Used car purchase - is it worth it?

lisah69x

Wondering if anyone can give me some advice please
My car has been written off - 54 Mazda 3 TS  60'000 miles, never failed an MOT or had any issues other than rust on 
wheel arches, that is common on Mazda's, the interior looked brand new still, The alloys needed work too. 
I am looking for  something similar size or bigger but I don't have much money to play with and prices seem to have jumped massively over last month or so.  

Everything I am seeing is either way older than I want, has lots of advisories/no MOT, write off, accident damage not declared etc. I
have seen a Mazda 3 1.6 sport 59 reg for £2695 but will take £2500, It will be serviced and had full service history.
 It has 109'000 miles so higher than average but I only do about 5000 a year myself.  MOT till April 2021 but for an extra £100 he will MOT it now. These are the advisories (see image). It will have 3 month warranty.  Body work looks great, 2 tiny chips to front bumper, inside looks ok, wear and tear to drivers seat but not as bad as other cars I have looked at, the alloys are starting to show signs of wear and tear but not as bad as mine were. 
Is it worth it? Some valuation sites are bigger some lower, most around the same.
Should I bother getting the MOT or will it likely not have the work fixed and still be an advisory? Should I avoid it altogether? 
I need a car quickly as I work in the next town, its not far away but not on a bus route and taxi's are more expensive because it's classed as a different town and too far to walk or bike it in the time I have.

AdrianC

"For an extra £100 he will MOT it now"...?
So it's going to fail? Because an MOT itself is £50ish.

Of those four advisories - two are for cloudy headlights, which I'm sure you saw when you looked at the car. A tenner and an hour of elbow grease will clean the old, hazy UV layer off and re-polish them. One ball joint that's on the way out - consumable...

And a corroded rear subframe. It might just be a bit of surface grot (hardly unreasonable on an 11yo, 110k mile car) or it might be near-terminal.

lisah69x

AdrianC said:

"For an extra £100 he will MOT it now"...?
So it's going to fail? Because an MOT itself is £50ish.

Of those four advisories - two are for cloudy headlights, which I'm sure you saw when you looked at the car. A tenner and an hour of elbow grease will clean the old, hazy UV layer off and re-polish them. One ball joint that's on the way out - consumable...

And a corroded rear subframe. It might just be a bit of surface grot (hardly unreasonable on an 11yo, 110k mile car) or it might be near-terminal.

Thank  you. I showed him the advisories and said I was concerned about how much it would cost to do. He said he could MOT it for me but if they failed would cost him money to sort so would cost me £100 in case it needed doing. I don't think this is on top of 5he list price but the £2500 he dropped it to, meaning he isn't reducing it as much as first offered. A few other garages have said I can take care for a reduced price or they will MOT it without a reduction so I'm not surprised about what he said tbh. I worry that I'll pay that extra though and they are all still advisories and no actual work done. The lights were a tiny bit clouded, hardly anything. When I asked him about that on the advisory, he told me it was stickers - I didn't notice any stickers so must be the cloudiness. My Mazda was worse but it was never an advisory. He has said if I pay a £100 deposit, I can get it checked at my own garage. 

MalMonroe

Mazdas are expensive to buy and run, I know this as my friend has one. She also has pots of money. If you have a lot of money, go for it but the things that put me off this one are (not in any particular order) : 

It's 11 years old
It has high mileage
I don't like the look of that list of advisories from the MOT
I would NOT pay £100 for another MOT. Just because a car has an MOT doesn't guarantee it's going to last any length of time. And if you pay the extra for the MOT, that list of advisories will come up to bite you. That is, they now could be things that someone needs to pay for before it passes and/or can be sold.
It sounds like a moneypit to me.

Just because you feel desperate and 'must have' a vehicle is no reason to rush into buying a scrap heap. I have done that in the past and regretted it bitterly. There are so many hidden things that can go wrong with a car - and they usually do go wrong within the first month of ownership.

