Home / Buyer-side advice
The only person in the deal who is not trying to sell you a car
Almost everyone a buyer meets in the specialist car market is paid by the sale. Dealers own the stock. Auction houses earn from the hammer. Brokers usually act for the seller who instructed them. None of that makes them dishonest. It makes them sellers, and it shapes what they can honestly tell you.
What buyer-side means in practice
Davey & Daughters holds no stock, takes no seller commission and accepts no consignments. The fee comes from you, the buyer or owner, and from nobody else in the transaction. So the advice can include the sentences a seller cannot say: this one is overpriced, this history does not add up, this is the wrong car for what you actually want, walk away.
What that is worth
Most of the value is in what you avoid. The wrong car costs its price, then costs again in correction, and then costs a third time at resale. Independent scrutiny before commitment is the cheapest part of any purchase you will make.
When a dealer or auction is the right answer
Sometimes it is. The best example of a model sometimes sits in dealer stock at a fair price, and a well-run auction is sometimes the honest market for a rare car. Buyer-side does not mean anti-dealer; it means someone on your side of the table when you deal with them.
The disclosure promise
If any third-party referral fee could arise from an introduction, you hear about it before you act, in writing. If that ever changes the advice, the advice is wrong, and you should say so.
I now send Alex anything with wheels before I do something rash. Twice he has talked me out of a car I had already fallen for, which has been worth more than the times he found me the right one.
Client, ongoingSomeone on your side of the table
No stock, no seller commission, no consignment. Just independent judgement before you commit.