Buying tips for a car noob?

Aedus

Aedus

Aedus

Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2009
Posts
8,578
Location
Luton, England
I'm looking in to getting a new car, I've had my old Vauxhall Corsa for about 7-8 years now, and it's completely battered.

I don't care about a sports car, 1 with good MPG and has a reasonable amount of Oomph behind the pedal is fine with me, along with some luxuries I may not be used to, like power steering, cooling fans which doesn't blow hot air in my face and a back window screen wiper which works. :p

I'll probably be spending between 3k-6k I guess. Looking for suggestions on brands, makes, models, what to look out for when going to inspect, what to be wary of, where to buy from etc.

I'm a complete car noob, so I need all the tips I can get.
 
Mazda 3 (maybe sport), suzuki swift , vaux astra, vw golf, ( i don't like ford focuses or fiestas), seat leons, seat ibiza.
when I was looking for my second car these were my considered choices, Still haven't got one though!
 
VW Jetta. Lot of car for the money, with reliable petrol and diesel engines. In your budget, I would get the 1.6 FSI petrol. Uber reliable, and reasonably cheap as its the forgotten about VW.

It sounds as if you'd be happy with anything modern compared to your old car though :)
 
Thanks guys. Yea I would be happy with anything, I'm not really too big on cars, my current car is old, I think it's a 1998, it doesn't have anything really, the best it has is central locking doors.

I want something fairly nice to drive, and gets me from A to B with the most miles for the petrol I pump into it, basically. I'm not fussy at all.
 
Minstadave said:
How many miles a year do you do?
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Currently, hardly any, put it this way, when I got my car about 7 years ago It was on about 60k miles, now it's on 73k roughly. But it's about to change, thus the need for the new car. I can't give specifics, because I don't know as of yet, but will be a lot more than I'm doing now.

4T5 said:
Best tip I can give is take somebody with you that knows about motors/Trade etc.
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I need to find someone for that, unfortunately. No-one I know is big on cars, at least not enough to give a good opinion on it.
 
A lot more as in 25k a year? or 10k a year?

I would personally be looking at a good spec Mk2 Focus 1.6 Petrol at that price range. Shedloads of them around on Autotrader and relatively cheap parts.

Depends on what size car you are happy with. You'd get a lot more for your money if you found a very tidy Mondeo 2.0 Petrol, but it'll depend on your needs.

Stick to petrol unless you're doing around 20k+ (also depending on what the commutes are like).
 
It'll probably be around 10-15k I guess. I'm happy with anything really, like I said I'm not fussy at all.

I'll look into a focus too.
 
Vag cars with an fsi engine are an absolute bargain because EVERYONE wants diesel if they buy a vw. A 1.8 or 2.0 jetta is a clear winner here especially if you're going to keep it for a while.
 
monkey_boy said:
Vag cars with an fsi engine are an absolute bargain because EVERYONE wants diesel if they buy a vw. A 1.8 or 2.0 jetta is a clear winner here especially if you're going to keep it for a while.
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Are VW reliable? I've heard mixed stories.
 
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