How much do you need to spend to get a decent car...

B0bbyEwing

...in your opinion?

Could be off the mark but I get the impression that the majority on this forum have reasonably new cars. 
My own opinion is you don't need to spend that to get a decent car but the question really is how low can you get a decent one (or expect to get a decent one) before it then becomes a high chance of a risky one?

Now to try & keep us out of the MSE-courtroom ....

* Yep, one persons decent is another persons trash
* Yep, £5k on some poverty spec Peugeot will increase your chances of a problem-free car than if you were trying to get a Porsche for that amount. 

Looking like I'm going to have to replace my car & having a scan about, it's not pleasant how the second hand market has changed since I was last in it to buy. Looking like I'm going to have to either really take my chances or increase my budget.

Personally, I'm after something with a bit of nip. Now once again, to keep out of that let's-trip-each-other-up conversation, nip can mean different things to different people so as a very very rough guide, something that'd do 0-60 in sub 9sec & that isn't awful on juice, so mid 30s on the MPG upwards. I've been looking at Golf's, Focus, Astra's kind of size. Even looking a little either side of this size - Mini (although i'm unsure how much the size drop could be do-able for me) & something like an Octavia. 

Plenty of 1.6 Focus about it seems, but having driven an Astra with similar performance, it's not something I'm going to jump at.

I've also thought about an £700-£900 who-cares banger (that hopefully does a couple years or so) but it seems these days they don't exist & that budget only buys you spares-or-repair.


So it just got me thinking, what do others see as the lower end of what you need to pay for something decent ..... and what would you expect for that figure? What would you call decent?

Grumpy_chap

A "piece of string" question.
I shall watch carefully as I am currently in the market and experiencing the same dilemma.

jimjames

I think you should be able to get something decent between £2000 and £3000 that has full MOT and no issues needing attention. Bought an Audi for £1000 before Christmas needing some minor works and got new MOT afterwards so should be good to go for the next year. Bodywork has some dents and scratches so I wouldn't necessarily call it decent but it's reliable and goes well.

Tucosalamanca

£3,500 for a 2013/2014 Corsa, 70,000 miles or thereabouts. Hopefully one or two owners and fsh.
Easy drive, nippy enough, sporty looks, low depreciation. 
Lots of cars around that are barely newer, slightly lower mileage for £6,7,8K plus
Conversely, £2,000 buys a 2007- 2009 vehicle with unverifiable history and any number of faults.

Cars seem expensive at the moment, I'm certainly not keen on committing £££ in today's market

Brie

If you can find out what second hand independent dealers are linked to the big dealerships then you might do quite nicely.  I got a Honda a number of years back from a small place that would take the trade ins from the local dealer.  It saved the dealership the hassle of sending things to auction, gave the small place nice older cars that the dealership didn't want around.  Most big name places will only sell on their own brand and only if it's just up to 4 years old at most.  (unless it's very desirable for some reason).  So the 10 year old, not quite a banger ones go to the small independents who will polish it up, black the tires and sell it at a good price that will shift it promptly so they can pay the dealership.

Look for places that have a lot of one brand - the one I bought from had a bit of everything but at least 50% were honda as people who buy new tend to go back to the same brand rather than change.  (AIUI)

Bonniepurple

We’ve just bought a 2010 Peugeot Partner as an emergency replacement for a written off Berlingo.  £3600, one previous owner, FSH.  Normally we buy middle aged to end of life cars (well, they tend to end up end of life with us!) and run them until they stop.  

At the other end of the scale, I’m going to treat myself to a newish Jazz once my Dad’s estate is settled.  I’m looking at £12-14k.  We are anticipating needing to replace the Partner soon, but it really is a stop gap.

