Golf sized car for a small budget - how does anybody buy these? :-(

[Jez]

This is more of a rant thread, than advice, as i know the market very well, but feel free to give any you feel relevent.

My GF and I were/are thinking about buying a cheap, small, care-free runaround for little trips to the shops, her to park in less than desirable car-parks while working in reading, her to take through stop/start traffic etc. Basically just a cheapish little hatchback which could be used for daily tasks where our other cars are not appropriate.

As a result, i have been looking at Focus/Golf/Leon/307's, etc etc etc, everything in class really. Ruled a lot out, and settled on the possibility of a Focus or a Leon, as the car doesnt need to be nice, it just needs to work.

I have now viewed probably 30 i would say up to a nice round budget of ~£3000 after ruling very cheap ones out, i have also spent a lot of time looking at them at BCA too. Basically wasted loads of time.

In the whole time i have been looking i do not think i have viewed a single Focus/Leon worth buying, i have almost given up now. EVERY single one without fail has been absolutely tatty, right from 50k milers with worn out pedal rubbers and wheels, through to cigarette burns in the seats, dents and scrapes everywhere. All of the cars i have viewed have been described as "excellent condition". The ratio of dealers to private sellers seems to be about a billion to one, and all of these dealers have been shady little independants trying to peddle tatty rubbish tarted up with a quick wash/wax with barely a cloth over the horrible unloved broken interior with bits of trim missing.

No-wonder people on the whole hate buying used cars, the market in this sector is bloody woeful. I am at the point of just giving up and spending 500 quid on a car which at least i can accept will be a total rotter.

 

[eidolon]

I feel your pain. I gave up looking for another TT due to the problems you stated. They seem to be pretty badly looked after on the whole

"Immaculate Condition" just means that the panels are roughly the same colour from my experience.

 

[DM]

Go one size up, get a 407/Mondeo etc, the condition of whats about seems better.

I just bought a mint 04 petrol 407 for £3000 to kick about on short runs, shopping and ****ty car parks etc.

 

[blueboy2001]

I think in the current climate people are hanging on to decent cars. People who got their Focus on finance 5 years ago have seen rates shoot up and have decided that in fact their existing car is perfectly functional and they keep hold of it. Those who are selling will be doing so because their existing car is a wreck or has problems.

 

[Jez]

Go one size up, get a 407/Mondeo etc, the condition of whats about seems better.

I just bought a mint 04 petrol 407 for £3000 to kick about on short runs, shopping and ****ty car parks etc.

Its looking like i may have to. This class is a total joke.

I think in the current climate people are hanging on to decent cars. People who got their Focus on finance 5 years ago have seen rates shoot up and have decided that in fact their existing car is perfectly functional and they keep hold of it. Those who are selling will be doing so because their existing car is a wreck or has problems.

Indeed, that is looking well to be the case.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

You could look for a large engined model people are selling due to fuel costs for 3k I would go for a V6 Bora.

 

[Jez]

I dont want or need it to be at all powerful though, i'd rather have a small engined car from the class above than a large engined car from this class

 

[Dangerous Dave]

It was more they seem for what ever reason to be in better condition as the owners are selling them due to fuel costs I assume rather than there condition.

I helped my friend look for a 2.5k car and the Mondeos etc were basically wrecks, he ended up with V5 Toledo the general theme was any small engine/diesel models were in poor condition the larger engined ones were in better condition with lower miles.

 

[jamoor]

Personally I would go the Bangernomics route.

 

[Jonny69]

"You said this was in excellent condition"

You need to point that out to them.

 

[monkey_boy]

I dont want or need it to be at all powerful though, i'd rather have a small engined car from the class above than a large engined car from this class

It seems to be the motors' way that to get the best value, you must go against the grain and against the current fashion. Presumably it's people wanting small engined cars from any of the three main sizes/classes that is keeping prices high.

What sort of cars do you deal with on a daily basis? Is it a possibility that you're too conditioned to decent cars? At this price point, the owners have probably had the car a year or two and not given a toss about it. It also a whole lot more possible that people have had them from nearly new and don't give a toss about them.

A worrying large proportion of the population seem to not care about keeping and maintaining most things including cars, houses, careers, personal appearance. This is the market you seem to be shopping in.

 

[mrthingyx]

That class of car is pretty obnoxious when it comes to pricing, regardless of what you're actually getting for the money. I was in the same position looking at Ford Focus-type cars last year. Wound up buying a CMAX and getting nearly double VFM.

Either go up in size or down in prestige (Daewoo/Chevrolet Matiz-style) or build quality (Peugeot 306).

