Buying a new car should be a marathon, not a sprint

The journey to a car-changing decision is a fascinating one. Whether it’s a new or used buy, at one end you have people who know exactly what make and model they want and just crack on, whereas others take a more meandering route to the set of keys that end up in their hand. 

I met up with a mate recently and, as it tends to when you work at Auto Express, the subject rolled round to his next car. He’s in the market for something fun that doesn’t need to be practical, which opens up plenty of possibilities. 

With a budget of around £5,000 (which we increased over the course of the chat), his Plan A was a good one; he was weighing up a MINI Cooper S, or maybe a Ford Fiesta ST. But over the course of a pint or two we covered everything from the Mazda MX-5 and Volkswagen up! GTI to the SEAT Leon Cupra and BMW 330i.

The Mazda MX-5 would normally be my go-to answer for fun when practicality isn’t an issue. It’s plentiful on the used market no matter what your budget, and there are lots of specialists around to take care of older examples; it’s also a lovely thing to drive, but the little two-seater doesn’t appeal to everyone. 

Personally, I also love fast practicality, so a Skoda Octavia vRS, Leon Cupra ST (way over budget!) or Ford Focus ST Estate (less over budget) would all be worth a look, but in my mate’s case the car didn’t need to carry much stuff along for the ride. So after brief diversions to discuss Japanese alternatives – early Toyota GT86s look tempting, as does the Honda Civic Type R, if you can find a good example – we pretty much ended up back where we started.

My friend had the enviable advantage of time, so was browsing the classifieds to see if the right car would come up fairly locally. That takes so much of the pressure off – you don’t need to jump at the first car you find, and the more examples you look at, the better grasp you’ll have of what you get for your money. As is often the case, knowledge is power, so do your research, and know what you’re looking for.

It’s a somewhat romantic view, but I think the right car will often find you if you can be patient. And love with your next car is more likely to blossom if you know what you want and wait for the right potential partner to come onto your radar.  

Three weeks later, he messaged me a photo of his newly acquired MINI Cooper S.

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