Help! Need a new car and can't afford one..! Suggestions?

Bexm

Hello!

We are getting married next year so all our savings are going to that, we have a 7 yr old car that has been struggling slightly but we figured it would keep us going until next year, but we are having some major problems and its going to cost us quite a bit over a grand to fix!

If we buy a new car now we probably won't be able to afford our wedding, and same goes for fixing the current one.

We are not in a position where we can live without a car as we both work in different places, and one isn't served by public transport.

We are looking for good ideas of where to get a really cheap second hand car that isn't going to die on us, or where is doing an amazing HP offer on a new car, but isn't going to cost us the earth in interest!

Anyone got any suggestions?

Bex

wannabe_a_mum

Have you tried Arnold Clark? They have some really good 0% on used car deals. Or Lookers?

You could even see if they do a payment break option?

philhuff

You've not made any mention of budgets, but it's amazing what £500 can get you in the way of older cars.

To go to extremes, I picked up a 1993 3.0V6 Renault Safrane for just £51 (yes, fifty-one) that's gone on a banger rally (see www.CimaRacing.co.uk) from London to Rome and back (3,000 miles put on it, including through the mountains of Switzerland) and then been driven around the UK for a while (another 2,000 or so miles), all the time requiring nothing more than a small £50 electrical job beyond normal servicing.

By comparison, my 'normal' car loses well over £300 a month in depreciation alone.

At that end of the market, you can often afford to buy a car and, if it lasts just a year, dispose of it and do it again. Beware, though; there's an awful lot of rubbish, so you need to make sure you know what you're buying.

Bexm

philhuff wrote: »

You've not made any mention of budgets, but it's amazing what £500 can get you in the way of older cars.

To go to extremes, I picked up a 1993 3.0V6 Renault Safrane for just £51 (yes, fifty-one) that's gone on a banger rally (see www.CimaRacing.co.uk) from London to Rome and back (3,000 miles put on it, including through the mountains of Switzerland) and then been driven around the UK for a while (another 2,000 or so miles), all the time requiring nothing more than a small £50 electrical job

beyond normal servicing.

By comparison, my 'normal' car loses well over £300 a month in depreciation alone.

At that end of the market, you can often afford to buy a car and, if it lasts just a year, dispose of it and do it again. Beware, though; there's an awful lot of rubbish, so you need to make sure you know what you're buying.

Hi philhuff
Thanks for your reply! Our budget is as little as possible, but we can prob stretch to a few hundred, my worry with second hand cars is that I will buy it and it willl conk out in a few months and then I will have to start the process again. I don't know enough about cars to judge whether a second hand one is good or not..
The engine on our car is good,, its just the rest that seem to be falling apart, and now we have electrical probs! I don't want to buy a one and be in a worse postion than I am now..

wannabe_a_mum wrote: »

Have you tried Arnold Clark? They have some really good 0% on used car deals. Or Lookers?

You could even see if they do a payment break option?

Whats Arnold Clark? and whats lookers?

anewman

Bexm, if you can't afford one don't buy one. You can easily get decent cars for under £1000 the way the car market is in the UK. Don't put yourself into debt for the sake of it.

Something like this could be a good choice, would be cheap to repair run insure and tax and last you a while if it's in ok condition.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/SKODA+FAVORIT/Ne-2-4-5-6-7-8-27-44-49-53-61-64-67-103-133-146,N-4294951300-4294966834/advert.action?R=200747299043290&distance=40&channel=CARS&make=&model=&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage=

What are the exact problems with your current car, and what car is it? Has it been serviced regularly (at least yearly)? Have you shopped around for the work that needs doing (prices can vary greatly)?

KeithP

Bexm wrote: »

Whats Arnold Clark? and whats lookers?

Google is your friend

Just type either Arnold Clark or Lookers into google and you will find the answer to your question.

devizes18193

philhuff wrote: »

You've not made any mention of budgets, but it's amazing what £500 can get you in the way of older cars.

To go to extremes, I picked up a 1993 3.0V6 Renault Safrane for just £51 (yes, fifty-one) that's gone on a banger rally (see www.CimaRacing.co.uk) from London to Rome and back (3,000 miles put on it, including through the mountains of Switzerland) and then been driven around the UK for a while (another 2,000 or so miles), all the time requiring nothing more than a small £50 electrical job beyond normal servicing.

By comparison, my 'normal' car loses well over £300 a month in depreciation alone.

At that end of the market, you can often afford to buy a car and, if it lasts just a year, dispose of it and do it again. Beware, though; there's an awful lot of rubbish, so you need to make sure you know what you're buying.

I would 2nd this .I woud look for old persons cars though some thing like a volvo for example as opposed to a ford old floks tend to service the cars ad do less miles drive properly etc. % years agao i was driving bangers the lst 1 was a volvo 340 live in wiltshire and took it all over for work from penzance to north wales . In the end sold it on for £50 for spares as I had given work uo abd had a motorbility car.

mustrum_ridcully

Cheap used car is your best bet. There are plenty of good and cheap used cars out there, there are even people who practice bangernomics, they buy cheap used cars and run them for a year or two (until servicing costs more than £50-100) then get a replacement.

A Japanese car Honda, Toyota, Nissan... could worth a look as they tend to be reliable, but because of this might not be cheap.

You could try a Rover, they can be picked up cheaply - I'd suggest going for one that is based on a Honda (i.e. Rover 400/45) as real bargains can be found. They are often less than half the price of the equivalent Civic (and are favoured by the older driver so you may get a very good example).

Try Parkers to see what the typical used prices are for a car (to see if it is suspiciously cheap or too expensive) http://www.parkers.co.uk/

Rjohnmatt

Try and look for an older model Nissan Almera , really bulletproof engines and good handling.If possible try to get the 1.6 litre engine.
This was the most reliable car in whatcar.

I had one for 2 years until sadly an accident wrote it off,during which time all i did was get it MOTd , serviced.Drove 32000 miles in that time.

Link to the reliability survey.

http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/trends3.html?apc=3128339010848601


If you are bothered about image however, then this may not be your preferred car!