Explore Posterous

autotrader ad

this is kind of hilarious. 

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (0) »

Buying a used car

A friend of mine got in touch with me recently via Facebook. Knowing I was 'into cars' he asked for some advise on buying a second-hand Golf. He wanted to spend £2,000 and needed something economical to cruise the motorways with. Although I'm not professing to be a leading expert on car-buying, I would like to think there is some method in my madness, even if my own preferred method of used car-buying is more horticultural than mechanical!

Here's the reply I sent him...

Would gladly help in your search for a new motor - I love this sort of thing, but I'm afraid, I'm no mechanic - just a petrolhead with a rudimentary knowledge of the oily bits.

Having said that, I did buy my last car privately from a bloke in Bournemouth, but my criteria were very simple (and not at all mechanical). For example, the bloke I bought from had owned the car since new (so had all the paperwork - v. important) and lived in quite a salubrious area (so not some punk living on a crime-infested estate). He also had the neatest garden I've ever seen and obviously spent a great deal of time tending to his lawn. If he was prepared to spend this amount of time/money on the grounds, then I figured the car was well looked after. And luckily, it was - I bought it there and then and without an inspection.

Having said that, it was quite a specialist little thing and I doubt a AA (or RAC) vehicle inspection would have been any help. If you're buying a TDi Golf, then things are a little bit more straightforward so a vehicle inspection might be worth considering. However, given you're 'only' dropping £2k on the thing, an inspection is quite a hit to consider (and rather like a survey on a house, tends to read like the car is a wreck).

My advise would be to forget looking in inner-London; get yerself out into leafy Surrey or the suburbs and find someone who has a low mileage, low owner example (and who isn't a trader - or someone pretending to be a private seller). Look for ads on Autotrader which show the car on a driveway (not a cramped street) and you might get lucky and find an old housewife who's husband buys her a new Golf every 2 years. Then go see (and drive) as many as possible).

Of course, this all assumes you're looking to buy a car privately and not from a dealer. TBH, I doubt you're £2k would go far when looking at secondhand motors on forecourts.

You should also swot up on the Golf range; find out exactly which models are in your price range and read as much as you can about that particular model. A good source of information is the Parkers website. Better than the Top Gear site in some respects, though its worth reading reviews on this site too (along with C4's motoring pages). Basically, read all you can about the car you're looking to buy.

Then go armed to view as many as possible. Take a friend too - even if they don't have a clue about cars, its always good to have a second opinion on something. If you know someone who is a mechanic, then take them with you - it would be invaluable to have someone poke around the oily bits, but even without specialist knowledge, its easy to spot signs of abuse on a car.

Following a quick search on AT, I found lots of MkIII Golfs for less than £2k, but if possible, I'd try and pick up a high-miler MkIV - newer the better basically and get a sensible colour too if you can - this looks good IMO.

Ticks all the boxes but maybe not price unfortunately. If you had a bit more cash to splash, then £3,000 would get you something very tidy (but then, there's insurance and road tax to consider too I guess).

Sound advise I reckon – what do you think?

Loading mentions Retweet

Comment (1) »