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You'd think in this day & age cars would be bullet proof but the opposite seems to be the case. Not sure if it's built-in obsolescence or that cars are built so cheaply to maximise profits. Maybe both.
Personally I'd stick with anything Japanese (maybe Korean too) or German and get a good cat-converter shield because they're being stolen from cars made by those countries in big numbers.
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2nd hand car advice on 13:47 - Feb 7 with 4477 views
Not a great time to buy a second hand car, due to the shortage of new cars the second hand car market has gone mad, we’re looking at around a £2k price rise on a £15k car at the moment. Crazy. I bought a 3 year old BMW last year, the dealers called me last week asking to buy it off me for £2k more than the purchase price.
If you want to go and see the car, test drive and sit down and discuss your options then I’d go to a car supermarket like car giant, big motoring world etc but a lot of people are now using Cinch or Cazoo, all online and car gets delivered to your door.
Reviews can be off, some people get unlucky and leave a negative review, 95% of people will have a good experience and won’t leave a review, all cars have problems, most minor and can be rectified by the dealer or by the manufacturer as a recall/warranty job.
My advice is get something relatively new and with a good service history.
Have fun
[Post edited 7 Feb 2022 13:51]
With Faith And Courage Comes Glory
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2nd hand car advice on 13:53 - Feb 7 with 4449 views
A friend of mine just bought from Cazoo. They show you any imperfections of the car that you are interested in on their site. She ordered the car and the day before they contacted her to say that there was an issue with a paintwork repair and that it was not up to their standard and the delivery would be delayed. Whilst she waited they provided her with a free hire car. She was very impressed with their customer service.
If you want a stress free, professional service with a car that won't have hidden faults go with Cazoo or Cinch. They also allow you return it within 14 days if you don't like it. All dropped off and picked up free of charge by them too.
You'll pay a slight premium (eg. maybe £2500 more on a £30K car) but for me it was worth it to not have to deal with the hell of the independent 2nd hand car companies. Like you say it's like the wild west and you have no idea what you're getting or any aftercare.
Of the two, I think Cinch are better btw. Better customer service.
Lastly, if you're doing finance, borrow the money with a personal loan from your bank. You'll get sub 2% interest. The finance 2nd car dealers hawk, including Cazoo and Cinch, is 7% or 8%.
Oh and buy the extended repair warranty, it's worth the £30 a month.
Not a great time to buy a second hand car, due to the shortage of new cars the second hand car market has gone mad, we’re looking at around a £2k price rise on a £15k car at the moment. Crazy. I bought a 3 year old BMW last year, the dealers called me last week asking to buy it off me for £2k more than the purchase price.
If you want to go and see the car, test drive and sit down and discuss your options then I’d go to a car supermarket like car giant, big motoring world etc but a lot of people are now using Cinch or Cazoo, all online and car gets delivered to your door.
Reviews can be off, some people get unlucky and leave a negative review, 95% of people will have a good experience and won’t leave a review, all cars have problems, most minor and can be rectified by the dealer or by the manufacturer as a recall/warranty job.
My advice is get something relatively new and with a good service history.
Have fun
[Post edited 7 Feb 2022 13:51]
That’s mental!
We’re looking at buying a jalopy as a run around and prices are crazy. Consequently I’d suggest to Toby to wait a bit, for there is an impending debt crisis bubbling and if that explodes, it will become a buyers’ market with some order returning to things.
'Always In Motion' by John Honney available on amazon.co.uk
if you want German quality without paying the German price, then go Skoda.
On my 2nd Octavia. Owned by VW and made in Germany! Bought a demo model this time last year and it’s worth the same now as what I paid for it. It’s a bit like driving an iPod with all the tech but it’s a lovely car.
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2nd hand car advice on 16:03 - Feb 7 with 4109 views
On my 2nd Octavia. Owned by VW and made in Germany! Bought a demo model this time last year and it’s worth the same now as what I paid for it. It’s a bit like driving an iPod with all the tech but it’s a lovely car.
we've got a Seat Ateca, which is a VW Tiguan for £7000 less.
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2nd hand car advice on 16:09 - Feb 7 with 4096 views
On my second Skoda (first was a Yeti, which was a great car and sorely missed even now) and they are pretty good. Have a Karoq at the moment and its been fine, nothing special in some respects, but capable, reliable and Skoda garages seem to be capable/efficient.
Other have mentioned Korean. Kia/Hyundai are both pretty solid and backed by 5 year and 7 year warranties which tells you something about how much confidence that they have in their cars.
Not sure what your budget is, what size of vehicle you are looking for or your general knowledge of cars or how much time you have available. I tend to use a car finding firm called Palmdale ( https://www.palmdale.co.uk/ ) who basically charge a fixed fee to find a car which matches what you are after. If you are not sure they can give you some suggested options of things to go and have a look at. Once you have an idea of the type of car you want and the budget available they scan the whole country (trade and dealerships) to find something that fits the bill and negotiate the price so you don't have to. They don't gain any commission, but do take a lot of the heavy lift out of the process. I have bought my last 3 cars through them and will probably use them next year for the next one, as I know I am getting a good car for a fair price that has been checked over and is delivered to my door ready to go.
Another place to try is CarWow who did a similar thing to Palmdale, but it is a little more dealer led. One of the issues I have tended to run into on that website is sometimes the dealers advertise cars that they no longer have and so you end chasing a car for a price that it is too good to be true. Worth checking our Carwow just for the review videos as Matt Watson who does them is very good fun and quite fair in his judgements. Didn't mean to sound like a commercial, but made whole process so much easier.
