[Closed] What's the wrong price bracket for used cars?

Markets all kinds of ****ed up

But last time I bought the price difference between loads of the 5 yo/50k miles and 3yo/10k was only a couple of k

How ever it was a couple of k more than the 5k ceiling

It seemed to me that most folk must set an arbitrary 5k budget and cars were priced up to that ceiling - there really didn't seem to be any value in the 3-6k market they all looked to be bloated. Then once you approached 8-10yo.the value plummeted

A bathtub curve if you will

1-3 seemed pricy - 3-5 looked pricy on paper but looked to have value -5years-8years seemed to be the best time to sell a car to me as this is where the demand seems to be - then after 8 the value fell like a stone as like it or not 10 years seems to be the perceived useful life span of a car for the layman

As above the used car market is bonkers at the moment with new car production being affected and people working from home and not needing fancy leased cars.

I've sunk £2.5k of parts and a few months of my time into rebuilding our old Volvo and bought a disposable £400 to clack around in the meantime as I don't see value in the used car market at the moment.
However I have been nearly quite tempted by some of the cheap lease/pcp deals knocking about

I think £4-5k is a bad amount to spend on a 'normal' car (i.e. not sporty or a 4x4 or whatever).
Pretty run down, have the capacity to serve you up some big bills which you'll end up paying as you can't just write the value of the car off.

So, I go <£2k or >£10k

Though I've never had a lot of money so have always been <£2k!!!

Personally I would buy Japanese, petrol and one with a timing chain if you're looking for reliability, obviously there's no guarantee but on average you're likely to have a better experience

Ha, I'm sort of the opposite to @yourguitarhero.

I have had one car through auction for about 2k which was alright.

Last time I was car-shopping, which was about 3 years ago, I tried quite hard to find something decent in the 2k range, all through Autotrader. Everything seemed really tired and well-used.

My last three motors have been around 5k. A Citroen from a big-name garage was a bad do, but the following Skoda Octavia estate and Honda FRV from reasonable indies were (and have been so far, fingers crossed) decent.

This said, I expect my cars to get filled with jam and crisps (#kidlife) and essentially function as banks of unpredictable expensive problems, so your milage may quite literally vary.

There's no such thing as a bad price bracket. At around £5-6k you're buying based on the reliability of the marque/model and the condition of a particular car in question. Possibly alongside other factors such as the presence of a good local independent.

I don't know you can bracket by price without standardising the car - you get a whole different Fiat 500 for £5K than you would a BMW 5 Series.

But by age / mileage - anecdote / evidence I know but we've done PCP's for the past few Fiat 500's for my wife, and there seems to be quite a bit more right now in the 2yo than the 3yo value. We got called by the dealer a month ago at the 2 year point asking what our plans were and if we were going to get back on the merry go round would we consider doing it now instead of in a year. Maybe as above the used car market is also mad but with so many PCP/lease deals done now I wonder if there is a lack of cars <3yo where warranties run out and PCP hand backs happen so there's a sweet spot for selling rather than buying. But the offer they made was quite a bit more than I'd imagined.

And then after that 'magic' 3 years (I know some cars are now 5, or 7 year warranties too) there's a bit of a glut of cars in that 3-4 year old bracket, hence why not much difference to the ones that are a bit older than that.

My car OTOH is now 5 years old, with paint scrapes and a bumper gouge and I'll keep running it until it becomes unviable or just too embarrassing for the wife and kids to be seen in.

Deffo the £2k to 5k bracket - you're looking at something around 7-10 years old at least, probably at 100k miles or so... will very probably need some general wear and tear items and could well be getting eaten by tinworm, any big bills up to £1k you can't just write it off, you sort of have to pay them to keep it going.

Some amazing pcp deals around for small hatchbacks at the moment. Although these aren't for everyone.
Used car prices through the roof at the moment. Car supermarkets buying lots of lease fleets pushing up auction prices.
Plus people trading from home during furlough. Then add in more demand ad people move away from public transport.coz corona.

Last one was £7k, for older (9 yr) but low miles and in excellent condition with a service history covering consistent low mile use. That's doing pretty well. Lucky find, we bought on day of advert.

