Attempting to buy my first car, but it all seems confusing!

Decide on which car you finally want and go to a broker, I saved 1500 on my

1st brand new car purchase.

Get a bank loan if you need extra to buy your car. Personally I would say just use your 2000 to buy a second-hand corsa or something like that and don't borrow anything.

If you want new, then arrange your finance (I use Abbey, very quick, very cheap) and try somewhere like

a friend of mine has bought two cars from there and had good service.

mrcheerful

Lynne ( snipped-for-privacy@dsl.pipex.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Why not buy a car with the £2k - alone? There's plenty of excellent cars to choose from out there, without signing your life away.

The message from "Lynne" contains these words:

Spend a grand on a nice second hand car and keep the rest in a bank account for servicing. DO NOT TAKE OUT AN EXTENDED WARRANTY, use the money you put aside instead.

The money you would have spent on a loan - spend on something nice instead.

Best advice. I've been driving a long (long) time and never had a new car. Never broken down badly enough to stop me getting home. Most cars are reliable if properly serviced. DaveK.

I concur - Pick up something ubiquitous like an Escort - it's a known quantity, parts will be available for ever, and they drive ok.

You can pick up a good early mark 6 for under £1000, servicing is less than £100 a pop, and even big repairs are not that big - I've just had my CV joints, and front Wishbones done for £200 all in.

A secondhand car will also have had all the "new car" bugs ironed out...

And you'll have one of the worst 'modern' cars money can buy. They rust, they drive like something out of the 80s and ISTR some came with engines from the 60s.

Cheap to get parts for, possibly, but you'll need them..... and any money you have left will be used battling the rot.

If the OP doesn't need the space there's plenty of K11 'bubble' shape Micras out there for under £2k. Probably the most reliable small car ever made.

Yup. Aren't the Mk7s supposed to be a pretty good improvement over the horrible Mk5/6s? ISTR even you saying that yourself, Steve, that they weren't at all bad cars, and actually drove reasonably ok.

The RS2000 was OK, the rest were what the MkV should have been, so instead of being a throw back to the 80s, they just about clung on to the bottom of the class when launched in the mid 90s.

There's vastly better choices out there..... although the very last Escorts had improved the ride and handling, they still suffer the rust problems of the MkV and VI.

DC Cook Direct have been advertising pre-registered Corsa for £5300 with a sensible finance package, something like 8.3%APR including fees for 60 months. Five years is a long time mind you.

Huw

I've heard that DC Cook are s**te to deal with in terms of delivery times. Some friends of ours ordered a new Avensis through them and it took about

4-5 months all in all until they took delivery. Not sure what delivery time they were given, but it wasn't that long by a long stretch. As usual with these types of company, they cover themselves with plenty of disclaimers about not guaranteeing delivery times though.

I know someone that got a brand new Corsa CDTI - some sort of 'special edition' one with alloys and air-con, for £4500 brand new (well, her Dad had some reward points on his Mastercard that got £2k off a new Vauxhall, so that wasn't the price anyone could have got it for), and on 0% finance over

4 years. Now that's a good deal. But it's *still* a Corsa. Bloody good engine though.

As others have said if it is your first car spend £2000 on it and leave the finance. You can usually get something perfectly good for £2000, you just have to remember to keep it in good condition.

£6000 is getting into just about new prices, can you afford that?

Firstly have you considered it may be best to spend the 2k and buy a smart and tidy motor for maybe 2-3 yrs initially. If you have recently passed your test, you are going to have a scrape or two, however careful you are.

Spend the 2k, dont borrow anything, dont buy extended warranties- properly service the car in the first place.

2k will buy you a lovley Ka, or Corsa, or similar.

Go on word of mouth when it comes to dealers. For this sort of car aim for a small independant family owned business who will be gentle with you and be helpful and guiding, rather than trying to sell you something on their forecourt they've been unable to shift for 6 months. Take a friend who knows abit about cars, and never buy the first thing you see.

Tim..

The message from "Mark Hewitt" contains these words:

And would you want to?

Paul Cummins ( snipped-for-privacy@cummins.ie.eu.org) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Or you can pick up an early Focus for £2k, and have an INFINITELY better car.

Or better still IMO. Take a friend who knows, and buy an even better car s/h. Mike.

I concur - Pick up something ubiquitous like an Escort - it's a known quantity, parts will be available for ever, and they drive ok.

You can pick up a good early mark 6 for under £1000, servicing is less than £100 a pop, and even big repairs are not that big - I've just had my CV joints, and front Wishbones done for £200 all in.

A secondhand car will also have had all the "new car" bugs ironed out...

With that kind of outlay get an HPI to check its status and an independant inspection for mechanical/ damage problems. Even respectable dealers see some people as a milk cow. Main dealers should be OK as they have a reputation to protect.

"Hirsty's" wrote

Path! Buyer beware. No used car is perfect, it has been 'used' after all and some wear is normal. Always budget to spend some money on an used car because even an used car warranty will only cover the big bits, and then not all of any cost. These issues are why an used car is so much cheaper than a new one. The saving is usually massively more than any repair or wear cost though.

Huw