What tips and advice would you give to someone about to buy their first car? What’s should I look for, what should I avoid?
What’s a good mileage to consider if it’s your first car? I’m thinking a price range between £500-1000. As a man I’m a bit embarrassed to admit my knowledge of cars isn’t as vehicle savvy as we’re expected to be and I could use all the help. Thanks bros!
11 comments
Assuming you’re buying used, require the seller to take it to a mechanic of your choosing and at your expense to have it assessed. Better to pay for that and know what you’re getting into than buy the car and it require several thousand in work soon after buying it.
[deleted]
Good luck with that budget. Used car prices are mad at the moment anything under £1500 is ready for the scrapheap.
You’re going to be lucky to find a car that runs at that price. But, I wish you the best of luck.
The sad thing is that while you can make all of the checks and stuff that everyone else here will tell you to (and you should) it’s all a bit of crapshoot.
If you get a car at the wrong time, it can be an unreliable money-sink.
What do I mean by wrong time? Well an example is my MIL. She bought a 2nd hand car from a mechanic recommendation. A mechanic that she and her partner were vey good friends with. So no shenanigans.
That car had been fantastic before she bought it.
That same car spent as much time in the garage as it did on her driveway. Cost loads. She eventually got rid of it. A couple of years later she asks her mechanic friend about it (as he resold it for her) and it’s been fantastic ever since.
​
Check out this video, great advice. https://youtu.be/x8hkrk9lxWw
Toyota/Honda that’s all
Try [https://www.parkers.co.uk/cars-for-sale/used/](https://www.parkers.co.uk/cars-for-sale/used/) lots of information and a section with owners reviews
Ask gpg bot… It’s all knowing
You might get lucky on Facebook marketplace for a £1000 car.
A free way of checking if a car has been in an accident is to create a listing on AutoTrader. Once you input the reg, it’ll check if it’s categorised or not.
A Toyota Yaris/Peugeot 107/Citroen C1 might fall into the £1000 range. They’re all the same car.
Don’t be too cheap with it, unless you plan to change it again in a few months. You want a car which is not going to cause you issues. If you get the wrong car is easy that in a year you get double that amount of expenses just to keep it running because things keep breaking