My missus and I have sold out our hippy/eco principles and are learning to drive so that we can take the kids to the countryside. And, probably, bring them back as well. So, I was hoping if the collective intelligence of STW had any tips for looking for a second hand car.

We’ll probably be looking to spend c.£1000 on a 4/5 door car which we’ll probably be keeping for 18mths ’til we’re in the swing of driving. I guess we should look for less than 100k mileage, good service history, about 10mths MOT/Tax, low mpg but what else? Any brands to avoid/look for? What are *musts* that we should take into account? Cheers.

Oh, and we’re looking to buy in about 6mths – sorry if you just happen to have the ideal one for sale 🙂

The Parkers website used to have some good guides for buying 2nd hand.

If you don’t know what you are looking for, then the best thing to do is to take someone along who does.
Otherwise……

Make sure you start it from cold and look for blue smoke from the exhaust (burning oil). If the engine is warm when you arrive, ask why.
Look for rust on all body panels particularly along sills and around body arches.
Check that the gears are all easy to get into once on the move.
Check under boot carpet for accident damage (creased floor)
Check shut lines along panels for accident damage and if suspicious, ask questions. Not necessarily a problem, if a half decent repair has been done, but something to bear in mind.
Try all the electrics.
Do all 4 tyres have decent tread? If not, ask for money off.
When does the cambelt need replacing? Has it been done recently?
On test drive, listen for knocking suspension that could indicate worn suspension bushes (and again use as a haggling tool).
Also, try to find a car park that you can get the car on full lock and do circles in both directions (slowly) listening and feeling for a grinding noise. Could indicate worn ball joints.

How big a car are you looking for? You can pick up decent Vauxhall Astras and Nissan Almeras for not a lot of cash.

Skoda Fabia?

If you are gonna look at a Fabia you might as well look at a Seat Ibiza instead. Same car, different bodyshell (in effect) but doesn’t seem to hold it’s value as well so you will get more for your money….

That’s what I did – saved £1k over the equivalent Fabia.

Cheap small engined french car is probably your best option. More likely to get electrical faults by all account but parts are cheap and easy to replace and they tend to get good safety ratings. You could pick up a non-estate version of the peugeot 306 HDi (2 litre turbo D) for <1K and it’ll give you 50+mpg cheap motoring, good power, good safety and comfortable?

There was a thread almost identical to this yesterday, search my post history to find a list on things to check but stumpy gives a goodun. Oooh err.

Forget everything else – concentrate on a well looked after, neat and tidy car. You want a full service history (wedge of receipts and service book), maybe one old owner from new, any timing belts etc done, good tyres , neat and tidy car with no ‘chav’ additions. MOT – as long as you can, tax isn’t really an issue. Anything you are not sure about, walk away.
.
Insurance will cost so look for lower insurance. MPG on a cheap car / fewer miles is much less of an issue.
.
Small n Japanes is good.
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Like my Mazda 323 🙂
.
Two owners from new (edit: plus us, so 3!), 10 months MOT, 4mths tax, 116k, wedge of history and manuals, timing belt done, four good tyres. Crap stereo, and its a P red so some stone chips etc. But a winner of a car – we need rid before we move. £750ono in Sheffield

LOL – and we’re only in Derby but… we really have to pass w’tests first 🙂

Thanks everyone – certainly given us a lot of food for thought and that Parkers site is cracking. I’ll have a look for yesterday’s thread after today’s lesson (15mins and counting….)

low mpg

I would recommend high mpg unless you have REALLY sold out your eco principles….

😉

For sub £1000 i would steer clear of old French or italian motors. Some older german or japanese cars are a better bet IMO. Also if you know someone who knows cars better than you it worth well taking them along to have a look aroud the car, and take it for a test drive. At that price you will get more for your money buying private rather than going to back street auto dealers.

I would recommend high mpg

Heheh, yep, that’s the one!

