New and Used car advise

onehitwonder

The opposite to pingu above. I am looking to by a 2nd hand car, Year: 2004, about £6,000, and was looking at the Picasso, Megane and just saw a Almera Tino. Mainly a MVP as with 2 kids thought I would get something bigger and don't fancy an estate.

I liked the look of the Almera but has anyone any advise good or bad about it?
The megane's are hard to find and normally a bit more expensive, the picasso's look good but would rather a petrol than a diesel as I do low mileage and 1.8 is too high in insurance and not sure the 1.6 has enough power.

Any opions out there - stupid question really

pingu

onehitwonder wrote: »

The opposite to pingu above. I am looking to by a 2nd hand car, Year: 2004, about £6,000, and was looking at the Picasso, Megane and just saw a Almera Tino. Mainly a MVP as with 2 kids thought I would get something bigger and don't fancy an estate.

I liked the look of the Almera but has anyone any advise good or bad about it?
The megane's are hard to find and normally a bit more expensive, the picasso's look good but would rather a petrol than a diesel as I do low mileage and 1.8 is too high in insurance and not sure the 1.6 has enough power.

Any opions out there - stupid question really

well my tino passed mot(so it should only 3 years old) only needed something in the headlights and it cost me £12 for them(he said the light direction was low don't what he was talking about:D )

anyway off to the showrooms soon looking for slightly smaller car!

onehitwonder

Just bought a Picasso. Main factor was the car road tax price for the tino is about £90 more a year.
The picasso looks good and I hope it will give me many years of trouble free motoring.

pingu

didn't know road tax for picasso was only £60?

i did test drive picasso before i bought the tino

you only get 1 master key(the other key is manual use) and spare wheel is outside the car and there were reports of them going missing!

security features are much better on tino thats why i went for it also it was special edition

hope you enjoy your car

onehitwonder

pingu wrote: »

didn't know road tax for picasso was only £60?
i did test drive picasso before i bought the tino
you only get 1 master key(the other key is manual use) and spare wheel is outside the car and there were reports of them going missing!
security features are much better on tino thats why i went for it also it was special edition
hope you enjoy your car

Good point about the spare wheel, hopefully mine won't go missing, along with the car

Real pain about the key, I didn't know about that. I suppose the wife will have to have the manual one then To buy a new master remote key would be really expensive?

I may be wrong about the car tax but the tax now (after the latest budget) for the Picasso 2.0 diesel is £115 a year. I thought the Tino having 186 Co2 emmissions (the one I saw being a 1.8 litre petrol, year 2003) would go into a high band and be £205. see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10012524

Again someone correct me if I am wrong, which I frequently am

onehitwonder

As mentioned above I have bought a 2003 2.00 HDi Picasso with 48,000 on the clock.
It comes with a 3 month warranty and that covers nearly everything apart from normal 'wear and tear parts'. To extend the warranty to 12 months would cost an extra £200, 24 months £450 and £650 for 3 years. I don't normally take out any extra warrantys on things but anyone have an opinion as to if the 12 months one would be a good idea, or by the law of averages is everything likely to be ok?
By 'wear and tear parts' I mean the things that people expect to have to replace as they wear out e.g. brake pads, tyres etc.

nullogik

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

Hi

We have a second car as my OH works funny shifts. We currently have a P reg Fiat Cinquecento for him to get to and from work and it appears to have died. So we need to get another one.

We are looking to buy a "runaround" - cheapish to insure and run, no need for big boot space etc.

Can you recommend any makes or models? (as my main interest in the car tends to be what colour it is!)

Since, you've had experience of the Cinquecento, I would suggest you have a look at the next model up - the Seicento. Prices are falling and you should be able to get a good one for under £1000. Its pretty much the same size as a Cinquecento but more rounded, and falls within the same insurance groups so quotes should be the same/or very similar. However, steer clear of any Seicentos with the Citymatic gearbox as these are quite unreliable and costly to fix.

You should also consider a Daewoo Matiz that is only slightly bigger than your Cinquecento but has five doors and a small 800cc engine. Insurance should be about the same as your Fiat. Its possible to find a good one for under £1000

Also look at the SEAT Arosa and VW Lupo. They identical cars, and pretty much the same size as your Fiat. Insurance costs might be a bit more being a VW and you'll struggle to find a nice one for under about £1500.

Finally someothers worth considering include the Toyota Starlet and Ford Ka.

nullogik

jennifernil wrote: »

We have an N reg 1995 Volvo 440 SE 1.8 Automatic, about 55000 miles on the clock, that we wish to dispose of in May. Is it actually worth anything? If so how much? And what is the best way to sell it? We are in Glasgow.

All advice appreciated.

Realistically the car isn't worth much. I would say its not worth more than about £700 max, even with that low mileage.

To get the most money for the car you should try and sell it privately (ie. through Autotrader, Ebay, local newspaper classified section, notice in the window...).

Dealers will give you next to nothing for it if you trade it in (probably a token sum of £50-100 or so) so ultimatly you're better off selling it privatly.

nullogik

albertross wrote: »

Do you have any insider tips on how much money a dealer makes on a new car, to give an insight on how far you can push for a discount without taking the mick? I know it varies from brand to brand, and is complicated with volume discounts etc.

Yes, I worked at a Honda dealership and the dealerships typically made only around £1000-£1500 on each car dependant on the model. Some dealerships make even less at around £500 for each car. The salesmen typically make around £50 per car and can boost this if they sell you some finance.

The bulk of the money dealerships earn are from finance arrangements, which is why they push these on to you even if you don't need them. Its often cheaper to go to your bank for the money than use the dealership scheme instead.

If you want good guide prices on what to pay for a new car. Have a look at What Car? Magazine, as their new car directory at the back of the mag contains suggested prices you should aim for when purchasing a new car. Some people have been known to beat the What Car Price by a couple of hundred quid so its worth pushing for more. But as a rule of thumb try and aim for at least the What Car Target Price, and anything on top is an added bonus!

Vehicle_john

albertross wrote: »

Do you have any insider tips on how much money a dealer makes on a new car, to give an insight on how far you can push for a discount without taking the mick? I know it varies from brand to brand, and is complicated with volume discounts etc.

The dealers will have various margins but 10% is about the average, better value in many cases is used about 6 months old. The number of vehicles at any time on the market is massive but if you stick to a car broker that only supplies UK supplied vehicles you should get a really good deal, try https://www.vehiclechoicelocator.co.uk they have every week between 5000 to 10000 hence why they cant offer vehicles with photos or vehicle discriptions, they offer a bespoke service, you choose they find not one but a selection of pre-owned vehicles at trade prices. All will be supplied with a inspection form, UK supplied, experian checked (no outstanding finance, no insurance write off etc)

Hope this helps