Buying a second hand car , where to start looking??

rje66

Looking at replacing current car, it's knackered. Budget around 12k. Will I get better value Looking outside of greater dublin area???

drunkmonkey

Nail it down to the car and spec you want first. Look at the whole country, even north depending on car.

User1998

Depends on how far your willing to travel. If you want convenience stick to the greater Dublin area. You’ll most likely end up buying in Dublin or surrounding area anyway but worth checking further afield.

rje66

Nail it down to the car.....

This is the hard part.....

rje66

Thanks for replies. Willing to travel 1/1.5 hours roughly. Probably plenty in thst catchment area.

Is done deal the best place to start looking??

Mad_Lad

I got my 2020 Kia Cee'd 1.0l Petrol manual in Dublin, it was much better value than most other places I was willing to travel. I'm in Carlow. I searched a lot because I love the Kia/Hyundai interiors which are basic and practical compared to a lot of modern crap.

Carlow dealers are robbing b1stards !

Donedeal or carzone, use the filters, there's plenty of cars out there but some dealers are looking for way too much for some of these cars but there are bargains to be found, I would't say I got a bargain, the car cost 19,500 but with 26,000 kms which was pretty good mileage to find.

Also there are some car models to avoid that might show up and some to be wary of.

Opel 1.6 Diesel timing chain issue, if it has to be replaced the gearbox has to come out and it's a very expensive job.

Ford's ecoboost engines use a wet cam belt which means it can disintegrate over time in the oil clogging the oil pickup and killing the engine, it's also not cheap to replace. Ford did fix this around 2020 but you would want to find out for sure, I think they switched to chain cam.

Citroen and peugeot puretech engines also can suffer with the same issue and newer opels and now fiat all got Stellantis engines and they have only fixed this issue on their soon to be released engine which will be found in hybrids for now.

Mazda diesels are one of the worst diesels out there but their petrols are sound.

Toyota mostly good, the prius is a good buy 2nd hand just make sure the gearbox oil is replaced in a toyota garage.

Electric cars are mostly reliable but range and poor recharge times in your price range would mean you need a 2nd car at home petrol or diesel even modern EVs mean inconvenience when away from home.

Kia engines are mostly sound.

Renault petrols and their dci are excellent engines especially from around 2012 -2015.

My advice is if you're not doing mega mileage then look for a lower mileage petrol, they are out there and can go for good money.

My sister has been looking for a car around that budget so a lot of this stuff is fresh in my head.

goochy

If you not doing big mileage and you don't mind an . auto . A low mileage petrol auto jap import Is a good option

rje66

Thanks so much Mad lad and Goochy. Great help there. Much appreciated. Old car was 3 series 2012, turbo completely knackered and garage advising to scrap it as engine could be also danaged but won't know till turbo is in. Worth chancing getting a turbo replaced?? It has 120k miles .

Thanks