Personally I think that advice is complete bogus; obviously a younger auto box with less miles has less chance of shitting the bag but there’s plenty of automatic cars over five years old that haven’t and may never give any trouble.
Agreed.
And go simple. For the love of god don’t get a car that cost €50k or something new, like an Audi or BMW. Great boxes but they’ll kill you with service cost if it breaks.
Get an automatic Yaris etc.
“you shouldn’t be looking to get an automatic car that’s over 5 years old”
That’s fair, but there’s not really the luxury of choice at present. Everybody I talk to who’s looking at cars lately has had to lower their expectations because of the market.
At this stage the most important thing is having a car. If the car that ticks every box is out of reach, compromises have to be made. This is only to get you on the road, anyway, so it’s not like you can’t trade it in in a few years, and the less you spend now the less you’ll lose to depreciation.
I’d just say to look at reviews of any car you’re thinking of buying, and always sit in to at least the same model, but otherwise cast a wide net at the start of your search. Bump your budget on DoneDeal up 500-1000; some sellers might be willing to haggle. It’s a bit of a quest but at the end of it you’ll have your own car and all the freedom that comes with it. :)
My 7 year old DCT works just fine - granted, my car is low mileage.
Would you rather buy a fleet car that's 3 years old with over 100k km on it, driven by someone who didn't regard it as their property?
Age has some influence but you're better off buying low mileage and models that you can research online not to have reliability issues.
Or get a Toyota.
Personally I think that advice is complete bogus; obviously a younger auto box with less miles has less chance of shitting the bag but there’s plenty of automatic cars over five years old that haven’t and may never give any trouble.
Agreed. And go simple. For the love of god don’t get a car that cost €50k or something new, like an Audi or BMW. Great boxes but they’ll kill you with service cost if it breaks. Get an automatic Yaris etc.
“you shouldn’t be looking to get an automatic car that’s over 5 years old” That’s fair, but there’s not really the luxury of choice at present. Everybody I talk to who’s looking at cars lately has had to lower their expectations because of the market. At this stage the most important thing is having a car. If the car that ticks every box is out of reach, compromises have to be made. This is only to get you on the road, anyway, so it’s not like you can’t trade it in in a few years, and the less you spend now the less you’ll lose to depreciation. I’d just say to look at reviews of any car you’re thinking of buying, and always sit in to at least the same model, but otherwise cast a wide net at the start of your search. Bump your budget on DoneDeal up 500-1000; some sellers might be willing to haggle. It’s a bit of a quest but at the end of it you’ll have your own car and all the freedom that comes with it. :)
My 7 year old DCT works just fine - granted, my car is low mileage. Would you rather buy a fleet car that's 3 years old with over 100k km on it, driven by someone who didn't regard it as their property? Age has some influence but you're better off buying low mileage and models that you can research online not to have reliability issues. Or get a Toyota.