Where to buy a car?

There is another option beyond modern eco car and giant dirty old diesel though - small old car with small petrol engine. We use our Fabia for weekend trips and camping too, with dog and toddler, and obviously a Forester would be much better suited to this task. But with a roof box and careful packing, we make it work.

It's a 1.4 litre, ULEZ compliant (Euro4), 182g/km CO2 and real world MPG of approx 40. So, much worse than its modern equivalent, but not exactly a climate or air quality destroyer either.

Obviously, whatever kind of car you have, the best thing for the planet is to use it less

I assume ULEZ, and, more relevant to us, the Bristol Clean Air Zone will tighten criteria at some point so that Euro 4 petrols are non-compliant.

Given the Fabia seems like it will never die, that's looking like the thing that will finally push us into a more modern (and probably slightly bigger) car

But with a roof box and careful packing, we make it work.

i'm a travel light kind of guy, unfortunately the rest of my family are not! 😂
we can get 4x bikes on and a roofbox plus all the camping gear.

our forester is an '06 plate petrol as well (also ULEZ compliant, but i don't live in london's famous london, and when we visit we use the train anyway)

Ah sweet, that's good to know thank you.

Looking at a car I'd be interested in buying. It's noted that it's been imported. Does that raise any particular flags I may not be aware of? Anything you need to ask concerning imported cars? I've done the DVLA search and the MOT - nothing of obvious concern on either. Is it worth doing one of the paid searches (RAC and AA both offer one) and if so what in particular should you be looking for? It's ~10 years old so I'm assuming outstanding finance is unlikely to be a particular concern.

Cheers

@NurseHolliday

Insurance might be weird about it. I noticed when I was looking recently that there are a tonne of great looking Japanese imports at too-good-to-be-true prices. Pretty sure it's because they're tricky to insure.

There are people who sing their praises - Japanese cars are incredibly well looked after for cultural and regulatory reasons, salt-free roads means less rust, etc. But also long lists you can find online of all the things that need to have been done right during the import/conversion process.

This is really helpful, thank you! I don't actually think it's a Japanese import, but I've asked various questions to clarify that. Very useful re insurance, I wouldn't have thought of that.

Most insurers won’t insure imports.

I insure mine through Mark Richards
https://www.japcover.co.uk/contact-us/

But in response to the original question in the title of this thread…

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Thanks for this - is it ruinously expensive? I will also be ensuring my wife who is learning (30 year old woman means there doesn't seem to be a massive uplift when I put it into price comparison sites) - I don't suppose you know if these specialist insurers are likely to be less reasonable?

No, it wasn’t noticeably different from other main insurers.

Learner wife might make a difference though

An RAC/AA evaluation won't show anything from before it was imported. I would still do an HPI check to see if it has ever been written off during its time in the UK, it can't tell you whether it was before it was imported. Unless the country it's been imported from has all the things we have here, like online MOT history, and you know it's pre-import registration, you can only go on physical evidence (service history etc). If it's a modern car and you know someone who works at that manufacturer's dealership, then they might be able to do a VIN check but it will still only tell you stuff that's been entered into the system.

Insurance is slightly more tricky but definitely not the levels that it used to be 20 years ago. There's plenty of big name insurers who will insure imports with favourable rates, but if you need to claim for the value of the car in the case of a write off, you might find they offer much lower values than you expect so you will have to push them harder in that event.

If you share the make/model I can share more specific info as if it's a car that's not a UK model you might find parts/servicing can range from being a very minor challenge to a literal nightmare.

^ this man is the car oracle, I have him 24x7 on my whatsapp

This is incredible helpful, thank you! It's a Honda Fit (so Honda Jazz) imported from Japan. Assume parts and servicing should be fine as under the hood (to my understanding) it's a Jazz....

I assume ULEZ, and, more relevant to us, the Bristol Clean Air Zone will tighten criteria at some point so that Euro 4 petrols are non-compliant.

For NOx at least the Euro 4 petrol limit is the same as the Euro 6 diesel limit, so if you banned Euro 4 petrols you’d have to also effectively ban diesels entirely to pass a rational basis test.

Yeah a Fit is the same as a Jazz so no issues on that side.

I'm assuming it's already in the country and UK registered so you don't need a crash course in how to read auction grading documents?

Exactly right - would be buying from the chap who bought from the importer.

I've got an import, I've insured through Adrian Flux, definitely a little more pricey, but I've had two claims (both not at fault in the last couple years so this is probably a factor). I'd try all the bigger insurers first, before using one of the specialists.

Then it's really just going with the stuff you've already done and making sure you can get a competitive insurance quote.

I start to talk about selling the car and some cunt has put a big dent in the bonnet. WTF? Looks like someone used the car to climb a fence or there was a fucking heavy cat sleeping on it. Owning a car is fucking stupid.

Fantastic, thanks for your advice! Looks like admiral will insure and their quote is entirely competitive so that's reassuring.

No worries! You can get some really good options on the Fit that weren't available on the Jazz in the UK, so I think it's worth the slight extra hassle.

I definitely did not send my heavy, chonky cat to dent it and lower its value.

My missus asked the neighbour and he's got two cars now so not interested. I wonder if he'll come in soon and make an offer...