May 2021
I happen to visit a car supermarket who stock hundreds of car. I was interested in one car, they told me it did n't have a V5C logbook. They told me, I would need to apply for a V62.
It is is a 3 year old car, with 39,000 on the clock. ... Read more
Being a geeky petrolhead I have found a new interest in MoT histories. Walking around our Northants villages is more interesting than across our admittedly beautiful countryside as on a fine day there are often interesting old cars to be glimpsed, e,g D755MUD with a rare immaculate MoT history despite its extreme age and six figure mileage. Here is an interesting site which analyses MoT results....
www.bymiles.co.uk/insure/magazine/mot-data-researc...r... Read more
Love checking MOT histories. Always very suspicious of looking at second hand car photos in dealership adverts that either avoid including the number plate , blotch it out or use trade plates placed over the originals??The majority of the time it’s private sellers trying to avoid someone cloning their car. Easy enough to message or call to ask for the reg number.
I wonder how effective that is though - surely anyone wanting to clone a car just looks around on the road or any big car park?...
Car prices have been somewhat unpredictable over the last year with my expectation that prices would weaken being largely blown out of the water. I expected with reduced demand and job uncertainty mixed with desperate dealers in need of cash flow that cars would become cheaper in the short term but it seems I was absolutely wrong, a thing which according to swmbo is a common occurrence.
Instead cars have soared in price over the last year, from premium priced new stock to bargain bucket distress purchases. Everything seems to cost more than it did. I’m stunned by sticker prices as I spend all too much time eyeballing Gumtree and Auto trader with rum in hand looking for those sweet wee bargains. I thought we’d see loads of cars offloaded through lack of use and lack of funds but instead dealers have been sitting on stock to hold prices up.
I have been of late rather busy with requests to both find and sell cars for people and despite dealers being a bit unrealistic regarding prices there are still bargains to be had, here’s a few I’ve bought.
A 2013 63 plate Honda CRV 2.0 S in dark blue with 66,000 miles, full history and near spotless condition. One minor scratch on the NS rear quarter that’s not really noticeable unless you’re really looking for it and 4 good tyres. £6,000 in a private sale. Local dealers are asking £7,995 plus for the same car and most aren’t as good. This will see the new owner through his retirement and will spend more time in the golf course car park than anywhere else.
2011 11 plate Suzuki Swift 1.3 GL 3dr in red with 60,000 miles and full history, one I supplied years ago. A minor parking scuff on the rear bumper with a bit of lacquer peel and needed three tyres which have been on it so long they’re all cracking badly. This in itself isn’t a bad thing as it shows how gently the car has been driven if the rubber degrades before they wear out. Drives spot on and is very clean. The last owner inherited money and wanted an upgrade so I found a nice three year old Swift 1.0 Boosterjet for and sold this for him. It’s a good example of a long term owned car that was for sale not because it was worn out but because the seller had came into money and just wanted something newer. Even the air con is ice cold. £925 given. Had I been trading still I’d put tyres on it and stick it on at £1695 but it’s going to a friend for the fee of a bottle of Morgan’s and I’ve every faith it’ll run for years.
2008 58 plate Mitsubishi Colt 1.3 5dr in blue metallic with 34,000 miles and one elderly owner from new who has sadly recently passed away. Wee car is very clean, tidy and in need of nothing. £1300 paid and passed on to a previous customer who’s bought loads of cars off me over the years, this time again the fee will be another addition to the Rum collection.
2011 61 Mazda 3 1.6 Tamura in white with 66,000 miles and a near full history. Paid £2250. This would cost nearer £4K from a dealer and you’d have no clue about the previous owners. Instead I got to meet them face to face and had peace to assess the car properly without an irritating salesman pestering me. Wee car was bought on behalf of a colleague and has been utterly faultless, it has working A/C and heated seats. I’m particularly impressed by this one, it’s a great wee car for peanuts.
2008 58 Nissan Micra 1.2 Tekna 5dr in silver with 82,000 miles. Very tidy all round and again for sale due to bereavement. Wee car drives without fault and cost £900. New keeper is delighted.
I’ve also heard through the neighbourhood grapevine of a very low mileage (sub 40k) 2005 Toyota Avensis 1.8 that’s in near mint condition that’s gathering dust in a nearby garage after the owner passed away. I’m putting feelers out to try and bag that one for another colleague who’s in need of car after offloading a costly PCP deal and has been convinced of the error of his ways by my recent purchases. Another convert to bangernomics.
