tugrin

Am duly starting a new thread!
I get the impression that buying secondhand cars is a pricy business en France, so given that my current SEAT is absoluteley in its last legs(wheels?) I am considering buying a LHD here when the tax runs out (end of April).
Son (real son not daughters boyfriend) thinks I should go back to a little VW hatchback - which are very reliable and do go on and on. However I also seem to picking up the vibe that 'tis better to have something like a Peugeot as maintainence will be much much easier.
Advice and sage thoughts please!

InVinoVeritas

I think you're going to get a lot of opinions but necessarily much agreement on this subject but here's my pennyworth:-

Firstly VW reliability is a myth and the cost of servicing and parts is ridiculous.

Personally I've not found Renault to very reliable either and have had mixed experiences with Peugeot, though later models seem better. Citroën has always been good for me.

Diesels may use less fuel but cost more to service and IMHO are less reliable than petrol versions, despite this they sell much better than petrol equivalents.

So if you're buying secondhand my vote would be a recent Citroën or Peugeot with a smallish petrol engine.

InVinoVeritas

Re-reading your question I guess you're talking about buying in the UK whereas my advice is about buying in France. I'm really not up-to-date on buying cars in the UK but I know it's imperative to have the manufacturer's EC certificate of conformity to re-register the car in France and to make sure the headlamps are still OK for driving on the right.

le plumber

Just an idea but....

A lot of brits are going home to the UK with their cars bought on the continent and are selling them much cheaper as, of course, a LHD in the UK is as appealing as a RHD here in France. I've seen many a bargain on places like Gumtree....

As for VW, spares are expensive but frankly I don't think Renault is that much cheaper so its swings and roundabouts really.

Diesel in France is cheaper than petrol and it makes me laugh that everybody seems to want diesel. Its only really worth it if you have high milage otherwise I don't really see the point for as IVV explains they are less reliable and have higher maintenance costs. People look at the prices at the pump and think that SP95 is expensive but in reality on a tank of 50litres you're only saving +/- 8€.

tugrin

Thank you for sage advice IVV and plumber. I was leaning towards a diesel (currently driving70 miles a day) but you have put the economic case very clearly.
I have owned all 3 French makes here in UK plus a string of Polos. Liked my citreons best and had a dodgy Peugeot so couldn't really use that to make an informed jugement on the breed.
I was thinking about how available parts would be in smaller towns and villages and assuming (making an ass of me Iknow) that garages would have easier access to french parts.
I will start scanning Gumtree for bargains.

Tweedpipe

I've sworn by Honda (Note: 'by' not 'at') over the last 9 years, now on my fourth. 3 were petrol-powered and company supplied in Asia.
No problems whatsoever, which led to me buying my own (turbo-diesel) powered version here with a plan to keep for 5 years. Now 6 years later it still seems to drive like new, and been so totally reliable that I have no intention of selling in the near future. (I do approx 12k klm/year).
Plus points: Reliability.
Negative points:
(i) May be difficult to find service networks in some remote regions of France.
(ii) Spare parts alleged to be more expensive than the average - offset imho by high reliabilty.
(Every two years or so there is an updated SatNav version supplied on DVD - price 130€. Needless to say I've never purchased this from Honda direct - thought it was a rip-off, but have bought just the one updated DVD from the supplier at a much more interesting price).

Another interesting feature is that these cars are not terribly popular in France, and subsequently do not fly out of the showrooms. I used this to my advantage, and not only negotiated an excellent discount on showroom price but 'hammered' the dealer for a number of useful options at no extra charge, including a 5 year warranty instead of the standard 3 years.
One happy motorist!

A few links of interest.
http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/introduction/1206676
http://www.reliabilityindex.com/top-100

I mentioned it before in other posts, even (especially) with used cars; give the salesman a really hard time! The end of the month is the best time to negotiate your price, as the salesmen have end-of-month targets to achieive. If it's possible to wait until the end of Dec, one can frequently make a 'killing', especially with a not-too popular model readily available in the showroom.

InVinoVeritas

I totally agree with TP when it comes to Honda. I've never had one but my Dad had several and they are truly reliable and last forever! Not popular in France so you need to factor in a poor re-sale value.

I also agree with the end of December thing. I've just ordered (on 31st Dec) a car which is not even in the showrooms yet (just announced) and got a 15.5% discount.

Chatter Static

It's also best to avoid Japanese imports Honda and Mitsubishi which are surprisingly common in the UK their insurance value here is a pittance if written off or stolen. Cars with lots of Italian electrical parts are more prone to common faults the French car companies obviously get a huge bulk discount from Italian suppliers.

Im_and_Er

Suggesting that VW parts are not freely available in France is misleading, they are just as easy to find as for most other makes, including French ones.

You should avoid Jap imports at all cost's because they can prove impossible to register in France.

cyrian

That of course does not include Japanese brands that are built in the EU.
e.g. Honda; Nissan and Toyota are built in the UK.

jvc

Tugrin....a posting I made about the same topic from earlier this week.
We bought a new left hand drive tax free car in the UK, which you can buy cheaper at certain dealerships in the UK. For most models if you type in the make on google, then add tax free you will find a dealer that exports cars. We waited for ours to arrive in the UK. It was a LHD on UK plates initially, then as long as you export it within 3 months and register it at your prefecteur and pay the tax at the hotel d'impot then all is good. You pay less tax. We did by one here too, and there wasn't much difference in price, depending on what you buy though.

Chatter Static

We had no issue registering a Japanese import in France it just went through the hands of "DRIRE"

loy loy

We have a VW Golf. No problems with reliabilty, we do over 20k (miles) a year it's great. I would definitely buy another.

Parts don't seem expensive here, we had the headlights changed when we brought it over and I thought it was pretty cheap to be honest. Our local garage does the service for about 120e. Also I got the car the serviced in the UK before the long drive down and the garage over filled the oil. Catalytic converter went on the drive down. We got that changed here cheaply too.

Our greatest expense is on tyres, go through them quite quickly, and petrol.

We just bought a Diesel Kia and the fuel price difference is noticeable. If our budget was bigger I would definitely have gone VW again.

Also look on leboncoin if you are buying here.

tugrin

Thanks loy loy - sounds like the VWs I've had over the years. My son is a strong advocate of Honda too - so I will keep an eye open for either.
Thanks for all the advice about registering and changing lights etc - very helpful folks!

Lurcher21

Just a thought regarding parts for less popular models when living out in the sticks. Our old Volvo came over with us in 2003, and the old gal is now approaching 300K miles. Whenever we need repairs, our local independent garage is happy to quote us for labour only, letting us source cheaper parts from the UK. We've never bought a part from the Volvo dealership.