Deciding What to Buy

When you're thinking about buying a second hand car, it's important to work out exactly what you need, rather than simply what you want. Don't let your heart rule over your head, as you'll probably only regret it as you struggle to try to fit your shopping or golf clubs into a tiny boot, or as you realise that the car is so huge and thirsty that you can't actually afford to drive it. Take the following factors into account when making your decision:

• When looking at how much you can afford, don't just look at the purchase price of the car; you should also look at how much it will cost to fuel, service, tax and insure.
• What sort of size and shape car do you want? Two, three, four or five door? Saloon, coupe, sports, estate, roadster, SUV (sports utility vehicle) or MPV (multi-purpose vehicle)? Will it fit into your garage?
• What do you need the car for? How much passenger space (if any) do you need? How much luggage space?
• Which type of fuel makes more sense; petrol or diesel? If you cover over 10,000 miles per year, diesel is probably best.
• Do you want an automatic or manual gearbox? If you spend a long time sitting in traffic, self-shifting gears can be a real bonus; however, cars with an automatic gearbox are always more thirsty than an equivalent manual.
• Think about what colour you want, but try to choose one that won't go out of fashion. Black, red and silver cars hold their resale value well, whilst bright colours such as yellow or orange aren't usually such a good idea.

Read up about the types of car you're thinking of buying as much as possible. There are a wide range of paper and online publications to choose from; try to look through as many as possible to get the broadest range of views and opinions. However, never buy a car purely on the strength of what you read about it; the reviewers may have quite a different opinion to you about what they like and dislike about a car. Simply read the reports to get a feel for how well regarded your list of cars are.

You'll need to bear in mind that the older the car, and higher the mileage, the more maintenance it will need. However, don't necessarily be put off by an ex-company car, even if it has a high mileage. Company cars tend to be regularly serviced, and most of their miles will have been gained whilst the engine was running hot. This is much better than a car with low-mileage that has been run almost exclusively cold - a guaranteed way to wreck an engine.