Used car buying

quiksilver24

Hi,

Can someone help me out with a few things...

Is there a price guide for what used cars should be selling/trading at considering mileage and condition for Ireland?

Is there way to check whether any money is owed on a car/ car is stolen / in a crash previously?

Any other tips for dealing with the Irish car system... seems a pretty good maze having just moved here.

Thanks!

5500

For price guidings your best bet is looking over car sales sites like www.cbg.ie www.autotrader.ie www.carzone.ie - altho the majority of sales on these can be from dealers and will be higher than buying private.Look on www.buyandsell.ie for an indication of private sales prices or if your looking at a particular car post up its details here and im sure some of us can be of help to you!

Jesper

The above post gives good advice. Garages have used car guides to sell buy and these go up and down with milage. A car should only have around 12,000 miles per year. your better of buying a 98 with 70,000m than a 02 with 100,000+ etc. Miles are the true age of a car.
What ever bank you are a member of will have a creditors list of money owed one every car in Ireland. Know your bank and ring them with the regrestration and they will check for you. Its a free service. If you buy a car with money owed on it the dept is now your responsibility.
Buyer beware when buying privately. Your statuatory rights prevale when buying from a dealer.
Better deals when buying privately.
This time next year the country will be flooded with used cars at GREAT prices becaue the SSIA's will have matured.
If you have a car in mind I'd be able to give a rough price on it. O and if your spending a nice bit of money on it bring a machanic with you.

Silvera

There is a price guide available in newsagents.
It's called 'Ireland's Used Car Price Guide', and costs €5.95.

Bluehair

Jesper wrote:

your better of buying a 98 with 70,000m than a 02 with 100,000+ etc. Miles are the true age of a car.

Not neccesarily true. An engine experiences much more wear and tear from lots of short trips (to the shops, school, work etc) than a lesser number of longer trips even if it has done more miles overall.

bazz26

Bluehair wrote:

Not neccesarily true. An engine experiences much more wear and tear from lots of short trips (to the shops, school, work etc) than a lesser number of longer trips even if it has done more miles overall.

Also alot of low mileage cars are not properly maintained or serviced regularly and run on shoe string budgets. There was someone on here (cannot remember who) and they didn't service their car in 3 years because they only drove 10k miles over 3 years, thought it didn't need a service after 10k miles. The oil must have turned to water. This car would not be a good buy after this owner.

I would prefere to buy a high mileage ex company car that has spend most of its life up and down motorways and serviced every 6 months.

maidhc

I'd still prefer a car with low mileage.

When you reach 130 - 140k things start going. Things like headgaskets, fuel pumps, exhausts. They may go sooner, or may last forever, but I would rather take my chances with an elderly car with low miles than a newer high miler. I dont think i'd mind too much buying a car that wasnt serviced in 3years, if it had only done 10k (no its not ideal, but id rather it to one wit 80 or 90k)

Its also worth remembering that many people who trade in after 3 years adopt a "its not going to be my problem" approach to servicing.

dahamsta

[Not addressed at anyone in particular.]

This topic comes up regularly and the same old crap comes out every time. The simple fact of the matter is that you can't plonk every car into high mileage or low mileage without reference to how it's built, how it's kept, where it's kept, etc.

By all means say "$make and $model built in $year is good for $miles", but do us all a favour and leave the generalisations at the door. They're garbage, meaningless snobbery, faux cleverness.

[Could we refer all future mileage pontificating to this post?]

maidhc

Ken Shabby wrote:

[Not addressed at anyone in particular.]

This topic comes up regularly and the same old crap comes out every time. The simple fact of the matter is that you can't plonk every car into high mileage or low mileage without reference to how it's built, how it's kept, where it's kept, etc.

By all means say "$make and $model built in $year is good for $miles", but do us all a favour and leave the generalisations at the door. They're garbage, meaningless snobbery, faux cleverness.

[Could we refer all future mileage pontificating to this post?]

Point taken, but I think the mileage of a car is still an extremely relevant, question, be it on a Toyota, Renault or Bentley. There may be different views, but ultimately it is people sharing their own experiences. And there is nothing much wrong with that. I don't think anyone made any comment that was out of order, or plain stupid.

I think you might have noticed everyone in addressing the mileage that a car may do referred closely to how it was maintained.

Indeed if one is to say $make and $model built in $year is good for $miles they are still only quoting from experience, and what they are saying isn't really open to an empirical critique. I may say my 1986 Toyota Corolla 1.8 DX Diesel did 300k, you might say yours died at 30k.

Apart from brand prejudices. I would say the two most important issues when buying a car is a) its mileage, and b) its service history. What's wrong with discussing those two quite general issues?

regedit

If you have a car in mind I'd be able to give a rough price on it. O and if your spending a nice bit of money on it bring a machanic with you.

Planning to get a VW Golf automatic 1.6 (or any other Hatchback car-the size of the VW. I know they are not widely available (although they should be due to the pace of the traffic in this country) and was wondering how much would a '99-'01 Golf automatic go for? Any chance in getting something good for less than 10K
TIA