What's the quickest and cheapest way to get a new car?

[musicmum75]

I have had my car for over 20 years but today it went for its MOT and it's a write off! My dad gave me that car so I have never actually bought one so not really sure what to do next.

Obviously I now need a new one asap but have never gone through this before. What's the quickest but also cheapest way to get a new car? By new I mean new to me. Happy with second hand. I can't afford to buy out-right so would have to finance it.

Go to your local garage? Or look on the auto trader website, you can filter by price and distance. The adverts will tell you if the garage does finance.

Thanks. Yes will look at local garages. Just wondering if I am missing some other option.

I always buy mine from a local garage as there's more comeback if anything goes wrong than from a private seller.

Don’t get car finance, get a regular loan. The rates are much lower, and if you decide in a year you want to sell it then you can. Finance you are a bit more stuck. Years ago I bought a car for £4K on an interest free credit card. Sold it 18mo later and paid off the rest of the credit card. Saved myself a fortune.

Thanks both. Those are excellent points. I appreciate it.

Do you have any idea about the sort of car you want, and budget? Might be worth a chat with ChatGPT to narrow it down.

Then look for local garages. I tend to go for the ones that are a bit off the main 'big car sites' and not branded - just tend to be a bit cheaper. But I prefer to spend more money at a garage and have the security of being able to get follow-up support if I need it.

I got my recent one off a garage I watch on YouTube and not had any issues. You see the work thats gone into it and are normally very fair to those that have had issues. Always look at garages Trustpilots or Google reviews aswell.

DS bought his car from a main dealer, it wasn't their make, so was a little cheaper. They had accepted it as a part exchange. As a main dealership, it came with a 12 month warranty. Which is very useful

I agree with going local, looking on car websites - I can’t remember which one but I know one of them had a traffic system for showing whether the cars advertised were good value or over-priced. That made it easier to compare. And like a pp I got an interest free credit card to pay off a large part of the cost. Look on Money Saving Expert to find zero interest cards. Mine is that rate for 2 years. It did take about a week though for it to arrive.

Also, the end of the month is a good time to buy from a dealership as they are keen to meet their monthly targets so you can negotiate the price down a bit.

Thanks. Yes I am quite particular. I want a small, automatic car, ideally Japanese, ideally hybrid. I had a Yaris so would like to replace with an another Yaris or an Aygo. I hadn't thought of ChatGPT. Good idea. I suppose I do know what I am looking for really. I just need to find it locally.

I ended up in a similar situation to you last year. I got a 0% credit card through my bank with a 4 year deal. Found a car and took it the finance option on it, called the finance company the next day and paid it off in full with the card. So no interest to pay (actually I think I had like 1 day interest which was under £10) If I still have a balance at the end of the 0% offer I plan to transfer it to another 0% card until it's paid off. Slowly chipping away at it!

However I must stress that you double check that the finance company will accept this. Pretty sure my finance was through Close Brothers which took the full payment with no problem.

I found a lot of independent garages won't take credit card payments so this was the only workaround I could find.

Good luck, it's a minefield!

Thanks @Seeingadistance. Those are excellent tips.

I like Toyotas so the last couple of times I’ve needed a car I’ve just rung the local Toyota garages and asked what they’ve got. Explained my budget, what I want etc. and they usually have something that fits.

I bought a car for DS last year and we found that on Autotrader. It was a private sale so I was a bit nervous, but it’s been fine. I took it to my local garage for a full service as soon as we bought it, and they said it was in good condition.

Another advantage of buying from a large dealership is that if you find a car you like but in another location they’ll have it brought to them for you. You still get to test drive if and you decide against it, that’s ok.

I bought second hand from Arnold Clark near me last year and the car I wanted was on the other side of the country and was brought over. I told them what I was looking for and they searched their website for a match.

I've just bought a Yaris (have had them before). I had a price range and age range in mind, went on autotrader, set it to 50 mile radius and age/price filters, it picked up 100s of them, so I lowered the radius a bit, filtered on colour preferences, ruled out private sellers and got it down to about 15. I then ruled out online market ones where you buy unseen, started looking at the tech specs and 10 checks that they do and narrowed it down to 4. I put the names of all the dealers in ChatGPT to look for review/reputation, ruled out one as too small an engine (1L) and was prepared to look at the other three. As it happened I went to the first one and test drove it, gave it a good look over and it had a full Toyota service history so I went for that one. You can run your own checks for things like outstanding finance, previously written off etc on a website called Car Vertical. You can also check out MOT history on the DVLA website.

Thanks. We do have a local Toyata garage so I guess that will be my first port of call. But in terms of a loan, do I need that up front or find the car first? I guess I don't know how much I need to borrow till I find the car. Unless I use a credit card. Sorry for the stupid question but I have literally never done this!

I went with Auto trader but only used trade dealers rather than private sellers as you get legal protections with dealers. Agree with pp, get an old fashioned bank loan.

Good to know @Seeingadistance. I wondered about that. Excellent tips @EffortlesslyDedicated- thank you!

They generally won't take credit cards because the charges to them are so high.

Any option to pay cash for the car without a loan? If not then the high street banks will probably offer a loan with better interest than the car dealership

Have a look on your Toyota dealer’s website.

mine did the same last year. I liked the car, so went on the dealers website and filtered by that car make and model. Ordered by price, then scrolled down until a found a good compromise between budget, age and mileage. Went to the dealer the next day and bought it, they brought it up from wherever it was in the country and I had it two days later.

Oh but, this is important re credit cards, if you pay the deposit (mine was £250) on credit card you get the full protection of credit card use in case you need to make a claim. Reputable dealers should let you do this.

When negotiating, it can help if there’s a similar car at another, rival dealership. Bear in mind they will check to make sure you’re not just spinning them a line. Be uncertain about the price, um and aw a bit. Ask if you can get any extras - money off service plan etc. Don’t be afraid to hold a silence. There’s a bit of game-playing in negotiating a car purchase but ultimately they want to sell.

Also, as you’re looking to buy second hand you don’t need to go to a Toyota dealership. Other dealerships will have Toyotas they’ve taken as trade-ins.

Yes, you need to check that first. Arnold Clark do, but I asked early on to make sure.

I went with a main dealer and told them my budget. They sourced a car that was a bit older but still in good nick. I’ve mostly had Ford Focus’s but my mechanic recommended Hyundai or Honda’s. I like my Hyundai I20.