Buying A Second Hand Car

[lilelvis2000]

Just got a 1972 Morris Minor 1800 with the automatic transmission. Wife now wants a BMW Z3..well she now wants the Z4. She's now seen a Z3 going for £4,600 minus our ("*&(^ Passat she can get it for £3,500...assuming she can afford the insurance. I'm not sure how I can split the non-claims bonus over two cars....the 05 Primera with less than 15K on the clock and the Z3.

Anyway..she looked at the service booklet and compared the milage to the book to confirm the odometer readings haven't been buggered. She took a friend who is a mechanic with her to have a look over and test drive it.

So that's my advice...even if it is late.

BTW anybody interested in a Passat?..not even for £800?

[Bagpuss]

So as a 25k car it doesn't rate well, but as 4.5k it sounds like a good buy.
It's pointless reading a rating based on the new price. You have to weigh it up against what else is available used for the money.

[kobie]

Nip down to the car auctions - buy quality newish cars <7K. Someone above listed a whole load of good tests, some of which you can do some of which you can't. Go for a few weeks identify the true dealers and bid on the cars that they go after. I tend to go for toyota's...safe & reliable.

Lots of cars coming up for main dealers who need the cash, plus ex-company cars etc... If you have a car then just sell that at the auctions as well - beware that there is a price called a CAP price, which is a Cash Auction Price. You could argue that its the true cost of the car not the inflated trade-in's offered by a dealer against his inflated his car....

Cheers
Kobie