Hello. Just want to get an opinion from people on buying a used car from Birmingham (Solihull to be precise).

I’ve always been told to avoid buying from the area but this is an approved used BMW from the dealership. Makes me think I’ll be fine but I would never buy a car from a private seller / dealership thats not authorised (no offence to anyone from Birmingham).

Haven’t viewed the car in person yet as it’s still being prepared and I’m not local.

Thanks in advance.

Morning all.

I’ve been looking for a particular car for a while, and a great example has come up - however it has outstanding finance, and due to the higher price, the owner would like to “settle it after payment”.

Obviously me paying the full cost is never going to happen, so I was searching for workarounds. I’ve heard that one option is to:

1. Call the finance company and confirm the amount fully.
2. Pay him the difference of the finance and the sale price
3. He signs the car over
4. You ring the insurance company and pay off the rest of the debt

Does anyone have any experience with this method? I am absolutely not keen on this, but curious if anyone has done it before.

Thank you

Are these numbers going to chew up my tyres on the rear?

Car is on 158k miles, so it'll be a refresh on the rear with OEM parts, probably looking at around £400 to replace the whole lot myself.

Would you say run it as is? Or get the job done proper and sort the alignment?

My OCD says get the job done..

It’s a 2013 Toyota aygo with 61k miles for £3.4k. Test drove it and drove fine but sounded a little loud, I’m only used to driving bigger cars so that might be normal?

Hello! I’m useless at cars and haven’t had one in a while due to city living. Buying one now as I’m pregnant, it’ll just be me and the baby but my main would likes on a car are safety, reliability, ideally car play some nice perks like heated seats! My budget is 10k but can push few k higher, ideally relatively new (7 years or so? For safety features and reliability). Family live couple hundred miles away so will be motorway stints otherwise just local stuff. Are SUVs safest? Any ideas would be so welcome thank you!! Xx

I've sold my spares or repair car on ebay. The new owner is coming to have a look at the car today and will pay for the car. However, he can't take it with him today. My question is, as soon as he paid for the car it's legally his car. Do I have to cancel the insurance right away or wait until the car gets picked up next week by a trailer? The car is also SORN.

What’s a good second car with a budget of 10 - 12k. Mainly looking for a car that looks good inside and out and that is also reliable.

Need some advice regarding reliability and running costs regarding these cars. Looking to buy a used Renault Megane RS trophy mk4, Focus St Mk4 with performance pack or OG BMW m2. I always had fwd hot hatchbacks. I live in Scotland so would I even have the chance to enjoy M2 in Scottish weather? Really like the looks of Megane RS. Looking for advice as there is not a lot of these cars for sale local to me so test drive is not that possible. Or any other suggestions for similar cars. Thanks

Hi all,

As title suggests, I'm looking to change cars. Always had an interest in EV's but haven't looked into it too much.

I drive around 7-8,000 miles a year. Main week consists of 60 mile round trip to office once or twice a week and then a longer run of 160/170 miles once or twice a month. We have a family car too for longer trips, I rarely do long trips in my car.

At home charging will be doable as have a driveway.

Budget would be around £300 a month or £16/17k.

Looking for something that is practical for having a car seat in and space for a pram in boot on the odd occasion.

Have moved out of London so need a car.

Have about £4k spare having just bought a house.

Needs to be auto, reliable, practical (ideally an estate). Bluetooth phone, audio and DAB would be good too.

Been looking at A4s but most are high mileage plus they need cambelt and water pump. Last runaround was an A4 that was pretty reliable for many years, though did have some expensive repair towards the end, hence not sure about another. I guess all VAGs will be similar.

Edit: manual not an option as I have to drive with hand controls…contrary to popular belief disabled people don’t get a free brand new car ha.

Edit 2: Budget around £4k - could stretch a little.

Thanks.

Don’t know if this is a win, only been driving a year.

Been paying 83 a month (250 voluntary excess… scary) cos I can’t afford annual.

This year 71 a month (0 voluntary excess)

Admiral just sent renewal of 81.. 2 quid get in

Said I was leaving on the website and they gave me the update premium calculator.

I said that aviva offered me like somet daft like 65, they said we can do 71? I was like deal.

All the compare websites offered me lowest 75.

I was playing around on howmanyleft , going through my old cars and the one with fewest remaining was the Renault 19 16v, a mere 7 still on the road with 108 sorn.

What's yours?

Hi everyone,

As the title says, I’m wondering what it would cost to import a car purely for its parts. I’m trying to make a custom conversion on my car and have found a good value damaged car from Japan, but need to figure out if it’s cheaper to have the seller ship the parts to me, or if I ship the whole car to the uk, import it just for parts and without being road registered, then scrap the remaining parts.

Anyone have any idea how this all works? Is it even possible to import a car just for parts?

Thanks all!

Selling my current car to free up a little more £ for a house deposit.

Need to find a cheap runaround for 2-3k. I barely drive because of WfH, so will be pushing 100 miles/week tops. Just need something to last me 6 months maximum.

Have only driven polos/fabias before - before I look for another, any recommendations?

Cheers

Good morning car lovers

As a motor trade professional of 20 years I wondered if you'd see value in being able to consult me for advice on how to sell your car or how to buy a car? It's easy I feel for professionals to forget that generally people don't know how to go about navigating these things are as a result find it anxiety inducing or exposes themselves to potential risk or scams...

