BuyingACar

• What are things to look out for on second-hand cars that make them particularly good or bad?
  
• How can I minimise maintenance hassles?
  

Regularly do the checks the owner's manual says to (fluid levels, lights and tyre pressures). Take it for a service (i.e. oil/filter changes, etc.) however often the owner's manual says you should (or do it yourself, if you have the time and patience). - MoonShadow

• I understand I have to tell DVLA when I've bought one so that they can keep track of the NumberPlates. Is there any more legally required stuff?
  

Not quite true, as I understand it. It is the responsibility of the person selling the car to inform the DVLA. You'll get a little green tear-off strip from the old ownership document when you buy the car, and the previous owner will send the rest back to DVLA with your details on. A week or so later, you'll get a full ownership document to keep. --CH

Other than that, and assuming the car comes with tax disc and MOT certificate, you must also have adequate insurance. - MoonShadow

• What other questions should I be asking?
  

Maybe I overstated the desire for economy. I've rephrased the first paragraph. Basically, now I'm over 25, hiring a car for a weekend or even for a week has become cheaper than CatchingATrain?. I've spent several hundred pounds hiring cars this summer, and reckon I should just buy one and be done with it. :) --AC

Buying from a reputable dealer is a good plan. Unless you want to spend lots of money/time/both in maintenance, something relatively new is also good. Pepper - our R reg Vauxhall Vectra - was 3 years old when we bought her (from Marshall's, 5 years ago) and is only now beginning to give us a few large repair bills. An older car that's been well-cared-for might be OK. - SunKitten

As for what makes to get, Fords are cheap and easy to get parts for, but tend to go wrong more often. Vauxhall are similar, Honda, VW and Toyota have good reliability, but the parts are more expensive, and cost a bit more to buy in the first place. --Tsunami

Yes - I'm told by friends who do this more often that you should either get them privately or from a big dealer - small dealers are apparently dodgy. On the whole, our Vauxhall has been pretty reliable, even when the weekly checks were, um, left undone ^^;; - SunKitten

Work it out yourself: you're making a bet that something insurable (i.e. not just regular wear+tear) will happen to destroy or otherwise write off your car before you've paid the insurance company £500 minus your excess. Unless the difference between the cost of your comprehensive and third party policies is *very* slight, I'd say you're better off betting the other way - that is, putting the difference between fully comp and third party into a savings account every month and using it to buy a new £500 car in two years' time or however long it takes this one to fall apart. - MoonShadow

Saying that, I *would* recommend RAC or AA membership, in case it breaks down somewhere nasty and needs to be towed or something; motorway towing charges are independent of how much your car is worth. - MoonShadow

Or, indeed, [Green Flag].  --DR

Or even [ETA] Thats the world's only climate neutral breakdown service not the Basque serparatists. --MawKernewek

My Fiesta's fuel pump self-destructed a couple of times, but it was fairly easily repaired by the local garage and hasn't relapsed for a while now. Is there something more serious wrong with it than just the fuel pump going, or do you happen to want a new car anyway? --ChessyPig

The fact that the car is so old that a new fuel pump is more than it's worth, plus since acquiring a daughter it is distinctly on the small side! --MJ

Now we have a child, our chief criteria for chosing a car became "What brand gives us the maximum chance of the child surviving if some idiot crashes into us?".  The answer we came up with was a Volvo estate. --DR