Hi everybody,
We are having a baby on the way and as I feared all along, it now seems that my cherished two seater roadster will have to be replaced by something a bit bigger. To make the transition a bit more palatable I also had a quick look at cars that I like that are beyond the typical four seater car, and it seems that a GranTurismo ticks all the boxes (right and wrong). Sporty enough to make me happy but with a bit of space to be practical for our circumstances. Of course I also happen to find its looks rather breathtaking. If we were to go ahead with the GT, we would be looking at a bottom of the market car, circa 2007-2008 in the 25k-30k pounds range. There seem to be a few cars for sale in this price range at the moment both privately and from dealers. I don't care much about electronic gizmos, I usually like my cars as analog as possible, so dated infotainment systems and lack of cameras are not an issue.
The main question is... what are the risks and what should someone look into in a candidate car before purchasing? Weak points that might need attention, wear items that might need replacing soon in high mileage cars etc. In this price range most cars are at around 40k miles which for normal cars is OK. In general I prefer for the car to have been actively used as opposed to sitting for the last ten years in a shed somewhere. I understand that servicing costs can be an issue but that is ok if we are talking about routine maintenance. I am more worried about surprise items. Any advise is much appreciated. Any preferred dealers in the south-east? What about going private? Just for the record, I don't see cars as black boxes and although I can't usually work on them myself since I can only park on the street, I have some understanding of the mechanics, electronics etc (my current roadster is heavily modified).
Thanks and I'll follow up on any replies!
Nick
We are having a baby on the way and as I feared all along, it now seems that my cherished two seater roadster will have to be replaced by something a bit bigger. To make the transition a bit more palatable I also had a quick look at cars that I like that are beyond the typical four seater car, and it seems that a GranTurismo ticks all the boxes (right and wrong). Sporty enough to make me happy but with a bit of space to be practical for our circumstances. Of course I also happen to find its looks rather breathtaking. If we were to go ahead with the GT, we would be looking at a bottom of the market car, circa 2007-2008 in the 25k-30k pounds range. There seem to be a few cars for sale in this price range at the moment both privately and from dealers. I don't care much about electronic gizmos, I usually like my cars as analog as possible, so dated infotainment systems and lack of cameras are not an issue.
The main question is... what are the risks and what should someone look into in a candidate car before purchasing? Weak points that might need attention, wear items that might need replacing soon in high mileage cars etc. In this price range most cars are at around 40k miles which for normal cars is OK. In general I prefer for the car to have been actively used as opposed to sitting for the last ten years in a shed somewhere. I understand that servicing costs can be an issue but that is ok if we are talking about routine maintenance. I am more worried about surprise items. Any advise is much appreciated. Any preferred dealers in the south-east? What about going private? Just for the record, I don't see cars as black boxes and although I can't usually work on them myself since I can only park on the street, I have some understanding of the mechanics, electronics etc (my current roadster is heavily modified).
Thanks and I'll follow up on any replies!
Nick