Buying an Outlander online - advice and/or experience please

[STEyles]

Hi folks,

I hope to be joining you as an Outlander PHEV owner in the near future!

I wanted to ask if anyone has had experience buying from the Cazoo website? they currently have 12 Outlanders available and it seems like a reliable system.

In short, you select your car online, pay for it then they deliver. If you don't like it they give all your money back up to 7 days, so you can test drive it for a week and see if it's what you want. I've heard comments on the internet saying they would never buy a car sight unseen, but this place seems to be reliable. They say they check and recondition all the cars they sell...

Please don't consider this as SPAM or advertising - I needed to introduce the website as some may not have heard of it. I promise that I'm in no way affiliated with the website or its owners either; just a potential customer asking for advice.

Thanks for all the advice you can offer.

Stephen
Swindon

 

[Bloggsy]

Whilst I don't have any experience of Cazoo, I did buy my car sight unseen - nearly!

I saw it on the Arnold Clark website but in a different city (about 3 hours travel away) so I arranged to view/inspect it and to part ex my old car at the same time.

I booked a hotel for the night before and, after breakfast and checking out, I drove to the garage and looked over the car and took it for a test drive. I then handed over my old car keys and paid the difference and arranged insurance cover and drove home!

If the 7 days test drive is that, I would hope you'd know whether you want to keep it well before the end and could arrange for it to be returned.

Cheers

Bloggsy

 

[Regulo]

They say they check and recondition all the cars they sell...

Hi, Stephen,
While I have no experience of Cazoo, I wonder what their "check and recondition" means? These cars need specialised equipment to deal with the electrical gubbins. Having said that, if you get 7 days to return the car if you're not satisfied, that should be long enough to find any major trouble. Do they offer any sort of warranty after the 7 days? Or do you have to arrange something yourself?

 

[jaapv]

I can imagine that you have seen comments about not buying a car sight unseen. I wouldn't, and certainly not for this car.
The maintenance is best left to specialized dealers, Mitsubishi will demand the prescribed electronic maintenance for the 8-years battery guarantee, and most third parties - even some dealerships- are clueless should something electronically be out of order.
So my advice: buy from an authorized dealer only, unless you want to test your luck.

 

[greendwarf]

Well it, at least, appears to be a legitimate business, if the senior personnel detailed on their "About Us" webpage are genuine - founded by founder of Zoopla etc.

However, whether they are competent in handling hybrids is another matter. Why not ask them exactly what "reconditioning means" and if they don't seem to understand the issues regarding hybrids, walk away. :idea:

 

[STEyles]

...I wonder what their "check and recondition" means? These cars need specialised equipment to deal with the electrical gubbins.

There's a list of items they check here but it looks like athe things anyone would check when buying a car - they don't mention any special EV items.

Do they offer any sort of warranty after the 7 days? Or do you have to arrange something yourself?

They say:
"Every Cazoo car comes with our comprehensive 90-day warranty." There's also a PDF listing the terms on their site.

 

[STEyles]

So my advice: buy from an authorized dealer only, unless you want to test your luck.

Thanks for that, I'll check our local dealer.
I would feel better discussing it with a real person as well (even if they're on commission!), and taking a real test drive before deciding. Call me traditional if you want!

 

[STEyles]

So my advice: buy from an authorized dealer only, unless you want to test your luck.

Thanks for that, I'll check our local dealer.
I would feel better discussing it with a real person as well (even if they're on commission!), and taking a real test drive before deciding. Call me traditional if you want!

I forgot about the 'unprecedented times' we're currently going through:
To protect the safety of our staff and customers our dealerships are currently closed.
Our offsite team are operating an online car buying service to our customers including Reserve a Car for just £99.

Oh well, better wait a while longer!

 

[littlescrote]

I would buy through them if they have the spec that you want at a good price - I tried to buy at auction a few times and it's no worse than that.

 

[DaveL]

I looked at Cazoo and then tried Autotrader. I spotted a very interesting 10-month old Exceed Safety for sale by a Mitsubishi dealer, about 85 miles away.

I checked the dealer's site and then paid a £100 refundable deposit and arranged to visit/view.

The reason for the sale was established and after a test drive, we got down to the nitty gritty of haggling and finally reached an agreement.

The dealership has serviced the car, valeted it and will deliver this coming Friday (31st). They offer a 30-day trial period and if there are any problems, they will take the car back and refund.

For a machine as complex as the PHEV, I think it really makes sense to buy from a dealership, to try before buying and to extract the longest possible warranty agreement. Roadside assistance is essential, see below.

A buddy of mine has an older PHEV which he's driven to the south of France. When he came to use it again, he was faced with a complete corpse (although the radio still worked). The displayed error message was "EV SYSTEM SERVICE REQUIRED" and showed a full battery and half a tank of petrol.

The vehicle was collected by his European Rescue provider and disappeared down the road towards the nearest Mitsubishi dealership, about 2 hours drive away. He's been left in a property that's 4 miles away from the nearest shops. At the moment, he'd give an arm and a leg for something as simple as a Morris Minor!

Back to the topic starter- I'll report on how my purchase pans out in due course. Road fund licence from 1 August, £465/year and insurance around £400 for an OT with over 25 years NCD.

Cheers, DaveL