Or as my dad used to say ,secondhand car son load of greif !

By far the best stock we ever got in came in the form of customers 2-5yr old part exchanges against new or nearly cars. These were people who had the funds to maintain their cars properly and were upgrading because they fancied a change and not because their motor was knackered. Best of the lot were cars traded in for another of the same brand, means they were happy with the car and wanted another. Funnily enough though it was often the kind of owner/keeper you'd expect to maintain a car well that does the opposite. As a Mitsubishi franchise we did a lot of business with local farmers and the bulk of cars they traded in were mechanically well maintained but bodily very poor thanks to baked on mud that was never washed off and I'm not just talking about 4wd's and pickups here, they usually ran a second family car. Motability cars also are sold to punters as if it's a good thing but you'd be horrified if you seen the state most of them are returned in. Yes they'll have been serviced correctly but they're all too often abused by keepers and their families, seen as a freebie car they don't care about.

Agree 100%

My brief time working with hyundai and som3e of their dealers, the best trade in vehicles where exaclty as described 2.5 years to 5 year old ex-customer part ex cars.

Have heard many a horror story with motability cars that despite having full service history where in seriously poor condition or had parts missing or replaced shortly before it was sent back to the motability fleet group.

In the family we have had pre-reg cars and 6 month old ex hire cars. Not had an issue with any to be honest but have to say pre-reg were the best buys. Got a Mondeo back in 2002, 6 days old when we bought it, 11 miles on the clock, registered to a lease company but never left the supplying dealer. Saved £4000 off list, which was £17000 at the time, about 25% discount. Most delaers were selling 6 month old ones for more.

Getting a good 2 or 3 year old one owner car is another good way of saving money but there is always a risk the car is a lemon and they are desperate to get out of it. Plus there is no way of knowing how the previous owner drove, not all drivers have a degree of mechanical sympathy (not talking about wrapping it in cotton wool - nothing wrong with driving enthusiastically) and a lot of damage can be done in a very short period.

Buyer beware as always. And never believe a salesman.

It depends on your mileage. If more than 15,000 p.a. I suggest nearly new with a known reliable powertrain with less than 10,000m. We once got an ex-rental plush Passat which gave another 200,000+ miles

If only around 5000m p.a., the best buys are around 4yrs old with up to 80,000m, especially larger good quality models as these might have been treated better. They are usually cheap because the accountants write them down by 25% a year and don't care what they get for them. My 77,000m 4yr old A6 gave another 55,000m and was still going strong when sold at 15yrs old.