Rather than throw your hard earned money at this car, why not take your time and look around for something that is reliable, maybe something cheaper to buy and run and something without a list of advisories on the MOT. Open your mind to other makes of car. And ideally, look for something that's got an up to date MOT where a seller is honest. Remember that saying about fools rush in? It's true, in my experience anyway.

lisah69x

MalMonroe said:

Mazdas are expensive to buy and run, I know this as my friend has one. She also has pots of money. If you have a lot of money, go for it but the things that put me off this one are (not in any particular order) : 

It's 11 years old
It has high mileage
I don't like the look of that list of advisories from the MOT
I would NOT pay £100 for another MOT. Just because a car has an MOT doesn't guarantee it's going to last any length of time. And if you pay the extra for the MOT, that list of advisories will come up to bite you. That is, they now could be things that someone needs to pay for before it passes and/or can be sold.
It sounds like a moneypit to me.

Just because you feel desperate and 'must have' a vehicle is no reason to rush into buying a scrap heap. I have done that in the past and regretted it bitterly. There are so many hidden things that can go wrong with a car - and they usually do go wrong within the first month of ownership.

Rather than throw your hard earned money at this car, why not take your time and look around for something that is reliable, maybe something cheaper to buy and run and something without a list of advisories on the MOT. Open your mind to other makes of car. And ideally, look for something that's got an up to date MOT where a seller is honest. Remember that saying about fools rush in? It's true, in my experience anyway.

Thanks, we have had a couple.of Mazda's and have cost us less than any other of our cars to run, they seem to have Less go wrong with them that's why I looked at it. Believe me, I am not rushing into anything, I've been looking for a month now and have looked at loads of cars that have all had issues that weren't disclosed on the advert. I only looked at this one as I went to test drive a Peugeot 308 estate 1.6 diesel but it was really basic and flat. Saw the Mazda and thought I'd give it a go. I've looked at Astra's, mondeos, focus, i30, Mégane estate, C4, C4 Picasso, renault scenic and others too I think. I can't go smaller as need to fit a wheelchair in it. Petrol is better as I am mainly a town/city driver so hardly any long runs but stop start which I've heard isn't best for a diesel in the long run, although I have looked at quite a few of them and had 1 in the past that I loved but had major issues with. Cars on an 05 plate with rust and other issues are going 
for £1000 at the minute so even buying a cheap run around until I find what I want isn't an option at that price. 

Thanks for your advice though, appreciate it. 

mattyprice4004

MalMonroe said:

Mazdas are expensive to buy and run, I know this as my friend has one. She also has pots of money. If you have a lot of money, go for it but the things that put me off this one are (not in any particular order) : 

Your experience with one car doesn't dictate them all - by and large they're usually near the top of reliability surveys and I covered over 20,000 miles between two high-performance Mazda models without spending a penny on maintenance.

Homer_home

An average of 10,000 miles a year is not high mileage 

macman

lisah69x said:

AdrianC said:

"For an extra £100 he will MOT it now"...?
So it's going to fail? Because an MOT itself is £50ish.

Of those four advisories - two are for cloudy headlights, which I'm sure you saw when you looked at the car. A tenner and an hour of elbow grease will clean the old, hazy UV layer off and re-polish them. One ball joint that's on the way out - consumable...

And a corroded rear subframe. It might just be a bit of surface grot (hardly unreasonable on an 11yo, 110k mile car) or it might be near-terminal.

Thank  you. I showed him the advisories and said I was concerned about how much it would cost to do. He said he could MOT it for me but if they failed would cost him money to sort so would cost me £100 in case it needed doing. I don't think this is on top of 5he list price but the £2500 he dropped it to, meaning he isn't reducing it as much as first offered. A few other garages have said I can take care for a reduced price or they will MOT it without a reduction so I'm not surprised about what he said tbh. I worry that I'll pay that extra though and they are all still advisories and no actual work done. The lights were a tiny bit clouded, hardly anything. When I asked him about that on the advisory, he told me it was stickers - I didn't notice any stickers so must be the cloudiness. My Mazda was worse but it was never an advisory. He has said if I pay a £100 deposit, I can get it checked at my own garage. 

