Any experts out there on cheap cars?

[SalfordQuays]

DS age 19 needs a car. He’s a student but the holidays are long, we live quite rurally, and he needs a car for seeing friends and getting to his holiday job.

DS has a budget of around £3k for the car itself (he has extra money for the insurance etc). I’ve always bought used cars from dealerships for around £10k, so I’m totally out of my comfort zone with the £3k market. No one in the family knows anything about cars.

Is there anyone here who has some helpful hints they can share?

We were going to look at Autotrader, and avoid private sales because I imagine they’d be harder to deal with if something went wrong. But beyond that, I have no idea of the potential pitfalls to look out for, the signs to be wary of, the things to avoid etc.

Kia Venga or identical Hyundai ix20 are very underated cars, my daughter had the Kia and served her really well for years even after she became a mum.

We bought my DD1 a Hyundai i10 two months ago.. 10plate with 61k on the clock. Cost 3k (trader..could probably get cheaper privately) and it's a fab little car... Basic so not hard to get parts, has Bluetooth and Aircon .
I've had a Toyota Aygo in the past and that was great too.

When you find a car you like the look of, look up its most recent MOT on the gov website.

Yes can give an indication but of course you've no idea if the advisories were ever done or even valid.

My car recently had 4 advisories, all but one BS - a corroded brake pipe - the "corrosion" is a plastic coating to protect the pipe from stones!! 2 tyres perished, not according to the tyre depot i took the car too.

It was a new garage i used, but never again.

A friends car recently failed an MOT, emissions and a partially seized brake, they took it to another garage, no mention of either, passed with flying colours!!

MOTs can often be used by a garage to make money, which is exactly what a garaged did to my DD.