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So you want to buy a new set of wheels John

If you think you know it all this page will be of no use to you at all, to save you the trouble of scrolling  Click on here and pick your new car.

For the rest of you read on......It does go on a bit but then Rome wasn`t built in a day

How much did you lose on your last car? The biggest single element of that will probably have been depreciation. So what if one car does 10 miles more per gallon, The saving of around £1,000 every 35,000 miles driven is peanuts to the £10,000 or so many people lose on their cars in depreciation during that time. But hey - you guys already know that, why else would you be sniffing round here looking for a decent used Porsche. Lesson 1. Pick a motor that ain`t going to do it`s brains in depreciation.

Right then, we`ve got a few likely candidates lined up what next? - Know how cars de-value. A new car costs more than an old car - Right? Well.....sort of.

A 4 year old car costs loads less than a 6 month old car. A 7 year old car costs a bit less than a 5 year old car and by the time a car gets to 20 years old no body really gives a monkeys anymore, they are more concerned if there is any bodywork left. Ignore this little fact at your peril. Take the mighty 911 for example:

997 Carrera 2004 -  The current 911. very new, loads of wedge. Smile at the nice man in the main dealers, drink his coffee, eat his biscuits, stuff your pockets with those little long life milk cartons and try and slip a couple of Porsche coasters in your wife`s handbag. Enjoy every inch you drive because it`s just cost you another 4 quid.

996 Carrera 1998 to 2004 - The largest spread of prices within a particular model. A nearly new car will cost you, err... nearly new money. A `98 car could cost you under £25k whilst a late `04 car could be as much a £60k, a spread of up to £35k. And guess what, the cheaper cars aren`t going to be increasing in price, the dearer ones are going to be visiting their cheaper cousins as the months tick by. Basically some 996 owners are going to do their balls in depreciation, (unless they are ladies of course), whilst others will be pleasantly surprised come re-sale. Make sure you`re one of the latter.

993 Carrera 1994 to 1997 - possibly a premium to plonk your bum in the last of them on an R plate, (make sure the car isn`t just a late registered import `95 or`96), but as it gets older it`ll fast slow down to meet it`s much cheaper L plate brother. L, M and N platers starting to get very pally with each other price wise, less than a Jeffrey between them. (Jeffrey : derriv. £2,000, following an alleged distribution of the said amount between Mr Archer and an alleged woman who was allegedly a prostitute who may or may not have sucked toes - or was that someone else? Anyway you get the picture.

964 Carrera 1989 to 1993 G, H and J plates pretty much the same money. K-reg still wants you to burn the midnight oil at work to drum up some more folding but not sure if it buys you anything significant and the premium is evaporating by the day  - look more at individual cars.

G-50 3.2 Carrera 1987-1989 D, E, F. All the bloody same. Well maybe a gnats todger more for an F-reg but be warned - that nice man holding his Glasses guide won`t give you a shilling more for it when it comes to getting rid in 12 months time.

Early 3.2 Carrera 1984 to 1986 A, B, C, D (just). That`s right you`re starting to get the picture - All the bloody same.

3.0 SC 1978 to 1983 R,S,T,V,W,X,Y. - You guessed it. It don`t matter diddly squat.

Well that`s it then, buy the latest car you can if it doesn`t cost a premium to buy. Not quite. Take 2 houses, one built in 1730 the other in 1790. Although 60 years younger is the more recent house going to be in better condition. Not necessarily.

With cars anything over about 7 or 8 years all the usual number of miles, number of owners, has the car had any panels painted etc have very little relevance:

Mileage. Do we have any aircraft fitters in the audience? Thank you sir, will you stand up. What`s your name? Ok Fred, tell me - how do you determine service intervals on aircraft? Exactly, number of hours combined with the number of take off`s and landings. Thank you Fred you can sit down, give Fred a big round of applause everyone. Motor cars wear out relative to the number of hours they have been run for, the number of times the engine has been started (particularly from cold), and the number of times brakes, clutch, gear change etc have been used. 10 miles in the middle of a busy city is like 60 miles on the motorway. You must buy on condition, not numbers.

So why are low mileage cars worth more then? - Well are they worth more? They can certainly cost more, hell we sell them for more (why not if someone is prepared to pay the money). But what happens if you sneak a few miles on your self, might you not erode away the premium you`ve just paid for and what happens if the car has sat in the middle of a busy city all it`s life, sure the fellow you`re buying it from has used it on long runs but what about the people who had it for the first 8 years. Finally as a car gets older the difference between the low and high mileage prices gets less and less, I say again - buy on condition.

