Advice on buying second hand Ceed/Altea

mouthscradle

Evening folks.

Had a stressful Christmas thanks to the idiot who drove into the side of our car on the evening of the 23rd! Our poor old Golf is now likely to be classed as uneconomical to repair by our insurer, it's a brilliant little car but 16 years old.

We've got a courtesy car from our insurer at the mo, but a bit worried about how long we'll be able to keep it for. We need a car to get to work, and are currently 200 miles from home visiting family for the next week. Hopefully they won't ask for it back before we go home, we'll be stranded here else!

Anyway, luckily we were planning to buy a new car in February/March time and so we just about, at a push, have the savings.

We've been looking at Seat Alteas and Kia Ceeds. Budget: £6000 maximum. First question, if we have a budget of £6k, what price cars should we be looking at online? I've been looking up to £6500 on the premise that we could haggle 10% off. Is this ambitious? Or not ambitious enough? It's been a while since I bought a car and have bought from auctions in the past, so no haggling required. Not a clue what's realistic to aim for.

We're hoping for something under 5 years old, under 40,000 miles, petrol, 1.6 litre, 5 door. As this will be a big purchase for us, we'd like a bit of 'luxury', so things like climate control and cruise control would be on our wishlist.

Seen a Ceed Ecodynamics petrol for £4500 but it's done 51,000 miles. Still might go and see it as it looks like a bargain to me (private seller).

Has anyone any experience of either of these cars?

forgotmyname

Unless your doing 50,000 miles a year a high mileage car can be a super bargain.

I generally do a low mileage normally so buy high mileage cars. Usually 120,000 miles. I add about 4000 - 5000 a year for 4 or 5 years and repeat.

A few family issues have pushed up the mileage on this car so its now on 170,000. But still nothing on a modern car.

Any well serviced petrol should hit 200,000 and a diesel 300,000.

Thats how i managed to get a 5 year old car in 2009 for a little over £2000.

Its got cruise control and Aircon. Not climate. But thats not much of an issue as climate in some smaller/cheaper cars is can be on/off and annoying as it struggles to maintain a constant temperature.

bigjl

Currently my favourite source of ex fleet cars, CarGiant in West London, has a 60 plate Kia Ceed 1.6 petrol automatic for £5999 + indemnity fee, which is around £100.


Will have some manufacturers warranty as i belive it is 5 yrs or 7 yrs on these.

Has 40k on it so not even run in yet.

Alteas are nice enough but mostly diesel and therefore more expensive.

I would go for Ceed myself.

sinbad182

How much are you getting paid by cargiant?

Your plugging of them is becoming quite frequent

bigjl

sinbad182 wrote: »

How much are you getting paid by cargiant?

Your plugging of them is becoming quite frequent

And your point is?

I have also plugged Merthyr Motor Auction, WOMA and BCA in the past.

Wow, i work for a lot of people don't I.

If you have nothing to add then feel free to not bother posting.

:rotfl:

sinbad182

My point is that you're making numerous recommendations of car retailers, without any knowledge of where the people you are recommending them to actually live. That's before we go into the questionable quality of the recommendations themselves.

Perhaps you should confirm whether your plugs are relevant or not before posting in future?

bigjl

sinbad182 wrote: »

My point is that you're making numerous recommendations of car retailers, without any knowledge of where the people you are recommending them to actually live. That's before we go into the questionable quality of the recommendations themselves.

Perhaps you should confirm whether your plugs are relevant or not before posting in future?

You do realise that people travel around the country to buy cars?

Or maybe you don't

I have bought and sold hundreds of cars over the years and sources many more for family and friends

The advice wasn't aimed at you anyway so I am still unsure why you feel the need to comment.

But here is a clue.

OP is interested in a Kia Ceed.

I showed an example of a Kia Ceed, at a sensible price.

Being an auto and three years old it is highly likely to be ex Motability.

Ex Motability vehicles are for sale all over the country.

So if the OP sees a similar car at a Main Dealer for £7999 he is now aware it can be had for less.

He or she could even consider Motorpoint or Fords of Winsford but as I have only a small amount of experience with them then why would I recommend them, that is the point of a recommendation.

It isn't a Google search, it is based on personal experience.

I have nothing to moan about in my dealings with CG, any problems were sorted quickly and without issue, the only problem was in '92 when they were still The Great Trade Centre but they were still were they are today and another smaller site on the A40, they were also much smaller then.

So if you are upset that I recommend a company I have been dealing with since '92 then so be it.

I really couldn't care.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

sinbad182

Yeah great story mate.

You do realise though, that the vast, vast majority of people DON'T travel that far to buy cars? And therefore recommending they buy bog standard, available anywhere cars from car giant or Merthyr auctions without knowing where the OPs live is completely irrelevant and disingenuous.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

UncleZen

Ceed v altea why is the altea even being considered?
Ceed is great - car go for it

bigjl

sinbad182 wrote: »

Yeah great story mate.

You do realise though, that the vast, vast majority of people DON'T travel that far to buy cars? And therefore recommending they buy bog standard, available anywhere cars from car giant or Merthyr auctions without knowing where the OPs live is completely irrelevant and disingenuous.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

And because i don't know where the OP lives my advice will continue to be generalised

After all the may live in Cardiff or Hounslow.

And actually it is now more common than ever for people to travel a bit further than they used to.

For the same reason they now no longer print Autotrader.

The internet.

Historically Autotrader was printed on a regional basis.

This was because at that time people would only look near home.

Ebay started this i think. People happy to travel for a bargain.

Now people travel for greater choice.

Has had a detrimental effect on car retailers is smaller communitys i would suspect.

I know a huge number of the cars in my home town are no longer bought in the town.

But they do tend to be serviced there.

sinbad182

Got any facts to back up the 'more people travel to buy' claim you're making?

And even if you do, my point stands - the vast, vast, VAST majority of people still buy cars in their own area, therefore making your constant referrals to Car Giant and Merthyr Motor Auctions or wherever you're spamming these days completely pointless and irrelevant without knowing the OPs location.

I dont think I need to say anything else on the subject of your CG obsession - you were pretty comprehensively destroyed by others on the subject in the Arnold Clark thread :rotfl: