Terrified of buying new car

downshifter

Dear all, I drive an old campervan as my everyday car but the petrol is very expensive for short drives (15 miles a day on 4 days a week for work, couple of 300 mile motorway drives a month) so I thought I'd look for a little cheap runaround for the short runs and keep the van for holidays and the longer drives. The van is also a 4WD which is invaluable where I live in winter.

I have £2000 cash to spend on a little something, would love to spend less of course. Can anyone recommend what I should be looking for? Ive read the horror stories on here about the fast ones dealers pull, and am terrified of being done out of my very hard earned cash! It's really putting me off.

I don't have any car-savvy friends so will have to sort this on my own. Surely some dealers are honest and helpful?

If anyone can recommend a car that would at least be a start! Bumpy country roads/cart tracks - just something that can cope with that is fine. Don't care at all about radios or other luxuries!

Edited to emphasise that I'm not looking for a 4wd, the camper will do for wintry roads, I just want a runaround to save costs as I'll be keeping the camper.

Thank you.

Nodding_Donkey

downshifter wrote: »

Surely some dealers are honest and helpful?

Of course they are. You'll find them with the honest MPs :drool:

AdrianC

Two grand is right in the dodgiest possible territory to be buying from the trade. Buy privately.

If you've got an old camper (Bongo?), you either have a reasonable DIY grasp or a good relationship with a local garage. Ask them what they can recommend, or if they'd be happy to inspect any potential purchases.

agrinnall

I would suggest that you forget about 4 wheel drive when you're looking, I can see that it might be useful in a campervan for getting out of muddy fields, but on a £2000 car it's one more thing that will go wrong, and you'd be better putting a few quid aside for winter tyres if you regularly have problems with snow and ice.

StripeyMiata

I'd go for a Japanese car, other people's opinions may differ. Something simple with less toys to go wrong as well, so not a Lexus LS400 (much as I like them). Something like a Mazda 3/Toyota Corolla (although look for rust on the rear arches of the 3).

If you want 4WD, Daihatsu Terios (1st Gen) would probably be what you want.

downshifter

AdrianC wrote: »

Two grand is right in the dodgiest possible territory to be buying from the trade. Buy privately.

If you've got an old camper (Bongo?), you either have a reasonable DIY grasp or a good relationship with a local garage. Ask them what they can recommend, or if they'd be happy to inspect any potential purchases.

Thanks Adrian. Why is it the dodgiest territory? I'm concerned that there is no come-back if buying privately as evidenced on the forum in the last day or so.

Not much has gone wrong with the old camper to be honest, I've been lucky there and the main thing that went wrong was something my garage couldn't fix and I've learned to live with it. I just haven't found a competent garage either.

Thanks - I intend to learn before going into this.

downshifter

agrinnall wrote: »

I would suggest that you forget about 4 wheel drive when you're looking, I can see that it might be useful in a campervan for getting out of muddy fields, but on a £2000 car it's one more thing that will go wrong, and you'd be better putting a few quid aside for winter tyres if you regularly have problems with snow and ice.

Apologies, I wasn't clear. I'm not looking for a 4wd, the camper will do if I need to get along these roads in winter, I just want a basic ordinary runaround. Thanks

AdrianC

downshifter wrote: »

Thanks Adrian. Why is it the dodgiest territory? I'm concerned that there is no come-back if buying privately as evidenced on the forum in the last day or so.

For precisely that reason.

Any trader has to give certain reassurances and comeback by law. They also have to make a profit after paying all their costs of doing business, including preparing it for sale.

To do that, sensibly, within a two grand sale price, they have to make - realistically - somewhere about a grand per car. So, suddenly, you're buying a car for close to twice the private sale value, solely for the comeback. So corners get cut - they have to be, if you're wanting to stay in business.

In the real world, though, legal comeback on a ~10yo car is pretty limited. SOGA for used goods is tempered by realistic expectations, including wear and tear. Almost any faults can be put down to wear and tear on a car in, charitably, late middle age.

downshifter

Thank you for the explanation. Really helpful.

Would £2.5k be a better budget then or is it the same issue only scaled up? It's only a few bits of plastic and metal to get me from A to B so I really don't want to go higher than that.

Thanks again - I really have no idea so this is great.

bigjl

AdrianC wrote: »

For precisely that reason.

Any trader has to give certain reassurances and comeback by law. They also have to make a profit after paying all their costs of doing business, including preparing it for sale.

To do that, sensibly, within a two grand sale price, they have to make - realistically - somewhere about a grand per car. So, suddenly, you're buying a car for close to twice the private sale value, solely for the comeback. So corners get cut - they have to be, if you're wanting to stay in business.

In the real world, though, legal comeback on a ~10yo car is pretty limited. SOGA for used goods is tempered by realistic expectations, including wear and tear. Almost any faults can be put down to wear and tear on a car in, charitably, late middle age.

Can you please point me in the direction of these £1000 cars that I can sell for £2000 please.

As it would appear BCA, Manheim and Aston Barclay are all out.

A more likely margin is 20% often less.

Auctions are filled with private buyers these days bidding up to just under dealer prices.

bigjl

downshifter wrote: »

Thank you for the explanation. Really helpful.

Would £2.5k be a better budget then or is it the same issue only scaled up? It's only a few bits of plastic and metal to get me from A to B so I really don't want to go higher than that.

Thanks again - I really have no idea so this is great.

In % terms the profit margin gets better the cheaper a car gets.

But so does the risk.

Customers can be every bit as dishonest as dodgy traders.

No dealer is making 100% profit on a £1000 car though.