We had talked in a previous article about the multiplicity of methods for searching for a vehicle at the present time, and these are divided between traditional methods such as going to car showrooms directly, whether local or linked to a series of exhibitions in several cities within Germany. Or use online vehicle search sites such as autoscout (https://www.autoscout24.de/) and (https:// www.mobile.de/), or general online buying and selling sites such as https://www.ebaykleinanzeigen.de/ or Facebook market place. The second section has become the most famous in recent years, as it allows the buyer to see vehicles in several cities within Germany, and compare them, and these sites help the buyer in determining the specifications of the vehicle to narrow the search circle. Many car showrooms are now publishing what they have on these sites, so in this article we will provide a few tips to help those looking for a vehicle. If you are interested in learning about further tips about buying a car in Germany, check our article, Tips for searching for a vehicle in Germany.
Search in car showrooms
This method is characterized by the direct and personal inspection of many cars at the same time and in one place, and provides the opportunity to inquire about several matters directly from the seller, without the need to move between more than one page on the Internet and phone more than one person. Most people find what they are looking for faster this way. But what limits the effectiveness of this road is that it depends on the person’s place of residence, or his ability to travel to visit car showrooms. If you live in an area where there are not many exhibitions available, or they are all small exhibitions, your options in the search will become narrower, and if you do not have a way to move and visit exhibitions in other cities, the options narrow more and more, and this is what makes searching through the Internet a favourable option of many.
Online search
The advantage of searching through the Internet is that it is easy to view vehicles in several cities without the need to travel, it is sufficient to advertise and contact the seller to set an appointment to inspect the car in which you are interested. However, some risks lie in online car sales ads, including:
- Hide some of the car’s defects and not display them clearly in the pictures or in the description of the advertisement, therefore it is necessary to be careful and not to neglect the advice related to buying a used car that can be found here.
- Many scammers use car ads and ask for advance payments to reserve the car, so you should not send or pay any amount of money before seeing the car and making sure of its owner and meeting him. Many people fall into the trap of these ads, especially when the vehicle price is lower than the average price in the market, which some 3. 4. consider a good buying opportunity, as the case mentioned in this report https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=y54hacqEmOU
- Car dealers and showroom owners publish car sales ads on these sites, especially autoscout (https:// www.autoscout24.de/) and (https:// www.mobile.de/), and you find that these ads use a unified formula, a common arrangement of words, and a narration of the full specifications of the car, even the basic ones, which distracts the reader and makes the buyer unable to find the specifications that her or she is searching for, in addition to that, the ad publisher does not fill in the vehicle specification boxes accurately, which makes the use of the search features within the site ineffective in limiting the search results to the required specifications.
- Many car dealers publish ads for selling cars on these sites, and the advertisement states that the car is available even though it may be reserved, and when you contact them on the phone, they tell you that the car is reserved, so not all the cars offered are available for inspection, which makes arranging an appointment for a car inspection difficult.
However, despite these warnings, the majority of those who buy a car find it first through the Internet, and then go to inspect it. Many people are advised to use the ebagy-kleinanzeigen website because it is popular among non-dealer car owners, which makes the communication, buying and selling process smoother and more flexible, as they are not looking for a financial profit, and mostly they take care of the vehicle in their possession and it is in good condition for sale again. There are a couple of uncommon places to look for a car these days, however may provide a good solution for many, one of them is local car repair shops. Sometimes the owners of maintenance workshops buy and sell some cars, and since he is specialized in maintaining the car, the cars he sells and buys are in very good condition, and he checks them carefully before buying them, and in most cases it is one of the cars that he maintains periodically for someone customers. The other one is local newspaper that is issued weekly. Some people still place ads to sell their cars in newspaper, specially the elderly, and this is not very uncommon in Germany, yet.