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I need your help please! - Gotta find a cheap, reliable runabout up to £1000 - Surrey or South London area. Appreciate any advice please. Should I go private, or trade? Thanks. Gayle.
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Going private is a minefield, best to go reputable trade, but on this budget it won't be easy.
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Gayle,
Epsom I presume?
Stu
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I think trade at this sort of price will be as, if not more, dodgy/dishonest as private. I've bought a cheap car from trade and when there was a fault within the "warranty" period, I was just messed about for so long that I had to pay for the repair just to get the car on the road again.
I would buy a small Japanese car, eg Nissan Micra, from a nice person, ie eye the person up, talk to them, see where they live etc and take a friend who knows something about it with you.
Don't pay the AA or RAC for their inspections as they cost far too much. If you want it inspected, get an MOT done while you wait.
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Private better than trade, I'm not so sure?
What if 'nice person' has stolen / clocked it....... you have very little redress.
At least you have some legal protection with a dealer, very little private.
Having a MOT done is a great idea.
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Go private, find yourself a 12 yr old Golf / Polo (Jetta even better value) with apparent 80k on clock, get an Mot done whilst on Test run and chat up tester about whether he would buy it! If you cannot get new MOT done try and find Mot that has been done by a local garage to the owner where repairs servicing have been done. Or if you think it is good and owner amenable , buy it subject to a new MoT at a garage of YOUR choosing. Be prepared to pay him for the Mot if you then choose not to buy it, but if you are doing this dont expect to beat him down on price
Choose family owned with some history to prove story from an 'established family address' in area that you know well ,without a string of other cars parked around it. Any doubts on provenance walk away, there are plenty out there.
With the money you save on purchase you afford to pay out something on repairs.
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Sorry Moosh, Richard and Peter are spot on with this one.
Some may have seen we needed a "£1000" car for SWMBO last weekend. Because we were in urgent need I had to look at anything, trade and private. Looking up to £1300 at the dealers there was only one thing their cars had that cars in the breakers didn't...an MOT ticket. And I wouldn't like to think how some of them got the tickets.
Frankly all the £1000 traders gear was the same stuff as the private cars at £400 or less, but mostly in worse condition.
Warranty, what warranty? Three months very basic insurance based if you were lucky but most wetre saying anything under £1500 was a trade sale as seen and made you sign to that effect.
The overall value was confirmed when I popped our '89 Polo to a dealer friend who commented he would lump over £400 profit onto the few hundred we paid and expect to sell it within hours on a Saturday morning without touching it.
No dealers are for far more expensive cars where you might need and expect some real warranty/trade-in/finance/machine coffee....oh yes and the wait while "I just see my sales manager and see if she will do a slightly better deal for you".
David
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I agree dealers are more expensive but what about the crooked private car seller if she has no competant adviser with her.
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Moosh,
It is dodgy buying a one grand car anywhere but all the dealers are there to make money. You do that by minimising outlay (repairs), maximising uplift and reducing liabilities (shifty response to warranty claims).
There is a good chance the private buyer is just trying to shift a cared for car at about the trade price to get themselves a better deal with the newer car.
And most importantly it gives you a chance to see the owner and his property, that *can* speak volumes.
David
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if you are buying off a private seller, get a photo of the seller standing next to the car, if he/she starts to look worried or gives alot of excuses, then wonder why, or just walk away from the car.
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I hate this, but I have to say that for once Chris has a good suggestion (about the owner photograph). Exactly that approach once saved me what was, at the time, considerable dosh for an old Dominator.
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I hate it that you said that too.
I'm the most straight guy going but if anyone produced a camera on our property when looking at a car they'd be off the yard in seconds with the dog clamped to their backside (he would let go at the highway boundary, I think that's fair).
David
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Sorry David, I didn't realise you were Amish...
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Mark (B) wrote:
>"Exactly that approach once saved me what was, at the time, considerable dosh for an old Dominator."
So Mark what happened, you told him you were interested, but walked when he wouldn't let you take his mug shot?
Stu.
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Actually, no. He didn`t have a problem with the photograph of him and the Dominator, I told him I had to show it to my Dad to get the money, he just turned the other bikes around behind it so that their reg. numbers couldn`t be seen.
That sunk even into my sad brain.
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I had the sub £1000 car buying problem very recently, trying to get some reliable wheels for my GF. We looked at half a dozen old polos/golfs/peugeots and I must agree with a great deal of what is said here, especially DW's comment that the difference between a scrapyard and a 1k dealer vehicle is an MOT certificate.
You have to be quick with the private ads to get the good ones, but they do exist.
Rob F
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OK, I have have found a few cars at less than 1k and now need some input!!
1) Audi Metro 1.3L hatchback, 1989, 18,000 miles, MOT, taxed. Needs rear bumper. Was £600 but now the gear box has gone it is reduced to £400. Is it worth buying a car (however cheap) that needs work doing to it immediately.
Other cars I have seen and would really apprecaiate any advice are:
2) Citroen AX 1.1, 41,000 miles £595
3) Ford Sierra LX, 1990, MOT. £575
Rover Metro 1.1, 1993, reconditioned engine (worries me a little), new radiator. Tax and MOT. 82,000 miles. £549.
Any help anyone??!!
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1989 Metro its scrap...to replace the gearbox would be uneconomic...don't touch
1990 Sierra worth a try if its genuine and not a rusty duffer.
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G.
These are a little cheap, is there nothing just over your £1000 budget on which you can make an offer.
These figures are looking like cars which should be humanely put down.
Your budget suggests that you could look at cars twice this price.
Await more input from the knowledgeable crowd.
Stu.
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