Best place to buy a *decent* used car

blizeH

Hi guys,

For the first (and possibly last) time in my life I've decided I want to treat myself to a relatively decent car, before I get older, have kids or whatever.

I'm after a well looked after car, that runs well, good condition etc, which I know is a lottery anyway, but I guess certain sites would be better than others?

Where is the best place to look? I'm using Autotrader exclusively at the moment, but it's hard to know where else to look... places like Gumtree, TradeIt, Ebay etc have quite a lot of cars on there but for some reason I'd be more worried buying a car from them?

My last car was from PistonHeads which seems okay... but are there any other sites I should consider other than Autotrader and PistonHeads?

Thanks

RDG

If your after a particular marque then owners clubs and forums are a good place to find cars. If the person advertising has been an active member of the forum for example then you can uaually assume that the car is in good nick.

Other than than no its all about research theres a lot you can find out about cars and traders etc. from the internet so before taking the plunge always have a good dig to identify any problems.

blizeH

Many thanks RDG, I tried looking for classifieds on an owners forum and there wasn't an awful lot on there, only a few cars posted each month it seems if that Will keep looking though, cheers

RDG

What are you after people on here might be able to help or at least give advise.

verityboo

I think you have listed the best places - ebay, autotrader etc. Its just a matter of trawling through all the rubbish listed to find something decent.

I find it amazing that sellers list cars without basic info like the MOT & tax expiry. You also have to get used to the jargon used such as 'some service history' which means they have the current MOT certificate and nothing else. Others ads are quite funny though - a Laguna was listed the other day described as faultless and 100% reliable etc but they used a photo of it on the back of an AA truck!

blizeH

Hah, amazing that they'd think they could sell a car with a photo like that!

And I'm after an Audi TT Mk2, have found a few I like but they're black, and from my understanding that's not a good colour for someone who doesn't wash his car very regularly ;o