buying car for first time

goldspanners

the amount of cash you are going to hand over for a car in a private sale is a bit much unless you really know what you are doing,so the best advice on getting the best price is find the car you want in aprivate sale and get the AA or RAC to check it over for you with the amount you save.
i know someone who paid 6k for a 53 corsa at vauxhall dealer with 50k miles on it,she was offered one by a friend of friend for an 04 plate with 12k miles for 3k,she chose the one at the dealers paid twice as much for an older higher mileage car,what a plonker,she didnt even test drive it!
we have all tried to tell her how stupid she had been but there is no telling some folk is there.

anewman

goldspanners wrote: »

i know someone who paid 6k for a 53 corsa at vauxhall dealer with 50k miles on it,she was offered one by a friend of friend for an 04 plate with 12k miles for 3k,she chose the one at the dealers paid twice as much for an older higher mileage car,what a plonker,she didnt even test drive it!

Does she have another £3k spare? I'm a bit short of cash

goldspanners

anewman wrote: »

Does she have another £3k spare? I'm a bit short of cash

tried that already,she is a total idiot!

deltic_2

Can you stretch to £5k ?

You would be amazed, but you can get new cars for this e.g. I have seen Ford Ka lead in models for £4995 advertised, with a 3 year warranty.

Now is the time to buy new and haggle like crazy, you will be astonished what you can get for £5k new with a bit of looking.

http://www.lookers.co.uk/cars-and-vans/xq/asp/offer_id.3099/qx/special-offers-form.asp

Jorgan_2

Spend some time surfing the web, getting as much information as possible on the cars that interest you. Most makes & models of cars have owners club on line forums which are free to join. This will have a wealth on information on a particular car. Make sure you know when the big service is due, cambelts etc. Many people try to sell cars when they realise they will be looking at a £600 service in a couple of thousand miles.

Try & test drive as many cars as possible before buying, so that you can spot a good one. Is there a local Toyota or Vauxhall independent specialist in your area? Find out if they are able to carry out a pre-purchase inspection, an hour of their time will work out cheaper than a RAC/AA inspection & they will have better knowledge of the marque in question. The only drawback with this is that you will not have the comeback on the garage that you will have with the RAC/AA should a fault later arise.

silvercar

To conclude, decided to up the budget and go for nearly new to benefit from manufacturers warranty.

Picked a 10 month old Toyota AYGO; managed to get a good price as dealer desparate to meet end of month target.:)

jeannieblue

Brilliant! :j Its very much worthwhile looking around - amazing what is on offer and as lot of folk still bit broke after Christmas, and things not pick up til mid-end February - good time of year to get a bargain.

Very reasonable to run and service is the Aygo and Yaris