Buying a new car

[Family guy]

Thinking of buying a new car,is it a good time of the year to be buying?A few have said it's a bad time to be buying as it's a sellers market.Has any of yous went to England to buy before and what are the best websites to look on over there?Would it be wiser to buy from a dealer or take ney chances buying private?

[GJL]

When you say new I take it you mean second hand? What type of car are you thinking of?

[Denn Forever]

Do a straw poll of your friends to see what Make makes them happy.  If you don't have a lot of knowledge of cars, an independent dealer may be wisest but make sure they service them as well as just selling them like GJL.

I would suggest that Japanese cars though soulless are pretty indestructible mechanically.  Now all makes are pretty good though French cars don't seem to be well thought of.   VAG cars e.g. VW, Audis and their clones (Seat, Skoda) are also good.

Happy hunting.

[Family guy]

When you say new I take it you mean second hand? What type of car are you thinking of?

Yeah second hand,but something fairly fresh,I hear ones saying to go to England as 90 percent of the dealers is all soon that and to cut out the middle man

[StephenC]

When you say new I take it you mean second hand? What type of car are you thinking of?

Yeah second hand,but something fairly fresh,I hear ones saying to go to England as 90 percent of the dealers is all soon that and to cut out the middle man

This is true but don't forget to factor in the hassle, time and risk associated with you doing it yourself.

[Hereiam]

I have bought my last 3 cars from England. I wouldn't buy a car from here again. It is a bit of hassle but you do get a better car if it has done mostly motorway miles.

[supersarsfields]

If your spending decent money then there's definitely more value in England. Bought a couple over there from the large Car supermarkets in around London. We planned it well so that we flew over had a weekend away and then bought the car and drove home on the ferry. Real easy. But do your research before hand. We chopped a good £1.5 -2K of an A4 a couple of years ago.

[andoireabu]

Remember that if you are from the south to factor in the vrt cost as well.

[illdecide]

I'm after an upgrade myself...looking for something around £7k - £8k. Honda Civic or Seat Leon something like that but what year would you get for that sort of money?

[GJL]

I'm after an upgrade myself...looking for something around £7k - £8k. Honda Civic or Seat Leon something like that but what year would you get for that sort of money?

That sort of money will get you into a nice 2011 1.6tdi Leon with good spec.

[theskull1]

Are the smaller diesel engines up to big mileage GJL? In my mind they wouldn't but I'm not basing that on evidence.

[Zulu]

I was set on buying a used car but some of the deals (dealer contribution and 0% finance) are starting to make a new car financed on PCP look like a good idea, am I missing something?

[mylestheslasher]

I've bought a good few cars in England and have an interest in them. I assume the person in the OP is from the south. It used to be a no brainer going to the UK to buy as sterling was weak but today sterling is strong. I would say it comes to a basic question of maths. Get the sterling price, convert to euro, add couple of hundred to cover flights, go to revenue.ie to calculate your VRT. Then compare this price to say carzone.ie for the same model and then make your mind up.

In my opinion cars in the UK on average are in better condition and better looked after than in Ireland but there's manys a gangster about clocking cars so make sure someone gives it a good look over (same can happen in Ireland too of course).

Now there are also a lot of dealers (in fact nearly every dealer) in the south bringing in cars from the UK and in many cases they can buy them cheaper than you could if you went over yourself. Today I would say there is feck all saving on most models that you cant get here. The ones that fleece you are the main dealers and most of them are selling the same UK 2nd hand yokes.
Japs are good etc etc. Toyota are making plenty of mistakes and in all honesty most cars have some issue or the other. Even some of  the French cars are much improved, especially Peugeot. Id stay away from Renault personally. THe only car I very seldom hear complaints about are Hondas which seem indestructible.

Zulu - 0% finance is a great way to have a new car but do you really need a new car? If I were you I'd compare the cost of 0% finance on a new model versus say a 12 month old car in the same model with less than 10k on the clock (and likely 2 years warranty remaining). Do you really want to pay the difference just to have "15" on the number plate??? Only you can answer  that one.

