hi, i nearly always buy a car from a private seller, after doing the appropriate checks.

Obviously for a new car there is no option, but did you get your car from a dealer or from a private seller.

The people who have bought from a dealer, how easy has it been to get problems resolved.

I bought mine privately from a friend, but I knew it had been well looked after!

I always buy from private sellers. However, when people ask me for a recommendation, 9 times of 10 I would tell them to buy from a reputable dealer.

The reality is if someone isn't knowledgable about cars, and is going to pay someone else to work on them, they are generally better off paying the price premium of buying from a dealer. If you know cars, know the known issues of the specific one you're looking for, are attuned to possible issues on a test drive, not to mention are good at reading people, then there is a great deal of money to be saved buying privately.

Sometimes the car is more honestly presented in a private sale because you see how the owner cared for it, versus one that has been detailed up to a point that it hides the real condition of the car.

It's a risk reward tradeoff. 2008 3.2L I6 Auto

The last three cars we bought before our Freelander were bought brand new from dealers - Fiesta, Focus and a Golf and we had each around three years - none of them had more than 20,000 on the clock when we sold them. I bought our Freelander privately and it seemed strange buying a car for nearly £15K with over 65,000 miles on it. Apart from service items, tyres and brakes we only had one mechanical fault which was the throttle body which I replaced. When we sold that and bought an Evoque, even though I'm in the trade I paid extra and bought from a LR dealer with two years guarantee (and two years 'free' servicing). Was worrying about wasting money but boy, did I have a smile on my face when it developed a fault. LRA came out at a time to suit us and 'fixed' it (keyless locking packed up). When it went again two months later, LRA came out to my workplace, diagnosed a faulty keyless vehicle module, booked it in to a dealer and arranged a loan car (DS HSE). We had that for 5 days free of charge until our one was fixed. If I'd have bought privately I'd have been stuffed and would have had to have got that job done at a main dealer which would have probably cost more than I would have saved if buying the car privately. Having the first of my free services done in October and I still have 12 months of worry-free motoring and one more service after that although I'll probably change it before October 2017. If not, I'll look into taking out an extended warranty on it. I suppose if you can afford it and want worry free motoring for two years, go for an approved used. Next best would be a non-franchised dealer. Good value can be had buying privately but I'd only buy from someone who'd had it a few years and had provable service/repair history. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

As cars have become more complex I have shifted from buying privately to buying from independent dealers and now to only buying from franchised dealers. Cars are so much more complex now that you need proper backup support. Of the four FL2s we have owned in the family the first was bought from a non franchised LR specialist and it was OK, the second from a non specialist and turned out to be a nightmare, the third and fourth from a LR dealer which also had problems but were sorted under warranty.

I currently have a 2011 FL2 with 75kmiles and an extended warranty until next April and I wouldn't advise anyone to buy an FL2 without a warranty (and I don't mean an independent warranty either). 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Both my FL2s came from dealers - the first at 3 years old and the second 3months old ex-demonstrator. No major faults - the first one had a couple of minor problems solved under extended warranty - but I felt much happier with the security of a dealer warranty. I think with the complexity of the car and the work being potentially expensive I'd always go for a dealer for this model. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.