Purchase Demotivation Help

ratrace

motorguy wrote: »

I really think they arent a car that you would especially have to "budget and afford the repairs" on and even IF they suffer from more issues then you're going to be buying a younger, lower miles variant of an Insignia for any given price of a Passat or Merc, neither of which are problem free, particularly as they get older.

Astra is a good shout too though - usual caveats about DPFs and DMFs as per any diesel, but excellent value. New model ones look fresh and are great VFM.

Agree, i do get the dpf light coming the odd time when im doing a lot of city driving but a quick blast soon puts it out


astra's are not bad for the money

AdrianC

Scrimps wrote: »

I know repairs are a fact of life but the moment it starts being talked about as regular, it's an option I'll discount because life is just too complicated/anxious enough as it is to have to worry about car reliability with any significance.

That's when I think I may as well stick with my slightly inconvenient cars or buy something more expensive rather that £3-5k range which seems more sensible.

DPF/DMF issues on any vaguely-modern diesel are a simple fact of life. Moving from an 8-10yo £2k one to a 5-6yo £4k one won't change that.


Moving to a petrol will.

Svein_Forkbeard

There is the car for you:-

https://www.gumtree.com/p/vauxhall/vauxhall-insignia-design-cdti-eco-s-s-diesel-estate-/1315043383

Scrimps

Svein_Forkbeard wrote: »

There is the car for you:-

https://www.gumtree.com/p/vauxhall/vauxhall-insignia-design-cdti-eco-s-s-diesel-estate-/1315043383

That looks like a good find! Should I be suspicious that its about 20-30% cheaper than the benchmark price I usually find for that car/mileage/age/history? - I have become aware over recent years that Im not very good at finding good deals, especially when I have the money to spend. When there is no money available, good deals seem to be everywhere I look!

motorguy

Scrimps wrote: »

That looks like a good find! Should I be suspicious that its about 20-30% cheaper than the benchmark price I usually find for that car/mileage/age/history? - I have become aware over recent years that Im not very good at finding good deals, especially when I have the money to spend. When there is no money available, good deals seem to be everywhere I look!

It looks like a good price and the overall condition looks good.

The seller is advertising as private but is a trader, but chances are hes trying to save a bit on fees.

It looks like it could be say, an ex police car or maybe ex government or civil service, but i'm really only hypothesising there. It would just be a matter of finding out who the previous owner was from the V5C.

MOT history corresponds to the miles and theres nothing worrying showing up as advisories or previous fail reasons.

And yes, its about £2,000 cheaper than it should be which does set an alarm bell ringing for me as its a trader selling it, and they rarely (a) can buy a car extremely cheap and (b) dont know what its worth.

forgotmyname

Few similar spec 14 plate Insignia's for similar money. Higher miles though. 130k - 185k miles on the others.

Scrimps

Ok, well it reassuring I'm not being an idiot, the advantage of looking for the next car for a while means at least I have begun to educate myself on expected value I guess. The only thing I worried about that the advisory of the cars MOT was not being able to open the door, so I thought it was perhaps an accident. though it could have been just a small fault which the work detail would tell me. I also saw that they had been on gumtree less than a month and looked like a trader trying to look like a private seller.

I agree that the Vauxhall's are good VFM, I'm going to test drive a few to assure myself that they're comfy enough etc. Following advice here I'm going to firmly steer myself away for looking at the more desirable VWs,Volvo's, mercs etc and going to try and snipe a good deal on a Vauxhall. I'm in no particular hurry so can continue to save cash and know that actually it's not unreasonable to want a larger car for 2 kids seats in the back and prams in the boot...provided I don't use it as an excuse to buy something silly

Cheers

motorguy

Scrimps wrote: »

Ok, well it reassuring I'm not being an idiot, the advantage of looking for the next car for a while means at least I have begun to educate myself on expected value I guess. The only thing I worried about that the advisory of the cars MOT was not being able to open the door, so I thought it was perhaps an accident. though it could have been just a small fault which the work detail would tell me. I also saw that they had been on gumtree less than a month and looked like a trader trying to look like a private seller.

I agree that the Vauxhall's are good VFM, I'm going to test drive a few to assure myself that they're comfy enough etc. Following advice here I'm going to firmly steer myself away for looking at the more desirable VWs,Volvo's, mercs etc and going to try and snipe a good deal on a Vauxhall. I'm in no particular hurry so can continue to save cash and know that actually it's not unreasonable to want a larger car for 2 kids seats in the back and prams in the boot...provided I don't use it as an excuse to buy something silly

Cheers

Doors not opening, chances are are electrical faults and the have been repaired. Worth checking all doors open from the inside and outside though on any car. My dads Jag stopped opening the rear door from the inside, and i've seen it on Audis too.

In fairness, you're asking all the right questions and you are right to treat any car with suspicion until proven otherwise.

Svein_Forkbeard

When I was in a hurry to buy a car earlier this year I discovered most cars are usually £1k-£2k over priced compared to Ebay pricing and what Parkers suggest. I normally buy salvage and have it repaired in this instance I bought salvage that had been repaired and saved myself £2k-£3k.

At the end of the day you don't know what they sell for. As a seller if you want to sell your car you want to be pricing at the low end rather than the high end.

The car I linked to I would be getting a few checks done before buying but if close enough and I wanted an Insignia I would at least be taking a look.

AdrianC

motorguy wrote: »

It would just be a matter of finding out who the previous owner was from the V5C.

V5Cs issued since earlier this year no longer say who the previous keeper was, due to GDPR.