Mrs Aruns and I decided to buy our first car. To be honest I drove for years but never bought my own car, so I am a bit short on experience. Mrs Aruns, who contributes half the money, has a hang-up about high mileages and old cars, and her ideal purchase would be a two years old car with less than 20000 miles for about £2000.
I am trying to make her understand that this just won’t happen for that price, and that we should spend more, but she just won’t give up. However, I do understand her anxieties about the age and state of the car: I don’t have a garage and know next to nothing about repairs, so a car that is in decent conditions would be preferrable.
So, what is your advice about buying second hand car in the UK?
Incidentally, I saw an interesting car for a low price for its age, and then I found out it had been declared a write-off by the insurance company. I asked the seller about this, and he told me that the car just had a light frontal, that all the parts that needed to be replaced were bolted on (so it was just a matter of bolting in new parts) and that suspensions and steering were not affected. Should I consider this car at all? Am I going to have trouble in the future insuring it or selling it because of this situation? Your views would be appreciated. Thanks!
As a general rule, don’t buy a car that has been involved in a collision if at all possible - because there won’t be any “savings”, or rather there is no premium on cars that have not been hit. Does this make any sense? In other words, you may save money, modern car repair shops are very good. But this is a case of “best scenario”, so why bother? You want a straight, good-brakes, good steering/suspension car. Body work is bloody expensive.
Now, all these arguments can, and have mind you - been brought forth against buying a used car versus a new one. Most of us live in the real world though, or are savvy enough to save serious, uh, pounds on buying a good used car.
Find the wholesale value of your favorite, reliable model. Pay cash, and most importantly, have a reliable, neutral mechanic check out the car. Any scrupulous seller will readily agree to this.
One annoying radio advertisment in the area worded this cleverly, allowing inspection on “any car you agree to buy” or similar. See the difference? What good is an inspection on something I’ve already purchased? Anyway, add a couple percent profit for the dealer - maybe more, the markup and thus profit for the seller is far higher for used cars than new.
There is a company in the US called Consumer Reports. They offer unbiased evaluations of commercial items. I use their “Used Car Buying Guide”, published annually, when I want to buy a used car. It gives you “Best and Worst Used Cars”," How to avoid a Lemon", “Best Cars for Gas Mileage”, “Get the right car for the best price”. Walks you through buying a used car, compares individual sales and dealers, and for each model car, gives a table of Reliability History, Prices, crash test results.
One dealer I went to got really angry, and I ended up leaving the lot, because all he had to show me were cars on the “Do not buy” list!
As a female, I like the knowledge it gives me, and feel that I am less likely to be taken advantage of.
Hope the UK has something similar.
She’d be totally unrealistic to expect to find that car for that price in the US. The simplest way to prove that to her is to scour the ads for a month and tell her you’ll buy one when she finds one. She probably won’t. Why would someone dump a good vehicle for less than they can get for it? You may luck out and find a sap who’ll just do it because they have no clue, but I doubt it.
We bought a little truck for $8K US. It had 19,000 miles on it. This was back in '94, so it’s basically the same vehicle you’re looking for. It’s not going to happen for her price.
I just bought a '94 Hyundai Elantra (41,000 miles) for a bit under $8,000. Finding a good car with low mileage (under 50,000 miles) at a decent price was nearly impossible. I cannot imagine finding a good car with less miles for less money–but good luck.
In the US, there is a service called CarFax (http://www.carfax.com) that traces the accident and maintainence reports (as much as was entered, so generally all insurance claims and dealer-provided maintainence/recall work) of any car by the VIN. I used it when I bought my latest used car. It told me that the recall work had been done, that it had never been in an accident, and that it had presumably spent basically all its previous life in Southern California. I have no idea if there is a similar service in the UK, but if so, I would highly recommend using it.
But geeze, GBP 2000 isn’t even $4000 US. I paid that much for my current car, and that was when it was 10 years old with 97,000 miles. I know the markets are somewhat different but to get that good a price on that new a car I’d assume you’d have to buy a subcompact or even smaller. Maybe something the size of a Toyota Aygo.
One way to get the most for your money is to not be in a hurry. Every now and then, a better-than-average deal comes along. If you have the patience to wait for such an opportunity, you might luck out.
As the Mrs. is doing research on pricing realities, she might also want to do some on mileage realities. When I was a kid, it was remarkable if a car managed to make it 100,000 miles. Nowadays (in the U.S., anyway) it’s remarkable if it doesn’t do that easily. A very large percentage of good-quality cars (usually Japanese) routinely last over 150,000 miles. I’m driving a '92 Honda with over 200,000 miles and no sign of impending doom. Insisting on a mileage of 20K or less is not necessary for reliability, and the differential in purchase price vs a car with, say, 60K or 100K miles is noticeably greater than the normal maintenance and repair costs of the older car. This is in reference to mechanical integrity. I understand that in the U.K. there is also the issue of body integrity, so it may be a different situation.
