Finding a car for between £2K and £4K

[covilha]

Slightly on the back of another car buying thread...
I have always been able to buy very good second hand cars for less than £2K. : VW Polo for £450, Toyota Corolla for £1500, Newer Polo for £1950. My last purchase was 10 years ago and it survived for six years. I am am again looking for a second hand car and there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING for less than £2K and I can't find anything that does not look like a rust bucket of trouble for between £2K and £4K. Am I being unreasonable to expect a small, safe second hand care in this price range please? Thanks.

My mum only ever pays around £1000 for a car, is willing to go to £1500 for something in really great condition/low milage but generally lower. She found her most recent one on Facebook with a local business, they even took her old 2 seater small white van (dog walker looking to convert to car) off her hands at scrap value. It's a great car that's she's had for 2 years now, £1000 and the only issue so far has been the alternator belt which was pretty cheap to replace. She uses it for business and personal life so it sees a lot of activity (but local so low milage) and it still working really well and we don't expect any major work in the next couple of years. There was also a full service log showing it was serviced pretty much every single year by the one previous owner so she got a bargain. We also get any second hand car we're looking to buy looked over by a trusted mechanic (family friend) to make sure there's nothing that has been missed.

I'd definitely recommend looking at Facebook and similar sites to see what's available locally and maybe even keep an eye out when driving around to see any sale signs in parked cars but definitely get them checked over by a mechanic as you might not have the same rights as from a business.

Also - I forgot to add. If you see a used car, type the number plate into www.gov.uk/check-mot-history. This isn't failsafe, but can be a useful indicator. For example, you see a car advertised but there's a long list of advisories each MOT. This suggests that the previous owner didn't care about preventative maintenance and spent the minimum required to get the MOT. Servicing? What's that? They're not likely to have looked after the car.

Conversely, a car with only one or two advisories is likely to have been owned by someone who got things fixed before they became an issue, so is likely to be in better condition.

The nature of the advisory can be helpful too. slight play in CV joint for example - no normal person will spot that during day to day mororing so having that as an advisory is OK (especially if it disappears next time as it means they got it replaced), however having several advisories that stay from one year to the next, or having MOT fails for multiple failed bulbs / bald tyres etc is something else and a competent driver should be on top of normal stuff like that.

We bought our 54 plate Fiesta with 60k on the clock for £1650, it was an unwanted part exchange at a local garage and they just wanted it gone... worth asking around!

I suspect the cost of second hand has gone up thanks to We Buy Any Car and the like, no one wants the hassle of shifting the car themselves for the sake of £200 on a £1k car, and it’s a pain in the arse for garages to take on selling running but old cars themselves, so people just WBAC it and they either get sold for scrap or pimped up so they’re out of the £1-2k bracket.

Hi Everyone ~ many thanks for the replies and sorry I have not responded earlier. For some reason the responses did not show up on my account last night and today I have been busy at work, and car shopping in the evening!
Apologies for not being more specific, due to caring and work responsibilities I need something close to home, which is in the north-east of England. Previously, I would’ve been able to travel for a car, though I have always been able to find everything I needed within a 5 mile radius. But like many of you, I am noticing the chill wind of change in the used car market

I think, as others have indicated, that Facebook and eBay in many ways account for the changes. Years ago, I did a business course which was mainly attended by gentlemen in the secondhand car industry. They all said, that the cars that they did not wish to sell through their forecourt, they sold via eBay or Facebook and the connotation they seemed to attach to this put me off. But it is certainly food for thought and something which I will consider. Thank you.

@northernsoullover - thank you for this advice. I had not considered PLP but you have certainly provided a compelling argument in its favour and it is certainly something I will look into.
@Hallowgast- This is really great advice and I think it is something which I will definitely apply if I do decide to go down the cheaper secondhand market.
The collective wisdom of mums net is really making me reconsider my options. Previously I have on occasion gone super cheap as the car usually run for at least a year or two and I didn’t mind getting rid of it When the inevitable bills arrived.,.
Once again, thank you all for your contributions. It has been really helpful to have the hive mind and also to find I am not alone in this quandary. May we all find the vehicles that will let us live out our dreams.

@backforgood sorry your son is having this difficulty. Do you think the scrap for cash which encouraged people to trade in older cars for scrap in return for discounted new cars has something to do with it? I remember thinking at the time that an awful lot of my type of cars would be going to waste.