Check out the car by car breakdown at http://www.honestjohn.co.uk it lists common faults with all main stream cars to give you an idea what to look out for specifically.

Japanese stuff is a good idea but apart from that consider the bog stand ford/vauxhall type cars. Lots of them around so parts tend to be cheaper and everyone knows how to fix them.

At the £1k mark buy privately and go with your gut instinct, if you don’t get a good feel for the car walk away there are plenty more. If the seller doesn’t feel right ditto.

Get something japanese or german, and make sure its diesel, has good service history, long mot and tax and low owners is always good, remember its your 1st car so go for something simple and work your way up when youv’e been driving a while, oh and make sure the cambelts been changed when its supposed to!
Apart from that as long as it looks tidy and the seller isn’t dodgy then go for it 🙂

Hope you were joking about the kids!

For sub £1000 i would steer clear of old French or italian motors

Personally I have to disagree, I’ve never yet owned a peugeot that cost me more than a couple of hundred quid a year for simple repairs and tyres etc, and that includes binning one and writing off most of the front suspension and snapping the rear axle. They’re cheap, they work. So they dont have air con/the stereo speaker wiring breaks in the doors fairly quickly (easy repair) but they are a car, simple, cheap and efficient. Get one of the old TDs and it’ll run to the moon and back (on veg oil if you want!)
at 45mpg and almost never rust unless theres prior damage.

Japanese diesels I found expensive for what they were, and parts are bloody expensive. German D’s are even more pricey to buy outright (I’d have said well out of the 1K range for anything half acceptable).

I recently went through this whole process but with a budget of 2K for my daily driver estate and, for a balance of mileage, performance, mpg and age per £ I couldnt find better than the 306 HDi. German ones were either rediculous miles or way out of budget and none matched the economy, skodas in budget were aweful to be in and not spacious, vauxhalls in the price range are renowned for elec/ECU faults and sounding like a bag of spanners, while handling like them and jap diesels hold their value well but are rare as rocking horse poo in estate form and had questionable economy.

At that price,country of origin,or specific models aren’t so important.Hopefully you’ve got a friend/relative that knows his way around cars. Some very sound advice from the earlier posts.

And never be afraid to walk away if you have any doubts

Yep bland japanese cars are the way to go, Honda Civics spring to mind, I’ve got one and it never goes wrong, ever. Everything still works and not a spot of rust, not bad for an 11 year old car.

Cracking advice folks, thank you. Driving instructor reckons now is the time to start thinking about booking theory and full test a couple of weeks after. Exciting times! 🙂

(And I was joking about the children 😉

Also – against the majority of the advice above – dont be dead against petrol, deisels for obvious reasons hold their price better and for certain cars you can pay a lot more for a diesel which means they are not always a good buy unless you plan on doing high mileage.

I used to have a Mazda like matt_outandabout above, mine was the 1.5 version, the v6 was very nice 😉

Cost me £1500 to buy, we put over 100k on the already high mileage clock, never missed a beat.

Decent boot, nicer looking than the new shape (which we have now), great on the motorway, easy to service, absolutely nothing went wrong with it, apart from when we hit a fox on the motorway doing 70mph, which did more damage than it was worth!

Otherwise I am sure it would still be going and on our drive now.

Andrew, if I was you I would plan yourself a trip to Sheffield 😉

[If you want a free set of Thule roof bars for it, give me a shout…..]

How many miles are you intending on doing?? Unless it is a significant quantity -> 15k+ at least, then you are better off with a petrol.
Also, do you see yourself doing many short journies, or fewer long journies….

Diesel engines don’t really like short journies and until they are fully up to temperature won’t be that efficient. Mine takes at least 4-5 miles before it is up to temperature, and that is getting out onto NSL roads within a couple of mins.

A friend of mine managed to sieze the engine in his ROver 600 about 6 months ago. After much searching, he found a fairly basic Astra 1.6 with only about 60k miles on it for £1200.

