buying used car

Hello all,

I'm looking to buy a used car but I am unsure of the legal issues with this as I am not a UK citizen. Due to the cost of my move, I'm short on any cash, so I was thinking of going into a dealer and seeing if I could get financed for a used car with a 'no money down' type of thing. I think in the states I could do this no problem but I've found they are more strict with financial things here.

Anyone have any experience/advice they might be able to share? My wife needs a car for a job but we have nothing left to spend on a used car. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Speck

You may find it difficult to obtain financing. I have a friend (USC) and her husband (a British Citizen) that have been refused financing because they have not been resident in the UK for 3 years, so the visa status did not play a part of it.

You may end up doing what they did, buying an old banger and making do.

Hi Speck,

As such, there's no real legal issues preventing you buying a car. Plenty of newcomers to the UK buy cars and you don't have to be a citizen.

If you look on the transport section of this site, you'll see many posts about this. The usual stickler is getting good insurance companies to give a good quote - as you are not a UK Citizen/American - it's deemed you are more of a risk, which in turn causes some grief as other Euro countries people don't get loaded up so much.

The availability of no deposit down and get credit is much harder than the years prior to the global financial slowdown, you can still get good credit facilities, provided you have an absolute squeeky clean and high credit rating within the UK. If not, you'll have to stump up more of a deposit. That said, go into some dealerships and actually what is being offered. Do your research but don't go applying for credit willy nilly as each search for credit can reduce it if they keep being rejected etc.

Most basic way is to count how much cash you have and then buy a car within that budget - also accounting for insurance, MOT, Maintenence, Road Fund License or tax.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I ended up getting a nicer used car - well as much as 1800 could buy.  Got mine from my husband friend who has a garage in Newbury.  It's a great used car garage.  I didn't have any problem not being a UK resident.  With no credit history I wasn't sure I could finance a car.  Plus, I wanted a not so nice car to practice driving with in case I banged it up.

Good luck

Owning a car and motoring in the U.K. is one of those things I really appreciate. It's a breeze compared to other European countries and even compared to California.

First off, you can forget about getting finance. It won't happen. But you're so much better off with a user car anyway.

The U.K. used car market is huge and very competitive. The result is bargains galore. In fact, if you're staying more than a month you can buy a used car cheaper than you can rent one.

When my wife and I used to come here just for the summer we would buy a used car and even if we couldn't sell it at the end we were better off. Summer 2003 we bought a used Honda for 300 pounds from an Australian expat who was returning.

It was a beautiful car (the sunroof leaked but it was summer and 2003 was a dry one). At the end of the summer we drove it to the airport (saved the taxi fare) and gave the keys to a young security guard... it sure was his lucky day!

Another time we drove the car to the airport, put it in long-term parking and hid the key and parking ticket in a magnetic box under the frame. Three days previously I had put the car on eBay. By the time we got home we had a buyer and told him where to collect the car. We actually made a profit on this one!

You don't have to have a banger. If you're not fussy about make and model you can get a 10 year old car with low to medium miles for 300 pounds. I've done it a half dozen times and I always sell it for around the same price. I highly recommend eBay for this purpose.

The other U.K. advantages that make this possible is the ease of car transfer, licensing and insurance. Even the first time I was able to get insurance with a single phone call. You just need a U.K. address. At that time I didn't even have a U.K. bank account. And I only had a California driving license... good for one year in the U.K.

Ownership transfer? Piece of cake! Just send in the form... not even tax to pay! The only time you're taxed is when licensing comes due, not every time you buy or sell a car. In California I had to pay 6% tax (it's probably more now) on any car I bought.

So don't sweat financing... even if you could get it you'd pay more financing charges than the car is worth! If you really want a neat car then budget for a grand. Of course you can get by for a lot less if you need to.

Motoring really shows up one of the mysteries of U.K. life: some things can be so petty and regulated while others are inexplicably laissez-faire.

The property business (real estate) is a similar example. In California it's regulated to within an inch of your life... real estate salesperson's license, broker's license, classes, continuing education, fees, fees, fees...

In the U.K. anybody can be an "estate agent". How refreshing (but, naturally, buyer beware!). Same goes for builders. Anybody can be a builder here but in California you need a "contractor's license".

Oh well, that's enough of my rambling... go and buy yourself a nice banger!