Researching buying a car for under £3000 - any useful websites?

Lieutenant_Thrift

For the last three years, I've had a lease car through my work but today, because of "the present time", that's all coming to an end and I will have to buy or hand back my car in January. I asked for a quote for my car (a 2009 Corsa 1.3 cdti ecoflex) with just under 50k and was quoted almost £6000 which I'm sure is more than than the market price.

How do I know this? Because I went to the whatcar website and put my numberplate and all my other personal details in (name, email, DOB, postcode etc). The the lowest price it quoted was £4500.

It made me wonder if there is a simple website that will give you that same information without you having to divulge your personal information and contact details? The same applies to insurance quote websites? (was unnerving last year when I got new insurance for my mum and certain companies I'd seen on the price comparison sites started phoning her and me)

Are there any websites that will give you the cost of running a particular car? (tax, insurance, fuel costs if you enter your annual mileage etc.)

My Corsa is very economical: fuel costs work out about 12p per mile and road tax is only £30 a year. However, I would like a car that's a bit more powerful and am willing to pay a bit more for that.

I'm hoping to buy a good reliable second hand car for less than £2000, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

LT

BaileyB

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/prices/

Autotrader have an approx cost for insurance you just add age, sex, no claims and gives you an approx quote.

forgotmyname

I'm hoping to buy a good reliable second hand car for less than £2000, does anyone have any suggestions?

I should change my name to MondeoMan or something.

My budget is around £2000 when buying a car. I buy a 5 year old mondeo slightly high miles but excellent papertrail.
I keep it for 4 or 5 years and sell it for approx half or 1/3rd of what i paid and repeat.

On my 3rd now. A 2004 Diesel estate 130bhp 6 speed gearbox. Bought in 2009.

Had 2 tyres and the brakes done.

Cheap and plenty of choice.

Just dont spend ALL your budget on the car. If you have to stretch to £2000 then buy a car thats under £1000, Buy on condition not age or miles.
Then you have enough spare to pay for repairs or if the worst happens buy another one.

Lieutenant_Thrift

Thanks forgotmyname. I hired a Mondeo 6 speed diesel in 2004, I'd imagine one similar to yours. It was great fun to drive.

How do you find the fuel consumpton and is the tax £115 or more?

LT

forgotmyname

I think the tax has risen to £165 this year. Not due yet.

Short heavy traffic it suffers low 30's, On a run 50+mpg ie easy.

70mph on the A42 south from Notts, Cruise on. I reset the trip whilst on the move and it stayed around 60mpg. Quite hilly in parts so not bad.

I could probably do a bit better with the cruise off. Build a bit more speed before the hill and let it scrub off.

londonTiger

the car is going on autotrader for just under 5k cheapest, then it obviously goes up.

for a good buy get a mk4 tdi vw golf. with your budget you can get 50mpg+

based on your 12p per mile figure, id estimate that you're doing 50mpg on your corsa with fuel being £1.30 (diesel i presume).

the tdi is a little bit better than corsa because the tdi is a bigger car, which says a lot really because corsa weak 3 year old techolofy can't beat vw 12 year old technology in terms of power and fuel efficiency