Now the spotlight’s on ex-driving school cars

Posted on September 16th, 2009 by In51der in Blog, Car Dealers, Consumer

Be wary of being misled but not of ex-rentals
Question why would a car used by a driving school be presumed to have been abused? The obvious perception is that because it has been used by many different learners it must be in pretty poor shape. But hold on, does this mean that learner drivers are taking these cars without any supervision and thrashing them around town centres music blaring, doing donuts and running them into the ground? Of course it doesn’t. It must have been quiet for news lately because, according to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, buyers are now being ripped off not only by dealers selling ex-rental cars at inflated prices, but now ex-driving school cars as well. The point is that, presumably any driving instructor will be responsible for ensuring that the car he trains his pupils in is fit for purpose, because firstly it needs to perform its duties and secondly if it breaks down or is substandard he won’t get many clients. So if you think about your average learner driver out trying to pass their test they are hardly going to be thrashing the car and even if they are a bit hard on the clutch, the instructor always has dual control of the car.

Why is it that just when there is a feel good factor around the trade does someone see fit to assume that dealers are able to rip people off by charging a premium for anything other than privately owned car. Clearly as long as a used car – and remember they are all totally unique – is sold exactly as the dealer states then where is the problem? The fact that a car that may have been used by a driving school may not even have been made aware to the selling dealer, if the car is bought at auction they won’t say before they put the car on sale that it is an ex-rental or ex-driving school car they will just say how many owners are in the log book. Because the buyer buys the car on the strength of the information produced about the car including servicing, mileage verification and condition report and these are ultimately the only things that matter.

So if the car is exactly as the dealer described it to a customer it is worth exactly the same as a privately owned car.


Bookmark and Share

The Motor Trade Insider Guide To Buying New Cars

Search terms for the article:

  • Ease up on the rigid sales process or risk driving buyers away
    A sales process is not unique to car retailing; there are many examples of direct selling where there will be [...]...
  • The old school car salesman wouldn’t recognise his modern counterpart
    In the good old days of selling cars, when you applied for a job the sales manager would probably just [...]...
  • Be wary of being misled but not of ex-rentals
    There is currently a great deal of furore surrounding ex-rental used cars being sold by dealers as 1 owner vehicles. [...]...
  • The game may be up for old school car sales
    There cannot really be any industry more forward looking or a bigger embracer of change than the motor trade. Despite [...]...
  • Teens driving us up the wall (and themselves down the cinema)
    Last Sunday our daughter turned seventeen, we knew it was coming, we knew she would no longer want cheesy “Happy [...]...
  • Ex-Rental cars, a good purchase?
    Over the past 10 years rental cars have been more or less the mainstay of any main dealers used car [...]...
  • One Comment on “Now the spotlight’s on ex-driving school cars”

    1. Rob Laird - Romford

      Good post. I have to say I look after my driving school car a lot better than the car I had before I was an instructor. Now, if my car is off the road, I lose money, so I make sure that it’s serviced by a professional exactly when it should, and any small problems are sorted asap.

      Yes the mileage will be high, but the fact that it has been a driving school car, doesn’t really make it any different to any other high mileage car.

      Keep up the good work :)

    Automotive Industry News

    About MTI

    Motor Trade Insider
    Our aims:
    Build a bridge between consumers and the trade.

    Create Interesting and informative content.

    Break down barriers and create better understanding.

    Expose bad practices and rip-offs.

    Promote outstanding products and services.

    Motor Trade Insider is written by people working actively in the motor trade for people on the inside and people on the outside.

    Motor Trade Insider New Car Buying, Used Car Buying, Used Car Prices, Used Car Values UK. Car buying guide. Whether you’re buying a new car or interested in used cars or car valuation or just general information and advice on the motor trade and UK Automotive Industry.

    Valid CSS!

    Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

    [Valid RSS]

    Bargain of the Week

    Bargain of the Week – Land Rover Discovery

    Bargain of the Week – Land Rover Discovery

    With all the boxes ticked it does make you wonder how the British government think they can keep raising the cost of car ownership to ...

    Bargain of the Week – Ferrari 355

    Its V8 engine became the first road-going Ferrari to have bypass valves built into the exhaust system letting pretty much all of its thunder explode ...

    Bargain of the Week – 2003 Range Rover 3.0 Td6 HSE

    With the recent facelifted Range Rover and Sport doing wonders for sales, forking out for a 10-plate can set you back over 50 big ones ...

    Scrappage

    The scrappage scheme has ended, get over it

    The scrappage scheme has ended, get over it

    The continuous changes which the car trade is undergoing means that until staff get the message that customers demand (and deserve) great service and will ...

    What a difference a year makes

    Car buyers have therefore either gone elsewhere or decided on a demo model or nearly new example instead, thus leaving a vacuum in new car ...

    VAT’ll do nicely!

    We found that when embracing the scrappage scheme, for example, dealers made the absolute most out of it. Short term, after it ended, it did ...