doesn’t come up very often…. a 2.5ltr LWB T5.

we had seen some (relatively) local to us but not one of them was a “yes”.

the van we have now was being sold in Magdeburg, some 530km away (330 miles away!). it was however black (i like black), full leather, air con plus other bells and whistles, alloys, well looked after (as in anally so… the guy used to hand wash it every two weeks and had a full VW service history (not any more!)) and had fewer KM on the clock than many examples we had seen down south.

ended up transferring 500€ and travelling up on the train to pick it up. figured if it wasn’t “right” then we would have spunked 800€ in total (with deposit plus train fares), but in a way we saved over 4K€ by buying blind. similar examples around Munich go for over 20K€. ours cost us 15k€.

only you know how far is too far… it’s all relative. if i was looking for a 5 series Beemer then i wouldn’t have had to travel so far… (Munich being BMW’s HQ and the town is flooded with them (not literally)).

With half of the people above, most seem to be miles away. We are in Devon and the last few have been, Mancherster, Harogate, Crewe and Dartford. Seems lots but we sort of collect them and like unsual stuff. Currently considering one in the middle of France. We thought we would be up to Newcastle for Alun’s van recently on here but it went before we could organise something. We talk lots on the phone, get lots of pics/info. We have only been disappointed once in the last year or two with a long day to Rye and back.
Good luck on your search

Half a mile for the T5 I just bought. Popped up on gumtree, recognised the house, called them up and saw it half an hour later.

They had people ringing to arrange viewings from 2-300 miles away while we were test driving it.?

Live near Edinburgh, bought last car from dealer in Warrington. Spoke on phone, went down to look at it, did the deal. Dealer ended up delivering it to me and collecting my trade-in as they were so desperate to get it in before month-end.

Well worth it to get the car I wanted and it was several k less than similar cars in Central Scotland (or a year/ 15,000 miles newer, depending on how you look at it).

4years ago I travelled from Dumfries & Galloway in a Transit van with my chest toolbox to a town just outside Munich Germany to specifically hear/drive/try out/buy an engine that was still in a car. It was a mk2 golf 16v Gti engine built by ABT tuning (German Audi/VW tuning company) and as such was pretty special and well worth the trip, needless to say I bought it and 3 hours later we had it out of the car and in the back of the van, perfect for my 30 yr old mk2 golf.

And back in the late 90’s when I was a bit daft with money I flew to Milan, then travelled to codogno and bought a truly stunning LHD Alfa 75 Turbo Evoluzione that was rather heavily tuned, and drove it back home (and I made the most of the autobahns), a beast of car but an absolute joy to drive. Unfortunately 7 months later I got rear ended sitting in motorway roadworks by a gormless bint applying her lipstick at 70mph, totally wrote off the car due to the damage in the rear end (de-dion rear suspension/rear wheel drive/gearbox at rear axle), the mess she made of her face ensured that applying lipstick wasn’t going to be an issue for her ever again. I was relatively unscathed apart from where the driveshaft came up through the transmission tunnel and whacked me on the shoulder.

I was so gutted about loosing that car, only 500 were made, thinking about it still makes me so **** angry to this day.

If it’s what I want then distance is immaterial

Whenever I buy a car it’s because the last car just died so, roughly as far as I can ride a bike 😆 I viewed a bunch of cars each time and walked away from most so buying unseen, no ta. But then I’m always looking for common models

last car came from fort william ( i live in aberdeen) i was looking for a specific model of which at the time there were 3 for sale in the uk 🙁

all my cars before that came from dundee.

for the right thing i will travel though.

if i was buying a.n.other bland eurobox i wouldnt travel far at all.

For a rare or special car that i really wanted id go as far as necesary. For a comon as muck motor id not go far rather just wait for the right car to come up localy.

If it’s a something you really want and are going to keep for a while the way you get it does not matter.

Depends on what your buying and how much
1k for a Ford Fiesta then would be 20 miles tops
If a rare or expensive car then a few 100 miles

I travelled 90 miles for a Kia a few weeks back… I’m generally <100 miles kind of guy.

I’m travelling about 125 to pick up a Spearfish later today.

come to think of it never mind a whole car- i drove to lockerbie from aberdeen for a bumper…..

and im driving a similar distance to pick up some doors when i get home….

I suspect the issue here is that you are expecting a second hand car to be perfect, which is just dumb. There is a reason why you are saving thousands of pounds over buying a new one.

Would be nice if sellers listed every little fault with a second hand car, but it’s not going to happen. They have more than likely lost thousands of pounds in depreciation, so just want to sell it for the maximum value.

The further you travel the more inclined you are to buy it.

Think of the car as a washing machine and ask yourself how far would you travel to buy one

“The further you travel the more inclined you are to buy it.”

only if as described.

i wont travel to save money , ill only travel for specific cars…

although i normally shop to a budget/condition

regardless of location – if ive been misled or lied to i walk – and i let them know why im walking.

mushrooms – Member

If it’s a something you really want and are going to keep for a while the way you get it does not matter.

It’s not so much the way you get it, it’s the potential for wasting time and money. And like Rocketman says, maybe talking yourself into a bad buy “Well, I’ve come all this way…”

a mate of mine recently travelled down to kent from the north west to get a vw touran. he did the deal over the phone and everything seemed fine about the car.
after the bank transfer had gone through he drove home only for the dsg gearbox to conk out on him just outside south manchester. he had to be towed home. the dealer said he would pay for the repairs but since then wont respond to any calls etc. mate is now taking him to court over a £2k repair bill
furthest i’ve travelled for a car is 30 miles…i wouldnt go any further than say 50 miles and even then it would have to be something special

Last car was 0.96 miles away, plenty far enough 🙂

As others have said, it depends on the car. For something special / rare then I guess you’d travel as far as you need too.

For a normal / common car, I normally stick to a 100 mile radius. The further the journey, the more questions and research into service history that I’ll do. I think when talking to people first you can kind of get an idea if the trip is worth it.

I’m near Aberdeen
If it’s at a dealer and they answer all my questions 150 mls. Current car, Stirling.
If it’s a Joe, 50 miles max. They are usually hiding some issue you have to spot.
If there are 3 or more cars in the same area, anywhere. You’re likely to come back with one of them. London for a Passat 4Motion in 2002.

Personally no more than about a 30 mile radius from Home, ideally less but I’m lucky living in a reasonably densely populated area.

A mate at work did a 250 mile round trip last weekend to look at a T5, and He’ll be doing the same this weekend to pick it up, plus the miles he travelled to drop off his old van and car with new owners (rather accommodating IMO), all to fund the dream, so He’ll probably have clocked 650-700 miles by Sunday just so he can own a dream bus…
But He is so excited he may actually pop before Saturday…

When I sold my last motorbike, a bloke drove up from Devon in a pickup, paid in cash, and then drove it home in the back of the pickup (I helped him get it on there using some wood in the garden). I was going on holiday that day so he turned up at about 8am

He didn’t even test ride it, just started it and was happy

The bike was in good nick and had no faults so I was confident in it, but its still a bit strange, and very trusting!

Current car was a 400 mile round trip but wouldn’t do it again unless it was for something pretty specific. Max distance now would be 100 mile radius.

I went to somewhere near Dover from New Mills once to look at an Alfa 105 coupe

That’s when they were affordable, about 6 years ago

Wish I’d never sold mine

A guy drove to my house in New Mills from Portsmouth after he’d done a days work to pick up a door for a Mk1 Golf