I’m looking for a fresh car, wanting to spend around £4k.

I’m after a MK2 Focus, 1.6 petrol, 50k miles or less, zetec spec. or above.

Nearly every other car on autotrader (my go to – had 2 cars off there with no problems before) has has been damaged, and is ‘CAT D’ or ‘on V car’.

So where else is there? Very few tidy, genuine cars about it seems…….

Ebay classifieds
Gumtree
Pistonheads
Trade It
local used car dealers

private ads on pistonheads seem to have a higher percentage of decent cars than most places.

local classifieds, e.g. in shop windows, local free advertiser paper also good

I didn’t have the time for all this, so went to a used car dealer. Probably paid over the odds, but good service history and he fixed some stuff (cambelt, remote locking) before i bought it.

Takes time to find a bargain

I kept an eye on Ebay and bought a car I saw advertised on there. I didn’t buy it through Ebay though.

Thanks for this topic. I am currently looking for a car myself. I went to several car dealers in our area, but I haven’t found what I was looking for so I am trying to get something online. These resources are great!

same here 🙂

I did same as Mister P
Was a bargain too. Didn’t sell on eBay which made haggling easy. Saved a few hundred on a car that only cost me a bit over 1k.

EBay seems like the best place as I spent a while trawling through the crap before finding my current car. Some of the prices dealers on auto trader were asking for a damp shed was crazy.

Pistonheads is where I tend to spy for cars.

These look ok. If not then you need to increase your budget or compromise on spec. Pistonheads tends to be ok but not cheap, Gumtree is full of dodgy sheds and Ebay is Ebay, a mixture of normal priced stuff and junk.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201401271336360

or this

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201402222000362

Try phoning a few dealers, they often have cars round the back that were PX’d for new ones that they don’t intend to sell via their forecourt but pass down the dealer chain.

What age Focus BTW?

Dealer clearances are normally a good way to get a car.

Do your research on faults and make sure the price is low enough to cover the most serious of them or a few minor ones.

Looking 06 – 09, £4k will be stretching it for facelift mk2 though

Thanks for the links Gribs – both ok, but not keen on that colour to be honest (although 1st one is ideal in everyotherway), and really not keen on walnut dashed ghia & velour seats…..

Ive just had the opposite. Trying to sell a 59 plate Seat Altea. Very genuine car, full service history etc. Dealer who I took it to said it looked like new! No one has even called about it ( ad on Autotrader)

On Saturday going to a dealer for £6,250 knowing fully well he will be selling it for £7,500 the next day!

Why the hell people want to pay so much more to a dealer I don’t know..

Ive just had the opposite. Trying to sell a 59 plate Seat Altea. Very genuine car, full service history etc. Dealer who I took it to said it looked like new! No one has even called about it ( ad on Autotrader)

I had the same: owned my Fiesta from new, low mileage, FSH, excellent condition, etc. Not a peep from my ad in Autotrader until I lowered it to well below book price.

I had absolutely zero interest in the ’54 plate mk 1.5 Focus I put on Autotrader – sold it through local ads very quickly in the end. One thing I noticed: once you sifted out the dealer ads and random cruft in Autotrader, it seemed like half a dozen private sellers were actually trying to sell the same age focus on the site. I won’t be bothering with it again – waste of money as a seller.