How Far Would You Travel To Buy An Avensis?

[Adam Zapple]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm looking to buy a second hand Avensis. I know the spec I want - petrol, manual gearbox, full service history, reasonable mileage. So far the ones that fit the bill are 50 miles or more away from me. My question is, how far would you travel to buy the right car? I have no problem driving the distance, I'm just a little concerned that if I buy from a dealer and something goes wrong, I then have a long way to travel to get the car back for them so they can fix it (providing they accept responsibility). Would you take the risk? An example - I've seen a car in Birmingham but I'm in Yorkshire. Imagine if there's a problem that they say they'll fix. It means I have a 200 mile round trip to make plus I may need to leave the car with them, meaning I have to get back home on the train and go back down on the train to pick it up.

[Konrad C]

I was prepared to go up to about 80 miles, but ended up only travelling 4 miles!

That got me a 1.8 58 plate Mk3 Tourer TR, with full service history. At the moment it spends more time on the drive, as I still use the old Mk1 which runs nicely.

[Whitewagon]

You haven't stated in this thread or your previous one what it is you are contemplating buying. If it is an approved used model from a Toyota dealer then there is no problem if you have a Toyota dealer near you as the Toyota warranty will be honoured. If it is outside of this then you may have the problem you have identified. Buying an older car is always a gamble where ever you buy it. Go and look at it, check what history it has and size up the dealer to see if they seem honest. In my opinion buying a used petrol engined model will be much safer than diesel. Either way a long test run is essential as is a thorough examination. If possible take a mate who is not a fan of the car so he can give an unbiased opinion as to its condition and whether it's a good deal or not. A good deal is a good deal how ever far you travel.

[Heidfirst]

I travelled from Glasgow to Birmingham (& back of course). Although I would have preferred to buy from a local dealer the price differential was just too great & made it worth the trip.

It was coming from a Toyota dealer as approved used (actually an ex-Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Derby management car) & was well within the original 5 year/100k warranty period anyway. As Whitewagon said I was confident that should there have been a problem that my local Toyota dealer would have dealt with it under Toyota's warranty system.

There are caveats - having made the deal via email & phone calls with them sending photos etc. when I turned up to collect it I initially rejected it as a couple of things that had been promised (wheels refurbed, new set of tyres as the existing needed replacing being at ~2mm & a couple of paint blemishes sorting) hadn't actually been done. To be fair, the salesman's wife had gone into early labour & he had left it with colleagues to take care of for him.

Needless to say neither of us was happy with that set of affairs - dealer management at losing a sale of a car that had been sitting on stock for a while & me at a long wasted journey - but as I had turned up at ~10am (early start from Glasgow) they got the workshop cracking on it & by ~4pm I was prepared to accept it.

& a silver lining - whilst waiting I managed to negotiate another £250 off for my trouble! :D

[avensisd4d786]

Depends on car and price. I would travel to other side of country if i had too. I judge character on lengthy phone calls. I buy private i know the risk is bigger but so is saving and get to talk to people who have owned car and not a sales guy does not really care apart from getting another tally on the sales board

[number7]

I travelled down from North Wales to Gloucester 134 miles each way just to look at my Avensis, and then down again by train to pick it up 4 days later. Was worth it because I hadn't found one any closer that wasn't high miles or more cash for less spec'!

I knew exactly what I wanted and waited until one came along,