How do you choose a car?

[sunshine244]

I am totally overwhelmed with needing to buy a new (secondhand) car. I have never been interested in cars and have had an old corsa for many years. It is now dying a death, and with two kids and a dog I need something a bit bigger. Colour, style, gadgets etc aren't of interest to me. Reliability is far more important.

I have done some initial goggling, and all that tells me is that I know even less than I thought I did 😂

How on earth do people buy cars? I can't have electric car as park away from the house. I dont want anything huge or fancy. But that really doesn't narrow it down much. If I go to a car dealer they'll totally take advantage of me, and friends and family have much more expensive cars than I can afford. Help!

After recently purchasing a 2008 plate golf from an employee at my husband’s workplace I’ve ended up spending nearly £400 on it to get it fixed 🤦‍♀️

The woman who sold it is 72, careful driver, low mileage, and her daughter owned it before her. The problem was sorted by the 3rd mechanic, the other 2 stated it was repaired but it wasn’t, wankers!

It transpires that the engine was filthy and clogged up in the Turbos veins, causing the sensor to put it into limp mode. Apparently diesels are no good if you just tootle around at low speeds, which the old dear had done, she did less than 3 thousand miles a year, so many components were covered in dirty soot like carbon.

I myself won’t be doing much mileage either, the mechanic has recommended taking it for a good blow out once a week. Fortunately my hubby travels on a dual carriageway every day so he can do this for me.

After this experience I would say that if it’s just for popping the kids to clubs and activities and doing the shopping go for a petrol. The car is a Golf, we’ve had another Golf for 25 years, a petrol, our daughter has this car now. I love Golfs, brilliant cars and the parts aren’t too expensive, plenty big enough for a couple of kids and a dog. I’d have another Golf no problem, love them. The old Golf has been so reliable, it’s never broken down on us.

The other Golf should be good now, had it MOT’d in July, serviced in August, and latest repairs. Have virtually spent the same amount as we bought it for 🥴. At least we know it’s been properly maintained now 😝

look at Nissan Qashqui or Juke.

you can have an electric car if you charge it at tesco you don’t have to have a charging point at home

Our Honda Jazz is 18 years old now. We'll have to get a new car eventually but it keeps running and running. I've been thinking about what to buy next. Apparently the newer ones aren't quite as good. We're in a similar situation without a drive to charge on, but a hybrid could work for us. So we'd probably go for whatever the most reliable hybrid is.

I know nothing about cats but I like a car with a big boot. I transport about 2 teen boys with huge cricket bags and they like a bit of leg space in the back.

I've just ordered a Peugeot 3008 for boot space and back seat leg room.

For me, road tax and mpg and then I wanted a heated windscreen and heated seats so I soon narrowed it down as not many cars have a heated front windscreen and £20 tax

We are a VW family - can’t beat reliability - quality of build - price of spares etc
I have a Passat, DD and DP have Passat estate, DS and DB and DM Golf, DDs DH has an ID4 nuff said

@Tollington I have heated seats windscreen etc but think tax is £30

Second this. They are great cars

Don't think of it as haggling. You're making an offer. So don't take on board the quoted price, but offer what you think is reasonable. Usually they either accept or come back with a counter offer. You can then accept or counter. If they just laugh and give you a flat no, you know you're paying the price they're asking or going elsewhere.

Look at what is available in your budget, a good way is to look at Autotrader online, set your budget in the search & look at what it brings up, then look at every car, read what you would get for your money, then you have an idea if you can buy now or save for a bit longer to get something better. If you have makes or models you already like, add that to the search. If you can afford something nearly new, look at main dealers, they often have ex motability cars at 3 or 5 years old which have been well maintained with low mileage, mine went back at 5 years old with less than 1500 miles on the clock.

Ex dealer here. Are you buying new or used? That’ll make a difference to how much you can ask off. Are you part exchanging your car? If so, check with one of the online car buyers the price they would offer you so you know your ball park for that before you begin. (Remember you don’t have to sell your car to them if you think you can get more for it elsewhere) then you need to consider your cost to change (the new car cost minus your p/ex value) and then work backwards from there.

For new cars, The car industry is based on a very low return on sales model so the price tag doesn’t necessarily mean that the dealer is making ‘loads’ from it - unlike say buying an expensive watch where the retailer there is making a very healthy profit. Dealers make as much money via the back end of the deal from the supplying manufacturer for things which the customer may not notice - the correct showroom standards etc but they also need customers to give great scores on customer service so they should be keen to display those skills. Often dealers are given incentives from the manufacturer to allow deal enhancements - such as deposit contributions, 0% or low finance rates etc so ask about those. Buying at the end of a month will be more likely to yield a better deal as dealers chase targets , even more so at the end of a quarter so be aware of that. You might also really fancy a black car, but can get a better deal on a blue one because that’s all they have in stock, so be open to buying a variation on the car you want (within reason). The amount you can negotiate off will vary enormously from manufacturer to manufacturer and from car to car. It only really matters in the end if you are happy with the deal / they’ll always be the bloke down the pub who’ll tell you his mate got ‘thousands off’ whatever you just bought but this is highly unlikely. It’ll be in the 00’s.

Consider a pre-registered car if saving money is a priority/ these are new cars which the dealer has to legally own for 90 days before selling to you. They are brand new with delivery mileage but you will be the second owner. There will be less incentives on these as they are used cars.

