The £500 used car

We are moving to Berkhamsted very soon from Los Angeles. While I am looking forward to using trains and buses there will be a need for a car for us. I have priced UK insurance for myself and have seen some cars for £500 or less. I've learned about MOT and I'm pretty good under the hood. I also know that £500 will buy me a truly shite looking car but that's okay. Has anyone done this? Is it a nightmare or can it be done? Also, which cars should be avoided?

I live in the UK and in my experience there are tons of cheap used cars around, even at £500.  Maybe it's because it's an island and the right hand drive.

The best web site is auto trader, that will give you plenty of cheap cars.

Plenty doable to buy a cheap used car and use it to get your license.  You may have trouble getting insurance without a uk license, and will have trouble getting a uk license without a car.   Getting a uk license will certainly be harder than you think, and wil require lessons and several different tests.

Good Luck

Not sure if I'm understanding your question... but, of course it can be done!

If you log on to Autotrader http://www.autotrader.co.uk/
you can adjust the search parameters to show cars in whatever price range you want.
My partner recently used Gumtree to sell his 15-year-old Hyundai Accent for £300... the phone calls and texts started coming within minutes of him putting the advert online!

Hi,

You'll be surprised at what £500 can get you nowadays! most will perhaps be in pretty bad shape/condition, but not always so. If you are prepared to look around and travel further to view cars, you can get excellent cars. A recent advert for a BMW E36 Compact had the car up at around £395, MOT'd for 10+ months left, and some choice changes to make it drive nicer, the car was sold within 2 days or so (I'm on other motoring forums and check the classifieds fairly regularly)

It's nothing to do with the fact the UK is an island nor is right hand drive. The reason cars 'generally' depreciate rapidly here is down to a number of factors, usually all related to finance and how the UK's economy is geared up. It's also very easy to have a UK driving license and not have a car that you own. You'll need to pass the Theory test and the practical exam in order to get it.

As to which cars are better or to be avoided, then every single car out there has it's own set of known issues or problems. If you are handy with the spanners etc, then you'll save a lot on labour costs/mechanic costs if you can DIY. I personally tend to look at and go for more quality cars rather than the more budget or lower end cars which usually are more complex but have plenty of information online about them or, local specialists in case you do need them.

As per above, look on autotrader, ebay, pistonheads for cars where you can put in search limits and criteria and go from there!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I thought the same way as well but found a really great VW Passat for £500 and its not let me down. I've only been here 19 months so can't get credit but everything has worked out fine so far.

Great advice already given to you but wanted you to know that as long as you keep your eye out, you will find some great deals on good cars.

Thank you! And thanks everyone for the input.

My husband picked up some kind of Suzuki for £300 the second day we were here. He is a mechanic by trade so he was secure in his purchase. He figured if we decided we didn't need one once we got to the city he will sell it for about the same it was no big deal but did cost him about another £100 in parts to repair.
It really is just like buying cheap used cars in the U.S. But they aren't as crappy.


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