HELP!!! I'm buying my first car!!

mrmr37

Hi everyone!

I'm looking at buying my first car and was hoping to get a bit of advice.
I've read the Car Buying advice section on MSE but could still do with some help.

Im looking to spend about £6-7k but am hoping to haggle a bit as given the current climate surely car dealers aren't selling as many cars as they'd like and would therefore be keen to make sale? Having never purchased a car before I've got no idea how much I can realistically expect to get the price down by. Can anyone give me an idea so I have at least some sort of target?

I need it for mid-September so am planning on buying in the last week of August as the MSE says dealers are more likely to do a better deal as they'll have monthly targets to reach.

I'm going to pay for it in one go, I dont want any financing. I thought this would be in my favour for a better deal but MSE says you may get a better deal if the dealer thinks they can sell you some profitable financing?

Also, I'm wondering about insurance. Although its my first car and I won't have any no claims history, I'm not a 17 yr old boy racer (I'm 25). Will my age help the insurance a bit or will the fact its my first car still drive the insurance up?

Any advice is much appreciated as I'm not really into cars and don't want to get ripped off!!!!!

Thanks

MUMMYTO2BOYS

Visit MoneySupermarket and get some dummy quotes for a rough idea of what you'll pay to insure the car you want.

hewhoisnotintheknow

get something cheap and cheerful as you are kinda likely to bend it!

MUMMYTO2BOYS

Also maybe worth considering buying a cheap 'banger' and trading in against a new car under the scrappage scheme for 2K once you've owned it for the specified period of time

anewman

In the same situation as you (25 just starting to drive) I found the best insurance deal direct with ecarinsurance.co.uk but it was still quite close to £1k the first year,

harveybobbles

Us car dealers are doing very well thanx! Infact we're having to pay over the odds to get hold of stock, which is really annoying!

So I don't think you'll find many places offering much, if anything off at the mo!

mikey72

If the dealers won't do a deal, walk away. Try at least five to get an idea of what the markets like. It's your money, don't spend it unless you are getting a decent deal.

Inactive

MUMMYTO2BOYS wrote: »

Also maybe worth considering buying a cheap 'banger' and trading in against a new car under the scrappage scheme for 2K once you've owned it for the specified period of time

Which would be 12 months, by which time the scrappage scheme should be history.

emmell

If my local BMW dealers are anything to go by, they are wanting to buy good used stock to keep up with demand for used car sales. And a friend of mine who owns a used car sales, (cheaper stuff), can't buy good stock at a decent price to keep up with demand and he went through a really rough patch last year when nothing was shifting.
ML.

janninew

Hi OP

Just for some info on insurance that may be useful. My sister passed her test last November and she was 25 and bought a newish Corsa, she got her insurance through Diamond and it cost her around four hundred pounds. If you shop around you should be able to find a reasonable deal.
Jannine

Inactive

Fine if the OP is female, Diamond seem to only deal with female drivers.