buying a car

lemonjelly

Is there a dedicated thread or guide for car purchases? I can see all these guides for reducing fuel costs, MOT & repair costs etc etc, but one of the biggest costs will be buying a car. I'm surprised there is no guide for this?

I've never been hugely into cars. I've generally wanted a safe, reliable, & relatively economical car that won't break down. Fingers crossed, to date I've been relatively lucky.

I've had a couple of mini metro's - weren't great, bodywork started falling apart, then youthful naivete resulted in me writing it off. The 2nd metro was awful. Had a maestro (all I could afford after the write off) that also got written off - however not because of my fault.

After going a few years without a car, I got a peugeot 106 from new. For the time, the car was excellent for me. No real issues, aside from poor design meant the exhaust was liable to corrode, & water regularly leaked into the rear headlight casing, meaning frequent bulb replacement. However the car did me well, lasting 13 years & over 100k miles. It was comfy and warm.

When I changed that (7-8 years ago) I wanted a hard top convertible. I must have spent 18 months trying to decide what I wanted (I'm terrible at making decisions!). I never actually settled on a particular car. To an extent, my mind was made up for me when I got offered a 4 year old astra with 10k on the clock for a ridiculously low price that would've been foolish not to accept even though it wasn't what I wanted.

However, I'm now thinking of getting rid of this & upgrading. & I'm back to wanting a hard top convertible again...

I'm kinda leaning towards the volkswagon eos, and am quite likely to go for a second hand version.

However most previous purchases were done from family, or by my dear ol' dad, so my car buying experience is minimal (ie zero! )

I have the cash available - no finance needed.
Budget is not set in stone - if the car is good value, then I'll consider it. That said ideally I don't fancy going above £15k, & would prefer closer to £10k.

I definitely don't want a car older than 5 years, & ideally about 3 years old (or less).

I have a trusted mechanic who can come with me to inspect potential vehicles.

So folks, what tips do you have for forging ahead with a car purchase, including me getting rid of my now 12 year old vehicle only worth about £500?

All tips/ideas greatly appreciated!

motorguy

lemonjelly wrote: »

Is there a dedicated thread or guide for car purchases? I can see all these guides for reducing fuel costs, MOT & repair costs etc etc, but one of the biggest costs will be buying a car. I'm surprised there is no guide for this?

All tips/ideas greatly appreciated!

Theres this already...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3152108

motorguy

lemonjelly wrote: »

So folks, what tips do you have for forging ahead with a car purchase, including me getting rid of my now 12 year old vehicle only worth about £500?

All tips/ideas greatly appreciated!

Dispose of your own car via gumtree or ebay once you've finished with it. A dealer will give you literally nothing for it.

Autotrader has a great search facility which will allow you to enter parameters such as petrol, convertible, max age, max miles, etc.

If you're after a 'bargain' more so than a specific car then you could use that and filter down through them.

Also, try pistonheads.com and gumtree, but beware of traders masquerading as private sellers.