What Car Should I Buy?

How about viewing the car before the auction ends?

How about viewing the car before the auction ends?
what he said

It's caveat emptor, if you won it, you bought it.
So check it out in advance. ask for pictures, ask questions, go and see it if you can.

You buy the seller, not the goods. If the seller seems legit then the car should be.

I bought a car off ebay once. I was drunk, it was red. It had no MoT and had done a quarter of a million miles. It cost me £74 and the bloke delivered it from Luton. I drove it to the MoT place, it had huge rusty holes in all the suspension turrets. I scrapped it.

Do you actually need a car or just to have a licence for a year?
Don't buy one you don't need, it'll just be a money pit. Cars need to be driven often or things seize up.
If you do need one, the cheapest to insure or run is a Daewoo Matiz. Buy cheap and you may be able to sell it for as much as you paid in a year's time.

I bought a car off ebay once. I was drunk, it was red. It had no MoT and had done a quarter of a million miles. It cost me £74 and the bloke delivered it from Luton. I drove it to the MoT place, it had huge rusty holes in all the suspension turrets. I scrapped it.

Oof. Helpfully I made a resolution a long time ago to stop going near the internet whilst pissed so will hopefully be safe from this particular kind of scenario. Did you actually remember buying it, or did the guy just turn up with it? The latter would make it all even worse :-(

Do you actually need a car or just to have a licence for a year?
Don't buy one you don't need, it'll just be a money pit. Cars need to be driven often or things seize up.
If you do need one, the cheapest to insure or run is a Daewoo Matiz. Buy cheap and you may be able to sell it for as much as you paid in a year's time.

I don't need a car per se and nor do I really want one - I've got a bike and I live in London so owning a vehicle isn't very high on my list of needs. But I'm of the mind that leaving a gap of 12 months between passing and beginning to drive wouldn't be enormously clever from a road safety point of view, so it's really more about getting regular practice than it is getting around town.

Am looking at second hand Matiz listings now - the cars listed are mostly circa 10 years old and have various mechanical problems. Is that just an age thing, or are they prone to falling apart?

you're mad if you want to pay £1000+ for some experience.

you won't forget how to drive.

wait, and get someone experienced to take you out the first few times.

I, or someone on here, would be happy to.

Indeed, it's been 3 years since I passed my test and last drove a car. Since riding around in London my observation has gotten much better as a result, and i'm fairly sure i'll remember what all the pedals do when I get back in a car next.

Well... I hope so.

Spend the £1,000 on some coached track days, a skid pan day, and some fast road coaching.

That will make you a much better driver than taking the Matiz to Saino's once a week.

Also, the Matiz is a pretty miserable car- I've blown a gearbox out of that era of Daewoo when it had less than 8,000 miles on the clock.

Get yourself a Daewoo Lacetti:

YouTube - Jason Plato "What A Save" BTCC 2009 Round 1 Race 3 at Brands Hatch

nice, but that's a Daewoo Lacetti handcrafted by Ray Mallock! Saw these being prepped at the RML - at that budget it should handle well.

Hadd a Matiz for a week in Naxos - bloody loved it, it revved and souded like a clockwork toy

Buying cars from ebay unseen is easy. Either the car is as it is stated in the advert or it isn't and you don't have to go through with it. Or renegotiate.

Speaking of Daewoo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJa3SWU9qp

Indeed, it's been 3 years since I passed my test and last drove a car. Since riding around in London my observation has gotten much better as a result, and i'm fairly sure i'll remember what all the pedals do when I get back in a car next.

My car sat in Oz doing the opposite of rusting (fading in the heat?) for 5 years. I didn't drive at all while here but arriving back home got in a drove it - it's like riding a bike (trackstanding in a car is easier too). Buying a car just to have one, especially in of all places London, is a bit daft.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I just don't see how it's supposed to work on fleabay - as I understand the rules, if you bid and win, you're basically tied into buying the damn thing. It doesn't seem right that you'd just bid and buy a car without ever seeing it or driving it first, so I must be misunderstanding some crucial part of the process.

I know this is how ebay works - you bid and buy.. but if you're not paypalling and planning on paying cash, is there anything to stop you just walking away (apart from slightly bad feedback perhaps?).
I've walked away from a Bianchi once I saw it and nothing happened. I can't imagine you'd face any consequences worse than spending a grand on a lemon.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I enjoy driving - it's just difficult to justify the overall cost because I enjoy cycling moar. Also the latter is free, and I am Scottish.

Anyway I passed, and then nearly rear-ended somebody outside Balham tube station on the way back, so perhaps it would be wise to do one of the advanced driver training courses before rushing out in cars without dual controls, lolz.

Spend the £1,000 on some coached track days, a skid pan day, and some fast road coaching.

That will make you a much better driver than taking the Matiz to Saino's once a week.

I like this idea, and it's something I was going to end up doing anyway - I expect it'd be loads more fun than the aforementioned grocery run as well.

Buying a car just to have one, especially in of all places London, is a bit daft.

So, I think I want to buy a car.

Mal's going to get her licence at some point soon (I hope) and it'd be good for her to have something to drive now and then. More importantly a car here would mean I could drive to races rather than only riding WLC events that I can ride to. I'm also thinking ahead to the 24hr next year and using two support vehicles.

So, what's good and what's shit with European cars? Obviously I couldn't buy a Volvo (Dammit would want to hump it) or Vauxhall (bad rep). It'd need to be able to hold at least a bike and me. I quite fancy a WRX wagon or a BMW of some sort - black drug dealer car, big rims, you know how it is. I have no driving history in this country so I assume they will fuck me on insurance? I also assume any decent car will be expensive to insure like in Oz so I'm best sticking with common as much stuff like a VW Polo or something? Still, I'd prefer a 5-series wagon.. or maybe a nice Skyline GTR import.. hmm..

Obviously fairly vague about this shit at the moment. Still not sure I'll bother - cars are such a money pit. Maybe just for a year and then get rid of it, hmm.

Get a small car. I can fit 2 bikes (just with front wheels taken off) and two people in my fiat 500. £40 to fill up the tank and it does around 65mpg.

I also got a banging sterio

Fiat 500 are fugly, so are the Clios. One of these maybe..

:)

What's average insurance for say a Clio type thing versus a 5-series or WRX?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-BMW-530D-E61-TOURING-ESTATE-AUTOMATIC-STEPTRONIC-/170689796157?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item27bde7983d#ht_544wt_1139

Only a bit more expensive than my bike.

Thats a Fiat FSM 127 not a 500

I know. Maluch, no?

and less mileage at 122k

Ha, probably!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-impreza-wrx-wagon-import-/220848181429?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item336b93d0b5#ht_720wt_1139

Bargain. It'd only last a month but it'd be a fun month. :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-BMW-7-SERIES-740i-V8-M-Sport-Automatic-/260812280227?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3cb99f91a3#ht_1058wt_1139

Cars seem cheap over here. Buying off ebay though... ahahahahahahahaaaa

Not tempted by the Clio?

Ask Mal, I'm Polish she loves me and trusts me...........

Only if it looks like this..

The cars for me, she'll just get to drive it when I'm too hammered to work out how to call a cab home. ;)