Advice on buying a car - any car!

tom23

Hi All,

It's a question been asked I'm sure a 1000 times. Sister has 7k for a car. Would like a petrol, would it better to buy a second hand one of a dealer or lump it towards finance for newer one? Appreciate any tips and and advice before she goes of to FaceBook market place to buy a banger .

cheers

User1998

Really depends on her financial situation and what she wants from the car. If she can afford the repayments and wants a newer more reliable car then finance might be a better option. If she doesn’t care about keeping up appearances and just wants something that gets her from A to B then buying outright might be better.

What I will say tho is you’d be much better off staying away from sub prime lenders who give shocking finance rates. A bank or credit union loan would be a better option.

Old diesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058354645/advice-on-buying-a-car-any-car

There's 3 potential starting points here....

1) if she's got a credit union account she's regularly saving into - then go in and talk to them. Do the sums on loans etc.

2) ask around re any decent local dealers in her area.

3) put word out there that she's looking for a car - someone might know someone whose selling something.

If you are going to be running a car on a small budget then I'd consider a credit union account almost compulsory at this point.

And save regularly into it.

This unlocks the ability to access loans if needed down the road.

tom23

cheers folks, she has 7k to spend and savings in Credit Union. On the basis would anyone recommend a small car dealership Dublin / Meath area?

Thanks

Old diesel

The problem with a 7 k cash budget is that with the way the car market is going and inflation.

It doesn't necessarily buy you much.

For example it looks like the market is copping onto to the fact that Suzukis while a niche brand.

Are reliable and worth having.

Posting link for illustration only and not a "buy this" point

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/suzuki-swift-2014-gl-5dr-nct-tax/36783236

sniperman

get a toyota yaris or auris,if she can find one,very reliable,cheap to run

tom23

Ok - cheers folks, is there an advantage of lashing the 7k of on a Dacia thats offering 0% car finance? Or indeed any car brand that would have a similar offering. She can afford to pay back monthly 220. Second hand car market is very expensive. cheers

Sorry for all the amateur hour questions

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122222211#Comment_122222211

Wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. Great car for the money and holds its value quite well.

tom23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122222439#Comment_122222439

Cheers… I think so. They look smart, and whats on offer in second hand market is quite in terms of pricing. At least she will have a warranty on it… but can you lash down a big lump of money on finance to reduce the monthly cost? cheers

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122222474#Comment_122222474

I believe theres usually a maximum deposit of around 30%

Mad_Lad

If she's got 7K to spend then don't encourage her to go on finance for a car she hasn't the money for, there are good 2nd hand cars out there if she's willing to spend a couple of weeks looking, yes, this is what it often takes. If she goes on finance it will cost her more and she can probably put that money to better use.

I'm currently going through this with my Sister and it's bloody difficult. She wants a diesel, doesn't need one but she's convinced " it will save her loads on diesel" but most examples out there are expensive with high mileage.

Set your donedeal or carzone filters, set it to have minimum 1 year NCT, set the max price, area, max mileage you are prepared to go for etc etc, remember, 100,000 Kms is only 62,000 miles so it's not big mileage at all.

There are issues with earlier ford Ecoboost engines the turbo cars and Citroen and peugeot puretech turbo engines, these have wet timing belts which can dissolve and cause blockage of the oil pickup and starve the engine of oil, extremely well serviced engines suffer far less but it's all too common for people to run 5k - 10K over a service and think there's no harm but this is not the case so , in my opinion best avoid the cars with these engines unless there is an excellent service record but those might be higher mileage and at a time these belts need to be changed anyway.

Whatever car you're serious about do the car check online and look for things like no tax for extended periods, could be an indicator of issues.

Revolut is a great and instant way to transfer money to another revolut user.

For some reason I have issues with links attaching so just copy and paste.

Check for service history and find out whether things like timing belts are due to be replaced or whether this has been done with receipts.

Check how many owners etc, the car check will tell you if it's an import too and how many owners in that country.

Below are some of countless examples, there's many good 2nd hand cars out there being ignored because everyone wants to get into debt for a new or newer car.

A lot more examples will show up if you don't limit yourself to Dublin and Meath.

None of the below examples have ecoboost or puretech engines.

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/hyundai-i10-2011-fresh-nct/36827303?campaign=3

https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/ford/fiesta/fpa/3737402?journey=Search

https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/kia/rio/fpa/3720827?journey=Search

https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/opel/astra/fpa/3671960?journey=Search

https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/opel/corsa/fpa/3712492?journey=Search

trindade

Some good options:

1- A new Suzuki swift is a good purchase. Great little car and 0% PCP / HP.
2- A Japanease import, she can get a decent car with this budget. I strongly recommend "Easyautos", close to Dublin Airport. Very trustworthy company, I bought the first car for my wife there and never had any issue. The owner is very honest and reputable.
3- A second hand Yaris/Auris/Jazz with service history would be a good purchase too. Avoid Diesel engines. These cars have extremely reliable engines, so if the car is serviced you'll be happy.

Mad_Lad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122233098#Comment_122233098

PCP can turn into a bottomless pit, a lot of people get stung on it and end up in a long cycle of car repayments all to avoid the inevitable balloon payment.

There are many used petrol cars in that price category in post 1 of around 7k, I've been looking for my Sister.

Of course you have to use the search filters to narrow it down to what you want, mileage, years etc.

What a lot of sneaky c1nts are doing though is putting down say, 100,000 Kms you go there and the car has 100,000 Miles….. that really pisses me off.

But there are several low enough mileage older petrol out there.

Spend as little on a car as possible, people are gone nuts buying crazy expensive cars on PCP when they only have cash for the 15K used perfectly good car, driving out then in a 40-50K car.