Just passed... Now where to get a car?

Overlag

Overlag

Overlag

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
11,038
Location
Romford/Hornchurch, Essex
What sort of trusted places should i be looking to buy a 2nd hand car?

I dont mean a old banger, i mean something 2-4 years old, max. And im looking for a price upto about £6000 for the car itself. I looking for something like a 1.25-1.4 fiesta or clio. (remember its a first starter car! i learnt in a fiesta 1.25) :)


Ive been looking at carland online (one in lakeside near me) but i not sure how good/bad/ugly they are when it comes to service and price.

Ive also looked at ford 2nd hand cars online, but they seem VERY expensive, only £1000 cheaper than buying new.

Also had a quick browse through autotrader.

Where would you guys look first and trust with your money???



thanks for any info guys :)
 
Wouldn't bother going to car land, I know someone who works there and he said they will rip you off big time, auto trader is a good place to look or go to some local dealers and see what the prices are like. If I were you though I wouldn't spend £6k on a car, I'd buy something for around £500 as you're bound to have a few bumps as you've only just passed and it won't really matter if you've got a cheapo car.
 
is there any need to spend so much on a first car?

for that money you could have a very nice older car with better engine and spec and insure it!
 
Overlag said:
I dont mean a old banger, i mean something 2-4 years old, max. And im looking for a price upto about £6000 for the car itself. I looking for something like a 1.25-1.4 fiesta or clio. (remember its a first starter car! i learnt in a fiesta 1.25) :)
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Being 4 years old does not make a car a banger. If this is just a first starter car, why on earth are you spending upto £6000 (plus £1000 odd to insure it) on a fiesta off a forecourt :confused:

www.autotrader.co.uk
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
Isn't that the firm that always want to sell you finance?
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Yes, and the majority of their cars are dogs. I went for a look and almost every car I looked at had a complete lack of any worthwhile service history and was in poor condition for its age. I've been told they buy the cheapest cars at auctions due to lack of service history or poor condition and tart them up for the frecourt to sell them on to some poor sucker with an extortionate finance deal. Their higher end cars £10-15k+ seemed fine but the cheaper stuff was mostly crap. With a budget of £6000, steer well clear of car giant.
 
Avoid car supermarkets, although they appear to be more reputable than private deals etc, they are only trying to sell you a finance package.

As for a car, I would say that you would get a good focus or similar for that money. It would probably be my choice if I were you.
 
Scuzi said:
Yes, and the majority of their cars are dogs. I went for a look and almost every car I looked at had a complete lack of any worthwhile service history and was in poor condition for its age. I've been told they buy the cheapest cars at auctions due to lack of service history or poor condition and tart them up for the frecourt to sell them on to some poor sucker with an extortionate finance deal. Their higher end cars £10-15k+ seemed fine but the cheaper stuff was mostly crap. With a budget of £6000, steer well clear of car giant.
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That wasn't my experience of the place when I bought my car at all. All the cars there seem very fairly priced. I.e. right at the bottom of the autotrader price scale.

None of the cars had more than a quick hose-over, and some weren't even given this treatment. None were tarted up.

Staff there are very helpful, and not pushy in any way. They will give you the keys to any car to look around and start up at your own free will. They just let you be. I looked at maybe 10 BMWs and went out for a test drive in a couple. There were about 5 330d's lined up next to each other, so I was able to compare the state of them compared to each other.

My car was grubby when I bought it, but that was all. It had a Full BMW Sytner service history. They will not try to push you to buy finance. The price on the car is the price that you will pay. My experience of the company was nothing short of fantastic. I went in to look for a car, half-seriously, then 6 hours later I had put down a deposit.

Are you sure you're not thinking of CarLand, Scuzi?
 
NickXX said:
That wasn't my experience of the place when I bought my car at all. All the cars there seem very fairly priced. I.e. right at the bottom of the autotrader price scale.

None of the cars had more than a quick hose-over, and some weren't even given this treatment. None were tarted up.

Staff there are very helpful, and not pushy in any way. They will give you the keys to any car to look around and start up at your own free will. They just let you be. I looked at maybe 10 BMWs and went out for a test drive in a couple. There were about 5 330d's lined up next to each other, so I was able to compare the state of them compared to each other.

My car was grubby when I bought it, but that was all. It had a Full BMW Sytner service history. They will not try to push you to buy finance. The price on the car is the price that you will pay. My experience of the company was nothing short of fantastic. I went in to look for a car, half-seriously, then 6 hours later I had put down a deposit.

Are you sure you're not thinking of CarLand, Scuzi?
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Nope, it was Car Giant. You were looking at BMW's which is in a seperate section across the road where things are different. Anything over £10k seems to be fairly decent but the cheaper cars were absolute dogs. They are at the bottom of the price range for a reason, mostly due to poor bodywork, general poor condition or a lack of a service history. I looked at about 10 cars during my visit (Mondeo TDCi's, Audi A4's and BMW 3's). All the Mondeos were in shocking condition whereas the Audi's and BMW's ranged between excellent and awful. It's a bit of a lottery buying from them but if you're lucky enough to find a god car you can ge a good deal. For the OP's budget I'd say he'd be safer staying away from Car Giant, unless he really knows what he's looking at.
 
ok thanks for a few pointers guys...

i guess i should spend alittle less on my first car....i was also thinking about a old old shape nissan almeria, i think 95 model.

that would be £1500ish and £800 to insure...

good idea? :confused: :)
 
Nazbit said:
Avoid car supermarkets, although they appear to be more reputable than private deals etc, they are only trying to sell you a finance package.

