How do I buy a used car?

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If I go to a used car garage do I just pay cash? Do I need to bargain?

They will usually let you buy with card or whatever or do finance options depending on garage/price of car.
I have always haggled on price of mine so i would definitely give it a go.

So if a car is say £4000 try to get £500 off? Is that a normal kind of discount?

I only got £300 off a more expensive car! Bargaining power depends on demand

You might be able to haggle on extras as well/instead - we had to settle on a smaller boot size than we wanted but got a discount on branded roof bars.

If you can I'd put it on credit card. That way if anything goes wrong with it you're covered under the credit act and it's far easier to get your money back.

I don’t think you can get discounts like you think you can, husband bought a car for about £13k and barely got anything off and he’s supposed to be good at negotiating!!

I think it depends on the garage.. some won't budge

Bought a car last week 10k, got £250 knocked off. Depends how long they've had it, but definatly ask.

Is it from a garage or from a person selling you a car from home?

I've sold my cars on auto trader and I've always asked for cash.
When I bought my second a hand car from a garage I used bank transfer.
It totally depends on the car if they give you discount, if it's a one they've had in for a while they might give you some but if it's a new car, good condition etc they probably won't x

To echo PPs, I've found it depends on the garage whether there's any negotiation possible on the price but it's worth asking!

However if there are any minor cosmetic issues with the car you may be able to get these touched up as part of the price - I have done so before. They hadn't been able to sell my current car for some reason so they'd put new tires on it! (The car is fine..!) If you're not fussed about make/model that approach may work for you. And I've had 6 months tax thrown in with a deal before. But!! Take someone who knows about cars with you! And look for a warranty (3 months is what I've usually found).

Credit card is fairly standard I'd say, or paying in installments.

Is it from a garage or from a person selling you a car from home?

It will be from a second hand garage, one that only sells cars, they don't do repairs etc.

This is all great advice, thank you.

Anything else I should know?

I have just bought a second hand car; the market is apparently doing very well and getting them to budge on price wasn't really happening - but I have got some cosmetic work worth a few hundred plus a full tank of fuel thrown in.

It's worth very politely negotiating to see exactly what they will do - there is always something.