Should I use a broker to buy a used car?

Looking for a used car is usually an exciting time.

If you’re very lucky, you will find the perfect one-owner, well-loved, low-kilometre used car in immaculate condition for a bargain price in the first ad you set eyes on.

Of course, it’ll be garaged just in the next suburb and half a day later you’ll have it in your driveway, registered and insured in your name.

That’s one possible outcome, but you’ve probably got just as much chance of winning the lottery. On the other hand, buying a used car can become an extremely tedious, time-consuming process.

While the internet has changed the way we buy things, some would argue that buying a used car it’s not much better than when buying through the old newspaper classifieds – and in some cases, it’s worse.

carsales classifieds offer the unrivalled ability for buyers to drill down to the precise make, model and variant they require, along with their preferred engine, transmission and maximum mileage, age and price – and more – in any location they like.

But some photos of vehicles for sale can be very poor and/or not show defects. Or the seller takes the photos in low light for that very reason, so that the defects don’t show. Another trick is to aim the hose at the car or take photos in the rain, so the car is gleaming… because it’s wet, not because the paint has any lustre left in it.

Then there are the embellished stories a seller will tell about the car – sometimes innocently, other times not. When a car is described as having a complete service history over the phone, the seller might have forgot to mention it was until two years ago when they got busy with a new job.

So the car has been neglected for a while, but that doesn’t matter, right? Maybe it doesn’t matter, but it’s not a risk you’ll want to take at full price. A pity then if you have just spent two hours driving to see the car.

Then there are sellers who don’t leave a phone number you can call or don’t answer their phone, or forget to remove the ad once it’s sold, or are advertising a car to appease someone else without actually wanting to sell it.

For whatever reason, there can be many blind alleys when calling about cars for sale and there are also plenty of scammers out there, although carsales weeds them out better than most other used car classified platforms.

Even if you manage to get hold of a seller and get a physical address to see what looks to be a winner of a car. You can end up driving all over the place, spending weeks looking at what appear to be good cars online but in fact are very tired, worn-out examples.

All this takes time, money and often an emotional toll. Fuel, parking fees, tolls and even phone calls can all add up (never mind the hours of searching for the car online) if you’re doing some serious used-car hunting.

Because there’s been more than 50 brands (each with ever-growing model lines) competing for about a million sales a year for some time now, the Australian car market is quite fragmented too.

Not too long ago, the market offered much fewer choices, so more cars of any particular model would be sold and then eventually enter the used market. There would be dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of just about the exact same car for sale, so getting an idea of value and taking your pick was pretty easy.

Now, there are so many different new model variants that not as many used examples of the same vehicle come onto the market. Depending on your location, your budget and, in particular, the type of car you’re looking to buy, you can end up burning a lot of time without ending up with a fresh car parked in your driveway.

This is where engaging a broker can make a lot of sense. You could end up saving time and money, and get a better car than you might after hunting around for weeks or even months by yourself.

Used car brokers are not all the same, and not all offer an identical service, so you might need to shop around a bit to find one you’re comfortable with and who can best help you with the car you want to buy and your budget.

Ideally though, they will offer a buying service for a fee. Around $200-$300 is the standard fee, but that can change according to what type of car you’re wanting and how hard the broker needs to chase for it.

We’re assuming here of course that you are realistic about what you want to buy and what you are prepared to pay for it. A broker won’t find you a perfect old classic Bentley with fresh tyres and 12 months registration for $1200.

Also, if you are chasing a rare classic, a general used-car broker might not have the contacts to easily find such a car. For the better part, such a broker is better at helping you find more popular, recent cars.

Like any broker – whether it be for insurance or for a mortgage – a car broker will do the legwork for you, find you the best car for the best price, for a fee.

No, a broker is not going to drive around looking at 100 cars for you just for a couple hundred dollars. Hopefully though, such a broker will have the experience to identify poor cars advertised online. They also should have the contacts in the trade to know if a trade-in is coming up for wholesale at a new-car dealer that you might be interested in.

Some brokers primarily run a used-car buying service that can offer sellers a better price than a new-car dealer can at trade-in time. These brokers usually sell most of these cars direct to the used-car dealer, but can also sell privately.

If a broker finds such a car and knows it’s the sort you’re interested in, it’s easy for them to sell it to you and this can also be an excellent way for you to find a good car before it makes its way to a used-car dealer’s lot.

The broker may or may not be selling you the car directly. If the broker is selling you the car and has a motor vehicle dealer’s licence, there are consumer protections (such a guarantee of title) and possibly also statutory warranty provisions.

If, however, the broker acts as a go-between and finds you a privately advertised car, you must do all the usual checks to ensure it is not stolen, written off or encumbered.

And while a broker might be to determine whether a car is good or not, they usually don’t do mechanical checks. So you should also have the car inspected, so that there are no nasty surprises after you buy.

If you are buying via carsales, there are a whole lot of very useful buying tools at your disposal such as carsales vehicle history report, which includes a PPSR check, how long the ad has been live and often the vehicle’s historical odometer data to ensure that the listed mileage is genuine.

Downsides of employing a broker include the fact they might miss a great car for sale (that you might have found yourself), or that they have a conflict of interest by selling cars on behalf of a wholesaler from who they get a commission.

So it’s best to be up front about how the broker gets paid for helping you, and also be clear about exactly what car you want and how much you are prepared to spend buying it.

The upshot is that if you lead a busy life, as many of us increasingly do, and find searching for a good used car too hard or disappointing, then a broker can be a quick and satisfying way of finding the perfect used car.