Tips on buying a second hand car

runner310

Hi. Apologies in advance for the basic nature of this enquiry but it's 16 years since I bought a car (and I could afford a new one back then!) so I have zero experience of buying second hand. I have attempted to search the forum but the threads I've found are almost as old as my car!

I'm 60 years old and looking to buy a car that's three or four years old that will last me ten years. I'm thinking of a Honda Civic as I have a 16 year old Honda Jazz which has served me well but is now costing more at each MoT. Mileage will be no more than 10K per year and possibly half that. I'm anticipating a cost of about £15k. (The alternative, I guess would be to buy a much cheaper car and anticipate higher garage bills).

Questions as follows:

- I'm thinking of buying from a Honda dealer (as opposed to Autotrader/privately). I realise this will be more expensive but I want the reassurance of a warranty and I'm worried about buying a dud with no easy recourse if I've bought privately. Is this a good idea? Are companies like Cinch more similar to buying from a dealer or privately? Should I view the prices on their website as fixed or could I negotiate/try to get extras thrown in? If extras, what am I most likely to be able to get (and what is more unlikely)?

- I'm intending to find a similar car on Autotrader to get a sense of what the price should be, albeit I realise that it will be more at a dealers.

- Is there a good time to buy? September or March maybe because of the new registration plates? Or at the end of a quarter, if the dealers need sales to meet their targets?

- From what I've read on other threads, the consensus seems to be that buying from a local source is better than one 150 miles away. I presume this is because it's easier to get any faults fixed and/or because of the cost of viewing it (with the risk that I don't like it). Have I got that right?

- My current car is very old with 192K on the clock. Are dealers likely to offer a part exchange on what would seem an unsaleable car? If not, what is my best course of action?

- I'm going to ask around to see if any of my more mechanically minded friends would come with me to view/test drive the car. If this proves impossible, is there any way of paying for someone to do this? The RAC, for instance?

Sorry for all the questions - and if they are answered on another thread then please could you direct me to it as I'm more than willing to do the research.

paul_c123

Yes
They are a dealer too, albeit not Honda brand*. Cinch are online only and are an exception to others.
You could try but unlikely to get discount these days. I don't know, nodding dog? Mats?
No, buy when you need it
Yeah I'd do as close to home, for a car you like
Yes they will take in anything. If not, WBAC (we buy any car) will take it off you
AA do inspections, not sure on RAC

*Honda are likely to have the pick of the bunch, because they'll get first dibs on all the returning PCP stuff. But Cinch are pretty good because they are part of BCA and have the pick of what comes through the door there (which is a lot of cars!)

jimjames

runner310 said:

I'm 60 years old and looking to buy a car that's three or four years old that will last me ten years. I'm thinking of a Honda Civic as I have a 16 year old Honda Jazz which has served me well but is now costing more at each MoT.

- My current car is very old with 192K on the clock. Are dealers likely to offer a part exchange on what would seem an unsaleable car? If not, what is my best course of action?

If your car has MOT and is in good mechanical condition then it will still have some value but not as a dealer PX. Have a look online again for your current car and you might be surprised. If well maintained you might get up to £1000 for it as they're still popular. Dealer or WBAC a fraction of that.

runner310 said:

- I'm going to ask around to see if any of my more mechanically minded friends would come with me to view/test drive the car. If this proves impossible, is there any way of paying for someone to do this? The RAC, for instance?.

If you're buying from a Honda dealer (or probably even Cinch) then paying for an RAC inspection is a complete waste of money. If it's a private sale or back street garage then something to look into but I wouldn't advise either of those from your description

RandomTourist

Buying from a dealer may get you a warranty, which might be limited. However buying from a dealer gets you consumer protection legislation, which is big protection. Buying privately you're on your own as soon as you drive away.

If the car has problems, you will need to return it to the dealer to get it fixed (big chains may allow you to use a different branch) so if you buy 150 miles away and the engine fails, you'll be saddled with transporting it to the dealer. Buy locally of you possibly can.

Check all maintenance has been done - really important to have the cam belt changed (if the car has a belt system) as belt failure tends to destroy the engine, which in turn destroys your bank balance.

photome

The newer 1 litre Honda civics have a wet belt I believe, I wouldn’t touch a car with a wet belt, others will have differing views but for me there is just to much risk of failure….Honda are by no means the worst though

facade

Yes the 1.0 turbo Civic is a wet belt engine.  They are prone to the usual wet belt failures, but worse- cost getting on for £2000 every 5 years to replace it as a service item even if it doesn't fail.

Advice is not to touch a 1.0T, there are plenty about at lowish prices because of this. 

