Looks like i'll need to buy a car and i'm not very good at this sort of thing. I'm not a car fanatic at all and I don't like to buy something that I know will just depreciate and cost me money for the pleasure. But it is a semi necessity.

I want to know what the best plan of action is. This is my current strategy:

- I think I can scrape together about 20-25k at a push (there go the savings...).
-I'm going to check out Autoscout to see what that gets me (not a lot I suspect).
-Then i'm off to garages/owners to check them out (it turns my stomach to even think about this bit).

Anything to add to this plan? I'm not keen on spending the money at all, so any advice in this area will help regarding negotiating prices down. I don't want anything too flash, but I also don't want something that will struggle to get going on the motorway. I'm guessing that means something above a 1.6 engine (i'm not even sure what that means to be honest, i know, i'm an embarassment to the male half of the species). Fire away folks!

Why don't you ask a knowledgeable friend to go with you and provide you with advice ? (That's the way I'm doing it, I know my budget and roughly the kind of car I want, but let someone else test the cars)

As someone who just bought a car with zip knowledge of mechanics I can give you the following advice:

- don't buy from private owners (no warranty)
- don't buy from those used-car places that don't run their own repair shop
- buy from official dealerships and make sure you get a full 12-month warranty
- if you buy a car that has "Quality 1" warranty, make sure you get 12 months 5-star, anything else won't cover the most expensive repairs
- Make sure the MFK (legally required motorcar testing) has been done within the last 3 months or so and that the exhaust test was also recently done
- Make sure they did a service / inspection, especially when you buy one with Quality 1 warranty (they require you to keep up with the service intervals or the warranty becomes void)

20-25k will most definitely get you a very decent used car. It'll also get you a decently equipped small(ish) new Japanese car like a Mitsubishi Colt, a small Honda (a Jazz, for example). 27k would get you a new Dodge Caliber which is quite decent-sized with good warranty.

Steer clear of European small cars - for that budget you'd only get a minimally-equipped one.

I'd look at the following cars if you want a decent used one in that price range:

- SUV: Hyundai Santa Fe or a Ford Maverick
- Sedan: Anything Mitsubishi, Honda or Mazda

I have absolutely nothing against European cars (except for the French ones, which sometimes suck according to the TCS break-down statistics) but I never found any used ones for a decent price unless they had more than 120'000km and were more than 10 years old

Peter

I thought it wouldn't hurt to add Buyer's Checklist from Comparis ( PDF file )