bod
16 Jan 2015
Life / Advice to buy a 7-seat car in Warsaw (Peugeot 5008, Ford S-max, Ford Galaxy...) [6]
Hi,
I'm actually going to be buying a used 7 seater at a similar price in a few months from now, though I'm looking at smaller models than you. I'm not an expert in buying cars, but I've learned a bit by reading online and talking to friends.
The first thing to know is that the Polish used car market has a bad reputation. It's quite common for sellers to change the odometer reading and sell cars that have been in accidents without telling the buyer. Some supposedly private sellers are actually dealers lying about who they are. Because of the lack of trust among buyers, many Poles sell their cars to friends or family - that's what I plan to do with my existing car, because many buyers won't believe that my 6 year old car only has done 30,000km and has never had a fault.
If you can't find anyone among your friends / family / work colleagues who is selling a car suitable for you, then you can try Otomoto, which has an English interface. Select it to only search for 'first owner', 'undamaged', 'serviced by authorised service centre', 'country of origin Poland' and while that will eliminate 90% of the cars for sale, the remainder should be fairly reliable. You'll still have to get someone to check the documentation and take the car to a garage for a check, but it's the only way I've found to eliminate nasty surprises.
Using the above technique, I found 3 Mazda CX-7s for under 55k in Warsaw. All were from 2008 or 2009 and they ranged from having done 63k to 81k km.
As for 7 seater cars, some similar to the ones you describe are the VW Sharan and the Seat Alhambra - they are built on the same platform as the Ford Galaxy as far as I know. I believe the Chrysler Voyager has 7 seats, but I don't know much about it. Even if you're buying used, you should probably go to some new car dealers to look at the models you're interested in and try to get a test drive. (Obviously don't tell them you have no interest in buying new.)
If you Google the models you're considering, you should find various discussions comparing them. Remember that people have different priorities when buying cars, so consider what yours are when reading reviews and discussions. I don't care much about performance and looks, for example, but I am concerned about reliability, safety and practicality, so when Top Gear complains that a model I'm interested is boring, I skip that part of the review.
Hope that helps - let me know how you get on so I can learn from your experience.
Hi,
I'm actually going to be buying a used 7 seater at a similar price in a few months from now, though I'm looking at smaller models than you. I'm not an expert in buying cars, but I've learned a bit by reading online and talking to friends.
The first thing to know is that the Polish used car market has a bad reputation. It's quite common for sellers to change the odometer reading and sell cars that have been in accidents without telling the buyer. Some supposedly private sellers are actually dealers lying about who they are. Because of the lack of trust among buyers, many Poles sell their cars to friends or family - that's what I plan to do with my existing car, because many buyers won't believe that my 6 year old car only has done 30,000km and has never had a fault.
If you can't find anyone among your friends / family / work colleagues who is selling a car suitable for you, then you can try Otomoto, which has an English interface. Select it to only search for 'first owner', 'undamaged', 'serviced by authorised service centre', 'country of origin Poland' and while that will eliminate 90% of the cars for sale, the remainder should be fairly reliable. You'll still have to get someone to check the documentation and take the car to a garage for a check, but it's the only way I've found to eliminate nasty surprises.
Using the above technique, I found 3 Mazda CX-7s for under 55k in Warsaw. All were from 2008 or 2009 and they ranged from having done 63k to 81k km.
As for 7 seater cars, some similar to the ones you describe are the VW Sharan and the Seat Alhambra - they are built on the same platform as the Ford Galaxy as far as I know. I believe the Chrysler Voyager has 7 seats, but I don't know much about it. Even if you're buying used, you should probably go to some new car dealers to look at the models you're interested in and try to get a test drive. (Obviously don't tell them you have no interest in buying new.)
If you Google the models you're considering, you should find various discussions comparing them. Remember that people have different priorities when buying cars, so consider what yours are when reading reviews and discussions. I don't care much about performance and looks, for example, but I am concerned about reliability, safety and practicality, so when Top Gear complains that a model I'm interested is boring, I skip that part of the review.
Hope that helps - let me know how you get on so I can learn from your experience.