Almost new car time, what to do with old?

Winning Hand

Thinking of buying a new or second hand car, price range preferably this side of 20k. Thinking of the new civic (at a push), new astra, c4 or a new octavia. Any recommendations?

Also I will be trading in my 01 Xsara, has about 50k miles and runs perfectly with a full service history. Only thing is it has a couple of not-small dents in the bodywork, one at rear arch (not my fault) and one at the front corner (that one was me). I am wondering if it is financially worth my while to get the dents repaired to improve the trade in value or would it not be adding much to the value?
Finally I have never traded in a car before, when I see the forecourt price of a similiar model (around 6500) how much less would i get?

Slinky>

I wouldnt bother getting the dents repaired, unless you can get them spot repaired cheaply, Ive seen sales people at main dealers being very lax in appraising cars, Personally Id rather buy a car with a few honest dents and scratches than one that had been reapaired,

I reckon you'll get €4500 for yours maybe more at citreon

road_high

Go for the Civic, you can't beat the engineering or reliability!

Try the buy and sell, local papers or noticeboards for quicker sale of Xsara, emphasise the full service history, it adds greatly to a car plus give it a good cleaning before sale!

In my experience, you're always better off with no trade in going into a garage.

Henry Ford III

mfitzy wrote:

Go for the Civic, you can't beat the engineering or reliability!

Try the buy and sell, local papers or noticeboards for quicker sale of Xsara, emphasise the full service history, it adds greatly to a car plus give it a good cleaning before sale!

In my experience, you're always better off with no trade in going into a garage.

But you can beat the engine noise, harsh suspension and tinny build

I'd say fix the bumps properly, and sell privately.

JohnBoy

you'll get more privately, get a price on the repairs, then see what you're being offered for the car, most places will only maybe look at the car at the time of serious dealing, but they'll put a value on the car very quickly.

Stephen

JohnBoy's right about the dealers putting a value on a car quickly. I traded my old '00 Fiesta Zetec with 72,000 miles in when I bought my (used) Hyundai Coupe. I gave the dealer the keys while i took the Coupe out for a test drive and he clearly only gave the car the most cursory of checks, given the relatively good price he offered for it. It was mechanically perfect, frequently serviced (by a backstreet garage rather than main dealer), ran very well indeed, but it had a couple of small but annoying issues: Utter poverty spec, with a crack in the bumper, knackered passenger door lock (locks but doesn't open except from the inside), scratches on one side from some pr1ck with too much time in his hands and foglights filled with water

As I mentioned, the dealer gave me a good offer for the fiesta, considering private asking prices in the likes of the CBG. I'm sure he can get those things wrong with it fixed for a hell of a lot cheaper than most of his customers.

Mc-BigE

You'd be surprised what you can buy for under 20K! Second hand!

Would you consider buying in the UK? You will get some nice 4 or 5 year old German cars for that price range (about 10K sterling+euro conversion+VRT)

I wouldn't recommend buying any car new, it depends on what you like.
But if you have to, buy something that will hold its value the most, like Japanese (civic was mentioned, good choice).

Remember that the SSIA's are approaching and dealers will be flooded with second hand cars, and probably will start getting picky about what they trade-in and will give you s**t money for it.

Also the private seller will have more second hand cars to choice from because of same.

Sell you car now, before the SSIA's mature.

colm_mcm

It isn't worth your while getting them repaired. Any half decent salesman will spot bodywork a mile off, and will pull back the (already low) price a bit to allow for this.

Winning Hand

Thanks for the advice, will put up photos of the bodywork tomorrow just to make sure it isnt worth my time getting them fixed.

Insurance question now, have come across a couple of nice 03 accords for around 15k at the dealer I bought this car from (well below my budget). They are 1.8 VTECs and I am wondering how i will get nailed for insurance (23 full licence 1yr NCB 3yrs Named driver with wife who is 24 with provisional). Online hibernian quote was for 1800 but it mentioned that vtecs are not included.

Darando

If you want to get a rough idea then ring somewhere like quoteline www.quoteline.ie , 0818 223344, they do lots of insurance companies. will give a ball park figure.

if they say its too powerful etc (dont see why it should fall into this category) then there are places for high performance cars. www.arb.ie

Mc-BigE

you could try www.123.ie also