With that attitude I wouldn't be putting any business his way. It's usually a good idea to express some confidence in the product you are selling...
With a budget of only £2.75K your big mistake is that you are only looking at buying from a dealer. The overheads for buying and selling a car for £2.5K are much the same as one for £10K, so he'll be aiming to make £500 to £1K on the deal. You'll get far more for your money privately. The risk is no greater, as any add-on warranty you are offered on a car of that age and mileage is of no value whatsoever.
I'd agree with most of the comments above about Mazda reliability: I owned a 1st-gen Mazda 6 for 8 years and it was the most reliable car I've ever had. Until the eventual DPF issues occurred, the only fault I ever had was a broken seat height adjuster, which was a warranty fix.  When I sold it, it was still on the original battery and exhaust. The only consumables I used in 60,000 miles were tyres and a set of brake pads.

noclaf

I wouldn't be limiting to Mazda or any brand for that matter. Buy on condition and definately consider private sales..there are some gems out there.
My usual recommendation at your budget is Petrol n/a and manual..this combo tends to work well for me.
I drive a 16 yr old MK1 focus, has been my most reliable car by a longshot and even compared to my previous Toyota however I will not recommend it to you as mine now has subframe rust and no idea when it will be deemed non-roadworthy. Old Fords seem to be particularly prone to rust as do Mazda's.
Maybe Honda/Toyota/Hyundai/Kia unless you can up your budget and get a slightly newer Mazda 3/Ford Fiesta/Focus?

Homer_home

macman said:

lisah69x said:

AdrianC said:

"For an extra £100 he will MOT it now"...?
So it's going to fail? Because an MOT itself is £50ish.

Of those four advisories - two are for cloudy headlights, which I'm sure you saw when you looked at the car. A tenner and an hour of elbow grease will clean the old, hazy UV layer off and re-polish them. One ball joint that's on the way out - consumable...

And a corroded rear subframe. It might just be a bit of surface grot (hardly unreasonable on an 11yo, 110k mile car) or it might be near-terminal.

Thank  you. I showed him the advisories and said I was concerned about how much it would cost to do. He said he could MOT it for me but if they failed would cost him money to sort so would cost me £100 in case it needed doing. I don't think this is on top of 5he list price but the £2500 he dropped it to, meaning he isn't reducing it as much as first offered. A few other garages have said I can take care for a reduced price or they will MOT it without a reduction so I'm not surprised about what he said tbh. I worry that I'll pay that extra though and they are all still advisories and no actual work done. The lights were a tiny bit clouded, hardly anything. When I asked him about that on the advisory, he told me it was stickers - I didn't notice any stickers so must be the cloudiness. My Mazda was worse but it was never an advisory. He has said if I pay a £100 deposit, I can get it checked at my own garage. 

With that attitude I wouldn't be putting any business his way. It's usually a good idea to express some confidence in the product you are selling...
With a budget of only £2.75K your big mistake is that you are only looking at buying from a dealer. The overheads for buying and selling a car for £2.5K are much the same as one for £10K, so he'll be aiming to make £500 to £1K on the deal. You'll get far more for your money privately. The risk is no greater, as any add-on warranty you are offered on a car of that age and mileage is of no value whatsoever.
I'd agree with most of the comments above about Mazda reliability: I owned a 1st-gen Mazda 6 for 8 years and it was the most reliable car I've ever had. Until the eventual DPF issues occurred, the only fault I ever had was a broken seat height adjuster, which was a warranty fix.  When I sold it, it was still on the original battery and exhaust. The only consumables I used in 60,000 miles were tyres and a set of brake pads.

You never changed the air filter 

LandyAndy

MalMonroe said:

Mazdas are expensive to buy and run, I know this as my friend has one. 

I have two Mazdas, both bought new in Sept 2009.
My Mazda6 has done 178,000 miles and my Mazda2 99,000 miles.  
They have been extremely economical to run because they don't go wrong.