Cheers ski!

and to clarify, it is a 1.5GXi. The biggest complaint is that the electric aerial makes a noise as it winds up and down, and the stereo head unit is a cheap pile of rubbish – nowt £50 at Halfords wouldn’t fix. It has a tiny oil weep around the rocker cover – common on these things, and solved by a few £ foam gasket at the next service.

Its also low to the floor – especially when we go from a Touran to the 323….

We bought it to keep – spent a month searching Sheffield for a good car, and this seemed a winner. For a 12(?) year old car its amazing, there is not a single button/switch etc that does not work in the car. I would say its better built than our 4 year old Touran. Sure its a slice of 90’s design cheese, in blue plastic inside (!), but it is comfy, practical and works.

Heheh, Matt, you’re a great salesman but (i) we can’t legally drive it yet and (ii) we don’t have the dosh at the mo’ 🙂

But I am v.grateful for the advice – and also opening my eyes to what there is out there.

I take your point, stumpy, about diesel/petrol. We’ll probably be doing a mix of journeys and trying to use public transport/bikes for short journeys so I feel like the scales are tipping to diesel. We’re both learning in a diesel too – not sure how much of a drive difference that will make but it means that, psychologically at least, diesel might feel more comfortable to us.

matt, interested in the mazda,

just need to find out how much space a hang glider takes up in a car before i go shopping for one……………………

just need to find out how much space a hang glider takes up in a car before i go shopping for one……………………

😆 Now that is a classic quote…

Unless you are a ‘motor head’ which you are obviously not, total cost of ownership is the key. Reliable with cheap parts/servicing. Acceptable Tax and Insurance cost (which for new drivers that will be a killer).

For any used car factor in some extra cash for:
New tyres and tracking if req (personally I wouldn’t drive on someone elses tyres unless they were near new).
Filters – oil, air, fuel and change of oil.
Belts – water pump etc.
Spark plugs and leads
Basically cars at your budget, most rubber things will start to go no matter how reliable.

For the £1000 range I’d look for a 1997-2001 (P11) Nissan Primera 1.8 or 2.0 petrol – come in hatch or estate form. Chain driven engines so never need to change timing belts. Very reliable – drives well. Nothing to look. Cheap 14inch tires. Some one scraches it doen’t cost you a cent (because you don’t bother to fix it). Can easly fit two bikes. Tax will be £200pa as it’s older than the new co2 based tax.
Note: the current Primera is a totally different (french) beast.

yup, need to find a hoby other than coke and women while my knees knackered.

Wouldnt have thought hang gliding woudl be ideal for you spoon – plenty of running and hard landing/impacts with HGs surely?

i thought that, but reasoned that its got to be better than riding bikes, where i generaly seem to sprint uphill, get knackered, plod the rest of the way before sprinting downhill jumping over every little bump and mound on the way.

Costs about £900 to learn over 2 weeks, so comparable to a holliday and not loosing out too much if my knee doesn’t like it

I’d second any Japanese motor, and double second a Nissan – my wife has a ALmera she’s had for 8 years, 80K miles and done NOTHING to it. I accidentally spilt some oil into it once, and periodically refill the washer bottle if I’m driving it… thats it.
Petrol is also probably a better bet, more choice and you’re unlikely to save enough on an equivalent diesel unless you plan on driving 20K + a year – I do 13K ish, and haven’t found it yet to be worth swapping.
For any car, check when the big services are due (timing belts etc.) – often around 60K – make sure they’ve been done. Service history is a reasonable indicator of the owners care for it IMHO, unless they do it themselves and can adequately prove this.

Nissan Almera!

Mine did 135,000 miles without a mechanical part being replaced. They are cheap to insure and have a high MPG. They easily fit a few bikes in, and I’m sure a few kids too. You can pick them up for £1000 or less.

Mine was a bit dented etc being a first car so I sold it to a mate for £200.