Buying a used car :(

God I hate it - as far as I'm concerned, it's right up with there with death, divorce and redundancy as a major life stressor. Probably why I always keep cars for years before getting rid.

Anyway - 20-yr-old daughter's now after her first car and needless to say she's leaning on yours truly for advice. I'm certainly no car expert and not the best go-to person, but want to advise as best I can. Last few used cars I've bought myself have come from a local 'nearly new' car supermarket and have been fine, but that place is a bit above her price range: Where would people recommend I go to for sourcing a vehicle under these circumstances?

- About £3k budget (ie purchase price; excluding insurance etc)

- I have little confidence in my own ability to avoid a total dog and source her a good deal

- she lives an hour or so away from me so if I go to a local dealer and it turns out to be a pup - not ideal

I know a private sale would be cheapest, but also most high-risk - however can that be realistically cancelled out by paying the AA £150ish for an inspection, or is that a waste of time? I do know all about HPI checking etc.

Or is she safest going for the poorest value-for-money option - a franchised dealer locally (to me, while home for Xmas), presumably with a reasonable warranty and so she could take it in to another franchised dealer (in her home town) if there were problems?

An independent "Arthur Dayley" operator, with whatever 'warranty' that may or may not provide (with or without an AA inspection?)

Any advice much welcomed. David

Reply to
Lobster
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Dave Been there just too many times now - No 1 daughter and son several times each and I did get it wrong with a cheapy from what I should have spotted was a dodgy dealer; fortunately someone wrote it off for my son, so there wasn't too much money damage there.

At the price range you're quoting, I would approach some of the bigger dealers who will get, from my experience, perfectly adequate trade-ins from little old ladies, and are more than happy to get a bit more for them from a punter than putting them to the auction (that's the cars, by the way, not the 'little old ladies'). My daughter has had two good cars this way.

Son's finances are at the banger level and that's always much more of a gamble!

Rob

Reply to
robgraham

Get it inspected. AA or RAC. If the dealer is troublesome ("Oh, that's not necessary, Sir"), or treats the inspector like shit, walk away.

If there's anything at all in the report unsatisfactory, walk away.

Reply to
Huge

There's no universal solution.

My history:

1st paid for car - Austin Maxi, few hundred, private sale, lots of stuff wrong, fixed in one go at a friendly honest mechanic in York. After that, was a decently well behaved beast. Sold for a couple of hundred couple of years later.

2nd - Austin Maestro pertol. About a grand, private sale, leaking twin carbs rebuilt by me for 10 quid's worth of gaskets and retuned to perfection. Gearbox was crappy being ex-london car (2nd syncro was half dead) but after draining, flushing with diesel and refilling with Millers synthetic it was very well behaved over all operating temperatures and 2nd's problem was barely noticeable. Generally well behaved for a few years except when the oil switch blew pissing oil everywhere.

3rd - Maestro diesel, 3k, from a van seller, extremely well behaved for years and 60mpg. Major problem, turbo blew after a few years but worth the cost to fix.

4th - Daewoo Lanos, 2nd hand, Daewoo dealer. Boring, mostly reliable, apart from when the timing crank sensor failed, oh and a new starter.

5th - VW Touran. New, discounted as an end-of-year-series job lot. Nice car, but actually been the biggest PITA for stupid electronics going wrong. VM are not what they used to be.

6th and concurrent with 5th - BMW Mini (SWMBO). Nice car, reliable, couple of dumb electronics problems fixed under warranty.

The only advice I can give is:

Private sale - will be cheaper, Parker's will give price indicators and things to look out for. Look for known problems on particular year groups or subseries or engine models. See it in daylight, and take a mate or book the AA in who know how to look for problems. Take it for a decent drive and look out for wobblyness, bad noises and other tell tales. It's not as easy to discern a lemon these days as you cannot sound out the electronics.

Dealer - well, you might get a guarantee for a year but there is no certainty that you will not be buying a piece of crap over a private sale.

A mate of mine who could half rebuild a car ina weekend used to buy 100 quid buckets, get an MOT (legit) and run it to death for a year then sell it and repeat. Worked well with old 70's cars that were easy to work on and the parts are cheap.

It's a real minefield and 3k is a painful point because you are not guaranteed success but you lose a lot with a mistake - and even an expert could not guarantee a good buy. My advice is to first decide on a make and model that is plentiful and has cheap parts, eg older Ford and NOT a Toyota, for example.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Before looking at cars in that price range, your daughter should seriously look at what the insurance is going to cost. That may be enough to set some serious limits on the class/type of car she could buy. Only after she's done _her_ homework (it's a life lesson, not one you should do for her) is it time to start looking at autotrader's website to get some realistic ideas of what she can get for her money.

Reply to
root

Thing is that most cars in this sort of price range are bought by the bomb site dealer at auction. They then give it a clean - at best- and stick on their margin. At least 500 quid. Forget any ideas that it is thoroughly checked and serviced before sale. The cars will mainly be trade ins to 'better' dealers who don't sell bangers, so they dispose of them either at auction or direct to a firm they know deals in that sort of car.

