Shaun Tilly – It’s time for a bit of sound advice now and our guest today is Ben Maguire who is from ChooseMyCar.com, a nationwide free and personalised car buying service which is built to fit around you, so to tell us more about it, Ben’s with us on the old gig this afternoon. Thanks very much for being with us Ben!
Ben Maguire – No problem Shaun, thanks for having me!
Shaun Tilly – it’s a Pleash! So how does it all work?
Ben Maguire – So basically we support UK motorists through what can be quite a daunting prospect of buying a new car and getting the finance sorted out and making sure you are working with a reputable dealer and everything is right, the right price, just helping you through that whole process really.
Shaun Tilly – It is a stressful thing buying a car, my wife for instance passed her test just before the first lockdown and this is something that we have not yet sorted out for her and it’s amazing how time is whizzing on, we’ve really got to nail it and so a service like yourself in that case, well, I mean, you just take the headache out of it really don’t you?!
Ben Maguire – Absolutely, it’s working with reputable dealers, making sure customers get value for money, helping them get with deliveries, for a lot of people this becomes a very stressful situation where they think they are going to have to go down to a dealers forecourt, in our opinion there are probably some archaic reputations out there about used cars and that they are all the Arthur Dailies of the world, that they are trying to rip you off, which 99% of the time is not the case but if you’ve got an independent service that is there to help you it gives customers that reassurance that actually I am getting the best car for my money, I am making sure that if I‘ve got a part X I’m getting the right value for my part exchange. With an independent company that has nothing to gain by just taking you through that service.
Shaun Tilly – So, in terms of advice today, what are the things in your opinion to look out for when buying used?
Ben Maguire – We always say to customers, make sure you read reviews, so it’s all to do with the service of the dealership to start with. At this day and age, people don’t need to buy local they can buy anywhere, there are plenty of car buying service like ourselves, we are completely nationwide, so it gives people the freedom to get the vehicle you want, but it also gives you the opportunity to do some research on the retailer you are buying from. Google Reviews, Trustpilot, these are all really good informative ways of understanding how other customers in a similar situation to yourself have actually been worked with. And it also is doing the research on your own vehicle, one of the biggest issues that UK motorists has is not understanding the true value of their vehicle and that’s the starting point for a lot of people when they are changing the car, the sort of foundation of that, how much is my current car worth, do I have negative equity, how much have I got as a deposit. If you own your car outright and your car is worth £6,000, have you got £6,000 to put down on your new car or if you’ve got it on finance and it’s going to cost you £4,000 to clear your finance, you’ve only got £2,000 deposit, that is where your starting point is. So it’s making sure you understand the value of that and are fully transparent to start that journey.
Shaun Tilly – We had a friend recently that bought a car, they had to catch a train and all in all it took 5 hours to get there. AND then they having only just passed her test a few weeks ago, had the daunting prospect of driving the car home. Now that sounds ridiculous in a way because you’ve passed your test, what on earth are you freighted of, but there are companies out there presumably that you can a little extra for and they will actually deliver that car to you, correct?
Ben Maguire – Absolutely, and actually one of our services is to find those dealers that will provide that service anyway.. a lot of dealers, when we went into lockdown the only way they could trade was distance selling and delivering the vehicle, customers weren’t allowed to go to their forecourt, so this day and age that’s not a barrier to the sell anymore, the last 2 years that has been exactly how the UK car market has worked where people can phone up, they have consumer rights, they have the FCA from the finance point of view protecting them, so people can feel protected in the fact that a lot of people now buy a used car, I know previously people would associate a new car ‘every new car is exactly the same and no used car is the same’.. but now you have all these levels of protection behind you, you can buy a used car, absolutely confidently knowing that if it arrives and it’s not as said, or it’s a distance sell and actually you drive that car and your decided ‘I don’t like that car it’s not that for me, it’s not what I expected’ then you do have the right to return it.
Shaun Tilly – And with the rising cost of living are you seeing a spike now in used car sales?
Ben Maguire – We are, and it’s partly to do with the spiralling costs of living but also the supply chain. New cars, it’s getting harder and harder, and the lead time on a new car are getting longer and longer so we are finding a lot of people who either buying ‘nearly new’ or are sticking in the vehicle they have got. Obviously, with the spiralling cost of living we are seeing some people are downgrading their cars, some of the big gas guzzlers and they are going ‘well actually at nearly £2 a litre for diesel now we need to start looking at a more cost effective way of driving’
Shaun Tilly – Absolutely, right, Ben Maguire from ChooseMyCar, a nationwide free and personalised car buying service, built to fit around you, with some sound advice on the programme today, thanks so much for being with us Ben!
Ben Maguire – No problem, thanks a lot Shaun!
Interview date: 21st July 2022
