It’s a well-known fact that when you buy a new car, it loses 20% off its value as soon as you drive it off the garage forecourt…and it gets worse – one of the very common cars on British roads, costs £15,295 new, but will be worth just £4,982 after four years!
This process of losing value is known as depreciation. For this reason alone, many people in the UK choose to buy a used car instead of a new one. You can look at some used car dealers on our "Find a..." section.
When is the best time to buy?
If you go for a 12-month old car, you will avoid the worst period of depreciation, and at this age, you will still get two years’ warranty from the manufacturer.* Or if you buy a car older than this from a garage, they normally come with their own year’s warranty. You should ask before you buy!
Even if it doesn’t come with a guarantee, or you buy a car privately or from an auction, you can still cover yourself for unexpected problems by taking out an insurance warranty for a few hundred pounds. So buying a used car can still be a safe bet.
Budget. You can search for insurance companies in our "Find a..." section.
How new a car you can get depends on how much you have to spend - so set a budget and try not to go over it! If you are paying in cash, you will know exactly what you have to spend.
However, many people would rather pay by monthly instalments. If you decide to do it this way, the same applies - set an amount you can easily afford each month and don’t go above it - and don’t let an eager salesman convince you that you can afford more!
Choose carefully
Once you’ve worked out how much you can afford to spend, you can start with the fun bit - going shopping! Do some research and find several cars you are interested in, rather than going out and buying the first thing that you see!
You should consider the things that are really important to you and use them as criteria for your search e.g. do you want a petrol or diesel car? How many doors should the car have? What size engine do you want? Do you have a budget for insurance – some vehicles require much higher insurance premiums.
The criteria for selecting the perfect car for you, is specific to your needs. But you should consider things like build quality, speed of depreciation, comfort, power, fuel consumption, practicality, safety, handling, passenger space, luggage space…the list goes on.
What the most important things on the list are will depend on your own situation, and what you want to use the car for – it may be that you would love something that is small and sporty, but really need something you can fit the shopping in. Unfortunately what you want and what you need may be two very different things!
Do your research through motoring magazines or their websites, because they are independent of the car companies and have a lot of information and reviews about used cars. You can start looking in our "Find a.." section now.
Where do I buy?
Having selected the cars you like, and how much you have to spend, it’s just a case of finding them for sale! Where you go to buy them depends a lot on how much you know about cars and how much risk you want to take.
If you want to play it safe, buy a car from a garage which runs an ‘approved used’ type scheme. There you can drive off safely knowing that the car you have bought has been checked to make sure it is in good condition before it gets to you, and it will almost certainly come with a year’s warranty.
However, you could choose to buy privately. This way, you could save money because there is no ‘middle-man’ who needs to make a profit. But this is more risky because you don’t have the guarantee that someone has checked the car. To help minimise this risk, you could buy a car which has at least six months left on the MOT.
You may take a qualified mechanic along with you when you inspect the car. This might cost you at the outset, but it could save you a fortune if the car has hidden problems that you wouldn’t otherwise have known about.
You can find people advertising cars for sale in magazines distributed in supermarkets, in the motoring section in your local newspaper, and on many websites.
If you are feeling especially lucky, you could even buy from a local or online auction. One website claims that a car is bought on its website every 2 minutes! If you do want to try buying this way, it may be a good idea to look for cars as close as possible to where you live and go and inspect them with a mechanic before you make a bid.
Test drive
When you find the car you want, always insist on a test drive so you can make sure there are no big surprises when it is on the road. This can help you find any faults that won’t be obvious by just looking at the car, as well as finding out if you like how it drives.
Haggle!
Haggling is how we debate with the owner or salesman how much we want to pay for the car. Whether you are buying from a garage or the owner, you can usually get something off the advertised price. This is all part of a little game - prices are always set a little higher than they actually want for the car - so that there is a margin in it for haggling.
How to pay for your car
If you plan to pay with cash, this is very simple – go to the bank and draw the money out, or ask for a ‘banker’s draft’ if you don’t want to carry the money around.
However, many people prefer to pay a monthly repayment. If you buy at a garage, then they will normally be able to sort out finance for your car. But please be careful! This service doesn’t come for free and some will have very high rates of interest. This means you will end up paying much more in total than the “cash price”.
You are paying for the convenience of not having to pay a large sum of money in one go. Be sure to ask what the rate of interest is, and how much extra this means you will pay on top of the sale price of the car. Only when you are happy that this is a fair amount should you go ahead with the purchase.
If you buy directly from the owner, or from an auction, you need to have the cash. But you could still spread the cost by taking out a loan first. Again, pay attention to the interest rate you are paying back before you go ahead. You may find that the interest rates on personal loans are actually lower than those at the garages, so this could end up being a cheaper option.
* Some manufacturers only offer a 2 year warranty and some provide a longer guarantee – up to seven years! Check this when you buy your used car. These warranties do not include ‘wear and tear’ i.e. things like brakes which will need replacing due to normal use.
You'll find the services listed above in our "Find a..." section.
By Matt Taylor
USEFUL WORDS
second-hand = not new, owned by someone else before
private sale = sold by a regular person, not a company or business
trade-in = a method of buying a car by giving your used one as part of the payment for a new one
discount dealer = a company or person whose business sells a particular product at a reduced price
classified ads = the section in a newspaper with small advertisements (in this case offering cars for sale)
Autotrader = a popular magazine/website where you can buy new and used cars
buy for cash = pay for something in the form of notes or coins (not by credit or debit card)
GRAMMAR SPOT
Noun phrase + to-infinitive
Use a to-infinitive clause after certain verbs and adjectives:
I need to find a good second-hand car dealer
He was determined to get a better price
Use to-infinitives after nouns which are related to such verbs and adjectives:
the need to find…
the determination to get…
Is there really any need to find a second-hand car dealer?
You have to admire his determination to get a better price
The decision to raise fuel taxes has proved unpopular
He made a good attempt to negotiate a reduced price
These nouns use the same pattern:
ability need
agreement obligation
aim offer
anxiety permission
arrangement plan
choice preparations
confidence promise
deal proposal
demand refusal
desire reluctance
eagerness request
failure tendency
intention threat
move willingness
There are a number of other nouns which can take a to-infinitive including: ambition, chance, effort, idea, opportunity, power, race, reason, right, scheme, time and way.
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