Thoughts on new car

[kingleds]

I'm looking to buy a newer car. Not wanting to spend more than £2k, less if at all poss.

I need something to fit the camping gear in so am looking at vectras & mondeos, dull as they are, they do the job!

My question is, is it better to go for one with lower mileage, but a bit older, or younger, but higher mileage. I have not owned a 'big' car before. With smaller cars I've always gone for lower mileage, but I guess bigger cars like the ones I'm looking at have done lots of motorway miles, and will have been pretty well looked after?

 

[jo-85]

Don't hold me to this as i cant say i know too much about cars or buying them but advice I've been given in the past about cars is usually younger cars with higher mileage particularly that type Of car are usually business cars and the higher mileage is motorway mileage as u say so not so much wear and tear on the car. Also usually better looked after as u say, again as they are business cars. Don't really know if that tells u anymore than u already knew tbh!!

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[jaylou]

^^ What she said! Especially if you go for a diesel, high mileage doesn't mean much these days as cars are built pretty well.
Ex company cars are good as they are maintained well and always serviced etc, everything is done on them but they are not looked after quite so well inside (I speak only for me!) - I treat my own car far far better than I do a company car!

 

[Mrs.S.]

^^ What she said! Especially if you go for a diesel, high mileage doesn't mean much these days as cars are built pretty well.
Ex company cars are good as they are maintained well and always serviced etc, everything is done on them but they are not looked after quite so well inside (I speak only for me!) - I treat my own car far far better than I do a company car!

Spot on!!

Ex fleet are fantastic. They'll have been maintained because they have to be legally!!

Speak with a diesel you can't go wrong xx

 

[fillymum]

Hire cars are amazingly well looked after too. We have had several and always been happy with them.

This made very interesting reading.....................Used Car Guide: estates - Used car guide - MSN Cars UK

 

[kingleds]

Am glad my initial thoughts are right, newer with higher mileage it is then. I've seen some diesel with 90k on them but only a 56 plate for my budget. My mum said that 90k is barely even run in on a diesel, but then she's rubbish so I did take that with a bucket load of salt

It's time like these I wish I'd married a bloke who liked cars! Steve's next to useless when it comes to this stuff.

 

[MadameLaMinx]

Having just been through all this, and having a former mechanic for a husband, I would say that older with lower mileage for petrol engines is better. Your mum is actually right in that a diesel engine is barely run in by the time its got to 90k, a petrol engine however is going to maybe have no more than 50-60k left in it at best, unless the engine has been replaced or reconditioned, in which case that is a moot point.

We looked at a car, and to the untrained eye looked fantastic, same family had owned it, full service history, looked great, but OH decided against it because it had 140k on the clock.

Mondeos are awesome cars though, thats what we had before this one. It was an absolute shed but it sailed through an MOT because there was nothing they could fail it on, despite it having seen much better days. Bear in mind also that diesel isn't cheaper than petrol in terms of day to day running costs any more, in fact it is substantially higher per litre.

Can I recommend the Honest John website when looking at various cars, they don't sell them, just review them and we found it a very useful source of information about the pros and cons of any particular model.

www.honestjohn.co.uk

We found that the world is pretty much your oyster when it comes to bigger cars at the moment. It's a buyers market for anything over about 1.6, its the small cars that are hard to source, as people take advantage of the tax rates and inflating petrol costs to go with smaller engines.

Something else to be aware of is the emissions on newer cars, as they are what the road tax is based on. Anything pre early 2001, is rated on the old system. Anything registered from mid 2001, so that's some Y reg, and onwards, is taxed on emissions so do check what you are likely to be looking at there.

 

[kingleds]

That makes sense to me Minxy. I would not touch a petrol car with over 80k on it really. But diesels I think you're okay to go a bit over 100k.

In reality, it's gonna drive the m3,m25,m4 most weekdays, a few trips up the M1 & M6 maybe. I don't expect whatever I get to last me for 10 years. In fact, if it lasts me 2 years, and then I replace it with another £2k car I'll be happy. Over 10 years that's still cheaper than a £10k car, as I can save £2k over 2 years to pay for the next one. Iykwim?