Are newspaper ads still worth looking at?

[Grimezy93]

I've found a few cars I like but they're all pretty far away (2+ hours) and as I'm only looking to spend about £1500 I don't really think it's worth scouring the country to find my next banger. Plus my dad chirped in that if I buy from a dealer located 150 miles away how am I going to take it back if something goes wrong with it (I doubt I'll get any warranty with a 10 year old car anyway but just incase of extreme scenarios).

He's suggested that I pick up the local papers for a few weeks and see if I can find a bargain that way as he has the belief if somebody's only listing a car for £1000-£1500 they might not be bothered faffing about with ebay/autotrader and will just advertise locally. I'm all up for trying this but as I'm pretty much exclusively looking at BMW E36/E46 coupe's, 6 cylinder preferable, I'm thinking this might be a lost cause and wanted to know if it's possible.

Just wondered really if anybody still resorted to the old fashioned ways of car buying? What deals did you find (if any)? Are they just full of trade adverts that would be on the internet anyway? In this world of easy to locate cars are the chances are finding something local now virtually impossible?

[freshmicropig]

Check the classic car newspapers as well, often they're the first and only port of call when older owners decide to sell.