Fuckin’ A. The worst thing you can do is jump at the first thing that comes by. If you can afford to shop around for a couple of months, do it. You’d be surprised at what’s out there if you can afford the luxury of waiting.
If you are trying to buy as close to a current model year as possible, and only pay about $4,000 you are going to wind up with a bottom feeder car. In other words you will wind buying a car that was the cheapest when it was first sold, as it will hit that 2,000 pound mark before a more expensive car will. You should note that these very cheap new cars don’t tend to last as long as a slightly more expensive newer car.
For example in the late 1980s and early 1990’s Nissan sold a car called a Sentra. Very inexpensive to buy, everybody bought one. Christ you could not swing a dead cat in my neighborhood without hitting at least two of them.
I have not seen one of those on the road moving under its own power for a couple of years now. Meanwhile other slightly more expensive cars (Honda Civic, Toyota, Mazada) are motoring along just fine.
Oh, one more thing. That guy with the written off car? Run, he is lying his ass off. Insurance companies don’t stay in business by totaling cars that just needed a few parts bolted on. If the car was totalled by the insurance company there was a reason why. You could be buying a car that has very inferior repair work done, and is dangerous.
While I disagree that you should never buy a car that has been wrecked, I would never buy a salvage tittle car.
You could consider car auctions. Some people seem to think auctions are risky or scary, but I bought at British Car Auctions once and I found it reassuring that the seasoned car dealers I was bidding against seemed to think that the car that I bought was worth what I paid for it. They often have fleet sales where rental companies and the like offload their six-month or year-old cars. Some bargains to be had there, but way out of your price range.
That’s a fantasy. But it’s not far off reality. Hie thee to your local Kia or Proton dealer. Look for a lowish-mileage 3-4 year old car like a Kia Shuma from an official dealer. Kia and Proton aren’t the most fashionable of marques but they’ll get you from A to B in safety and comfort. With headroom.
I’ve got a theory that worked out for me in real life. Granted, I was not looking for a cheap car, but came across the car I wanted. Scan a used car pricing website (Kelly Bluebook) for a Toyota or Honda that has a low bluebook value within your striking range of £2000. Obviously, there is no chance of finding one with 20000 miles on it. Who are you kidding?
Take your time and scan the ads for this particular car (similar model but only settle for Toyota or Honda). Sooner or later, someone will be getting rid of this older car with very low mileage for a bargain price due to extenuating circumstances. Completely ignore any cosmetic defects unless they are related to a fairly significant collision. Hopefully, this car was the ride of the elderly aunt who only drove the car to church on Sundays. Pay a trusted mechanic to do a thorough mechanical check on the car. This should cost about £50. With a great deal of luck, you will be able to purchase a low mileage old Toyota or Honda that will last freakin’ forever.
In 1995 I bought a 1984 Toyota 4Runner for $5000 (it had sold 6 months earlier to a friend for $4000). It had 67000 miles on it, so it had only been driven about 6000 miles a year. The truck was in near pristine condition. I’ve put on another 70,000 miles on it with no problems except for a head gasket leak and leaking front axles. It’ll run for another 150,000 miles, I’ll bet. YMMV, literally.
I adopted this strategy, and it worked. Now she’s much more reasonable! We agreed to stretch the budget a bit, up to about £3000, and she is more tolerant when it comes to mileage.
We still can’t afford very high quality cars, with the Japanese ones I was hoping for out of that price range unless you want really old cars or really high mileage, or both, but I’m looking around. In particular now I’m looking at Skodas, in particular the Skoda Fabia . They turned up at the top of most reliability studies in the UK, and at the bottom of surveys for average costs of repair. This is a combination that I quite like!
As for background checks, I found the equivalent to Carfax. It is called an HPI check (check here) and a few websites offer it at a discounted price, cheaper than getting it directly from HPI (because they buy them in high volumes, I reckon). I also found plenty of car review sites, often associated with motoring magazines, and even a very useful one, Honest John, that provides a list of bad things to check out for many of the most common models available here.
So now it’s a question of waiting for the right bargain…
Don’t forget to have the car inspected by a qualified mechanic. Here in the U.S. there are mechs. who specialize in this, they usually charge around 80-100 dollars, but they check a lot of things the average person wouldn’t think of. It’s money well spent, whether you buy the car or not.
Don’t fall in love though. Take a test drive, get a feel for its condition, listen for rattles and take all the normal caution. Things do still go wrong with modern Skodas.