Previous was £3k, old, low miles for age, some dings and expected wear and tear, but decent mechanicals, is now the ratbag runaround for dogs and bikes. Doing ok.

Before that, purchase figures were at similar price points (£2k, £8k, and I think £2k again)

I try to avoid the middle region. It seems to be the popular choice so prices have a bump or condition takes a hit.

OP try a Honda Jazz, autos available, worth looking at.

As said - no such thing as this "avoid" price bracket, sometimes you can just be unlucky. My car was £10K 7 years ago and has been pretty much perfect. I'm definitely not a car person, cars aren't fun, they are a tool.
My son's first car was £4K and was great (til he wrote it off, being a yoof!).
Got it from https://www.snows.co.uk/too-good-to-auction/ - they only sell service history stuff, less than 4 owners and safety check them before selling. You can see the variety and price range just browsing the site.
(Only southern based, unfortunately)

Look for the lowest mileage vehicle you can. There's increasing built-in obsolescence that starts to kick in around 100k miles, the cars won't "fail" they'll just need more and more doing to them. We got our Roomster to 160k but it was needing the best part of £1k per year maintenance by the end. Bodywork's sorted these days, you don't get the rust buckets that blighted the 1970s and 80s.

Guy I have been doing some work for (and have known 30yrs) has a garage/repair shop in Greater Manchester. He ignores make (there basically isn't a mechanically bad one these days), gets low mileage with possibly cosmetic damage, does them up, sells them on. Doesn't buy anything above 50k on the clock.

There is a glut of cars that are 3~4 years old and are sold by private owners / company cars / lease deals etc all essentially the 1st owner moving on to the next car in a 3 year ish cycle of buying new - this is the stock that most big name garages sell alongside new cars to make money and the bigger ones avoid anything older. Nothing wrong with buying these - in fact these are possibly the best value point.

The market beyond that just is what it is. There is no reason to assume a 5~8 year old car is any less value for money than a 10 year old banger.

Good PCP deals on the Dacia Duster I believe.

We're running two Japanese Petrol cars with timing chains. Wife's is now 8 years old (bought at 4 years old) and mine is 19, bought at 10 months).

How big - Yaris/Auris fit in those brackets and bomb proof if boring. Sold our Yaris at 19 years old, and it's still going locally, 22 years old now.

Not fussed about status

This will help immensely.

Whether you are, or aren't, Brits as a whole are obsessed with Status and our car market reflects that. If you want reliable VFM then immediately discount Audi, VW, Mercedes, BWM, Mini, anything JLR, it's not that they don't make good cars (well, some of them do) it's the badges people will pay more for, so you lose on VFM, and you might be tempted to go a bit older to make your budget. Older fancy cars, especially the bigger ones aren't always the most reliable (older BMWs are terrible for reliability).

Based on your criteria of Urban commute, Auto, but of useable space, maybe a Toyota Avensis or Corolla estate? They seem to range from £800 to £30k and I'm sure they'll all be decently put together and the most reliable car you can buy for whatever budget you go in for. If you avoid the Diesel and get an Auto, they appear to have no known faults.

There is no formula IMO. They are all a risk, it's a judgment on make, model, condition, location, owner and luck.

Watching with interest, as when our 16 year old, 100k+ mile Mazda 2 eventually dies we'll be in a similar situation. We were beautifully and accurately described as "not really car people" by a fellow forumite, and I'd imagine we'd look to spend something like £5k on something dull, reliable, and therefore presumably South East Asian

When I was last looking a couple of years ago the danger area seemed to be 5-10k if you were looking at anything other than super mini's (limited to the cars I was interested in). In that price range you had an awful lot of cars that were in and around the age and mileage for potential big bills and looking about, there were plenty that looked decent on the web but were snotty when viewed. To be honest I sold on the Kuga we'd had from new when it was approaching needing the belts changing and I thought the clutch was on it's way out and that will have landed on a forecourt near 10k.

My thoughts at the time were that I could keep my couple of grand car running and if it went boom I could shoulder the cost but much more than that and I couldn't so wasn't prepared to take the chance on a 5-10k car, especially after all the trouble my wife had with a second hand 1 Series. If I pushed the budget much above 10k it was going to cost £200+ per month for a loan. I ended up leasing an electric car for around £240 per pay day which included insurance, servicing, tyres, etc.

