[Rant] Buying used cars [/Rant]

[Cycleops]

.....but for £15k ?

 

[Gunk]

No idea what it’s worth, I’ve out of the classic car scene for a while, every time I pick up a Classic Car mag I’m astonished by the prices!

 

[wafter]

To bring all these points about low miles and lady owners together here’s another ad I noticed this old merc from 1971 obviously put up by a trader for £15k. Who on earth would want to buy it at fifteen hundred quid let alone at the asking price? Okay it’s only 11k mikes. And it’s LHD & a V8.
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https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans...p_ios&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ios_social

.....but for £15k ?

Looks really nice that - LHD kills it a bit IMO but otherwise old, original German classic with super-low mileage and a V8? Many classic boxes ticked!

No idea what it’s worth, I’ve out of the classic car scene for a while, every time I pick up a Classic Car mag I’m astonished by the prices!

Totally agree.. as someone who once considered themselves a grass-roots classic owner I find it immensely depressing. This is especially so because really all this price growth is down to the rich sniffing out any possible "investment vehicle" to park their cash in; shutting out genuine enthusiasts and furthering asset price inflation as our economy continues to burn.

Granted most (especially desirable) cars have always shown u-shaped depreciation / appreciation curves, but some of the prices being asked for stuff now are utterly, utterly ridiculous.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Biggest joke I ever had with used car viewing was at an east End portacabin on a bombsite "Dealership". The bloke was trying to sell me a Triumph 2000 "That only needed a starter motor". He tried to persuade me to test drive it after his mechanic had given us a push start. They got aggressive when I laughed and declined and only the presence of the large mate I had with me prevented things turning nasty.

 

[MarkF]

No idea what it’s worth, I’ve out of the classic car scene for a while, every time I pick up a Classic Car mag I’m astonished by the prices!

The pool of cars is getting smaller whilst the pool of potential buyers is growing. Soon solid cars from the mid 1980's will be 40 years old thus MOT MOT exempt, there'll be another rise soon......

That Merc is drop dead gorgeous and looks worth £15k or the asking price to me. You could have this plastic covered blob of nothingness for £15k, that strikes me as wildly overpriced.

 

[Cycleops]

Fuel consumption might be a little different though @MarkF

 

[tyred]

The Merc won't depreciate like Korean blob though.

 

[tyred]

Must admit I hate buying or selling cars. Cars advertised are rarely as described, especially at the end of the market I'd likely be shopping at. I suspect in some cases, owners with little or no interest or knowledge of cars possibly genuinely don't see some of the faults but others definitely try to lie and cheat.

Selling a car can be a torture too as there are so many timewasters out there who will mess you about.

Thankfully I haven't had the need to buy or sell a car in a very long time and now that I was looking for one I ended up being given a slightly tatty Skoda Fabia as the owner was quoted stupid prices to repair a list of relatively minor defects and efforts to sell it didn't happen. I don't think I will ever fall in love with it as I find extremely bland but with some TLC and actually very little money spent buying parts, just a lot of my time, it is a decent enough car which should have a good few years left in it and it should be economical.

It shatters the illusion of low miles and one careful lady owner though - it's showing a lot of minor battle scars on just about every body panel, the interior is a complete mess and I spent ages trying to clean the seats. The headlining is also filthy (how did that even happen?). The parcel shelf hinges and other sundry small interior fittings are broken.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

It's a bit of an odd one for me tbh since I've never really bought a runabout shed before; when circumstances were different I had access to workshop facilities so the standard was a nice old hot hatch (before they all became silly money) bought on condition and maintained on the cheap with trade parts and free labour.

I think I've managed my expectations approrpriately though - for a grand's worth of 15yr old sub100k shopping trolley I expected honest, mechanically sound (maybe with the odd little job needing doing) with a few dings / scrapes. I didn't expect it to look like it'd left the route of a forest rally stage at speed

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...price-from=500&make=FIAT&sort=distance&page=1

Here's what I might look at in your position. Lots to like about these, and people won't be competing with you. Honest MOT history with some bits and pieces but nothing alarming, and the engine's a little 16V peach.

You might have to set off early if you're cycling there, mind

 

[Gunk]

If I was buying a cheap car for less than a grand I would definitely go Japanese. Either an old Toyota Yaris or Honda Jazz, they’re four wheel cockroaches, they refuse to die!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

If I was buying a cheap car for less than a grand I would definitely go Japanese. Either an old Toyota Yaris or Honda Jazz, they’re four wheel cockroaches, they refuse to die!

Like the Fiat Sedici, then (seriously)

 

[Drago]

You cant afford to narrow the field with such a low budget. View each vehicle on its merits, and if the best maintained, best condition best driving car you can for for a bag of sand is a Perodua then that's liable to be better than a tired Nissan, which was probably not made in Japan anyway.

 

[tyred]

You cant afford to narrow the field with such a low budget. View each vehicle on its merits, and if the best maintained, best condition best driving car you can for for a bag of sand is a Perodua then that's liable to be better than a tired Nissan, which was probably not made in Japan anyway.

This is very true and also I'd say to pay attention to the more unfashionable cars.

Things like Polos (Poloes?), Fiestas, Corsas, Yaris, Micras are always popular and good sellers so look at something less obvious and probably favoured by older, more mature people. I think you need a Suzuki Wagon R or the Fiesta's big brother the Fusion

 

[Drago]

I had a Fusion for a wee spell, bought cheap from an elderly neighbour who was giving up driving. Very pleasant, utterly uninteresting. Decent sized boot though, and not a bad drive. In the end I was finding it a little bit cramped for a chap of my size and with my knackered elbow was starting to find a manual box a real chore, so after a year it went to a new home.

 

[MarkF]

I must be very lucky, every car and motorbike that I've bought, including many bought unseen many miles away on Ebay have been fine. No bad deals or bad sellers, no breakdowns or significant problems at all and a few have been bought on a total whim. We've a spare Focus that I paid £800 for, I only expected to use it for 6 weeks, that was 6 years ago, bargain motoring! I am giving it to a young kid at work, I can't be bothered to sell it and he'll get 6 months free motoring at worse.