Buying a used car :(

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Nonsense. People want a different car for the same reasons as they replace anything.

So every 4 year old car is finished? I've got news for you...

[Mark]

And if the old one is still OK then they keep it.

It's a shame you can't read properly.

[Dave Liquorice]

Bollocks, people get rid of an "old" car because it needs it's first MOT and/or the warranty is expiring and/or the PCP/lease hire or WHY is coming to an end. Not to mention that having an "old" car on the drive isn't "keeping up with the Jones's".

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You must know different people to me. Most change their car when they can afford to/want to. Not after it has gone wrong. And if it has gone wrong in some major way it would be obvious to the seller.

Shame you don't know what you're talking about. The place is awash with perfectly reasonable secondhand cars for smallish sums.

[Mark]

FFS read the thread. We are not discussing 3 year old cars here. The OP is considering spending only £3K (including insurance). This is well into 5+ year old cars. It'll had most of its depreciation by then. It makes little economic sense to sell it unless there is something wrong with it. The lower the value, the more likely the car will be a dog.

[D.M.Chapman]

Dunno if it's an option, but if you aren't in a hurry or particularly fussy I've had good experiences chatting with my local trusted (that's the key here!) garage guys.

They don't sell cars, but often hear of customers who are looking to upgrade etc. Trade is prices offered are often not all that great, so they will sell them to you for a bit above trade price.

Do you have a local garage you could ask?

Darren

[Clive George]

Nonsense IME.

People get shiny-toy fever with cars, same as everything else, and second hand cars come from that. New kid, changed job, stuff like that provides a steady supply. And people get scared of old cars so get rid of them before they become a problem.

[Mark]

Yes, I must know different people to you.

Most people[1] I know will either keep a car until it's a wreck and then replace it or will keep their older car when they buy a new one. The latter will finally get rid of their oldest car when it goes wrong. Therefore all those cars being put on the "pre-owned" market are dogs.

Not all faults are major and not all faults are obvious. And why assume that the seller doesn't know about the fault? There's plenty of well known ways of hiding problems. Many second hand car dealers just buy at auction, slap a high price tag on and hope the customer won't complain.

Rubbish. A while ago I examined many cars in the "smallish sums" price range. All were on forecourts of used car dealerships. None of them declared any known problems. I found serious[*] faults with /all/ of them. I doubt this situation has improved recently.

[*] serious - in that I would not even consider buying the car.

[Clive George]

No, it does make economic sense to sell it if somebody wants a newer one for whatever reason. Cars are big things, tedious to store. They've also got fairly significant costs to keep road-legal.

BTW. "only" 3K? Bangernomics is the art of running cars which are significantly cheaper than that, and people who practice it know that the majority of the cars they get are actually fine after filtering out anything obviously knackered.

[Huge]

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sorry - no personal experience of the sort of housing estate you live on. Have seen them on TV, though.

[Clive George]

What sort of faults did you see?

FWIW I have had no problem buying second hand cars for smallish sums, but I do buy privately rather than a dodgy dealer.

[Clive George]

Dave's given a reasonable answer to this, but the politer version is that the people you know are apparently not representative of the population as a whole. This isn't abnormal - the people I know aren't representative either, but I don't claim they are.

Unlike you though, I do know people who would be sources of suitable second hand cars for others.

The "keep their older car when they buy a new one" is a bit of an odd one - I suspect that's not nearly as common as you think.

[funkyoldcortina]

The problem with older Fords is not the availability of cheap parts, but the cost of keeping the Bodyshell intact. A 13-year old Ford Escort had to be scrapped in 2005 because holes were developing in the underframe (as well as lots of other cosmetic rust issues all over the body and around the wheel arches). This despite the engine, steering, and all other mechanical parts being fine (and easy to fix where they had went wrong).

It wasn't worth the cost of fixing the underframe.

[funkyoldcortina]

Easy to check...

[ARWadsworth]

When I was looking to change my van about 3 years ago I was informed the the local VW main dealer were selling their parts delivery van. I was interested and when I asked to see the service history it turned out that it had never been serviced! Not even an oil change.

I also love the difference I noticed between house and car buyers.

£1000 car and the guy spends an hour inspecting the car and asking qustions. £100,000 house (we still have them up North) and they decide to buy or reject in five minutes without asking any questions.

[chris French]

Indeed, I can't think of one person I know who keeps their old cars once they get a new one (well a couple of people needed 2 cars and got a newer one as well, but that's rather different).

My casual observation is that people either tend to get a new car at around 3 -4 years or so (when the lease runs out, when the warranty runs out, when they've paid of the loan etc. I guess) or they tend to keep it for some years and get shot when it needs or might need an expensive repair, gets too knackered and tatty or whatever.

We are the latter.

[ARWadsworth]

I consider myself lucky that my Grandad, who used to buy a brand new Ford Orion every 2 years was messed about by the Ford dealer in 1995 and he walked across the road and bought a Honda Civic.

Had he bought the Orion I would be able to fit the rust that was the Orion into his urn. Instead I have a well working N reg Honda.

[ARWadsworth]

I once had a car that used to make a really annoying noise from the passenger seat. I swapped cars three times but the problem always reoccured.

The odd thing is, since I got divorced I have never had a car with the same problem.

[Alan]

In message , ARWadsworth wrote

You cannot equate build quality of 15 year ago with build quality in the

21st century. From my experience Fords of 10+ years or age is that they will go to the scrap heap without a sign of rust.

Modern builds techniques seem to have conquered the rust problem to a large extent. All bets are off however if a car has been involved in a shunt and/or it is adorned with real chrome trim.