I agonised over it for far too long but in the end decided that if you have to borrow the money you may as well go new as there are so many great deals about. I get the 'you'll have nothing to show for it at the end' argument but how much would the 10 year old BMW 3 Series Touring I was looking at for 10k be worth after 5 years of loan payments and how much would it have cost in maintenance? I prefer an easy life.

Whether you are, or aren’t, Brits as a whole are obsessed with Status and our car market reflects that.

Very true. Look for makes with a good reputation that aren't particularly fashionable they offer better value second hand. So that's pretty much anything Japanese and also things like Volvos and Fords so long as they aren't SUVs.

For two bikes a dog and a bunch of kit I'd look at something like a petrol Mondeo

10k for a 10 year old 3 series

That's properly bonkers.

Cars with towing capability seem to be holding onto their second hand values better than anything, so if you avoid that I think you'll be OK.

I've been offered more than I paid for my diesel V90 by a Volvo dealer.

So much of it seems to be pot luck.

But to echo a couple of other posters - I spent 5K on a very boring, 7 year old, lowish mileage Japanese petrol car. It doesn't have many toys and is a bit slow.

It's now 12 years old, has cost me a grand total of about £300 in repairs, and I can see it lasting a good few years yet. It's been absolutely great.

Last time I was looking I was imagining dropping c£8k on a Japanese, petrol, timing chain, estate, good mpg. Despite looking I couldn't see the obvious advantage of that spend and ended up with a 57 Avensis, roof bars, 39mpg, 72k miles, FSH, £1850. A set of tyres, a service, a few suspension bits, sorted. A year or so off achieving free car status. Before that, had 2 320Ds, both cost less than £5k and both did over 200k miles with nothing major replaced. Gone are the days of cars falling apart at 70k but trying to impress with your motor will cost you dear.

Look for the lowest mileage vehicle you can. There’s increasing built-in obsolescence that starts to kick in around 100k miles

Genuine LOL. Of course, the manufacturers build in obsolescence but as they generally design in Metric, its actually intended to kick in at 161 kilometres. FFS...

There is no such thing as a bad price bracket. Theres a bum for every seat. Key bit of the OP for me:

Last used are we had was about £6.5k/5 years old and really was quite troublesome all considered....
....We’re not car people.

I AM a "car person" whatever that may be. I currently drive an 11 year old, very large, expensive when new 'premium' car with 96 thousand miles on it. Its spotless, its completely reliable, its got a 300 horsepower 6 cyclinder engine and 7 speed gearbox. I also drive a 20 year old Fibreglass sportscar with an engine from a company that doesnt exist any more. About £23k worth all in together.

The first car took a lot of finding to get the right spec and including me doing a number of tests, and diagnostics whilst looking. I recently did a full 'C' and belts service on it using genuine parts on the driveway and spent a bit of time cross-referencing Merc part numbers against a Bosch catalogue to replace some sensors.

The second car requires a careful warm up procedure, doesnt even have a properly functioning radio and is not much fun to drive if the ground is a bit wet.

I have literally zero interest in what miserable hatchback I could lease or PCP for a similar cost.

I've always had lots of older but nice cars. They are always in very good condition, clean, with freshly painted wheels and new tyres, and tidy interiors, and good specs and colours. Many family members ask me for car advice. I change at least one of the cars every year.

Not in a million years would I suggest my approach is a sensible approach for 'not car people'!

My sister just bought an almost brand new hatchback with a measly spec andthe smallest engine, using an app, and it got delivered to her house, with about the same level of research and thought gone into it than I order a dominoes Pizza.

I asked her how she knew whether or not she would like how it drives, and she looked at me as if I've two heads. I guess she doesnt car whether the auto box changes up on the limiter when in manual mode or not, or whether the fact its the smaller engine with the torsion beam and not the IRS of the premium version means it gives up a bit of primary ride and handling balance on the limit....

As I said, theres a bum for every seat.

