Used Cars with over 100K miles?

gazfocus

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

That's the spirit. EOTD, she's probably way happier driving around than you are thinking about it.

Way to go will be take a good look and test drive a few cars locally you think you like, then look for the best example you can of the one you like most.

Thanks, as obvious as it sounds, I'd not actually thought about test driving some cars locally. I will look to see what's available at local dealers (as wouldn't want to get private sellers hopes up) and go for a few test drives at the weekend

colino

gazfocus, on your budget and approach I don't think you are going to enjoy a broad sweep of free test drives. Any decent trader will have your card marked PDQ and either sell you a car or explain the one you want a freebie in is waiting for its cordwangler to be changed.

BeenThroughItAll

colino wrote: »

gazfocus, on your budget and approach I don't think you are going to enjoy a broad sweep of free test drives. Any decent trader will have your card marked PDQ and either sell you a car or explain the one you want a freebie in is waiting for its cordwangler to be changed.

I've never had any problems getting test drives at that budget.

When my wife's colleague needed a <£1000 banger last May, we took four test drives at one garage in Darlington, before we went somewhere else and took another three before eventually buying from a private seller.

I will point out that at no point was that the intention, she just didn't like any of the cars on offer.

gazfocus

colino wrote: »

gazfocus, on your budget and approach I don't think you are going to enjoy a broad sweep of free test drives. Any decent trader will have your card marked PDQ and either sell you a car or explain the one you want a freebie in is waiting for its cordwangler to be changed.

I'm not sure I agree. Even garages with £1000 cars want to sell those cars rather than being stuck with them, and in order for them to sell the cars, they need to allow potential customers to test drive them. The last time I bought a car at this price range, the garage gave me the key and let me go alone. I am obviously not gonig to go to a garage and say 'I don't want to buy your car but can I have a drive in it so I can go elsewhere and buy'.

colino

You don't have to say anything, you still won't be trotting out a number of cars from a professional trader.

gazfocus

colino wrote: »

You don't have to say anything, you still won't be trotting out a number of cars from a professional trader.

What makes you think as much? If I go to a dealer and say 'I'm looking for a cheap runabout but not sure what I want', they will try to sell me a car, will they not? Part of that process will be 'lets go for a test drive in this'.

The fact that it's a £1000 (ish) car, not a £12,000 car makes me more likely to want to test drive it, to ensure I'm not buying a lemon. Although, the price of the car does not have any effect on whether or not a dealer will let you test drive a car.

If a dealer wants to sell a car, they will accommodate the needs of a potential purchaser. If they don't want to sell a car, no-one can force them to.

BeenThroughItAll

colino wrote: »

You don't have to say anything, you still won't be trotting out a number of cars from a professional trader.

As I alluded to above, that's only your opinion/experience. I've more examples than the one I gave.

Depends on the individual trader, and the attitude of the potential buyer, I suspect.

JustinR1979

Last cheap car I looked at at a garage, matey gave me a fiver, and sent me on my way to test drive it and put fuel in it.

getmore4less

IME you can eliminate quite a few models of cars just by sitting in them and trying to play with the controls and adjusting the seat etc.

I had to eliminate quite a few just because the footwell was cramped or offset as I was used to footrests both sides in the previous car.

Other will get excluded for other reasons like boot wrong size rear legroom.


There are a few dealers near us that take the best of the part exes from the main dealers and are happy to source from the trade something if you really don't want to travel.

Still needs a shortlist and finding a dealer you are happy to deal with localy.

CKhalvashi

gazfocus wrote: »

difference is, we're talking a £1000 (ish) car here. There is every possibility that sellers aren't honest about the condition of a car, or the mileage (one car I saw online was advertised with 130k on it, when I asked for more photo's, one of the photo's showed it was at 139k). I'm also not sold on a particular make/model so I won't know if I like the car until I see it, sit in it, and test drive it.

If I knew 100% that I wanted a VW Passat and I knew what they drove like, etc, I wouldn't have a problem with travelling, and may even get a train, but that's not the case unfortunately.

For a Bangernomics car, it's always worth putting £1000, within 10 miles into Autotrader.

All cheap cars, and within a very short distance.

It's occasionally the case (and I've been in this position when selling) that a higher mileage car is better value and even a better car than a low mileage one.

Think about it; would you prefer a 4 year old car with 200000 miles that's spent its life on the motorway, or a 6 year old car with 50000 miles, that has around the same wear and tear, despite having a much lower mileage?