£5k for a car... ideas?

SlyReaper · 8 Jul 2010 at 17:41

[TW]Fox;16903379 said:
Here we go again.....

He seems to have his heart set on a 2.0 Hyundai Coupe.

Not at all, I was just curious as to why everyone was so set against them. And given everyone's reactions since posting it, I'm not at all inclined to get one. I'm more interested in the likes of the Celica and the MR2. (I was looking at a Lotus Elise S1 at one point, but insurance would be almost as bad as for an M3

)

SlyReaper · 9 Jul 2010 at 22:19

I know it's bad form to bump your own thread, but I don't want this to die just yet. So far, the two cars that I'm most interested in are the MR2 and the Celica. I have to say I'm not falling in love with the Nissan or the Evo. The Prelude looks fairly sweet, I don't mind if it's from the previous decade or not so long as it drives well.

Any other suggestions on what I might like to have a look at?

Nick1881 · 9 Jul 2010 at 22:27

Buy my BMW 330ci

GreenMint · 9 Jul 2010 at 23:36

Maybe just go see/test drive a Celica and MR2 at the weekend? Surely they'll be some close by at dealerships/independant dealers that you can go check out and hop in for a drive, doesn't have the be the exact oen you want, but would give you a feel for it.

(I don't endorse mindless test piloting on a private sale car!)

SlyReaper · 10 Jul 2010 at 11:11

Well it's the first time buying a car from someone I'm not related to, so I'll be buying from a trader rather than a private seller anyway.

[TW]Fox · 10 Jul 2010 at 12:31

SlyReaper said:
Well it's the first time buying a car from someone I'm not related to, so I'll be buying from a trader rather than a private seller anyway.

I cannot emphasis enough how utterly awful buying from independant traders generally is, especially at this pricepoint.

Private seller or main dealer all the way. I *hate* dealing with independent traders, they add no value to the purchase whatsoever and in most cases simply take it away. You think you are buying peace of mind but in reality you are not, you are buying a car from an Arthur Daley type with a crap warranty that covers nothing and requires a world of pain to get any of the 'comeback' you thought you were getting from buying trade in the first place.

SlyReaper · 10 Jul 2010 at 12:59

[TW]Fox;16917216 said:
I cannot emphasis enough how utterly awful buying from independant traders generally is, especially at this pricepoint.

Private seller or main dealer all the way. I *hate* dealing with independent traders, they add no value to the purchase whatsoever and in most cases simply take it away. You think you are buying peace of mind but in reality you are not, you are buying a car from an Arthur Daley type with a crap warranty that covers nothing and requires a world of pain to get any of the 'comeback' you thought you were getting from buying trade in the first place.

See, that's almost the polar opposite of the advice I've been getting from everyone else. :confused:

DM · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:05

He's right, all buying from a trader for 5k is doing is adding 500-1000 to the price of the car for very little benefit.

Buy privately and pocket the change if something goes wrong.

Moeks · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:16

My experiences are a bit varied on this matter, I would be very, very careful about independent dealers ...a lot of them are basically scum and their warranties are usually rubbish and often not worth the paper they are printed on.

[TW]Fox · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:23

SlyReaper said:
See, that's almost the polar opposite of the advice I've been getting from everyone else.

Everyone seems to think buying from a trader is awesome.

I've just helped my father replace his 530d. Found him a great candidate, we went up and viewed it, the car was great but OMG the dealer was the biggest and most irritating nightmare in the universe. If the car wasn't so good with such good provenence (07, full BMW history, serviced 2 weeks ago at local BMW dealer) we'd have walked. It was just frought with stupidity at every turn. It took an HOUR, yes an HOUR to convince the guy to let us take a test drive of more than a mile down the road and back. An hour!? He was filled with stupid comments like 'I've got this Honda and it has an electric boot close, the BMW wont do that!', seriously, if I told you all the boneheaded and stupid things this guy came out with you'd never believe me.

Added NOTHING to the purchasing process and just made the entire thing a complete hinderence from start to finish. I wish it had been a private seller as I doubt the utterly worthless warranty that came with the car is worth anything either.

I ended up just treating it like a private sale and ignoring all the dealer stuff.

Do not consider the fact a car you want is from a dealer as a plus point. In 90% of cases it simply isn't.

DM · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:26

[TW]Fox;16917486 said:
Everyone seems to think buying from a trader is awesome.

I've just helped my father replace his 530d. Found him a great candidate, we went up and viewed it, the car was great but OMG the dealer was the biggest and most irritating nightmare in the universe. If the car wasn't so good with such good provenence (07, full BMW history, serviced 2 weeks ago at local BMW dealer) we'd have walked. It was just frought with stupidity at every turn. It took an HOUR, yes an HOUR to convince the guy to let us take a test drive of more than a mile down the road and back. An hour!? He was filled with stupid comments like 'I've got this Honda and it has an electric boot close, the BMW wont do that!', seriously, if I told you all the boneheaded and stupid things this guy came out with you'd never believe me.

Added NOTHING to the purchasing process and just made the entire thing a complete hinderence from start to finish. I wish it had been a private seller as I doubt the utterly worthless warranty that came with the car is worth anything either.

I ended up just treating it like a private sale and ignoring all the dealer stuff.

Do not consider the fact a car you want is from a dealer as a plus point. In 90% of cases it simply isn't.

