Yes your right you do have to do your home work with private purchase, but my TT came from Audi dealer and lost half the price I paid in one year. The two best cars I've ever bought were the Freelander and my Caterham, both found on eBay and fantastic honest private sellers. So you can get a bargain and great car at the same time.

I still have a just under a year of the Freelander warranty left, and going in next week to have the alarm fixed "under warranty"

Happy hunting !!!

Dave

I would Never buy second hand from a main dealer.

They put silly prices on them so that people buying new think their car will be worth that amount a couple of years down the line. (How long have the second hand cars on your dealer forecourt been there, I bet some for over a year)

When you make a second hand purchase you go over it with a fine tooth comb, HPI check it, maybe even get an engineers report done before you part with the cash.

Where as a main dealer sends some one to buy from an auction or some thick as sales man takes it in as a part Ex, he looks it over and buys it for a price out of a book, than gets a mechanic to once it over and some half-wit to polish it and hey presto it's on the forecourt for top dollar!!

The Last time I was at my dealers (Feb 09) I watched him selling a FL1 for £10,995 to a kid about 20 years old-I sold mine same colour and model with 27k miles on it for £6k cash after they offered me £5750 trade-in (OCT 07)