LAST AUTO NEWS – USED CARS: HOW TO COP A BARGIN
Last Auto account – Acclimated cars: how to cop a bargin We do the detective plan to acknowledge that ex-police cars accomplish acceptable acclimated buys. They’re able-bodied maintained and specced â?? and actual cheap!
Who would accept anticipation able buyers would now be axis to the boys in dejected if sourcing their next car? Well, it’s true.
When analytic for a late-plate car that’s been anxiously maintained – for a atom of the accepted forecourt bulk – affairs an ex-police car could able-bodied prove the absolute solution.
Paul Kourellias from West Oxford Motor Auctions, which holds approved sales for some of the UK’s bigger forces, agrees.
â??In the accepted climate, affairs an ex-police car makes sense,â? he told us. â??If you wish an 05-plate Vauxhall Astra for £2,100, this is the abode to come. Ex-police cars are beauteous value.â? What’s more, affairs from a admired antecedent agency while the breadth will apparently be college than average, you’re absurd to end up with a dud. â??As able-bodied as getting decidedly cheaper, they will aswell be bigger maintained,â? added Paul.
â??Some are serviced every six weeks, and the workshops alone use 18-carat parts. So, if a car larboard the branch with Pirelli tyres, alone Pirellis will be refitted, and if there is a specific fault, they will acknowledge it.â?
Nothing but the truth
There are affluence of belief about ex-police motors, and abounding are annihilation added than hearsay. Firstly, they’re not all white – analysis out the aphotic dejected Ford Focus (opposite) that awash for £1,950 – and they’re not consistently low spec. For instance, abounding cars up for bargain are bare vehicles, acclimated to bolt speeders or apprenticed by the CID during buried operations. Paul even recalls an ex-Royal Protection Band Range Rover that came up for bargain in Balmoral green!
Also, with an accretion focus on end-of-life value, added armament now accept college blueprint models to aid resale. Paul explained: â??People accept the acumen that badge cars are consistently white with bolt trim and cleanup windows, but that’s far from the case.
â??Spec varies amid forces, and to what use the car has been put. Sure, some BMW 530ds we see accept bolt trim, but an according bulk accept covering – and as car firms accept bigger the all-embracing blueprint of their models, items such as alloys are generally standard.â? And if your seek stretches above an Astra or Ford Focus band car, there are affluence of added alien models to accept from.
How does a 63,000-mile ’02 Audi A6 2.5 TDi quattro SE for £4,700 sound? Or an ’06 BMW X5 3.0d with 110,000 afar for £8,600? If you adorned something sporty, addition car to go beneath the bang at WOMA was a 54-plate Skoda Octavia vRS with 74,000 miles, which went for £2,600 – a atom of what it would accept been at a dealer.
As for the rumour that badge cars are â??chipped’ for added performance, Paul Kourellias is agog to put the almanac straight. â??While there can be a few attenuate differences to the abeyance and brakes, tales of badge cars getting lightning quick are mostly down to the simple actuality that they are active able-bodied due to able maintenance,â? he said.
Hard labour?
Perhaps the bigger put-off for buyers is that ex-police motors will accept covered an above-average breadth if they are sold. Additionally, abiding them to civvy use may absorb a bit of corrective plan forth the way.
The aboriginal point goes aback to maintenance. Arguably, a car run 21 hours a day but consistently maintained is acceptable to be in bigger bloom than a low-mileage motor that’s neglected.
Furthermore, as London-based Metropolitan Badge active adviser Damien Finbow confirmed, admiral are now instructed to authenticate â??vehicle sympathy’ on patrol, which prolongs the activity of cars.
â??It’s a action of our avant-garde active analysis that badge appearance that they can be â??smooth and aqueous with the controls’. Also, we’ve been alive carefully with the Active Standards Agency (DSA) to accede blooming issues and administer â??eco-safe’ techniques, such as alteration up to a college accessory beforehand and anticipating alley altitude to cut down on the charge to advance and anchor hard. That agency there’s acceptable to be beneath abrasion on the drivetrain.â?
At decommissioning time, the bulk of corrective plan bare varies according to the vehicle’s use and the force that endemic it, adds Paul Kourellias. â??Some will accept holes in the roof, others won’t. Thames Valley Police, for example, don’t accomplish any holes in their cars,â? he said. â??None of the cars will accept radios/CD players, and on some you will charge to rewire them anon to the battery. However, firms such as Volvo are alive on this, authoritative about-face aback to civvy use even added straightforward.â?
If you still accept the jitters, dealers like expolicecar.co.uk will do all the alertness plan for you – so abundant so that you wouldn’t even apperceive the car’s antecedent occupation. Now you can’t say fairer than that!
Where can I buy a badge car?
An bargain abode is a acceptable bet. Try…Â
West Oxford Motor Auctions, (www.woma.co.uk; 01993 774413)
Or
British Car Auctions, (www.british-car-auctions.co.uk; 0845 600 6644)
Both of these accept approved badge car sales.
Alternatively, specialist dealers such as www.expolicecar.co.uk, Ex Badge Cars Direct (autoexposure.co.uk/expolicecarsdirect) and www.xpcarsales.co.uk all accumulation ex-cop cars from badge force fleets from beyond the country.
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