Buying Caterham’s privately or through garages

[Tiddy7]

Looking at the Caterham’s for sale on pistonheads I noticed that of the 125 currently for sale 119 of those are trade sales through dealers, I was wondering if this is a reflection of the relative increase in cost of the cars, or the lack of technical ability of new buyers who want the backup of a dealer network and are willing to pay the additional cost?

[ghibbett]

Time of year.

The majority of people looking to sell privately will start listing their Sevens from March/April IME.

[curley]

Sold mine privately in 24 hours . The right car at the right price will always sell .

Mine was also well over £40K so price isn't an obstacle to a private sale.

[gareth h]

My last 7 was bought by one of the specialist dealers, they were very quick off the mark and put a deposit down unseen, I guess this is why a lot of the advertised cars are from these specialists.

[Tiddy7]

That’s where the benefit of ‘Caterham standard cars’ lies, anything non standard and the dealers have no reason to touch them considering the number of cars out there

[gareth h]

Tiddy7 said:

That’s where the benefit of ‘Caterham standard cars’ lies, anything non standard and the dealers have no reason to touch them considering the number of cars out there

Mine was quite heavily modified, I don’t think it’s a negative for the dealers, they’re more interested in general condition.

[Ziplobb]

I have owned 3 and bought all of them privately. They are relatively simple cars and if you do the basic checks thoroughly you wont have a problem.