used car advice

dini_2

Im looking at getting a used car as a runaround (private seller, friend of a friend)
Its an x reg corsa, 95k miles, and owner is looking for £670
I haven't had a car for years, been using a car sharing club, but its becoming a lot more expensive plus less convenient. Not to mention, not always available when I want it. (but that's another story)
I don't know a lot about cars.
Its done about 3-4 k miles a year for the past 5 yrs
I had a look at the :MOT. Passed in Sept with this
Advisory notice item(s)
nearside rear outer Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive sill (2.4.A.3)
nearside front Anti-roll bar ball joint dust cover deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)
offside front Anti-roll bar ball joint dust cover deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)

Good idea, bad idea?

wgl2014

Have a look and a drive, might be an idea for a friend who knows more about cars to go along if possible.

See when it has been serviced as it should be every year, sometimes with an older car not doing many miles this is missed.

If it drives and looks ok then should be ok, bare in mind anything much goes wrong and a garage could end up charging more than the car is worth. I tend towards thinking cars of this age are more suitable if you can do your own services and basic repairs.

dini_2

Thank you.
Planning on spending about 5k next year, on a used vehicle, (have too much going out this year to spend that much extra on a car too.) Ill be saving and paying cash.

In the meantime, not one of my friends know anything about cars either. We are a bit rubbish.
So I believe I cant do a test drive because of insurance. (trader would have dealer insurance)
Is there another way?

DUTR

dini wrote: »

Im looking at getting a used car as a runaround (private seller, friend of a friend)
Its an x reg corsa, 95k miles, and owner is looking for £670
I haven't had a car for years, been using a car sharing club, but its becoming a lot more expensive plus less convenient. Not to mention, not always available when I want it. (but that's another story)
I don't know a lot about cars.
Its done about 3-4 k miles a year for the past 5 yrs
I had a look at the :MOT. Passed in Sept with this
Advisory notice item(s)
nearside rear outer Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive sill (2.4.A.3)
nearside front Anti-roll bar ball joint dust cover deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)
offside front Anti-roll bar ball joint dust cover deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)

Good idea, bad idea?

Seems high priced, colleague sold a KA one onwer from new with 12k on the clock 57 plate for less than that, picked up 2 corsa's and later models for less than that amount for the 2.

dini_2

Actually, Ignore that , just found RAC do temp insurance

forgotmyname

I paid less for a 2005 KA. And shockingly its not rusty (yet).

£670 for an X reg with rust in the sills. I hope your birthday is soon and someone is buying you a welder.

facade

Seems very expensive for a private sale, I'd expect £450 to £500 tops.
On an X reg it could be a corsa b (rear lights round and above the bumper) or first of the corsa-c (rear lights vertical and in the roof pillars).

The main enemy of corsa -b is rust, rust and more rust. I'd be very careful of that corrosion picked up in the MOT, it wants treating or it will get worse and fail next year. Brake pipes rust away, then the sills go and it is uneconomic to fix.

Corsa-c is a bit better, make sure the engine is started from stone cold, and listen for a brief rattle that goes away, which will be timing chain wear. Again, uneconomic to pay to fix.
They suffer from gear selection problems due to wear in the plastic bushes in the mechanism, and also vauxhall couldn't be bothered machining the gears properly, so they can give quite a notchy change.
They break springs all the time too. The 3 cylinder is very low powered and runs out of puff on slight motorway inclines, but you won't notice round town.

dini_2

Ok, thank you all.
Feedback taken on board.
I'm going to message seller to say not this time.

On another note, I did a quick insurance quote search.
527 for the year. How in world is the insurance nearly more than the car? (I did another one just to see for a 300 quid punto, and got 518)
I'm old, (well middle aged) and sadly have no no-claims. but that seems a bit excessive.

facade

dini wrote: »

On another note, I did a quick insurance quote search.
527 for the year. How in world is the insurance nearly more than the car? (I did another one just to see for a 300 quid punto, and got 518)
I'm old, (well middle aged) and sadly have no no-claims. but that seems a bit excessive.

I meant to add the expensive insurance

Small hatchbacks are often a first car for young drivers, so they are very crashable, and cost the insurers loads in 3rd party payouts, so they are expensive to insure.
You are better buying something a little larger and less appealing to get cheaper insurance.

ilikewatch

dini wrote: »

On another note, I did a quick insurance quote search.
527 for the year. How in world is the insurance nearly more than the car?

Because whether your car cost £600 or £60K you can still drive it into a brand new Bentley full of premiership footballers and cost your insurer a hell of a lot of money. Also, the drivers of rusty, 17 year old Corsa's aren't generally noted for their conservative driving style and road craft.

footyguy

DUTR wrote: »

Seems high priced, colleague sold a KA one onwer from new with 12k on the clock 57 plate for less than that, ....

If your colleague comes across any more like that, do let me know please!

Honest John suggests

From a private seller,
aim to pay between £1,150 and £1,750 and expect to pay £1,400.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/used-prices/Ford/Ka/2007/

... and that's presumably for an average mileage, which for a 10 year old car, 100k and multiple previous owners would not be unusual.