I know there’s an awful lot of hustle and bustle around rock-hard and rising used car values.
Autocar has noticed, commented and advised, but that ‘nearly new’ end of the market is fairly irrelevant in my view. The really interesting area to behold is the banger one. That’s because cheap cars are under attack. If it isn’t cars being expelled from the ULEZ, it’s now the petrol ones that can be killed by E10 fuel and just about any old diesel.
A lot of cars from the early 2000s are becoming worthless, while so many from the 1990s are not just obsolete but almost extinct. So there are tons of cheap motors to buy right now.
That all explains the £300 1999 Volkswagen Polo 1.0 I stumbled across in west London, which had to go because of the wicked ULEZ. It represented the very best small hatchback purchase, being a welllooked-after family runabout. It’s always important to read the advert in full. Doing so here revealed the Polo to be another catalytic-converter theft victim. But don’t worry: there are plenty of other cheap shopping cars available.
Click here to buy your next used car from Autocar
There’s no shortage of Nissan Nissan Micras. These are great little things, not to drive but just to own, which is the way it should be. Searching through the examples on offer, I was drawn to an 89,000-mile 2003 1.0 being offered by a dealer (which explains the slightly higher price of £550). It came with a year’s worth of MOT, so there was a certain amount of reassurance, even if the cosmetics were compromised by a few inches of gaffer tape on the front bumper. I suppose that improved its looks somewhat.
Cheap small cars are easy but cheap family hatchbacks are even better, because they get you more square footage for not much money. That’s why a 2007 Vauxhall Vectra 1.8i with 99,000 miles at £400 was so tempting. It was a private sale, but it seemed honest enough, right down to the scraped front bumper, which the seller reckoned knocked £200 off the asking price. That’s his loss.
Join the debate
Add your comment
@ Deputy, why would you leave your car idling outside a school, turn it off surely.
Agree, I would love to see an article highlighting the pros and cons of life time co2 in an old car compared to a new, is running an old car as bad as it is vilified? Is changing to a new car really that great when all the co2 in manufacturing is considered?
@567. On the contrary, more than happy to be proved wrong. But Ruppert presents his opnions as facts. So if he has data to show that a 2003 diesel with 175,000 miles sat idiling outside a school is better than a newer hybrid car (and a discussion on global CO2 in manufacture vs localised air pollution would be a useful article) then by all means call it a "wicked ULEZ". Let's assume brake dust/tyre emissions are equal for old car vs new one so that is equalled out.
@Deputy - Run back to your safe space if you're trying to get an opinion you don't like canceled. By the way electric vehicles still create particles from their tyres and brake discs which could harm children. Also if people have the money then they can pay the fines in the ULEZ zone therefore it's really about money for London and not about protecting children.