Buying used car from Autotrader/cargiant/dealer/ebay????

vikramrkin

Hi,

Sorry if this topic has been discussed already. I could not find anything, so asking the question.

finally I have convinced my self that I need a car and am willing to spend around £7K on a used car. There are so ma ny options to buy a a car, so am a bit confused. I understand that going torough cargiant is a safer option (as aparantly they do all the checks on the car etc), but you pay a big premium for this.

I have been looking at Toyota Prius 2009 onwards model. In cargiant, there is nothing less than 11K for this. For similar model, I have found cars in autotrader/ebay for around 8K. When I checked parker website, the price it gave was around 12K. So am totally confused why auto trader is selling the car for so cheap. Can I trust it? what about going to small dealers in my area?

any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Vik

scheming_gypsy

Cargiant is a trader so prices will be more expensive. Autotrader doesn't sell anything, they allow people to sell their cars, you can go anywhere to buy one but make sure it isn't too cheap.

lawrie28

The best place to by a Prius would be a Toyota dealership. I say this because they are enormously complicated cars, which many garages do not understand and you need to make sure that any warranty you had would cover the car, so a Toyota dealer would be the only place I would look.

The car giants are overpriced and want you to take even more overpriced finance from them.

If you need finance then scout online and have it in place before you go looking - that way you are not tempted byt the "deal" that the salesman offers.

If you were looking at buying a "normal" car, then you will pay over the odds at a franchised dealership, but get a guarantee of sorts.

Never buy a car without driving it.
have someone else with you as a sounding board.
don't but there and then, have a think.

ebay/autotrader is fine, but be careful, get an AA check on the car beforehand - if the seller refuses then walk away.

Do a HPI check wherever you buy from.

s_b

i read some nuts posts on here but this takes the garibaldi
you finally decide you need a car
you set yourself a budget of just £7000
and you want to buy one of the most complicated cars in the world that a master technician needs to go on courses to understand so he doesnt kill himself
what is your contingency fund for repairs then
simple things first like batteries
what mileage did you have in mind
have you driven one?
are you a good reverser?
how many miles do you expect to do in a year

colino

Going back to basics, what do you want your car to do, are you impressed/need performance, constant long commutes or enjoyable short hops, family or show off hedonist? That will start you off on the trail (none of them funnily enough leading to a Prius) but cars are a weird combination of practicality, cost, maintenance, image and real time useage. Otherwise we would all drive white Pandas and hire bigger things when we needed them. This leaves a nice blank card to start your short list on (but score off the Prius).

vikramrkin

Thanks for the replies. I will try to answer the questions:

- I never thought of a contingency budget for repairs etc. I have one more thing to worry now
- My car usage will be only during weekends, to take my family out on short trips (say under 50 miles per weekend).
- I dont really want performance (i mean how fast the car can go, acceleration etc)
- I want a car which is easy to drive (definately automatic) and i am horrible at reversing.
- So far, I have driven VW golf, polo, vauxhall corsa, astra and prius. I was most impressed with prius. Didnt think of all the complications it comes with.

I guess i should stay away from prius then....what about VW golf?

Thanks
Vik