We are in the market to buy a second hand car, sometime this year, if the current car fails the NCT. We would want a four door, reasonably large (for four people and stuff), 1.4L, for about 5k. We're based in Dublin.
Where would we go about looking for one? What can we reasonable expect to get for the money? How do we check that there isn't a loan on the car we want to buy, or that it isn't stolen?
Buy from a reputable source if your worried about being conned. A neighbour of mine paid €4,000 for a car recently only to have it repossed by the Garda as it was stolen. Seller had false registration documents, so there was no way to know.
Only yesterday a caller to RTE's Liveline highlighted a problem with buying cars secondhand. It involves innocently buying a car from an individual when in actual fact the car is really owned by a hire purchase company.
It is a little known fact but apparently a vital step when buying secondhand to check with finance companies whether the car is owned by a bank or other loan company. It wasnt entirely clear but it seemed like any financial institution has access to this central list.