[Tony Baloney]

I've bought a good few cars in England and have an interest in them. I assume the person in the OP is from the south. It used to be a no brainer going to the UK to buy as sterling was weak but today sterling is strong. I would say it comes to a basic question of maths. Get the sterling price, convert to euro, add couple of hundred to cover flights, go to revenue.ie to calculate your VRT. Then compare this price to say carzone.ie for the same model and then make your mind up.

In my opinion cars in the UK on average are in better condition and better looked after than in Ireland but there's manys a gangster about clocking cars so make sure someone gives it a good look over (same can happen in Ireland too of course).

Now there are also a lot of dealers (in fact nearly every dealer) in the south bringing in cars from the UK and in many cases they can buy them cheaper than you could if you went over yourself. Today I would say there is feck all saving on most models that you cant get here. The ones that fleece you are the main dealers and most of them are selling the same UK 2nd hand yokes.
Japs are good etc etc. Toyota are making plenty of mistakes and in all honesty most cars have some issue or the other. Even some of  the French cars are much improved, especially Peugeot. Id stay away from Renault personally. THe only car I very seldom hear complaints about are Hondas which seem indestructible.

Zulu - 0% finance is a great way to have a new car but do you really need a new car? If I were you I'd compare the cost of 0% finance on a new model versus say a 12 month old car in the same model with less than 10k on the clock (and likely 2 years warranty remaining). Do you really want to pay the difference just to have "15" on the number plate??? Only you can answer  that one.

Would agree in principle but it is a good way for someone to pay off a new car (with safety of full warranty etc) on a monthly basis rather than trying to dredge up 20 grand cash. An equivalent loan is obviously going to have interest.

[annapr]

I've bought a good few cars in England and have an interest in them. I assume the person in the OP is from the south. It used to be a no brainer going to the UK to buy as sterling was weak but today sterling is strong. I would say it comes to a basic question of maths. Get the sterling price, convert to euro, add couple of hundred to cover flights, go to revenue.ie to calculate your VRT. Then compare this price to say carzone.ie for the same model and then make your mind up.

In my opinion cars in the UK on average are in better condition and better looked after than in Ireland but there's manys a gangster about clocking cars so make sure someone gives it a good look over (same can happen in Ireland too of course).

Now there are also a lot of dealers (in fact nearly every dealer) in the south bringing in cars from the UK and in many cases they can buy them cheaper than you could if you went over yourself. Today I would say there is feck all saving on most models that you cant get here. The ones that fleece you are the main dealers and most of them are selling the same UK 2nd hand yokes.
Japs are good etc etc. Toyota are making plenty of mistakes and in all honesty most cars have some issue or the other. Even some of  the French cars are much improved, especially Peugeot. Id stay away from Renault personally. THe only car I very seldom hear complaints about are Hondas which seem indestructible.

Zulu - 0% finance is a great way to have a new car but do you really need a new car? If I were you I'd compare the cost of 0% finance on a new model versus say a 12 month old car in the same model with less than 10k on the clock (and likely 2 years warranty remaining). Do you really want to pay the difference just to have "15" on the number plate??? Only you can answer  that one.

Would agree in principle but it is a good way for someone to pay off a new car (with safety of full warranty etc) on a monthly basis rather than trying to dredge up 20 grand cash. An equivalent loan is obviously going to have interest.

do you not have to pay a hefty enough deposit though? I looked into buying a new Kia Sportage. I had to have €8k up front then I was going to be paying €240 every month and I wouldn't even own the car after 3 years as there was an option at the end of the contract to buy it outright for another few grand.I guess the other option means handing the car back??
If I got a loan from the credit union I could buy a 2013 Sportage,same repayments and nothing up front as the loan would cover the full amount and I own the car in 3 years.
Maybe I'm missing something also when it comes to finance from the car dealer as to be honest I did find the whole thing rather confusing. Probably my own stupidity but the salesman didn't help with how he explained it.
Still haven't bought anything yet.