Where do you look for a car?

[ex1]

Curious to know where people look for cars these days. All online or do people still use the local paper etc?

You can tick as many options as you like.

[hyphen]

I still start off on Autotrader usually.

[Yipper]

First step is always Autotrader. It has the most user-friendly website.

Second step is PistonHeads. It has a bigger selection of sports cars, but the website is painful to use (very slow to load).

Third step is Ebay. Fewer cars and a bit riskier to qualify sellers.

That covers 90% or more of the entire UK market in <30mins.

Will visit Car and Classic first if the car is over 15-20 years old. This site is the Autotrader for classics.

[ex1]

Thanks for the feedback. I forgot about Car & Classic.

Interesting that you mention Autotrader is the most user friendly, I think its a pretty poor experience but we all put up with it because they have the content!

[Ahbefive]

Ebay and autotrader. Pistonheads has nice cars but an unusable interface.

[ex1]

Thanks. A few more people would make it more useful.

[TVRJAS]

I spend more hours browsing on PH but bought my last car (Jag) from AT. Also spend a lot of time on classic car UK and bought the Chimaera from there.

I often have issues with PH when trying to use the enlarge picture function,often it just shows a blank screen or if there are 12 pictures it will only flick through 4-6 and then goes back to pic 1.

Classic car I find you have to go to their web page to get any proper info,so AT I think works the best but it does depend on what car I'm searching.

[MTech535]

Never heard of car guru or autovolo before. Didn't realise that exchange & Mart was still going.

[caelite]

Ditto much of the above,
Tend to start off on auto trader as it has the best selection and a nice easy interface, get a nice guide of what values I'm looking for.

Then I tend to buy from Gumtree as I prefer to buy privately and gumtree has the best, most easily accessible selection, very occasionally browse eBay too.

Have used car auctions and local Facebook ads in the past, not terrible if your looking for sub £1000 bangers, pretty awful for everything else.

[GetCarter]

None of the above.

[ex1]

GetCarter said:

None of the above.

?

[Tickle]

Piston Heads or a marque specific forum/owners club.

When buying a more rare or specialist car AutoTrader seemed to list only cars being sold on through PX at trade or by people buying not knowing much about the car then selling on. The sellers description on Autotrader didn't have the detail that was presented in Piston Heads or a marque specific forum adds.

[KarlMac]

Oddly I shop through PH and auto trader, occasionally owners clubs. I've had the most success selling on Gumtree.

Didn't realise until I wrote it down how odd that sounds

[brrapp]

PH on the rare occasion I'm looking for something interesting. Autotrader if looking for something in particular as they have such a big choice you'll almost always find what you're looking for. Similar with Ebay though more dodgy deals to watch out for. Best bargains to be had in Gumtree, Facebook and your local newsagent's window but only if you're very careful and know what to watch out for, 100 dodgy deals for every good one .

[ex1]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Incredible to see the level of market share Autotrader have.

[JiggyJaggy]

And not surprisingly one of the most expensive to advertise on.

[ex1]

I think it by far THE MOST expensive and not a great user experience. Aside from the content I find the interface pretty poor.

[99dndd]

Autotrader or usedcarsni (bit useless in mainland UK)