"New" car needed - advice please

huggermugger

Thanks, vansboy, you've confirmed what I thought - he did spend an awful lot of time telling me about his various marriages rather than concentrating on the car...

before hollywood- I have considered a Skoda Octavia but most of the ones I've seen have been too old. The Golfs I've seen that I could afford are also too old and they do not come out well in reliability tests anymore - I say this with sadness as my last two (much loved) cars have been VWs. But above all I must have reliability. The Focus scores very highly on reliability & driveability. But I am still open & will test drive anything....

plane_boy2000

before_hollywood wrote: »

ahem, i beg to differ, with all due respect 2 and a half years ago, i bought a 2 year old ex demo car, through a trade contact who obtained it from a franchised dealer, and to prove it the 1 registered previous owner was the manufacturer (registered to the manufacturers corporate address down south).

whether it was still being taken out as a demo car is debateable, but it had 23k on the clock then (and has 34k on now)

2 year old car with 23K on would not be given out as a demonstrator. After 2years most models have had spec revisions etc so would be out of date.

I suspect that the car you bought was one of the many that manufacturers register in their own name and use as company cars for their own managers. Plentiful company cars are one of the perks of working for a manufacturer.

Vehicle_john

Hi Very new to the forum but the advice i would suggest is that theres always plenty of cars around and thats any manufacturer. I am in the motor trade myself and go to all closed approved auctions through out the country. Put it another way with one auction company offer 5000 vehicles per week, Ford, Volkswagen etc are available ex demo ex rentle if you need more info email me back. Try https://www.vehiclechoicelocator.co.uk besoke service to the public cutting out the main dealer and there profit, trade prices to the public.

huggermugger

Sorry, vehicle-john but I'm not particularly impressed by this site; it claims to be a vehicle locator site but after choosing 'used cars' then 'manufacturer' then 'model' I was informed "The number of Focus' we have today is 61" then given an 0845 number to ring! :mad:

Vehicle_john

Hi,

Because I've been in the trade so for to many years I've seen so many different marketing ploys, cheap cars advertised just so people log on only to be told so "that one has sold but I may have another one I can offer" different price etc. When you're exposed to over 10,000 vehicles per week its impossible to inspect every vehicle, take images, down load the full specification etc. The dealers that offer 30 to 80 vehicles they have the recourses to manage a website but as you know customers do pay for that. By now you should have guessed VCL is my company, I signed on money saver to offer my experience and like your good self have given impartial but honest opinion, which I do respect and take on board. I started my own business back in July and would like to offer a bespoke service to anyone who requires a vehicle, very simple idea not rocket science.
A new transparent approach to the motor trade which offers a clear vision for any client, when people have decided what to buy that's when I can start helping. If I can give you one example, every week I get offered 250 vehicles by just just one manufacturer and in addition to that the same brand I will get offered through national fleet operators another 750 in addition to the 250 The bottom line is there is so many vehicles about but the customers always like to see touch the car they have decided to buy. My concept is trying to separate the emotion out of buying a car and just deal with the facts, the customer saves money gets the car what he or she wanted with the personal touch. Saying all that if it proves to be the case that people do require to see vehicles on my website etc I may need to re-design it. I buy so many item over the net and cars is one area which is on the increase hence why I set up VCLin the first place. Many thanks for for valuable feed back and if you do require any information please don't hesitate to email, even you want to buy locally I will be glad to help.

Regards

John

movilogo

Have you considered Hyundai cars? (Accent/Getz/Matrix) Their post 2002 cars come with 5 years manufacturers warranty. They are pretty reliable and fuel efficient.

For reliability, no one can beat Japanese cars. But with your budget, you're unlikely to get a near new Jap car. Still I feel new shape Nissan Primera or Toyota Avensis can be found on your budget.

With slight stretch in your budget, you can even get a new Mazda 2 or Honda Jazz.

Zoetoes

huggermugger wrote: »

Thank you both -

Have just come back from a test drive of a 1.6 Ghia 04 plate (old shape) with 22k on the clock. "only came in last night" one owner, fsh, 3 months dealer warranty... £7500. Not a bad car at all tho more than I wanted to spend. I will have a look at some websites to compare prices. Needless to say the salesman says it won't hang around. Any comments on the price?

Being told that a diesel would cost me another 1-1.5k and they don't have any on the forecourt tho could source one thro Ford Direct.

Last month OH bought 06 plate (new shape) Focus 5 dr 1.6 LX (not as good as Ghia or Zetec I know), 12,000 miles, from Fords for £8,499 with 6 months tax & full tank of petrol, it was an ex courtesy/hire car which might not appeal to some people, it's serviced, has the 2 year warranty left on it & 2 years breakdown cover.

poe.tuesday

what about a peugeot 307 hdi?

I had to finally get rid of my little 306 that had done 250000 miles and was on it's last legs body wise, I really searched about and tried out loads of cars and alwasy came back to peugeot, the 307 is big inside and very frugal, I do a 135 round trip every day (motorway driving) and easily get 45 to 50 mpg out of it and that's hammering it along

I got my one, 3 years old, 26000 miles on the clock and top of the range for £7000, I got it from Perrys, I found the prices of the cars up North far better than down south and had it driven down to me for £100, I got a years warrenty with it too.

GunJack

Why not save yourself a packet and get something a bit older and FAR cheaper. I never pay more than £5-600 for my cars, and have not had problems with them - just have a good look over them before you buy and you can't go wrong. recon my last 4 cars have lasted 10+ years altogether, and only cost average of £500 each...

huggermugger

Thanks for the info & the suggestions...

I haven't made any decisions at the moment, not least because I have to get a loan to do this, applied to Abbey (my bank for 25 years) headline rate 7.9% - ok not the cheapest but thought it would be the most straightforward - they came back with offer of loan at 14.9% :eek:

So now in process of applying for info from credit reference agencies to find out what on earth is going on. Haven't been an angel in the past but definitely haven't done anything drastic with money - no huge debts, nothing bounced at bank for quite a while, generally paid up when I had to etc.

Why is nothing straightforward? I haven't got time for all this- I just want a decent car!