is this a reasonably good deal

debred86

My boyfriend is looking at buying a car. He has spotted one at a local dealer. It is a 53 plate 1.6 Astra automatic, it has roughly 25000 miles on it, it looks in good condition. Mot for a year, tax for 6mth and the price is £3995.

Does this sound reasonable, looked on autotrader and similar cars are around the same price, so thought it was a good one. what does everyone else think.

thanks

h901

use a used car valuation site such as parkers or what car to check how much it's worth

parkers : http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/

debred86

ok thanks for that will have a look

westy69

autotrader is a gooder guide as anything else at the moment, the price sounds ok from a trader, have you asked for a discount if you are buying cash?

goldspanners

looks like a fair dealer price.
for this kind of money i would probably be looking for a private seller with a newer one,or one the same age but cheaper.

DKLS

Price isnt bad, but tell your Boyf to take a test drive, I had one on hire a few years back, and to be honest it was gutless, a 1.6 engine with auto is painfully slow, and made overtaking somewhat entertaining.:eek: It would kick down soon enough, and made lots of noise, but iot much in the way of forward motion.

debred86

Thanks for the help guys!! think hes gonna go for it anyway, i'll tell him to haggle a bit

As for the test drive, he's been in it and likes it and to be honest i think he'll manage with the speed. His last car was an N reg corsa 1.2 so anything is an upgrade.

thanks guys!!

oldagetraveller

You say it's automatic. Make sure it's a "proper" automatic box and not their Easytronic which is just bits bolted on to a manual gearbox to operate the clutch in place of the left foot.
The Easytronic is a cheap botch to save Vauxhall money and in my opinion, yes I've driven one, they are abysmal.

debred86

can you tell the difference by looking at them, i've only seen it a couple of times. What would i look for inside the car to spot if its one of the easytronic ones??

oldagetraveller

The Easytronics have a more conventional looking gearlever which can be positioned in "A" for auto or "M" to change gear manually but withoput having to use a manual clutch.
A true auto will just have a selector lever with something like N, P, R, D1, D2 to select, or similar, without a manual facility.
Ask the salesman/woman as well.
However, don't just take my word have a drive. If it is the Easytronic you might like it. They are a bit "jerky" when gear changing and sometimes don't change down sufficiently when negotiating roundabouts or when giving way at a junction.
The jerkyness (is that a word?) can be reduced by anticipating the gearchange and lifting off the fuel momentarily.
The non existant gearchanges can be overcome by driving in "M" but that's defeating the object a bit.
I also don't know how hard the Easyt is on the clutch, at 5 years old and depending if the 25000 miles are town or motorway then this might need considering if it's town miles.
Hopefully it's a true auto but as mentioned have a go!

debred86

thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

I'll let you know how it goes:j