What would you do?

[Jonno02]

Currently looking at 2 cars of identical spec:

1: 19 plate, 13500~ miles, £22,500. 50 miles away from me.
2: 69 plate, 10000~ miles, £23,700. 130 miles away.

At a glance, car 1 looks like the obvious choice. Went to view it a couple of days ago and wasn't blown away with the exterior condition. The car is dark grey, so does show up clear coat scratches etc. But when the light caught it at the right angle if looked like somebody had taken steel wool over some sections. Fingernail catching easily on the scratches etc. Dealer said they'd give the car a 'quick machine polish' and it'd be fine and would also 'touch up' 2 deep/wide scratches on the bumper but wouldn't spray.

Now car 2 is white and so will hide imperfections better. From what I can tell from the pictures sent over, it does appear to be in a better condition externally.

One minute I convince myself that the external condition isn't worth £1,000+ difference, but then the next I think 'every time I look at car 1 in the sun, am I going to be annoyed if the machine polish is half arsed?' And if I need to then get it paint corrected, I'll be at the price of car 2 nearly anyway.

Just looking for some input to help sway me!

Cheers.

[Scrump]

I would go and look at the other car before making a decision.
As you discovered with car 1, pictures do not tell the complete story.

[Sc0tchland]

There will be plenty of others available if you can wait

[ZX10R NIN]

I'd be going to look at car 2, white doesn't hide imperfections just look at it from different angles. you may well find that the 2 hours it takes to get there will be time well spent.

[DodgyGeezer]

Sc0tchland said:

There will be plenty of others available if you can wait

is, possibly, the correct answer. What car is it?

[Mr Tidy]

Surely what the car is and where you are has quite a bearing?

If you aren't in a sparsely populated part of the UK and it's a Focus, Golf, etc. 130 miles seems a long way to travel.

But if it is something a bit niche you may need to travel.

I'm in Berkshire but a couple of years ago I was really struggling to find a mid-2000s manual BMW 330i and ended up doing 215 mile round trip to Cambridgeshire - but it was worth it as I bought it!

FWIW I wouldn't really want grey or white - what's wrong with a colour?

[babelfish]

Mr Tidy said:

130 miles seems a long way to travel.

Depends on the car, spec and location of the OP. None of which we know.

[Jonno02]

I'm located just outside Glasgow, car 2 is in Aberdeen. Car 1 is Edinburgh.

Car is nothing special, volvo s90. Due to a combination of the bug biting and my old car valuation soaring due to the chip shortage it was punted off to cazoo on Saturday, so I'm currently carless.

Reason for focusing on these cars is that we're substantially up sizing our mortgage in a few years. With the value rise of my old car, these two volvos are roughly what I was paying for a 2018 insignia which had some work needing done (declared to cazoo).

[ZX10R NIN]

I'd still go & have a look as you've already seen seeing the car makes a difference.

[LightningBlue]

It looks like the one in Edinburgh has gone, or at least there’s nothing on Autotrader. Personally I’d go for an R Design rather than Momentum, they look spectacular in that spec. They’re not much more expensive for an equivalent age and mileage with the T4 engine but there’s not many around.