Number of owners. If a two year old car has had five owners it may well be a lemon, but so what if a 15 year old car has 9 owners on the V5. Two of them were duplicate names when the owner moved house, two of them were added when private number plates were being shuffled around (not uncommon on £60,000 cars), two of them were when a company director took the car out of the company name and put it in his own and even if it had changed hands every 18 months what`s the problem with that. You buy a car, cherish it, spend money on it getting it just right then your big fat pay cheque arrives each month for a year and a half and you upgrade to a later model.

Paintwork. How many times have I had some fool walk into the yard and ask me if the unblemished paintwork on a 20 year old motor car is original. Of course it bloody well isn`t. Have you never scraped a bumper whilst parking, had someone catch the side of your car with a shopping trolley, had a wayward golf ball land on your bonnet and if there is anyone out there who has never had a stone chip I will stand right here on my soap box and eat my underpants. If any or all of the outside of the car has been painted (properly), that`s fine - If it`s had surgery that required 2 quarter panels, a bonnet, a boot lid, both doors, the front wings and the off side wing mirror then that is a different matter.

Model changes. I heard that in 1974 Porsche changed the pre-combustion pinking shears on the 2.4 pre molecular engines and that combined with the well publicised increase in pre-silencer wall thickness to 1.7mm gives an increased power output of 15 bhp over the older model. It may well have done in 1974 but by 1999 the differences between 2 theoretically identical cars can be 30% or more. Again don`t lose sight of how old the car is and buy on condition, not what some drunken (no offence guys) hack, wrote after 8 corporate hospitality pints of larger, a promissory note to the value of a good shag and a case of 200 foul smelling filterless foreign cigarettes.

Do you have one in pink? This is probably the most commonly made mistake people make. If you are buying a car 4-5 years old or less then skip this bit..... the rest of you read on. Sorry if I am starting to repeat myself but buy on condition. We are in 2006, Your tastes are based around the fashions of 2006 and the dawn of the 21st century. When the 10 or 15 year old car you are looking to buy was built it`s colour was dictated by the fashions of the day. Besides, often colours which are great on new cars are a disaster on older ones. Dark metallic blue is lovely, but just you wait and see how many times you end up re-painting the car because of stone chips. White on a new colour coded car is often frowned on, but on a 15 year old 911 it is a great colour, it highlights the black styling details, hides all the little dents and stone chips and an hour with the wax will make the car look like new come re-sale time.

Unless you allow me £6,000 for my car I`m not interested. Otherwise known as the garage down the road offered £500 more syndrome. No two vehicles are ever the same. Keep clear in your mind whether or not each individual car is overpriced, we can all allow huge money for a p/x if we`ve front end loaded the sticker price but don`t kid yourself, you`ve bought an expensive car.

Where is the engine? Buying a car seems, especially for blokes, to be seen as a sign of your prowess as a hunter. Try to avoid this. Even if you know nothing about mechanics you can still get a fairly good idea of whether or not the vendor is a rogue and that gut feel is important. Buy from someone you feel knows their stuff and who you feel comfortable with.

One option is to have a third party inspect a vehicle for you but do be aware of the limitations. I inspect cars for people from time to time and basically whether or not the brake pads are low is of little consequence, a few pounds will replace them and you can`t be to within a hundred pounds when valuing a £20,000 motor. Similarly no one can look at an engine and say if will drop a valve or snap a timing belt in 6 months time. You would be surprised at how much of a £250 inspection is covered in a £35 Mot test. All you really need to know is how does the car compare to others of it`s age and the best people to answer that are people who deal in them all the time, again it comes down to being happy with the vendor. If you want to hedge you bets I think a far better spend of your money is to invest in a decent warranty, then at least if something does go bang you`ve got a chance of getting it fixed for free. Be careful though there are warranties and there are warranties!

Well it may not be the definitive buyers guide but I hope it`s given you something to think about. The views are merely my personal thoughts but given that we do shift a fair amount of steel each year they are probably quite well founded. The bottom line is trust people and go with your instinct. Call me with your budget and I`ll tell you what I would buy.

 Henry Firman. 

Managing Director - Prestige & Performance Cars Ltd.

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