UKC

Hi can anyone please advise when the best time of year to buy a car is and if used prices will crash (pun intended)?

 Thanks 

Seems to be a sellers market atm or at least from what I've seen recently. P/ex figures are well strong.

Just been quoted a trade in on my current car and it's worth about 20% more than I expected. 

Depends what you want, I don't see smaller economical cars dropping in price any time soon. anything under £3k just now is on the market 5 minutes before being snapped up and you can see newer small cars like corsas and fiestas up for silly money.

The stock of cars in the system still isn't there to meet demand and although there are more new cars entering the market now, these are subject to the same price rises as everything else just now and many people who would have bought new will be pushed into the used car market, further increasing demand. SUV's and less economical cars are cheaper by comparison just now but if you want a hatch back or anything economical it's not going to be getting any easier for a while.

I’d hold off as long as you can. I’m looking for my daughter at the moment and prices are ridiculous 

Thanks Sharpy, Ross, Stitchplate. Think I will be waiting a while. 

There are always very affordable cars around. You just need to pick something you like that most people don't want.

Take this £650 peach. It's also ULEZ compliant as an extra bonus.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202302013814023?sort=relevance&...

Just needs a little TLC, hopefully just new bushes etc for the MOT.

If you're looking at something older, the ULEZ expansion coming up in August should push a lot of mid 2000s petrols and mid 2010s and older diesels into the market. 

When to get a car? Just before you need one.

jk

My oldish yaris seems to have appreciated in the past couple of years, and looking at autotrader that doesn't seem to have changed yet... 

I'd guess that that longer you can wait the better though, as cost of living increases may mean there's simply less money in the market? The shortage of used cars seems like a medium term problem now, and the effect of reduced new registrations during 2021&2022 will continue to be felt for years in the used market I'd imagine.

Have heard anecdotally that 4x4s are a bit cheaper outside winter, and guess it might be interesting to see if ULEZ changes down south affect the market. Also supposedly around the time that number plates get incremented in March / September can be good as cars of a certain age stay to 'look' older, and more people get new cars then hence higher supply of second hand cars. Doubt any of that will be too significant though. 

Wow I really hadn't realised what a seller's market it is! Just checked Auto trader and apparently, I can sell my 8-year-old SUV for what I bought it for 5 years ago! If only I could get something else cheap once I sold it!

If you can wait for JLR to have filled their backlog orders, then the semi conductor shortage that sent second hand car prices sky high will well and truly be over and second hand prices should drop again.

Also don't bother looking at new Jimnies, once they stopped importing because of emissions laws the price started climbing and hasn't come down yet.

Apart from that unfortunately cars don't seem to have a season to buy like motorcycles do.

And there in lays (sp) the issue. Everything else goes up proportionally 🤷‍♂️ 

Unless you trade in on a new car then a 'saving' can be made as they don't seem to have gone up as much. 

I bought my daughter a six year old Meriva at Christmas. The price seemed consistent with the Polo we bought when she was learning nine years ago. No shortage of cars either if you are prepared to buy nationwide. We’re in Scotland but bought over the web in Fleetwood.

Lovely car.

But as an older Merc owner - go in with open eyes!! 

22 years old, 6 previous owners, 120k on the clock, no MOT and has been sat in a garage for 12 months….

If you bought it I predict it’ll be seeing quite a lot more of the garage 😂

Back when they were well built

Probably means at least 6 oil changes then.

Low mileage I know. I'm used to much higher.

Ye, this is a concern

Better than sat outside for 12 months

No. Garages cost money and don't put as much love into repairs. With a little effort cars are cheap to maintain. At least older ones are. 

Mine's back in tomorrow for the 3rd time this week.... 

What's wrong with it?

If you're so convinced put an offer in but the history stinks and the advertiser may tell you it's been in a garage for 12 months but Gov reg check tells me it's not been taxed for over 2 years.

You say peach. I say lemon 😂

New rear pads and discs Monday (which was a job I knew needed doing).

Now I have a new, scary shaking / vibration on braking at speeds +50mph and nice hot discs - along with the lovely brakey smell. 

They looked at it again for me today and said all was fine. It was not. All symptoms still very much present. 

I suspect that I also need new rear calipers as well. Hopefully that can be sorted. It's lucky I bike commute! 

When it's working well, I love that car. At the moment though, I'm working out how much I can get if I sell! :P 

I don't think the Merc can be blamed too much for that.

Sounds like you've got warped front discs, probably from binding and then overheating.

Brake fluid gets wet and corrodes the pistons. As well as the caliper brackets getting crusty that carries the pads. One or both of these is usually the reason for binding brakes.

Happens to any car eventually.

Although warped discs shouldn't be hard to diagnose so could be something strange going on.

Def not front discs. I whacked new fronts on a couple of months back (discs and pads). Plus, I can't feel any juddering through steering wheel - it's all rears.  

I suspect it's the rear pistons. 

To be fair, it's relatively reliable for an older vehicle and there's lots to like. 

Just delay as long as possible, whilst it will feel essential once you have it and adapt your life to it, they are a money pit... value depreciation, repairs, mot, tax, insurance, fuel, parking, tolls....

It's a ringer, no mot is a massive warning, they know it'll fail so haven't done it. 22 years, low miles, but at that age lots of rubber seals, joints and gaskets will be wearing out, whilst mechanically solid there is work ahead, with expensive spares. 

 > I suspect it's the rear pistons

Oh dear. 

Assuming your new rear pads and disks are already toast you may have to have a stern word with the garage.

They shouldn't be fitting new disc and pads of the calipers are binding.

I've never experienced this but the interweb is always talking about collapsed Flexi hoses on the inside that can cause brakes to bind with no external clues 

Good luck

I look for these as this is where the bargains are to be had.

You just need to be certain (as you can) that the engine and gearbox are in good order.

I often walk away from electrical stuff and rust as I find it too time consuming (or impossible in some cases).

Everything else is just nuts and bolts. Swap the part. Job done.

Seriously, I’d look a bit harder.

Before I’ll even step on a forecourt I’ll do a government reg check. Totally free and takes a couple of minutes. You’ll get it’s MOT and tax status. Mileage when tested, what it’s failed on and any advisories.

Take the Merc in question: failed a few years ago for illegal plates and illegal tints on the lights, which to my eyes strongly hints at a history of donuts and burnouts in Maccies car park. 
Last MOT 30 months ago initially failed it on structural corrosion, amongst other stuff, advisories included leaking oil. 
It managed 1400 miles after that MOT before something catastrophic enough happened for the owner to take it off the road and not bother renewing the road tax which expired 27 months ago.

In summary, more red flags than Red Square on May Day and I didn’t even need to drag my arse off the sofa.

This bit made me chuckle