First time nerves - please advise

Hi seeing as though you don't seem to know too much my best advice would be to try and buy a car from a main dealer (i.e somewhere that sells new brands Opel, Ford etc.) as opposed to a private sale or one from a place only dealing in used cars. Thats not to suggest that most used car dealers are dodgy but it will probably lessen your chances of being stung.

If you're only looking for a small car like a Corsa/Micra/Clio etc. you'll find that a good few main dealers will have 01/02s in stock but anything older than 5years big places generally don't sell. Definitely look for a warranty. Push for at least 6months. Always haggle on the price. As somebody with no trade in you should be looking at getting at least a few hundred if not a grand off the asking price. You'd be absolutely mad not to haggle. If you're buying from a good source you probably wouldn't need to get it checked out but theres no harm in asking to see its service history and making sure it has been regularly serviced and checking to see what work has been carried out by the garage.

www.carzone.ie is a very good source for used cars.
Good luck with the search!

if its of any help, i just bought a car, second hand.

i had assumed that the only way to go was private, i had a particular model i wanted - been watching the private adds in buy and sell, irish times etc and carzone for a few weeks now.

in the end i got a car through a main dealership - outside dublin - it was cheaper than any private sale in dublin and cheaper than any of the garages in dublin.

perhaps some of the dealers are anxious to get rid of some of the older second hand models now, in anticipation of a lot of trade ins from now on, with the SSIA money etc?? also, when someone trades in an older car, they probably get very little for it, so the dealers can be competitive.

and, if you are as 'green' as you say, a warranty from a main dealer is handy. i plan on clocking up a good few miles in the warranty period, more than i would usually intend to drive - in the hope that if anything will go wrong, i'll make it go wrong before i have to pay to fix it!

i'm sure most people who sell privately are decent - i've got rid of a few motorbikes through the buy and sell - all were mint - but equally, you never know if some cowboy has a huge problem with a car and they just want to get rid of it - if you dont know what you're doing be careful buying private.

Hi Pisces,

Welcome to AAM.

A read thru these key posts might give you some good advice especially on the possibility of outstanding loans on second-hand cars bought privately or from a garage.

[broken link removed] service provided by the AA might well be worth your while in light of your lack of knowledge on buying a car. It might help to put your mind at rest and possibly save you money in the long run.

Thanks very much for all the really good feedback everyone. I'm going down the country this weekend so I might see if I can get anything cheaper.

I have been checking out autotrader, cbg, and buyandsell so it's just a matter of doing something now.

Thanks again,
Pisces

I personally think that a too much emphasis is based on a dealer versus private sale. Firstly all private sales are like dealers prices subject to being knocked back. Private sales are definitely cheaper and sometimes by thousands. At that point you have to weigh up how much your 3 month warranty is actually costing you. For example if the car you are buying hasn't huge mileage and is less than 5 years old the chances of somehing going wrong that will cost 2k to fix in the first 3 months are slim to none. Put the 2k saving in a bank and wait until after your warranty would have expired. Even if you have dipped into it by a few hundred euro you are still quids in.
I wouldn't pay any more than 1k more to a dealer for a car that was available privately.

Don't know if it helps but recently sold a 02 Polo with 26K miles for 8500K. Told afterwards I was luck to get that and 8K would have been closer to the mark.

It was an excellent car so if you shop around and are patient you should get a good deal for the 7-8K price range. Good Luck !!

the first SSIA's are maturing this week!, so you should be seeing trade in cars coming into dealers from next week onwards.
Be Patient, don't take any Salesmans crap! and Haggle for 1 year full warranty, take printouts of private and dealer Carzone cars for sale and because of the current climate of car prices dropping (except in dealers!...NOT FOR LONG!) try to get as close to the private sale price as possible.

Good Luck and have fun!

Use past posts to get a short list of cars you want to look at, my personal recommendation is a Yaris (but I'm biased).
Look at getting a small engine, 1-1.2L, as a new driver you want to build your confidence, a larger engine can leave you feeling that its driving you.
Look for a car with non body coloured bumpers, they are more forgiving of minor 'mishaps', check out the driving postion in the car, how much visibility do you have in front, behind, out side windows when turning... Is the postion comfortable, you may end up spending hours there, so comfort is a necessity, play around with the seat setting, higher, forward, change the wheel setting (if the car has that option), check where the spare is (fiestas at 1 stage kept them under the car so you had to open the boot and undo a bolt to get the wheel down, not user friendly on wet roads...).
Put a shortlist together, ie Micra / fiesta / yaris, and test drive them from a garage, you're not buying on this trip, but use it to guage prices, warranty options and do you actually like driving the car. If necessary bring a friend whose sole responsibility is to ensure you don't buy anything... also use friends own experiences with cars, good ones / bad ones.
Good luck to you.