Whether you are, or aren’t, Brits as a whole are obsessed with Status and our car market reflects that. If you want reliable VFM then immediately discount Audi, VW, Mercedes, BWM, Mini, anything JLR

One point i often make on this is that high end cars come with refinement and comfort and its difficult to put a price on it. Once you have had a decent car with a nice interior and comfy seats its hard to go back to a cheap plasticy tat interior. If you are only ever popping about doing little runs then its not such an issue but if you do a lot of driving then a decent comfy seat and nice interior is worth spending money on.

i tend to think its less about a £number and more about understanding the motives of the seller. 3 or 4 year old ex lease is the safest age because the chances are its simply time for the original owner to have a new car. now its quite possible that 6 or 7 years old you'll be buying the same car from the second owner who's now ready for a fresh 3 year old "new to him" car, but you're introducing the risk that he's actually selling because its broken.

at that age you're into clues about the previous owners attitude is. I especially like using tyre brands - its not foolproof but its a decent indicator. miss matched tyres at each corner from brands you've never heard of and you're definitely looking at a car that's been maintained to a bare minimum. 4 michelin/conti/dunlop (even if they're old) at least suggests that the car gets what it needs regardless of costs.

another thing to consider is ULEZ - I'm looking at selling my partners Zafira petrol - 64 plate, base model, horrible colour, dings all round and frankly a deeply unpleasant car. looking on autotrader they seem to be fetching double what a top spec diesel is. and i know from experience that a top spec diesel zafira is a far superior place to be that ours. thats purely down to our proximity to london. personally ive never felt the urge to drive into london and dont go anywhere else ULEZ will be an issue any time soon so if i was in the market for something right now i'd need a pretty good reason not to go for a bargain diesel

Kia.
10 year 100.000 mile warranty. Although check small print to see how transferable it is.
Hyundai i30 estate might work for you.
Generally get more nice things to have as standard over a European make.
Never been in a Dacia but they appear cheap on paper.
The only thing that will be cheap now is the finance.
Cars do all seem better made in general, avoid a dpf Deisel for your mileage.

Are you sure the car won't be worth repairing? It looks like timing belt on a 130K mile car? If you were happy with it, and the rest of the car is OK (what work have you had done recently?), then spending £2-3K getting it fixed may be better than £3-5K on a used car that you can't be certain about.
The work on your engine will mean it will have new key parts and will effectively have had a full engine service.
Just a thought.
I've been looking recently so as to avoid racking up mileage on my campered van and 17 yr old son driving Mum's car. Lots of used cars seemed to have been sat in the weather on forecourts for weeks/months during lock downs. drop in new cars, meant drop in decent used stock and price increase. I gave up, until this week when a neighbour was selling their '65 plate VW Polo for £5K (64K miles, £20 tax, cheap insurance etc).
Compare the cost of repair to what you would get with that amount of spend?

I have a Kia carens, dull as fxxx but cheap as chips. In 8 years not missed a beat, I bought it as taxis use them and they know about running costs.

Interior plastic is low rent if it bothers you.

I would buy another, my mate bought one too, half the price new of his quashquai, which is nice but not worth double.

Sounds like the right decision re petrol/diesel. Also bear in mine that a 20 mile urban commute can be more brutal than a 50 mile motorway route. Potholes, speed bumps etc will hammer a car to death in not time if not looked after (driving and maintenance). Honda Jazz mentioned earlier is a good shout. Solid build, undesirable and very practical.

Better the devil you know.

Swapped my faultless peugeot 2L HDi (£4k, 20k miles on it, got rid of it at 80k, 2003) (for which i got a lot of stick for having a french shtbox) for a "super reliable VW" (£9k, 70k got rid of it at 120k miles, 2004), and had plenty of grief off it.
Swapped the VW for a 11 yr younger Ford (£15k, 40k miles 2015), with DPF, adblue euroVI, bells and whistles and dont feel i can trust it.
Loads of reports of "friday cars" on the ford forum: "ive had this van from new, its on <30k and has just eaten its own engine and ford say its wear and tear, and now it needs a new engine.

Shouldve stuck with the 90bhp french tractor.