B0bbyEwing

Tucosalamanca said:

Cars seem expensive at the moment, I'm certainly not keen on committing £££ in today's market

Same!
My driving has changed in recent times. I pretty much only use my car now to go to work or the gym which makes up I'd say a good 95% of my journeys. Beyond that there's the occasional visit to family members which is a local drive anyway and beyond that there's an even rarer visit to nearby towns.
So where I'm currently at with my train of thought, is I sort of begrudge paying big money just to get to a place I'm counting down the time until it's time to leave. With that said, even if I thoroughly enjoyed the place it wouldn't make me pay any more on a car.


I've not had all that many cars over the years. Once I discount cars I were either given or blindly went for in my earlier driving years then I:

Spent £1k in 2005 on a 10yr old car
£1.2k in 2007 on an 8yr old
£1.4k in 2008 on a 7yr old
£1.75k in 2020 on a 14yr old.

So you get a sense of my budget or rather, what I try and bag a car for. Always tried for around the £2k or under area but things seem to have gone daft.

The platforms have also changed since I really got involved in buying. A lot seems to be via FB Marketplace these days, probably due to free listing. The problem with that is, everything I'm looking at you take one look at their profile picture & think I'd rather not take my chances with you pal. I know I'm being heavily judgemental but many of them look like they'd just con you. Selling a wreck for top dollar just because they gave it a wash & a polish & put a bit of gloss on the tyres. 

fatbelly

Both my cars are perfectly reliable with many years of life yet.

I checked their values - £2500 and £1900

Mind you, they don't have sub 9 second 0-60 times, something that I regard as totally unimportant

B0bbyEwing

fatbelly said:

Both my cars are perfectly reliable with many years of life yet.

I checked their values - £2500 and £1900

Out of curiosity, how did you come to having a valuation put on them?

WBAC gave me a valuation the other week which was £695. A garage down the road is selling virtually the exact same car as mine, very similar miles etc for something like £2250.

fatbelly said:

Mind you, they don't have sub 9 second 0-60 times, something that I regard as totally unimportant

Was talking to a chap the other day about dropping down to a smaller car. He refuses to have anything other than big estate cars as he likes the space they provide - something that isn't really important to me when it comes to how I use my cars. 

Tucosalamanca

B0bbyEwing said:

Tucosalamanca said:

Cars seem expensive at the moment, I'm certainly not keen on committing £££ in today's market

Same!
My driving has changed in recent times. I pretty much only use my car now to go to work or the gym which makes up I'd say a good 95% of my journeys. Beyond that there's the occasional visit to family members which is a local drive anyway and beyond that there's an even rarer visit to nearby towns.
So where I'm currently at with my train of thought, is I sort of begrudge paying big money just to get to a place I'm counting down the time until it's time to leave. With that said, even if I thoroughly enjoyed the place it wouldn't make me pay any more on a car.


I've not had all that many cars over the years. Once I discount cars I were either given or blindly went for in my earlier driving years then I:

Spent £1k in 2005 on a 10yr old car
£1.2k in 2007 on an 8yr old
£1.4k in 2008 on a 7yr old
£1.75k in 2020 on a 14yr old.

So you get a sense of my budget or rather, what I try and bag a car for. Always tried for around the £2k or under area but things seem to have gone daft.

The platforms have also changed since I really got involved in buying. A lot seems to be via FB Marketplace these days, probably due to free listing. The problem with that is, everything I'm looking at you take one look at their profile picture & think I'd rather not take my chances with you pal. I know I'm being heavily judgemental but many of them look like they'd just con you. Selling a wreck for top dollar just because they gave it a wash & a polish & put a bit of gloss on the tyres. 

I think that today's problem is that a £2,000 car would have only been worth £1,000 three years ago.
I generally don't look at cost, I look at how much I'm likely to lose in depreciation and how long the car will last.
2013/14 Corsa for £3,500.
2009 models are selling for £2,000.

To me, that says that I'm looking at £1,500 for 4-5 years driving - only £300-£400 per year.
Add in low running costs and I think that's blooming cheap motoring.

[Deleted User]

Mid 30s MPG is "not bad"?