Times are tough but as long as you’re flexible regarding what type of car you want then there’s bargains still to be had if you’re willing and able to risk the private ads. The above buyers gave me relatively free reign to hunt for cars with only budget being the real constraint. Look for cars that’ve been owned long term and you want something that’s being sold because the owner is genuinely upgrading or has given up driving. Reject anything that is up for “swaps” and walk away if they’ve only owned it for a matter of weeks or months, both would signify a problem vehicle in 99% of cases.
Buying privately removes any real legal protections but it grants you access to meet the owner face to face at their own home rather than listening to some fly guy dealers lies and at sub £3k prices most warranties and promises offered are worthless anyway so you might as well bypass them and save a few quid. Just take someone knowledgeable with you when you shop for a used car, even if that means bribing someone like me with a bottle of something nice.
Happy bargain hunting!
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Cars are definitely cheaper north of the border... for now.
If you go very much further south to Australia where I am things could not be more different. New cars all have a 6 month waiting list. This makes two year old cars very desirable and the prices are way up. In addition people cannot go on overseas holidays as international travel is only allowed with a government permit which is hard to get. This means lots of people want caravans and big vehicles to pull them. The newspaper had a story a couple of weeks ago about people paying A$2000 over the price of a new Landcruiser to get a 2 year old one! Total lunacy!
Hi all,
Newbie here.... Read more
As there are several repair kits listed it's a fair bet that yours is not the only loose gear lever!
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Hi we are looking to upgrade our current Kia Soul diesel automatic, we have found a nice 2018 version for £10700, however has anyone any ideas of an alternative that will give similar economy of 40mpg automatic and sat up a bit….We are happy to switch to petrol which with the price difference from diesel may make up for less mpg…..any ideas please…we do approx 12000 miles per annum?
... Read more
Afternoon tourantass
I’m presuming by diesel automatic, you are really looking for something that’s automatic but is reasonably economical with it? Could you be persuaded to check out a Toyota CHR hybrid? It takes care of the automatic part, whilst avoiding the pitfalls of diesels alongside it. Its bigger inside than it looks from the outside, the boots a reasonable size and the kids don’t complain in the back seats (there’s good leg room for adults too)....
Hi all l am still looking for a new car and have seen several Kia stonics lately ,are they any good? Read more
For those reasons, I'd sooner have a Rio than a Stonic if sticking with Kia. Otherwise (as a manual) if I had to have a small SUV/crossover, I'd rather one of the VAG stable like the VW T-Cross or Seat Arona with the 1.0 TSI.
We looked at the Stonic 3 years ago when the wife was changing cars and we were very disappointed. Having owned a Ceed for 5 years we were expecting something better. It was cramped (passengers and boot) and the interior plastics were all hard and nasty. Whilst there we looked at the Rio and it was far better and cheaper. Definitely more space in the boot and the interior quality was a class up. Problem for us was simple, we could not get the combination of trim and engine we desired. it would have been a less powerful motor or higher spec trim and both were too much of a compromise....
Probably as close as you'll get. collectingcars.com/for-sale/1976-lawil-willam-four...n Read more
I had a look at one of those APE things, the electric starter had failed and it looked like a body off job to access it. Fortunately it had a pull starter, operated from the cab by a lever pulling a piano wire. It was broken! Got it bumpstarted. It had a horrendous steering wobble around 25MPH and never saw the damn thing again.
I don't think this is an issue, I can't see how it could be, but I'll state it here anyway to be safe.
The advice and opinions given here are freely-given by individual posters in their free time, and are just that - non-expert advice and opinions. The advice and opinions are NOT those of anyone else in the Heycar/HJ organisation including the Moderators.
Should you choose to follow any piece of advice, take or not take a particular course of action, then you do so at your own risk.... Read more
I don't think this is an issue, I can't see how it could be, but I'll state it here anyway to be safe.
The advice and opinions given here are freely-given by individual posters in their free time, and are just that - non-expert advice and opinions. The advice and opinions are NOT those of anyone else in the Heycar/HJ organisation including the Moderators.
Should you choose to follow any piece of advice, take or not take a particular course of action, then you do so at your own risk.... Read more
I don't think this is an issue, I can't see how it could be, but I'll state it here anyway to be safe.
The advice and opinions given here are freely-given by individual posters in their free time, and are just that - non-expert advice and opinions. The advice and opinions are NOT those of anyone else in the Heycar/HJ organisation including the Moderators.
Should you choose to follow any piece of advice, take or not take a particular course of action, then you do so at your own risk.... Read more
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No V5, no buy. I’ve never sold or bought a car without one. The car may have been repossessed, there may be a dispute over ownership or there’s something on that V5 they don’t want you to see, such as the last keeper having only owned it for a few weeks or months or it having been owned by a company or taxi fleet. Most likely it has just been mislaid but few dealers would take a part exchange without a V5 so I’ll bet they do have it. Tell them to supply one or buy something else.