Whether you are, or aren’t, Brits as a whole are obsessed with Status and our car market reflects that. If you want reliable VFM then immediately discount Audi, VW, Mercedes, BWM, Mini, anything JLR

One point i often make on this is that high end cars come with refinement and comfort and its difficult to put a price on it. Once you have had a decent car with a nice interior and comfy seats its hard to go back to a cheap plasticy tat interior. If you are only ever popping about doing little runs then its not such an issue but if you do a lot of driving then a decent comfy seat and nice interior is worth spending money on.

I partly agree with you.

You do get what you pay for, if you go for a mid to high spec car you'll get more convivences, better radio and probably nicer seats. But you really don't have to go for one of the German makes for premium, in fact, most aren't great at refinement because it's not what customers want, for some reason.

TBH, most of the makes I've listed are firmly in the 'Sporty over Comfy' camp. It's pretty hard to find a refined comfortable car from Audi, VW or BMW, well second-hand anyway, some of the 'SE' spec ones are okay, but must new buyers will tick the box for the 18"+ wheels and M-Sport, R-Line, Sportline bumpers version, which really seems like the very worst way to enjoy the UKs 'freshly shelled' style urban roads. You could make life easier with an SUV, but then you'd be driving an SUV. I say this as the idiot who bought a Skoda Superb with 19" wheels and Sportline suspension, so I've got a big car that rides like an chavved up 80s Hot Hatch with Spax suspension.

The days when Asian cars came with flat seats and dashboards made from tupperware are over. My Mate has got a Kia something or other, he does 20k miles a year in it, and it's quite, comfortable and refined, it rides a lot better than my Superb that cost twice as much. Frankly if they toned down the plastic chrome a bit, it would be near perfect, it's better at being a car than a most of the Audi A4s I see about these days, because whilst they might only be packing a 1.4 Petrol engine these days, they still have to look and ride as if they're equipped for ring times.

I find it a real luck and a lot of it depends on your own mechanical skills.

For last 10-15 years i have gone he bangernomics route as long it is comfortable, has a decent stereo and the poke to overtake a tractor, i don't really care about the badge.

I always look at:
- Does it have a full years MOT.
- Is it something i can walk into any scrapyard and buy parts cheaply for.
- is it something i can maintain and service myself without the need for a laptop and computer degree.

Currently run a Ford Focus estate with 112,000 miles on, bought for £850 and it has been dead reliable.

Bought my wife a 3 year old VW Polo 1.0 Bluemotion and it eats tyres on our rural roads.

Friends have bought XC90 that has had electrical problem after electrical problem and another a VW Passat that has needed 3 gearboxes so far.

So it really is a toss up. I used to always say buy Japanese, but again Mum's Micra and sisters Nissan Juke again have had nothing but problems.

Current Car is an 08 plate C4 Pic, it was £5k from an independent about 5 years ago, with 50k on the clock, I honestly didn't expect it to last as long as it has, It's utterly worthless now, but refuses to die...
I want a newer, but smaller car, an estate, decent sized hatchback or even a saloon now the kids are older and we don't lug pushchairs etc..

I suppose the way to look at it is as an amortised cost for having a vehicle available.
So that crappy Citroen has basically shaken out to ~£1k a year (plus maintenance costs) so if I were dropping £5k on a car today I'd want a similar level of VFM/working life from it. But given the insane prices for used cars currently, I'm not sure I'd get that, the asking prices are all over the place and I'd rather not spend more than that magic £5k on a car still...

TBH Mileage is pretty irrelevant, condition, age and looking up the MOT record seem to be better indicators to me...

I don't want an other diesel, but I don't think anyone else does either so petrol cars are also at a premium.

I've toyed with leasing, but I just don't think we'd be compatible with it, my kids will treat any car like a skip whatever I say, and I don't really want to become 'that bloke' who obsess about the state of his car...

PCP is a no go TBH, I don't want to be caught on the end of a never ending chain of finance and again become obsessed with keeping a car "nice" just to maximise it's trade in value...

Dropping a couple of grand on a deposit and swallowing a bit of finance might be acceptable, but this tends to lead to incrementally upping the budget until you're toying with buying 10-15K car because it's "Affordable". I'd prefer to be saving the difference for a rainy day.