Want to upgrade our car as now we have a baby we are quickly realising we need more space. Probably thinking an estate. Approx 5 years old.

Good rear leg room is a must for car seats and I am pretty tall.

As we park in a small village where not many have driveways, we rely on on street parking. The roads are narrow so it's better to have a narrower car if possible. Cars generally seem to be so wide now.

We currently have a Mazda3 2016.

Any recommendations for car brands to look at would be appreciated.

I’m a mum who’s moving back to the UK soon. Looking for something larger with a big boot for things like my kid’s bike/nieces pram , or the dog or a lot of food shopping.

Safety and space are key. I do not care at all about design/colour/coolness haha.

I’d prefer an estate or an SUV but a people carrier would be ok too. Needs to be reliable as you can see I’m on a budget. I don’t know where to start, I was considering maybe a Volvo estate or a Nissan qashqai but I’ve heard mixed reviews. Also a lot of cars are coming up on auto trader with 150,000+ miles.

Just looking for some advice from people who know cars better than me! Thanks

Edit - thank you for all the responses you’re a really helpful group of car lovers! I now have much better insight into what I should be looking for. Much appreciated!!!

Hi guys need a bit of advice I bought a 2013 automatic mk7 vw golf with 50k miles and all 4 doors have different sounds when closing and they change as well. (it’s only been 14 days since I’ve purchased it and haven’t driven it yet because I haven’t passed) I didn’t notice this when I purchased the car. Initially it was only the drivers door that had a bit of a different sound but didn’t think much as I thought the drivers door must’ve been used more so it’s normal. Later on I noticed the front passenger door started to do it as well but a bit different. The drivers door has a light metal kinda sound something like someone gave it a little slap or something and the passenger door has a sharp one like tinggg the rear doors aren’t something I’m too worried about because they sound normal but even those 2 have different sounds. So all 4 sound different I was worried so I bought one of those checks online that tell if it’s been stolen or if it has been in an accident and came totally clear. This is my first car that I have bought so I’m worried. This morning I went outside to take pictures of the car and I noticed the colour on the rear side was a bit different as well I really am confused and don’t know what to do at all as the car drives fine but has this problem The white line is where the colour looks a bit different to the rest Thanks guys!!!

I get it with Costco/supermarkets but when you’ve got other stations so cheap they got queues out onto the road, anything to be suspicious of with their fuel? How can they be a good 5% cheaper than other stations of the same company in the area?

Hi, my car got stolen the other, kia niro ev, it was taken around midnight, came out the next morning and thought wtf!! Where did i park it!

Reported it to the company who installed the tracker, they found it parked 10mins down the road, only camera ripped out, and my aipods and vapes nicked.

Now, it was parked directly outside my house, so I'm guessing they used remote entry thing that I've seen on other YT videos but I had a second immobiliser fitted, how were they still able to steal it?

Based in England.

It's been a fun night! Title hopefully sums up what's happened. A car with a failed MOT and no insurance has crashed into and written off two cars parked on the street outside our house, one of those cars being ours. The driver has done a runner, but the police have taken this all pretty seriously and even called in backup to search for them. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the driver, if they are found, doesn't have insurance. We have comprehensive insurance, but I don't know how it works regarding claiming for this sort of thing in relation to the MIB. Is it best for me to contact the insurance once I have the incident number from the police in the morning, or is it best to go through the MIB when the acident was caused by someone uninsured (or does the insurance company go through MIB? I'm very confused)? Another slight concern is that it looks like the other car that was hit (the taxi in the photo) might have been the one that hit our car. Is that something that is going to complicated an insurance claim/make life even more difficult for that car's owner? Any advice would be much appreciated. Photo of the dickheads crashed car attached.

I have a car where the insurance policy runs out in 1 month and I will get my 3rd year of no claims.

I have bought another car and it is far cheaper to insure it separately with a new insurer than to change the details with my current one.

If I insure the car today, can I say I have 3 years no claims even though I technically won’t have until next month?

I want to replace my 2015 C Class with an i-Pace, but the dealership offering the i-Pace is valuing my current one at 3k less than another dealership buying for cash, and I could likely get another 3-4k by finding a private buyer. To avoid missing the i-Pace that I really like, I was thinking of financing the full amount and then repaying half of it once my Merc is sold. Does that make any sense? Any reason I should sell the merc first? I am in Ireland, so it might be hard to find another i-Pace for this price for a while.

Looking for advice, first time dealing with this.

Bought a used 1.2 puretech about 2 weeks ago with a new cambelt, full service, etc from an AA approved dealer on a credit card (partially). Yesterday noticed a rainbow coloured puddle under the car while parked in the rain. Today I spread cardboard and confirmed it's an oil leak (few drops). Haven't located the source, oil is still topped above max though.

My understanding is I should be able to request a full refund from the dealer since it's been less than 30 days. I'm wondering if I should

1. Inform the dealer and request a refund
2. Inform the dealer and request a repair
3. Book in a comprehensive vehicle check from AA for documented independent proof (~£200)
4. Take it to my local garage to for diagnosis and repair estimate (~£100)

I think ideally I'd prefer the refund route while I have a chance in case it turns out to be a bigger issue but any advice would be helpful.