need a car..

raju786

well i have 2 ways to get a car.... one is to get a loan of 2.5k but i have some arrears on credit card which i would intend to pay off fully if i was applying for a loan, iv never missed a payment on it though. i have a contract phone where i have missed the occasional bill, but i would like a loan for 2.5k, could anyone give me any advice on which companies would accept me, i know i can pay this off as i recieve the student loan eqivalent and i have a part time job ....or would the better route be as i have 2 student accounts to go into over draft with both wich would just about fund my car then monthly just pay it back from using my wages(of course retaining a little for everyday expenses). Which would be best? i would be willing to pay higher rates of interest but not silly amounts if you what i mean, such as the provident finance 177% lol

sideshow_matt

why do you need to borrow 2.5k for a car? I spent the first 8 years of my driving life with cars around the £500 mark, and to be honest what you can get now for £500 is ace.

lisa_75

sideshow_matt wrote:

why do you need to borrow 2.5k for a car? I spent the first 8 years of my driving life with cars around the £500 mark, and to be honest what you can get now for £500 is ace.

I agree. We have never paid that much for a car. £500 will get you a decent runabout. Up until last year my husband had never driven anything worth more than £500.

talksalot81

Ditto to that... I have been driving cars which are more than 10 years old and have not had problems. Anything more expensive is a luxury and 2.5k would be a serious spend.

sideshow_matt

register on autotrader and do a search for any car with a maximum of £1000 it's amazing whats on there. I have just seen cars that range from clios to fiestas to mondeos to vectras and even an old E class merc for £445

Rosie75

As others have suggested 2.5k will not necessarily buy you anything more reliable or less costly to maintain than if you spend £500.

Savvy_Sue

Two places to look for advice on buying a car: Honest John and Bangernomics.

kittiwoz

My dad gets most of his cars out of Exchange and Mart. It tends to be better for low value cars than AutoTrader which is a bit more up-market. If you don't know enough about cars to properly inspect it yourself take someone with you who does, pay someone if necessary. I think the AA will provide this service. I think you should get something with a recent MOT as well. Certainly I would worry about buying a car with anything less than 6 months. Also look at the mileage. The failure probability distribution for cars is the classic basin shape with new cars showing having problems with electrics and so on that should be sorted after the first few years, then there's a constant failure rate until about 100,000 miles when things start to wear out. VW are known for reliability ase are the Japanese cars. I believe Skodas are also very well regarded secondhand. Nissan are known for easy maintanence and good parts availability since they use a lot of parts which are common to different models.

louby_lou

i just bought a lovely 1.3 diahatsu charade p reg from auto trader for £800 and its wonderful. power steering the works. anything above that kind of price must be paying for the looks surely? i would def recommend auto trader or a local car auction (with someone who knows what to look for preferably).

Glitterari

Do you actually need a car for uni.

Getting something too flash will just attract the wrong attention - something like 1 in 3 students get burgled....I think that probably goes up if there is a nice shiney car sitting outside the house...burglar thinks if they can afford that - what nice things are in the house?

SANJ

my advice would be to get a Diesel
the fuel needle barely goes down, you'll get good MPG and they don't depreciate as much!