TBH I don't think I quite trust cars in the sub £3k range to hang together long enough, they're going to be older and age related things will start failing, I'd buy one as a local runabout, but not something I'd want to rely on in a pinch...

Hanging over all of this is the building desire to go electric, spending anything on what is essentially a dying technology feels wrong. I know Very few cars appreciate in value, but paying extra, mid pandemic when we're not actually travelling much, on something that already has the clock ticking toward enforced obsolescence is just mad.

So I'm going to say £7k would be my maximum spend (ideally less), and the market will just have to come to me, the C4 can hang together for another year I reckon (hope), and once the economy turns and people stop pissing money at used cars the prices might become sensible again...

Any purchase price is 'danger zone'.

I have been swithering about moving on from the Ovlov - and have a £600 bill this afternoon on it today. However, on balance, better the devil I know.

Next to our car in the garage this morning was a just out of 3 year warranty German sportenvagen whip, bought privately with 40k on clock for many £000's and apparently having serious gearbox (and therefore cost) issues....

You are forced into it however, so IMO, buy as best you can on the history and state of the vehicle.

Bangernomics at the other end where cars are picked up at almost disposable prices.
But there’s a “no go” area 8n the middle.

My last 2 cars:

Ford C-max 1.6 petrol bought for £5k with 30k on the clocks

Berlingo, 2.0 diesel, 130k on the clock, bought for £650.

The Ford lasted 10 years before being written off, so £500/year. The Berlingo, TBH I doubt will be kept 2+ years there's just too many expensive bits that look ropey, service items coming due, so £325/year.

There was a point after about 5 years that the Ford was only worth about £500-£1000 as well, in which case the optimum price is probably somewhere around £1k for a car with just over 100k in <10 years. That's where I'd say they have the most life left in them for the lowest cost.

Untrendy, Japanese, petrol, timing chain, full service history.

4 cylinder 2008 to 2011 Honda Accord.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-Honda-Accord-2-0-i-VTEC-EX-Estate-Automatic-12-Months-Mot-Low-Millage-EST-/313572398869?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

Strangely, I buy everything (slight exaggeration) off ebay, but I'd never consider buying a car off there.

I have been swithering about moving on from the Ovlov – and have a £600 bill this afternoon on it today. However, on balance, better the devil I know.

Next to our car in the garage this morning was a just out of 3 year warranty German sportenvagen whip, bought privately with 40k on clock for many £000’s and apparently having serious gearbox (and therefore cost) issues….

The former is what's happened with our Fiesta, 5 years ago it failed it's MOT terminally and needed a new clutch. It's still going strong and I can't recall even any advisories since!

The latter is something that's more applicable to expensive but older vehicles. Realistically they aren't any more reliable than a non-prestige brands, it's just that when a 10 year old Audi eat's it's turbo, it's economic to replace it and sell the car. When a Dacia does it, it's not.
But if all you want is a 10-year-old car , then the Dacia wins.

There’s no such thing as a bad price bracket. At around £5-6k you’re buying based on the reliability of the marque/model and the condition of a particular car in question. Possibly alongside other factors such as the presence of a good local independent.

+1

Just look for a nice car at a suitable price for you.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertising-location=at_cars&make=HONDA&body-type=Estate&fuel-type=Petrol&model=ACCORD&price-from=500&onesearchad=Used&year-to=2021

Untrendy, Japanese, petrol, timing chain, full service history.

4 cylinder 2008 to 2011 Honda Accord.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-Honda-Accord-2-0-i-VTEC-EX-Estate-Automatic-12-Months-Mot-Low-Millage-EST-/313572398869?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
/blockquote>

I had one of those, it was terrible, but this one probably won't be because

1) it's not the terrible diesel which likes to leak exhaust gas into the cabin

2) a pre-facelift model with it's many, many, very unHonda like known faults.

With this particular car, you really need to make sure

1) the power boot opens and closes properly because they can fail, you can't open them manually and it's rarely cheap or easy to fix

2) the sat-nav works properly, it's an old, outdated, slow, probably terrible system by todays standards, in fact it was comprehensively beaten by an iPhone 4 in a holder stuck to the windscreen when I had mine 8 years ago , but if, in all likelihood it doesn't when you turn it on, all you'll get is an error message on the screen which you can't cancel in which case, well you'd better hope you like the same pre-set radio stations as the last owner etc, because it's all combined into a single system.