 

[mk1_salami]

I can't believe you've seen

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THIRTY cars and you've not been happy with one of them. Maybe you're expectations are too high?

Infact I literrally don't believe you've viewed 30 cars. Say you spent half a day to go to see a car, which would include travel time, and you've not been viewing loads at a time like you would at a dealer (which you said you've not been doing) then how on earth have you seen 30 cars? How long have you been looking for?

 

[Jez]

THIRTY cars and you've not been happy with one of them. Maybe you're expectations are too high?

Well, that much is obvious given my rather massive yet fruitless car hunt.

What is a shame though is that it shows what an utter state the used market for this class of car is in if i cannot find a single one out of everything i have seen which is even acceptable. Every dealers stock is just utter junk. (yes dealer, i even stated that dealers outnumber private sellers by orders of magnitude).

As i say, rant not advice.

 

[I get around]

Just keep hunting. You're more likely to get something in mint condition if you go to an owners forum.
I'd also suggest your expectations to be too high.

I saw some serious dogs when hunting for my bora (saw one which had stains all over the back seat and a lot of bite marks from a dog, it was described as good condition). Finally got one I could afford and was happy with after months of hunting.

 

[monkey_boy]

Well, that much is obvious given my rather massive yet fruitless car hunt.

What is a shame though is that it shows what an utter state the used market for this class of car is in if i cannot find a single one out of everything i have seen which is even acceptable. Every dealers stock is just utter junk. (yes dealer, i even stated that dealers outnumber private sellers by orders of magnitude).

As i say, rant not advice.

As with any market, the quality of the product will run at minimum quality to get max profit, so long as the buyers are willing to take the shabby products. Not the market is so saturated with dross that there doesn't seem to be a way out of it, without going outside the mainstream options.

 

[Participant]

Go one size up, get a 407/Mondeo etc, the condition of whats about seems better.

I would do the contrary and go one size down. A MkV Ford Fiesta (probably pre-facelift for this money) would do an excellent job of the role you describe, and you may find that fewer have mega miles due to the lower chance that someone will have been commuting long distances in it, and are therefore slightly better kept (that's just conjecture, I have no facts to back that theory up).

For example:

http://www.pistonheads.com/SALES/1406647.htm

She's asking a bit much for an 80k car imo, but it looks quite tidy and is a Zetec trim.

 

[Jez]

Just keep hunting. You're more likely to get something in mint condition if you go to an owners forum.
I'd also suggest your expectations to be too high.

I saw some serious dogs when hunting for my bora (saw one which had stains all over the back seat and a lot of bite marks from a dog, it was described as good condition). Finally got one I could afford and was happy with after months of hunting.

Indeed, I'm sure i'll find something soon even if its a blind buy via BCA. All i ask is that it has FSH and an interior which isnt burnt, worn, or broken!

 

[Jez]

As with any market, the quality of the product will run at minimum quality to get max profit, so long as the buyers are willing to take the shabby products. Not the market is so saturated with dross that there doesn't seem to be a way out of it, without going outside the mainstream options.

I will keep at it for a while, but failing this is will be a class change for sure.

 

[[TW]Fox]

This is EXACTLY what I encountered trying to buy a car for my sister.

I've not had a problem in the past, pick exactly what I want, search nationally, find one for sale after a while of waiting, have a chat to a really nice chap who has owned it since new, ask him in good faith if its mint, drive up, find it to be mint, buy it. Great.

Used cars.. how hard can it be?

Very. Like you everything 'normal' at this end of the market is a bag of utter crap. I viewed entire car lots with 20-30 sub £3k cars and not ONE of them was in anything approaching decent condition. Just ruined sheds with 4 random budget tyres (no tyre the same), dents in the side, scrapes, dodgy paint jobs, filthy scratched interiors, very few, even those advertised, had proper service history, many had at least one thing just plain defective, etc etc.

Ridiculous. The Golfs were the worst! Nice cars in theory but in practice god they all bark so loud you can hear them a mile off.

Ended up going back to my usual tactic - found a 5 year old, 1 owner from new Mazda 3 for more than the budget and bought that. And guess what - full Mazda history, 4 matching Michelin tyres, 1 owner from new. But 'above average mileage'. So I left everyone else to fight over the low mileage crap and picked it up for just over 3 grand. It wasn't even that high mileage - 78k.

Sure it was over budget and frankly it bores me to tears but buying older cars is just crap. They all suck. I love the way everyone cares about mileage and queues up around the block to buy utterly crud 8 year old 'low mileage' woman-mobiles.

Buy as new as you can and keep hold of it is my advice.