Buying a car

ICBM

Both the cars we've bought recently were in that price range - actually one considerably less - and both dealers were helpful, professional and courteous, and it didn't seem to matter that the cars weren't the most expensive on their forecourts.

You just need to find the right dealer.

iseverynamegone

Yes I have no doubt that there are many great dealers out there , my uncle is a dealer but he isn’t one of them I’m afraid.   And yes £6k is a fair chunk of change. 

But if you are really interested in a motor you would call right?  At the moment you seem to be in the broad brush deciding exactly what you want stage.  I wouldn’t get too frustrated at not getting replies to emails. 

And  I would buy something with warranty still on it if I could. 

octatonic

iseverynamegone said:

Emp_Fab said:

Jesus H Christ....  WTF is it with the used car trade?  I've sent emails (via the Autotrader 'contact seller' links) to six vendors about six cars now - basically asking the same questions;. What is the service history detail - is any of it main dealer and What are the details of the warranty you are offering?.

So far, one has replied answering only one question, three haven't responded at all, one texted me to say they had emailed me a response (they haven't, and texting them back to tell them has elicited nothing) and my favourite: "yes sir thankyou for your enquiry" (and nothing else whatsoever!).  I emailed that one back with "..and the answers to my questions are..??".   Nothing.

You wouldn't think I was a customer with six grand in cash that I wanted to spend would you?

Man it’s the  equivalent of a text on a gumtree add for a squier of what does it weigh to the nearest gram at 90% humidity  and can you measure the neck at each odd numbered fret- most dealers would have you down as a tyre kicker if you can’t be arsed to pick up the phone and speak to them. 

You are are looking for guarantees in a 5k motor which you are just not going to get. 

Given how risk averse you seem in the thread I’d say get a 6 yr old Kia Ceed with 80k on it. It will still be under the 7yr/100k warranty so any major issues will not be major issues for you.  Wife had one a while back and it was a solid motor. 

Good luck. 

Was going to make the same point.
£6k isn't that much in car terms and you are going to be chasing people eternally as it just isn't a big enough sale for most dealers.

A private sale might be a better bet for Emp.

Emp_Fab

Right...  I’ve kinda got my heart set on a very specific car now, after looking at everything for weeks.  I’m after a Hyundai i40 Saloon (Blue Drive version <stop-start better economy stuff>) with the 1.7 Diesel engine, in silver or blue with the touch screen console.

Right now there are three on Autotrader.  I’ve eliminated two for various reasons so far.

I think I may just have to get a very cheap runaround in the meantime until the car I want appears.

What do you think - nice looking car IMO...

ICBM

Unless you’re planning on doing big motorway miles, don’t get a diesel.

boogieman

ICBM said:

Unless you’re planning on doing big motorway miles, don’t get a diesel.

True. You can clog the dpf up if you do lots of short runs. You can mitigate some of it by doing a monthly long run to get everything up to a decent temperature so the dpf regenerates. 

Emp_Fab

I’ve just been reading up on that.  My daily commute will be about half an hour each way at no more than 50mph.  I’m more than happy to take a diesel car out for a 30minute thrashing every week or fortnight to help the DPF regenerate.

I’m not sure I can go back to petrol engines after driving Diesels for so long...  Diesels are so much more forgiving and have big fat wide powerbands.  Petrols have “a powerband the width of a gnat’s cock” (©️Bike Magazine).
I’ve lost all my throttle control sensitivity now.

ICBM

Emp_Fab said:

I’m not sure I can go back to petrol engines after driving Diesels for so long...  Diesels are so much more forgiving and have big fat wide powerbands.  Petrols have “a powerband the width of a gnat’s cock”

Not true at all. You'll get used to a petrol again quickly, and it's much more fun to drive.

Emp_Fab

Hmmm..... but I’ve spent so long picking the car I want! ...and it only comes with a Diesel engine!  If I switch to petrol, I’m going to have to pick a different car!  Do you know how difficult it is for me to come to a decision -on anything ?!