The rest of the car is great though, they're massive with a very low roof line. The boot is massive but again absolute practicality is a bit down because of that low roof. Seats are big soft armchairs, they handle like a boat, but they ride like a boat.

 

Had a similar age Accord estate to the one above but a diesel. I sold it on about 6 years ago at 110k miles as work demanded a newer car. Only issue was the clutch was starting to slip, common fault. Checking the MOT history it's now on 204k miles.

Check for rust on the sills and the bulkhead as they seem to go there.

I got one of those Honda Nav units (previous gen unit, I believe, but running mostly the same software). Runs from a DVD. The DVD frequently suffers dirt/dust build up. It requires dismantling to clean - one of them cleaner CD things won't cut it. If it gets dirty, the only thing that it will do is display an error - you can't even turn the screen off. Although there is, as noted, one exception - you can listen to the existing radio stations.

When it works it is indeed slow and outdated and extremely clunky - and yet I have still managed to use it on many occasions to navigate to many places, so it does work ok, and it does not require a widget to be stuck to the windscreen thus getting in the way of your forward vision.

What is particularly telling about that advert is that they are not showing the nav unit working...

We buy new (or nearly new), but after two expensive new Land Rovers my OH had, that progressively cost more to run each year. In the end the 1st lurched it's torque converter at 120k and the 2nd its turbo at 80k. So we bought a Kia Sportage.

Big enough for what she wanted, with enough tow capacity for the horsebox (2.0d) but more importantly a 7 year warranty.

It's now over 3 years old with zero cost except purchase.

For me, nearly new cars (current one was £22k vs £40k new) - bought at 6 months old. and now in it's 4th year. Bottom line though, if a car was expensive new, it'll continue to be expensive - front discs & pads for mine was £650.

I'd look at newly new cars that are basically white goods if you're only interest is transport.

My sister just bought an almost brand new hatchback with a measly spec andthe smallest engine, using an app, and it got delivered to her house, with about the same level of research and thought gone into it than I order a dominoes Pizza.

I asked her how she knew whether or not she would like how it drives, and she looked at me as if I’ve two heads. I guess she doesnt car whether the auto box changes up on the limiter when in manual mode or not, or whether the fact its the smaller engine with the torsion beam and not the IRS of the premium version means it gives up a bit of primary ride and handling balance on the limit….

I think it’s pretty clear who represents the majority of the car owning public, don’t you?
Honestly, hardly anyone I know, apart from people I work with, give a toss about all the things you’ve mentioned, they want something that’s functional and reliable, and possibly in a certain colour.
I have the luxury of driving cars for a living, although now it’s just occasional moving them around, but before that I drove significant distances in a huge variety, which gave me chance to find out what I liked, bearing in mind my age, and increasing issues with mobility due to a damaged knee, and the car I have now I chose because it fulfilled all my requirements and I happen to like how it looks as well. It’s also no slouch despite only having a three cylinder 1.0 engine, and is fun to drive. I do take your point about finding out how a car drives, and that was a factor in my choice, but again most people just don’t really care, they have the car as a utility item, not something to drive just for pleasure.
In case you’re wondering, and I have mentioned it on other threads, mine’s a Ford EcoSport ST-Line, the 125 bhp it has makes it quite quick enough for my needs, although a remap is on the cards, for extra torque.
It’s fun, I enjoy driving it, and I drive it for pleasure as well as utility, but I’m a rarity among all my friends and acquaintances. Work’s different, the place is all about repair and refurbishment of lease cars, and everyone working there appreciates cars as more than just something to get about in.

Oh, one thing I was going to mention, what with all the talk about leasing, subscription deals are starting to take off, where you pay a monthly subscription with everything included, insurance, servicing, etc. I’ve no idea how they stack up against conventional lease deals, but it might be a better option for many people. Cazoo, who I guess might be who your sister got her car from, are starting to go into subscriptions, but they’re early days - we had a Zoom meeting last week, where it was talked about, but I wasn’t paying too much attention.
Cazoo now own the company I work for, for clarity.