For used cars, you might find you can negotiate up to £500 or so off regardless of the screen price. Mostly cars are priced to sell and the dealer will be monitoring competitors to stay keenly priced so don’t be disillusioned if they won’t budge, negotiate elsewhere in the deal - more for your p/ex/ better finance rate etc. With used cars you can negotiate the condition of the car you want to accept - not happy with the tyre depth? Then ask them to put new tyres on it. Want a longer MOT? Then ask for a fresh one. Ask lots of questions about the car’s history. If the car is older than 3 years old then you can check the MOT history online via the .gov site and ask about anything reported at the time to ensure that work was done. You can also check that the mileage corresponds with the mileage the car is showing currently.

If you don’t like the dealer, use the experience to get a test drive and then buy online elsewhere… you are not obliged to deal with them because they gave you a ten minute spin around the block. Customers captive in the showroom are customers the dealer should be keen to serve. If they aren’t, then exercise your right to vote with your feet and give your custom to a business more deserving. Good luck for later today!

Thank you! It's a used car but under 3 years so no MOT as yet. We're buying cash and considering part ex. I'll try and get a quote for selling our car elsewhere, although might be too late for that. I'll try and aim for that £500 off and see how we get on 🤞

It has to be quirky for me, and most cars these days have the appeal of a pair of elasticated waist, navy blue polyester trousers. I’ve had several classic minis, a Citroen 2CV, a slight deviation when DS was a baby with a Hyundai i10, more classic minis and now an ancient Smart ForTwo convertible.

I’ve no idea what I’ll do when my current car has to go to the scrapyard in the sky because I’ve not seen anything I really like for ages.

I think you need to work out what your budget is and what you want.

Eg. Diesel, petrol or electric?
Hatchback, SUV or estate
What gadgets are a minimum. For me i do lots of miles and like cruise control, so that would be an essential.
Look at servicing costs and what you can afford. BMWs, VWs etc have higher part and servicing costs.
What type of engine you need. I have 1.5 tdci. Low roadtax, extremely fuel efficient, should go on for a long time as its a diesel.
I used to own VWs but have had a Ford Focus for 10 years. It's done 190,000 miles and failed its most recent MoT on a broken headlight clip. An easy and cheap fix. On she goes. I'm aiming for the 200k mark

Good luck! You just need to enter your details into webuyanycar etc to see what they would offer you so you have that information. You don’t need to show them or prove it. And you can always take your car out of the equation at any point should someone offer you more. I always like to push every angle of the deal. I once offered £1500 less (deliberately) for a car on behalf of a friend who was trying to buy it only for the salesman (who tbf did know what I did) to say ‘but we’ve only got £600 in this car’ to which I said ‘excellent, we’ll have that then’ if you chat loads to the salesperson, kill them with kindness and get to know them they’ll be more disposed to getting you a better deal from their manager. They also might let slip information useful to you. It doesn’t have to be combative 😉

Unfortunately individuals saying "I've had an xyz, they're really reliable, you should get one" doesn't really help. If you go to the WhatCar web site they have lists of the most reliable manufacturers. It's always the Japanese brands. Whatever people think VW, Skoda, Seat are no better than average reliability. Of course individual experience can vary. We had a Passat for years that never actually let us down on the road, but it certainly needed warranty work, whereas our Hyundai has never seen a workshop. Someone else may have the opposite experience.

My DH is a mechanic and other family are in the industry - I went for a Madza 2. Google reliable engines, use CHATGPT to narrow down which year to buy.

Skoda are also pretty good.

Not successful unfortunately, the salesman was oddly rude and combative. The asking price was £16k, there were a couple of small issues so I asked if they'd take £15k today (as a starting point, thinking we could meet somewhere in the middle), he just point blank said no, we don't negotiate. I then asked if there was any play in the part ex value (and said we may sell it privately if not) but again he said no then more or less accused me of lying about quotes we'd had elsewhere for the car. I then asked if they would fix the issues prior to sale and he said no as they don't affect performance?? So we walked away. At least we know what car we want now but will buy elsewhere.

I am going to go electric and thinking Hyundai KONA because it has a £300 mile range which means I only need to charge it once every 10 days or so (depending on weekend plans).

If I wasn’t I’d be looking for a Mazda, Toyota, non-electric Hyundai or a Skoda, possibly a Seat but they being discontinued and I’d worry about getting parts, but then maybe I don’t need to as the parts are mostly the same as Skoda, VW and BMW.

Good for you! Try ringing his manager on Monday. You might find they are oddly receptive. Unless you get a better deal elsewhere of course!

If it’s reliability you want I would go for a VW or Toyota.
Might cost a bit more & might have to go for an older model .
Set your budget then mileage you are prepared to accept .
Automatic or manual ?
Insurance group ?
Boot size ?
Extras like parking sensors cruise control reversing cameras are very nice but to be honest you don’t need them .
Air con is a non negotiable for me but my mother never uses it on her car .
You can look up MOT history on line now & you can also do a check to see if any outstanding finance on the vehicle .
Are your children likely to drive it or learn to drive it ?
Again think about insurance for them .
After driving company cars for years I had to buy my first car .
Had a super VW polo SE for five years smashing wee car . Moved up to a Mini Cooper nice but expensive to run & insurance for teens was a lot
Audi A1 was nice mileage is now getting high so I am thinking about another VW or considering a Toyota as so many friends recommend them.
My partner has a BMW lovely car to drive and loaded with gadgets but super expensive for servicing however great mileage to the gallon .
All cars have positives and negatives it’s about compromising .
Good luck !

I did think about leaving a bad review on Google but decided that might be a bit petty 🤭 there are a couple of very similar ones I think we'll look at but might revisit if it remains unsold (via the manager, with a lower offer)

You could ask the mechanic who looks after your current car for a recommendation.