(Don't touch anything with a wet belt, Ford 1.0 ecoboost and Stellantis 1.2 puretech engines are the shining examples)

runner310

Thank you all for your comments - I really appreciate that you have taken the time to make such helpful responses. I'm just away now to research wet belts (never heard of them before) and whether the Civics with the larger engines have them.   

Goudy

I think in your situation, buying from your nearest franchised dealer is probably worth the little extra.

You know the make and model you want and the dealer will be able to tap into all the other franchised dealers used car stocks.

Buying at distance from dealers far away can be problematic, but if it's an approved Honda used car, you should still be able to take it to your nearest Honda dealer for any problems.

I know you might pay a bit more from a main dealer and this is a money saving forum, but you need to look at the long game.
Buying approved will get you a full 12 months warranty, 12 months breakdown, 30 day exchange plan if you aren't happy and a checked and certified car.

Your budget will get you into a 10th gen Civic, but a lot of these were the 1.0T 3 cylinder cars with the wet timing belt.
Failure of the wet belt isn't as wide spread as other makes with wet belts mainly because other makes sold more, but they can still cause problems, even if it's just the extra cost of replacing the belt when it's due for replacement.

The 1.5 Vtec is the car you should be thinking about but they are fewer of them and are generally pricier.

Have you considered a Toyota Corolla Hybrid?
The mechanicals are pretty much bombproof these days.

WellKnownSid

My son works for a well-known German brand so gets to see a lot of cars when things go wrong.

In general - a manufacturer approved car is going to have the best provenance - they'll have to meet dealer standards so anything which isn't right has to be put right - or simply rejected to be sold further down the chain. Plus you'll get other benefits of staying on-brand - service history and mileage will likely be validated through the car's on board and online service records rather than a stamped service book from eBay.  Cars are walking computers so you'll expect updates to have been done and the car 'reset' properly for a new owner.

Be warned that the next in the chain might be the dealer's own second hand cars - so Joe Bloggs Honda will almost certainly have a range of vehicles they are selling which are 'non approved' or 'Joe Bloggs Select Plus Gold Vehicles' - including cars which are off-brand such as a Toyota at a Honda dealer.  It should be obvious - but suffice to say plenty of people will stroll onto the site on a Saturday and wander around a range of cars - still under the shadow of that huge brand logo - small wonder they'll assume all second hand cars are the same when they are not.

Now, it's been hard recently for dealers to get hold of decent stock for approved schemes - so some standards have loosened - today you'll see older and higher mileage cars in stock for approved - sometimes competing against those Gold Premium Plus Super newer / lower mileage cars that are cheaper on the other side of the forecourt (perhaps they were lacking some service history or needed work doing which they can get away with not doing - dealer standards might demand a new battery and a new set of brake disks and pads whereas they can get away with charging the battery up and fitting just a set of pads if they are selling it themselves).

So, to further complicate matters many importers have therefore adopted different "levels" of approved used these days - with the newest and best provenance vehicles (possibly only cars that have been within the network as company cars / demonstrators / etc) getting the top grade.  This may mean an eligible car up to two years old getting the full five year 'as new' warranty such as in the case of Hyundai.

So - that dealer now has second hand cars prepared to perhaps three different standards (plus they'll have the Joe Bloggs Car and Van Supermarket next door or just down the road where they'll sell a fourth tier of vehicle).  This will be the same as what you get from the likes of Cinch and all the other places - just random tat, you may get lucky you may not.  My son has seen 'corrected mileage', fake service histories, crash damage, and serious safety issues with cars "just bought" from all of the big networks.  Brands can't get enough decent stock for their own schemes at the best of times, so there is a reason why that mint low-mileage example ends up on someone else's forecourt.

My advice - if you want the 'certainty' of approved used - is to just make sure it's an official on-brand approved used and don't assume it is even if it has the manufacturer's logo on the invoice.

Bigphil1474

I got my last car from a dealership - Peugeot. It has a wet belt. I bought it at 2 years old and it had it's 6 year service last year which includes a new belt. The complete timing kit cost £152 , and the labour to fit was £250. It was basically a 4 year service, plus the timing belt change, replacing rear pads, plus MOT, all in for £891 plus VAT. Never had an issue with the wet belt. I was told they had some recalled due to delamination but they checked mine a couple of services ago and not one of those affected.

It's the first car I've bought from a dealership, but definitely the way forward for me. Just make sure they aren't a company that keeps changing names etc. - look on Companies House. A well established company is less likely to rip you off IME. I've been impressed with this dealership, services aren't extortionately priced, paperwork is comprehensive, and I've had some pay out on the Peugeot warranty with no hassle. Might be the last year I pay for the extended warranty though, probably getting to that age where it's not worth it. I'll see.