HP finance for used car

HappilyNorth

macman said:

Your credit score is a fictitious number which lenders cannot even see. What they look at is your credit history.

macman said:

Your credit score is a fictitious number which lenders cannot even see. What they look at is your credit history.

macman said:

Your credit score is a fictitious number which lenders cannot even see. What they look at is your credit history.

Sure, I found that out only recently. I have about 2 years of clean credit card payments and 3 months of a small loan payment. Self employed and only been living in my new place for 4 months. Meh, maybe I'll have to give up on the idea. 

stu12345_2

almost all cars from say 1995 are vastly improved from 1970s cars. airbags , abs, etc.

a smart car is very strongly built,  smart cars are owned by mercedes,the car you own, cramped yes, noisy yes, 

get a  5 door ford focus Ghia then if you want all the comforts.,

and no offence but you will look nice and posh in the hard shoulder on the motorway. in your merc ,whilst you panic over the potential price of what went wrong

WellKnownSid

I owned a C-class from new for six years.  It was okay, nothing that special.  I also have a 36 year old E-class that is much, much better built.

A 10-12 year old Mercedes may have had:

• One fleet owner who didn't care less
• One private owner who couldn't afford to buy a new one, so could definitely not afford sticking to main dealer servicing.
• Possibly several other private owners who couldn't afford a second hand one, but still wanted one.  Servicing would have been optional.

Unless you know the provenance, the chance of finding a 10-12 year old Merc that's anything but a nail is low.

Herzlos

HappilyNorth said:

The model I'm looking at is a 10-12 year old mercedes diesel with less than 100k so should be fine banger wise. I'll have it checked before purchase anyway.  

That's a big change from a 2 seater smart car. But why not get a 10 year old petrol Focus with less than 100k for half the money and half the running costs?

Given you're already a bad credit risk, why are you looking at 'premium' cars?

400ixl

Having changed last year from a Mercedes diesel that was nearing 10 years old, the running costs were very low over the 8 years of ownership, and certainly lower than my sisters 10 year old Ford. It was also a lot more refined without parts falling off of it.

Having said that from being an active member of the Mercedes forums, their is a risk of sensor failures which can lead to bills in the £200-300 range so you need to be able to cover such eventualities should they occur.

Finding a good independent specialist is a must really.

The other thing to consider with your choice is that pre 2014 Mercedes diesels are only Euro 5 compliant and therefore are not compliant with any of the low emissions zones which is only going to become more of an issue.

Unless you are doing high miles which i guess not with you current car choice I wouldn't be buying a diesel.

Have a look at cars like Hyundai and Kia which started to become very good around that sort of time and have proven to be more reliable than many of the European built mainstream brands like Ford, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault etc.