What is it your dad got in the end?

[TW]Fox · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:28

Nothing particularly exciting so no OMG WOW LOOK threads, it's an LCI E60 5 Series SE. This time with a nice petrol engine not a diesel.

DM · 10 Jul 2010 at 13:29

[TW]Fox;16917506 said:
Nothing particularly exciting so no OMG WOW LOOK threads, it's an LCI E60 5 Series SE. This time with a nice petrol engine not a diesel.

I hope its an auto

mjt · 10 Jul 2010 at 14:59

Without going too far off topic.. 525i?

eatcustard · 10 Jul 2010 at 17:55

Moeks said:
My experiences are a bit varied on this matter, I would be very, very careful about independent dealers ...a lot of them are basically scum and their warranties are usually rubbish and often not worth the paper they are printed on.

+1

They have an excuse not to payout for everything

SlyReaper · 10 Jul 2010 at 18:10

Moeks said:
My experiences are a bit varied on this matter, I would be very, very careful about independent dealers ...a lot of them are basically scum and their warranties are usually rubbish and often not worth the paper they are printed on.

Okay what would you suggest? I'm paranoid about getting screwed over somehow by a private seller. Getting screwed over in a way I could never have thought of because I've never done this before. So is a main dealer my best bet? Wouldn't they charge well over the odds for a second hand vehicle? Also, would I be able to haggle them down as much as I could an independent trader?

Apologies for being such a noob here, but I bought my current car off my mum so I knew I could trust the seller in that instance. I have no other experience of buying cars.

[TW]Fox · 10 Jul 2010 at 18:17

mjt said:
Without going too far off topic.. 525i?

Yea - the newer 3.0 version though.

SlyReaper said:
Okay what would you suggest? I'm paranoid about getting screwed over somehow by a private seller. Getting screwed over in a way I could never have thought of because I've never done this before.

You are as likely, if not more so, to be screwed over by an independant dealer. At least with a private seller you are 'buying' the seller as well. You can chat to him, get a feel for what he's like, decide if he's the sort of person you fancy buying a car from. With a dealer you've no idea who owned it. At least with a private seller the price is lower to account for the lack of comeback!

So is a main dealer my best bet?

Not with your budget, no. You won't get the sort of car you want for £5-6k from a main dealer.

Moeks · 10 Jul 2010 at 18:18

Well firstly go armed with the facts, know exactly what you are buying into and have a list of the common faults to look for. Be thorough and meticulous and pay no attention to all the crap they very well may come out with.

Yes a dealer will charge more than a private seller for the same vehicle, if they aren't ...why not? ...because they almost always do.

Thing is with buying through an independent dealer, you do not have the backup of a main dealership ...and you can't see where the car has come from and get a 'feel' for the previous owner like you can with a private sale. Basically you have no idea who owned it before you or how they treated it, a FSH and shiny paintwork is only half of the story believe me. Also, dealers are more likely to lie in my experience, and they tend to be better at it.

Condition is paramount with used cars, I've let standards slide myself before and bought what I could find, when looking for something that doesn't exactly grow on trees and I have lived to regret it. That's due to my own impatience, nothing else ...I knew I could get burned yet I took the chance and I sort of did.

If you are looking for something common and easy to find, do not under any circumstances do this, buy one that is in A1 condition, with all the paper-work and as few owners as possible, preferably 1 ...with you being the second ...having the garage as the second registered keeper is ok, that's not a big deal really if you find the right car. Of course with a £5k budget you are basically in private or indepedent territory, so you're going to have to deal with this one way or another.

DM · 10 Jul 2010 at 18:19

SlyReaper said:
Okay what would you suggest? I'm paranoid about getting screwed over somehow by a private seller. Getting screwed over in a way I could never have thought of because I've never done this before. So is a main dealer my best bet? Wouldn't they charge well over the odds for a second hand vehicle? Also, would I be able to haggle them down as much as I could an independent trader?

Apologies for being such a noob here, but I bought my current car off my mum so I knew I could trust the seller in that instance. I have no other experience of buying cars.

With 5k forget main dealers.

When you buy private you do a car check, HPi or whoever before parting with any money.

Take someone who is handy with cars when you go to view.

When you do eventually start buying cars from main dealers, bid the ****** out of them in exactly the same way as you would an indy dealer.

[TW]Fox · 10 Jul 2010 at 18:23

I am not saying dont buy from a dealer. Sometimes you have no choice. But don't do so under the impression you are getting something which adds value to the purchase over buying it privately because in my opinion you are not. Don't pay any more than you would privately, because the perceived benefits are in my opinion simply not there.

When buying from a dealer make sure you have a solid answer to the following question:

'If this car suffers some sort of major issue 6 moths down the line, can I afford to sort it?'

If you can't, then don't buy it - the dealer will more than likely find his way out of paying for it.

Same process as you go through buying from a private seller.

In my opinion the absolute best way to buy a car is to buy it from its original owner, who bought it new, invites you into his lovely house in a nice area for a cup of tea, before explaining to you how much he enjoyed the car, showing you a huge folder full of invoices, explaining that his brand new newer model of the same car is arriving any day soon, and telling you how sad he'll be to see it go.

That's the best way to buy a car, other than a nearly new one from a main dealer.

IMHO anyway.