As for a car, I would say that you would get a good focus or similar for that money. It would probably be my choice if I were you.
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this statement simply isn't true, a few car supermarkets may be finance places, such as cargiant, but some, like motorpoint and hilton garage (bought my car there) mentioned finance once, the salespersons werent pushy, they gave you the key and a set of trade plates and let you go out on your own.

A good experience.

edit - I actually meantt carcraft not giant
 
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jamoor said:
this statement simply isn't true, a few car supermarkets may be finance places, such as cargiant, but some, like motorpoint and hilton garage (bought my car there) mentioned finance once, the salespersons werent pushy, they gave you the key and a set of trade plates and let you go out on your own.
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Car Giant isn't a pushy finance place at all. A lot of people must confuse it with Car Land, which is.
 
Overlag said:
ok thanks for a few pointers guys...

i guess i should spend alittle less on my first car....i was also thinking about a old old shape nissan almeria, i think 95 model.

that would be £1500ish and £800 to insure...

good idea? :confused: :)
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Yeah I'd say that an older Almera is a very sensible, reliable first car, although I'd be looking for a 1998 onwards 1.6 SRi or SLX as the basic models are very poorly equipped and the 1.4 engine is totally gutless while not being much more fuel efficient than the 1.6.

The only real problem with the Almera is that it's very bland to drive and to look at, but if you find a decent one you should get a good few years trouble free motoring out of it.

Also I'd stay away from the 3 door if possible as the doors are absolutely huge considering the size of the car and make getting out of the car in a tight parking space more difficult than it needs to be.
 
Overlag said:
ok thanks for a few pointers guys...

i guess i should spend alittle less on my first car....i was also thinking about a old old shape nissan almeria, i think 95 model.

that would be £1500ish and £800 to insure...

good idea? :confused: :)
Click to expand...

6K isn't too excessive for a first car imo, just means you'll get a much newer supermini etc rather than an older model if you had 3K, you'll welcome all the mod cons and the car will be cheaper to maintain as older models (small engined) tend to have had a hard life with plenty of stop start non motorway use, It's only when buying new you should seriously think about not going for mass produced models.

Just noticed your a little older than the average on here ;) more reason to go with a nice car i think.
 
I spent £7k on my first car and had mixed feelings about doing so looking back. The Astra was a nice car to drive and had a lot of toys on it (some my Audi doesn't have) and it was in perfect condition and remained so while I had it. Negative side - Although it was probably considered fairly "high performance" for a first car, I soon became bored and with my financial status changing, it meant the car was sold after a year and a £2k depriciation loss but I'm happy with my new one and is certainly a lot more fun to drive.

In the end my first car came from a Vauxhall Main Dealer at Chesterfield. I was considering a Focus originally but neither of my local Ford dealers were not interested in letting me have a test drive so that put me off Ford. (Even when I was looking at an ST TDCi this time round, they only let me drive 800 yards round a circle block and back again - very offputting Ford considering you would be quite prepared to give them £14k if the service was better.)
Second place I looked was www.availablecar.com. I have got to say, these are one of the best lot out there. You walk in, grab a stock list and wander round on your own without any sales people bothering you whatsoever. Only if you ask will they then speak to you. After Ford wouldn't let me have a test drive the first time, I wondered if these would be the same but no, the guy said I could test drive anything they had with no problem regardless of it being a Fiat Punto or a Group 20 car which I thought was good. They had the same car I was going to buy but in Silver. It was a couple of hundred pound more (less mileage though) but I prefered the Blue coloured one I eventually ended up buying.

Blakes Vauxhall were also really helpful. No pushiness and test drive was available so they ended up with the sale. It was the same when I brought my Audi. Excellent test drive offered and sales people were really good. One thing I have learnt is to make sure you barter on price as 99.9% of the time, salesman can adjust the price.

Autotrader is also an excellent method obviously but you just have to be careful what you buy. Most of the time, cars have been looked after by owners so no reason why you shouldn't have happy motoring. If you know anyone who is a mechanic then it's a good idea to take them along. :)
 
Replicant said:
6K isn't too excessive for a first car imo, just means you'll get a much newer supermini etc rather than an older model if you had 3K, you'll welcome all the mod cons and the car will be cheaper to maintain as older models (small engined) tend to have had a hard life with plenty of stop start non motorway use, It's only when buying new you should seriously think about not going for mass produced models.

Just noticed your a little older than the average on here ;) more reason to go with a nice car i think.
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thats something i probably forgot to mention.... i waited a long while before going driving lessons/test and im 24.....

while im still "new" im not your average silly 17 year old boy racer.... (i think :p)

so would that change things? ;)




currently looking at used renault site, cheapest 1.2 for 4795. My sister might be selling hers for 3700ish....might go with that.


then comes insurance. Is it possible for me to get a tempory insurance cover on my sisters or dads car, then transfer it to my car when i get one? Or in the case of my sisters car, change from 2nd driver to 1st driver + owner?
 
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