Much the same here in Australia. The fleets would auction off their cars at 2 years old and big Ford and GM cars went for half their new cost. Those days are gone. Fleets seem to hang on to their cars much longer, the auction houses have jacked up their fees and big cars are no longer around much. It was a very good deal while it lasted.

Interesting re auctions and underpins what I've just seen whilst helping a friend buy a car circa £3.5k and my goodness I saw some sorry looking "bangers". I think yesterdays £1k car is now £3k!. In summary looked at:-

2011 Peugeot 308, ignoring three tyres were flat, panel gaps were all wrong it had clearly had a bump in the past. Little sign of servicing and all brakes were cream crackered (not just surface rust on discs). Interior - ugh..

2015 Astra 1.6 sri - Better was an Astra. Interior was lovely , looked better looked after, engine sounded good, well until I lifted the bonnet, coolant reservoir was internally coated in oil.

2011 Octavia 1.6mpi , more flat tyres and battery totally flat, sounded ok when finally started however found rear damage on rear bumper and hatch was hard to open, terrible rust under spare wheel well (not holed yet, but bad). And after running for a while I spotted a petrol leak dripping onto the tarmac.

That's just a small subset but my goodness most at this price point where only one step away from the sc***yard.

We did actually find a nice 2011 Octavia Elegance with 114k miles on it. Front brake pads will doing in the next year or so but generally it was excellent order. Very complete service history with first few years at the dealers then at independents. Drove really well and everything worked inc the climate control and cruise. No Bluetooth though -it was an option then.

He has just picked it up.

Edited by Big John on 03/04/2024 at 09:30

Wouldn't that Auris be one of those affected by the supposedly easy theft of their CATs, and thus high insurance prices?

One of the problems I've been noticing when looking to replace an 'old' car like mine is that many 'back street' car dealers don't have any repair facilities and thus (given how many appear to regularly lie about the condition of their stock) you have no guarantee that the cars sold will be roadworthy and not require a large percentage of their sale value spent on repairs to problems known by the retailer but not told to punters.

This to me is a particularity problem for older cars like mine where some are being put up for sale at ridiculous prices. A good few local outlets have between 50-75% tales of woe in reviews of the outlet, several of which where significant faults were seemingly covered up by the retailer.

I'm wondering whether it may be better to just buy from conscientious private owners (often OAPs giving up driving or just getting a new car) and stump up for an RAC person or equivalent to do a check on the vehicle prior to sale?

As a long term viewer of Location, Location, Location, one theme of the program is people expecting a lot more for their budget than is possible in the market conditions at that time. Phil and Kirstie then have the role of managing expectations... sometimes this is taken onboard and other times the house hunters end up not buying anything.

I think the same applies to used cars now - for various reasons, they are a lot more expensive than a few years ago and it's not helpful being in denial about this, as I don't think the situation is likely to change in the near future.