So you could short circuit one stage by buying at auction. Look for a car with a decent history - service records, old MOTs, few owners and honest looking, not tarted up for sale. The dirtier the better, often. And set aside the money you're saving for possible repairs/replacements. But do check the obvious like signs of damage, worn tyres, car not starting easily etc. You could even arrange your own warranty via the RAC etc - but I wouldn't bother, as they too make a large profit on such things.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Good advice about insurance.

I've bought several cars via the autotrader web site:, once you've identified candidate models you can look over the whole country to get a feel for the market, then home in more locally. I've had a couple of good buys from semi-retired people who said they pick up trade-ins from larger franchise dealers who don't want older or other-make stuff on their forecourts.

Private will be cheaper than dealers, it's a bit of a lottery either way. At the £3k level small dealers will often offer a 3 month warrenty which is actually backed up by an AA or other insurance policy. Three months should be plenty of time for a real problem to show up. Make sure you get 12 months MOT from a dealer.

Reply to
Newshound

You are, of course, paying for this. The selling dealer gets a large commission on this insurance policy, and the company selling it has overheads and makes a profit too. So it is a form of gambling in reverse. With rather poor odds.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'd say first that paying 3k for a car is pointless, you wont really gain anything significant of genuine value over paying 1k. And a purchase with some risk for 1k is a far better prospect that ditto with 3k.

If youre going to get it professtionally inspected, an MOT is much cheaper, and checks most things, though not all. The MOT becomes a worthwhile gamble if youre not paying the 3k. And it as near as ensures the car is roadworthy, other inspections dont.

In this price bracket, dealers sell the exact same cars that private sellers do, they just sell them for a lot more money, and slap on a guarantee that's a game in practice. My limited experience with them is that theyre not worth visiting.

Whatever option you take, there is risk. Accept it, choose your bets wisely, and you should get good vehicles at low prices most of the time. Many people chase the illusion of the guaranteed good car for this sort of money, it doesnt exist, and they wind up paying far more for what is in reality nothing more.

Finally if you have a friend that knows their stuff, you can get some bargains from auctions. The odds however are risky, you dont get to drive it, so the price needs to be keen enough that if its a lemon you can pass it on with no regret.

NT

Reply to
NT

You could save some money by taking out a policy that does not involve the dealer.

I have never bought any policy. I prefer to use the money saved by not buying one to swap the timing belt ASAP after buying a vehicle that I do not know the history of.

Reply to
ARWadsworth

Yes, indeed. But, if the dealer isn't all that local it's a quick and easy way of reducing the hassle if a fault appears quickly and leaves you chasing the trading standards route. And AA inspection takes extra time.

Incidentally, now that more police vehicles have ANPR hooked up to MID, it's probably worth talking to your insurer before going to see something which you might drive home. In the old days, you weren't likely to be picked up while doing this, and even if you were you could say the existing insurance covers vehicles you don't own, and that you'd be doing the logbook paperwork at the same time as the insurance transfer. These days, a "hit" on the computer virtually makes a case. Said with some feeling as I was stopped when driving wife's new SH car after sorting the insurance because, between the broker and the insurance company, it took a couple of days to get it registered on the MID. Luckily it was in the daytime and they were able to phone the broker. If I hadn't had my own "any car" insurance the buggers were still thinking about seizing it.

Reply to
Newshound

+1

Never be pushed. There are a practically infinite number of cars on sale and always will be.

Reply to
Tim Watts

If it fails the MOT, you don't buy it. However the seller is now in the position that he now has an MOT failure on his books. He's not going to like that....

Reply to
Adrian C

And thus he won't agree to it. And so all are happy.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Yes.

Yes. But it's not too difficult to get a car with good history for 3 grand at an auction. Or as you imply, put any money saved over retail into a pot for initial servcing/repairs.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

My experience of such a policy (from a secondhand only car dealer) wasn't good. They had designated repairers, and insisted they were used. Miles away. And there were considerable costs not covered by the policy.

Buying secondhand from a main dealer will usually give a better warranty

- backed by the car maker. But not on a 3 grand car.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I tend to do this - about £300 for a sporty car. But don't take the online quote. Leave it and IME they phone you back within a couple of hours/days with a 30%ish 'discount'.

Rob

Reply to
Rob

But do read it through very carefully. Don't just assume it will cover you for all eventualities and at no extra cost. 300 quid wouldn't cover one major breakdown - and they're in it purely to make money.

Basically, all insurance is a gamble with the odds loaded in favour of the insurance company. It may well be prudent to insure your house because most couldn't fund fire repairs etc themselves. But if you can afford to buy a car, you should also be able to afford to run it. Including any repairs, etc.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

[snip]

Good advice.

Remember that, due to high depreciation on cars, there is very little reason for people to sell an older car unless there is something wrong with it.

There are exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of secondhand cars that are out of warranty are lemons.

Reply to
Mark

The world is full of idiots who want a shiny new car. Rinse and repeat.

What utter tosh.

Reply to
Huge

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