Never knowingly understood
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2nd hand car advice on 16:15 - Feb 7 with 4077 views
When i was doing airport transfer I had 3 Skodas on the trot . 2 Octavias and a Superb . All went to 280k with not many problems and I sold them easily on ebay at a decent price to mostly Eastern Europeans who exported them . Bullet proof for a standard mileage user. A Passat has a better chassis but the engine and gearboxes are the same . We bought Mrs Taxiboy a Fiesta at Big Motoring World , all good so far , bit of a hard sell for extras , just keep saying no and they get the message . I would recommend
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2nd hand car advice on 16:25 - Feb 7 with 4051 views
20 years ago decided I’d had enough of mechanics, thought I’d try seek out the holy grail of a car that doesn’t break down and this was it. Apart from MOT I’ve not let anyone of the three CRVs anywhere near an oily rag and not a single problem anywhere under the bonnet. Look out for good value models between 50-80k miles if you don’t want to break the bank, they run forever so the relatively high mileage is not an issue.
Worked out the depreciation on selling them years later accumulated to £4500 over 20 years, so approx cost me £200+ a year, less than the cost of the vehicle tax.
They’re so good even Sadiq Khan allows the 2005 model into his town.
Things to look out for when buying, give the electric windows a work out, check suspension.
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2nd hand car advice on 16:42 - Feb 7 with 4007 views
Bought my Ford Grand C-Max in 2020 from Gates in Harlow. Very good service I thought. Ford are making some very good cars at the moment. I've been really happy with it since.
I sold my previous car a Mazda 3 Sport privately to some Braillian girl who got in touch via Auto Trader. I was gutted to be selling it as I loved that car but with two kids now we needed something a little more roomy and not so high on road tax and fuel. She lived reasonably locally to me.
I see the car last Summer in a car park in Kingston, the rear end was caved in and it was in a right old state. I actually felt quite annoyed ...which is ridiculous.
[Post edited 7 Feb 2022 16:47]
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2nd hand car advice on 16:54 - Feb 7 with 3960 views
Not a great time to buy a second hand car, due to the shortage of new cars the second hand car market has gone mad, we’re looking at around a £2k price rise on a £15k car at the moment. Crazy. I bought a 3 year old BMW last year, the dealers called me last week asking to buy it off me for £2k more than the purchase price.
If you want to go and see the car, test drive and sit down and discuss your options then I’d go to a car supermarket like car giant, big motoring world etc but a lot of people are now using Cinch or Cazoo, all online and car gets delivered to your door.
Reviews can be off, some people get unlucky and leave a negative review, 95% of people will have a good experience and won’t leave a review, all cars have problems, most minor and can be rectified by the dealer or by the manufacturer as a recall/warranty job.
My advice is get something relatively new and with a good service history.
Have fun
[Post edited 7 Feb 2022 13:51]
Funnily enough BMW have been hounding me for over a week, I finally gave in today and picked up the phone. Similarly they've explained I now have a minimum of an additional 7K equity on the car. It's bonkers, getting to the point I may as well flog it back to them and get a new one.
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2nd hand car advice on 16:56 - Feb 7 with 3956 views
Not a great time to buy a second hand car, due to the shortage of new cars the second hand car market has gone mad, we’re looking at around a £2k price rise on a £15k car at the moment. Crazy. I bought a 3 year old BMW last year, the dealers called me last week asking to buy it off me for £2k more than the purchase price.
If you want to go and see the car, test drive and sit down and discuss your options then I’d go to a car supermarket like car giant, big motoring world etc but a lot of people are now using Cinch or Cazoo, all online and car gets delivered to your door.
Reviews can be off, some people get unlucky and leave a negative review, 95% of people will have a good experience and won’t leave a review, all cars have problems, most minor and can be rectified by the dealer or by the manufacturer as a recall/warranty job.
My advice is get something relatively new and with a good service history.
Have fun
[Post edited 7 Feb 2022 13:51]
We have a car on PCP, deal runs to April 23. We'll pay about another £2500 between now and then, and have an option to buy for £5000 at the end of the period.
People we bought from sent us an offer to buy the car back from us and put £600 in our hand.
I've looked their second hand cars on their website, and the same year, make and model with 1000 miles more on the clock available for £ 15,500. That's more than purchase price when new!!!!
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2nd hand car advice on 19:38 - Feb 7 with 3691 views
You'd think in this day & age cars would be bullet proof but the opposite seems to be the case. Not sure if it's built-in obsolescence or that cars are built so cheaply to maximise profits. Maybe both.
Personally I'd stick with anything Japanese (maybe Korean too) or German and get a good cat-converter shield because they're being stolen from cars made by those countries in big numbers.
Two BMWs targeted down my road a couple of weeks back. Blatant as you like and started waving baseball bats about when challenged.
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2nd hand car advice on 20:17 - Feb 7 with 3616 views
We have a car on PCP, deal runs to April 23. We'll pay about another £2500 between now and then, and have an option to buy for £5000 at the end of the period.
People we bought from sent us an offer to buy the car back from us and put £600 in our hand.
I've looked their second hand cars on their website, and the same year, make and model with 1000 miles more on the clock available for £ 15,500. That's more than purchase price when new!!!!
I know what you mean. We bought Mrs Camberley's latest car, a BMW 2 series Active Tourer just over two years ago before Covid hit. It was a 19 plate just over 8 months old at the time with about 6.5k miles on the clock.
I recently saw an identical spec 2 series on BMW's approved used site which was a few months older and had only a couple of thousand fewer miles than the car has done (21k currently) which was £4k more than we paid two years ago! Used prices are mental at the moment.