Buying a second hand car.
Now like most of the population with all the everyday bills of life and the cost of running children there is no way I can afford to buy a nice new motor even if I really wanted to and here lies a real question...why would anyone want to?
Ok you get that lovely new car smell most associated with hire cars and yes no one else has really done any mileage in it but you lose so much money as soon as you have signed
Now like most of the population with all the everyday bills of life and the cost of running children there is no way I can afford to buy a nice new motor even if I really wanted to and here lies a real question...why would anyone want to?
Ok you get that lovely new car smell most associated with hire cars and yes no one else has really done any mileage in it but you lose so much money as soon as you have signed
the paperwork what’s the point? If you drove the car out of the dealers straight to another dealers and tried to sell it you would lose thousands just because it’s been registered in your name! No I am sorry to say I am just too tight to do this and would rather let someone else take the fall on the cash cow front which, let’s face it, is normally some large faceless company that can put most of it down as a tax loss! So as the time had come to replace my poor old Transit which had now got the more rust than a scrapyard ship and enough mileage on it to get to the moon and back the dreaded car hunt began.
Over the last couple of years the second hand car market has become more buoyant it seems than any other market out there. So many people have taken pay cuts or lost their jobs that the first luxury to go has been the car. Now before you think “what’s he on about everyone needs a car” I agree with you. The car has become such an ingrained part of our society we really can’t do without it to get to work or the shops unless we want to spend hours using the public transport system and who wants to spend an hour and fifteen minutes dragging the kids and shopping back from the supermarket on a stinking bus full of the great unwashed wondering how melted the ice creams going to be when we get home? No the cars that have been cut back on in everyday life are the real gas guzzlers and top end luxury motors. You can now pick these up for pennies but will need a small mortgage to run one! It turns out so many people that had these cars have now opted for a cheaper smaller engines on more compact run arounds...as I wanted to.
Over the last couple of years the second hand car market has become more buoyant it seems than any other market out there. So many people have taken pay cuts or lost their jobs that the first luxury to go has been the car. Now before you think “what’s he on about everyone needs a car” I agree with you. The car has become such an ingrained part of our society we really can’t do without it to get to work or the shops unless we want to spend hours using the public transport system and who wants to spend an hour and fifteen minutes dragging the kids and shopping back from the supermarket on a stinking bus full of the great unwashed wondering how melted the ice creams going to be when we get home? No the cars that have been cut back on in everyday life are the real gas guzzlers and top end luxury motors. You can now pick these up for pennies but will need a small mortgage to run one! It turns out so many people that had these cars have now opted for a cheaper smaller engines on more compact run arounds...as I wanted to.
I have no use for a Transit anymore due to a change in work but thought I would just run it until the tax and mot ran out. So as that day was fast approaching it was time to find a smaller motor that could get everyone in and still be cheap to run.
Not a tall order you would think! Armed with a budget of £1500 I started to trawl through local papers as well as well known auction internet sites. Upon first glance there are thousands of cars to choose from so I thought to myself “I will have this wrapped up by lunchtime” and set to calling people up to arrange a look at what they were selling.
The great thing about Auction websites is that you can see the car straight away on the screen from many different angles along with an in depth description of it. The bad thing is that any piece of scrap can look good in a photo and most people lie either through their teeth or by omission so the golden rule is to go and have a look before you bid!
Who would want to buy a car without taking it for a test drive or at the very least have a proper look at the body and hear it running???
Now I have bought from just about every outlet you can imagine in the past. I have driven car dealers around the bend, haggled hard with private sellers, picked up a bargain or two from online auctions as well as what seems to be forgotten proper old fashioned auction houses so with £1500 it should be no problem at all to get a good motor that will last a few years...yeah right!
How can it be that with less money around the prices of older motors could have gone so high??? I appreciate that we have a supply and demand issue going on at the moment in a limited market but the prices have just soared beyond comprehension.
Anyone can see as they drive along that cars do last longer these days and for that we have to thank the car manufacturers. It’s great that the life expectancy of your average motor is now nearly double what it was 20 years
Not a tall order you would think! Armed with a budget of £1500 I started to trawl through local papers as well as well known auction internet sites. Upon first glance there are thousands of cars to choose from so I thought to myself “I will have this wrapped up by lunchtime” and set to calling people up to arrange a look at what they were selling.
The great thing about Auction websites is that you can see the car straight away on the screen from many different angles along with an in depth description of it. The bad thing is that any piece of scrap can look good in a photo and most people lie either through their teeth or by omission so the golden rule is to go and have a look before you bid!
Who would want to buy a car without taking it for a test drive or at the very least have a proper look at the body and hear it running???
Now I have bought from just about every outlet you can imagine in the past. I have driven car dealers around the bend, haggled hard with private sellers, picked up a bargain or two from online auctions as well as what seems to be forgotten proper old fashioned auction houses so with £1500 it should be no problem at all to get a good motor that will last a few years...yeah right!
How can it be that with less money around the prices of older motors could have gone so high??? I appreciate that we have a supply and demand issue going on at the moment in a limited market but the prices have just soared beyond comprehension.
Anyone can see as they drive along that cars do last longer these days and for that we have to thank the car manufacturers. It’s great that the life expectancy of your average motor is now nearly double what it was 20 years