ICBM

Emp_Fab said:

Hmmm..... but I’ve spent so long picking the car I want! ...and it only comes with a Diesel engine!  If I switch to petrol, I’m going to have to pick a different car!  Do you know how difficult it is for me to come to a decision -on anything ?!

That's unlucky. But it might also be worth mentioning that the resale value on a diesel is likely to be a lot lower than a petrol in a few years too, if cities start to bring in no-diesel policies.

It can be a problem if you're buying a car in the 3 to 10 year old range when diesel was pushed so heavily. I wanted a petrol Renault Scenic to replace my old one, and that week there was literally one decent one for sale in Scotland.

maltingsaudio

RaymondLin said:

before you buy any car, put the plate through this link and see it’s MOT history.  

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

ThIs was worth reading the thread for, found out Mrs M’s golf is due its MOT at the end of the month, plus it has a history of failing due to its windscreen washers not being up to snuff!

m_c

A half hour commute will be more than enough to keep a DPF happy. DPF problems either stem from lots of short journeys i.e. only 5 - 10 minute drives stuck in traffic without ever getting any longer runs, or some other fault.

As a fleet tech, I've only ever seen two DPF issues on cars. One was due to a base engine fault (faulty injector, meaning the engine was producing a lot of soot), and one which was purely down to short journeys (3-4 mile drive through Edinburgh in rush hour traffic, with a very rare longer drive. The car had done less than 20K in 3 years, and the driver had been advised to get a petrol, but wanted the diesel for fuel economy).

Even on vans, DPFs are rarely the problem.

In general diesel emission systems are very reliable. The bigger problems are sales reps selling diesels to people who don't do the mileage to justify diesel, and techs who don't understand the systems, so only fix the symptom and not the cause.

joneve

Nunogilberto said:

I’d look at a Skoda from the past few years. Reliability and refinement. 

We're looking at moving from an X-Trail to a Kodiaq as we've had NO END of problems with our X-Trail (good old Japanese reliability). 

Kodiaq gets nothing but positive reviews, is fucking massive (the wife likes large things, so I'm still puzzled why she married me) and comes pretty well spec'd. 

Just needs to pass the test drive test now...Fuel Economy won't be the best, but ticks every other box. 

joneve

Also, check out carwow.co.uk. 

My dad (who's a car salesman) pointed me towards it - basically bang in the car you're looking for (or cars) and wait for Dealers to come back to you with deals. Takes out a lot of the legwork of having to go and visit the smarmy bastards before actually wanting to pull the trigger. 

Emp_Fab

OK - I'm still looking....  but I've just seen this locally.  It's not very efficient at a real mpg of 37 average, and the tax is £200 a year but......  it looks lovely to me...

strtdv

Diesel has plenty of life in it yet, probably as much as petrol (unless Wankel rotary engines as "generators" for hybrids become mainstream). Lots of big manufacturers are developing the technology, most of the latest research suggests diesel isn't really the baddy it was made out to be.
It's true that ICE cars will be replaced but we're probably at least 10 years away from them being off the road completely. I wouldn't let that put me off buying a diesel.

Octafish

Emp_Fab said:

OK - I'm still looking....  but I've just seen this locally.  It's not very efficient at a real mpg of 37 average, and the tax is £200 a year but......  it looks lovely to me...

Is that really a BMW? Looks like some random Chinese car with a BMW front end stuck on it!

Maybe the photo, but the bumper appears to be a different shade to the rest of the car, might have had front end crash damage?

iseverynamegone

I think it’s frontended a shadow 

Octafish

iseverynamegone said:

I think it’s frontended a shadow 

Yeah maybe. The bonnet's leading edge seems to match the bumper, however the wheel arch part of the bumper is in shadow and the paint shade where it meets the wing looks a bit suspicious...

BigMonka

Emp_Fab said:

OK - I'm still looking....  but I've just seen this locally.  It's not very efficient at a real mpg of 37 average, and the tax is £200 a year but......  it looks lovely to me...

Which engine is in that?
i really enjoyed having a 1series as they’re fun to drive, although it’s surprisingly unpractical and if you’re somewhere that gets snow then you’ll need winter tyres (which are brilliant).