Used car: suggestions

alesironi

I'  looking to buy a second hand car and I need some suggestions.
- Budget: max 13k
- estimated km/year: no more than 8000
- 5 doors class C (compact/small family)
- low fuel consumption (do not care that much about power)
- automatic gear
- plan to sell after 3 years,  do not want to loose too much for depreciation and must be easy to sell

Any advise would be really appreciated!

grogi

alesironi wrote: »

I'  looking to buy a second hand car and I need some suggestions.
- Budget: max 13k
- estimated km/year: no more than 8000
- 5 doors class C (compact/small family)
- low fuel consumption (do not care that much about power)
- automatic gear
- plan to sell after 3 years,  do not want to loose too much for depreciation and must be easy to sell

Any advise would be really appreciated!

You do seem to make a lot of short trips... Maybe Leaf?

Nuw

Was about to mention electric myself, if not suitable, what about a lexus CT200h or prius, or even a honda insight or civic (both of them less expensive to buy, savings should buy you a good deal of petrol to put in it). All of them should be easy to sell on a few years down the line.

alesironi

Thanks for all the answers.
I need a car suitable for some trips as well, not only for the city, hence the only electric option may not be ok.
I'd be happy to consider an hybrid, I like the Prius, the budget should be ok but I read that there are many Prius on the market imported from Japan and on boards.ie read different opinions; I remember sat nav not usable (it's the Japanese version), but in general I understood some members won't buy a Japan imported Prius.
Any idea on that?

bazz26

Toyota Prius or Auris hybrid. Neither need to be plugged in to recharge or have a limited range. But to be honest if you're only doing 8000 km per year fuel economy should not be your primary focus as your fuel expenditure is not very high.

Nuw

The only thing with a jap import is that your insurance needs to be ok with them (not a lot are), on the missus' (suzuki swift), we pay around 150/year more for the jap import over the same car but irish. But the jap had more toys (climate control, rearcam, gps, bluetooth etc...) compared to the irish equivalent (at the same price) and was well maintained (FSH), plus it was made in Japan (I think the european versions come from Malaysia, not sure though), which doesn't say much as I'm pretty sure the robots are the same in every plants, but it might be important to some).

Should you go that route, there is probably an option in the headunit to turn the language to english (not sure, depends on car and I didn't check the prius), it's unlikely you'll have the maps to ireland though, failing that you can probably replace the headunit to get everything you need. Make sure you clear it with your insurance before committing to anything and do not hand over any money until you have the auction sheet in your hands to verify mileage. Other than that, it's no different than buying an irish car (if need be I can give you the name of the dealer we bought our swift from, whom I can recommend).

colm_mcm

A uk model Prius or Lexus CT would be what I'd go for.

Nuw

bazz26 wrote: »

But to be honest if you're only doing 8000 km per year fuel economy should not be your primary focus as your fuel expenditure is not very high.

That's right, but I think a hybrid will be easier to sell on than a traditional automatic petrol down the line.

alesironi

Nuw wrote: »

The only thing with a jap import is that your insurance needs to be ok with them (not a lot are), on the missus' (suzuki swift), we pay around 150/year more for the jap import over the same car but irish. But the jap had more toys (climate control, rearcam, gps, bluetooth etc...) compared to the irish equivalent (at the same price) and was well maintained (FSH), plus it was made in Japan (I think the european versions come from Malaysia, not sure though), which doesn't say much as I'm pretty sure the robots are the same in every plants, but it might be important to some).

Should you go that route, there is probably an option in the headunit to turn the language to english (not sure, depends on car and I didn't check the prius), it's unlikely you'll have the maps to ireland though, failing that you can probably replace the headunit to get everything you need. Make sure you clear it with your insurance before committing to anything and do not hand over any money until you have the auction sheet in your hands to verify mileage. Other than that, it's no different than buying an irish car (if need be I can give you the name of the dealer we bought our swift from, whom I can recommend).

Thanks for your help. I'm definitevely interested in the Prius but i'd like one with the Nav System working in Ireland, so I need one Irish or from UK.
Would you recommend a dealer specialised in importing cars from UK?

grogi

alesironi wrote: »

Thanks for your help. I'm definitevely interested in the Prius but i'd like one with the Nav System working in Ireland, so I need one Irish or from UK.

Or a phone...

alesironi

grogi wrote: »

alesironi wrote: »

Thanks for your help. I'm definitevely interested in the Prius but i'd like one with the Nav System working in Ireland, so I need one Irish or from UK.

Or a phone...

wow a phone! why I did not think about it!!!

Seriously.... I do not like gadgets hanging on my car.

Nuw

What you can do as well is replace the headunit by a new one which includes gps maps for ireland (an android unit allowing bluetooth, rearcam, in car wifi, and everything else you can imagine costs around 500-700 fitted). 

A UK import makes sense as well, go for T-Spirit trim level (if you're set on a prius). I wouldn't recommend any dealer specializing in uk imports as I've no experience with any, but I'm sure some others will be able to. One thing to note though, the sat nav will (most likely) need updating for new roads and point of interests, which will cost a good few quids as it needs to be done by main-dealer. It might be worth double checking with one how much it is.