Should I wait until March to buy a used car?

People care less about the latest plate these days given that they are financing the car and thus not putting down a big wedge of cash. I guess one thing is the new VED/tax costs so taxing an electric car in March will be cheaper (possibly free) than April which will probably have some effect, but not massively I would expect.

Dunno - but I can't imagine there's high demand at the moment, with only one payday since Xmas and people generally keeping their wallets closed.

Thanks, that's helpful. It's not urgent so I may as well wait a couple of weeks just in case, and that's a good tip on the VED.

Prices won't change - dealers don't really do offers especially if you have 'cash' because there is no commission on financing. I've just bought a three year old van (with seats) last month and they wouldn't even include a new front mat (it had rears). That said I drove home in the van an hour later as I was paying cash. Having been looking for 12 months, the prices hadn't changed much.

Don't forget new excise licence rules. If your  3 year old car cost more than £40k when new you will pay £410 luxury tax  per year until  5 years old. If you buy it before 1st April EV tax is still free.

So there may be a bit of a rush in late March to avoid the £410.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/buying-and-selling-guides/car-tax-bands-explained/

Thanks @irc - it's over a decade since I last bought a car and I hadn't clocked any of that! Will factor it in to the decision...

Lux car tax is six years. The van has another 3 years of it - just bought it (five years after the first year tax) It's a people carrier van, so classed as a car. 

If the OP is going electric then the 40K+ rate will only apply to new registrations from 1st April so used EVs will be paying the 195 rate regardless of initial price.

Thanks both. I found the Which page on this: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/new-and-used-cars/article/car-tax-explained  

It looks as if I'll be let off if I buy an EV 🙂

The rules apply to all cars first registered after 1 April 2017

...

• Zero-emission cars (such as electric vehicles, or EVs) are exempt from car tax until 31 March 2025. After this date, electric car owners will pay both a £10 first year rate, and then the £195 standard rate that owners of petrol and diesel cars will then pay.
• If your car cost more than £40,000 when new, you have to pay an extra £425 (April 2025 rate, see below) a year for five years, on top of the standard rate.
• Zero-emissions cars were exempt from the £40,000 rule as of 1 April 2020. But for new electric cars registered after 1 April 2025, owners will need to pay this supplementary rate.
• New rules are not being backdated to older cars; they will continue along the previous tax system.

Posted by: lorax

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probably around 3 years old and electric

Have a very close look at leasing a new car - the demand for electric isn't as high as dealers planned, so there are some stonking deals on some new electric cars, mainly the big brand that still sell a lot of ICE cars , as they have pay if they don't hit their EV targets.  

e.g. £168 per month for an eCorsa: Vauxhall Corsa-e 100kW Ultimate 50kWh 5dr Auto Lease: 36 Month 5000 Miles 12 Months Upfront

I worry how out of touch I am with car prices if nearly £9k is good value to do 15000 miles over 3 years in a Corsa.

Thanks. We cycle our short journeys and the car pretty much just gets used for loaded up long motorway trips, so we're looking at replacing our old Volvo V70 with something signficantly bigger than a Corsa.

I've looked at salary sacrifice deals through my employer but even with the significant tax saving it works out cheaper to buy a 3 year old car with cash as someone else has already taken a major hit on the depreciation!

We saw a 3 year old Corsa-E with less than 20,000 miles for less than 12K this time last year. We ended up buying an e2008. Fantastic.

3 year old EV's are a bargain if you want to buy.  Way cheaper than the ICE versions.

Just bought a 3 year old diesel van people carrier thing, and it wasn't cheap. A year old EV version is worth about half list and much cheaper than the fossil powered version. Down side, fitted with a small battery that's used in small cars - i.e. corsa/108 - a two tonne plus van is not going far on that. 

Be careful looking at 3 year old EVs if you want to carry bikes. 

When we were looking, pretty much none of them could have a tow bar or roof rack fitted (dispite having factory fitted roof rails!).

We ended up with another petrol, which I'm content with in retrospect as residuals for EVs have plummeted.

Thanks again everyone. The 3-4 year old cars we're looking at are around half the cost of a new one. We expect to keep it for a few years, so I'm not too worried about residuals. Even if it drops by ~60% over 5 years it would work out at less than half what we'd pay for a PCP deal on buying new, including the opportunity cost of spending rather than saving the cash. We bought our 2009 Volvo V70 in 2011, so we're used to hanging on to cars for a while and spreading the depreciation over a decent number of years.

Thanks for the tip about carrying bikes @ceept. Judging by this review the XC40 EV will take a roof rack, and @DrP has confirmed that a Polestar will too, so we should be fine.

I got my polestar at 3 years old from 'powerlease'... Was about a third (just over) from the new RRP!

They seem to have tonnes of white Tesla, polestar, and a few taycan... All, I assume, just out of their 3 year lease/work car thing..

DrP 

Thanks @DrP. It looks as if they depreciate even more now - as far as I can tell something like this 2023 Polestar 2 would have been about double that price when new…

Picked up our 2021 Volvo XC40 this morning, and have already done a long drive down to Dorset. I thought our old V70 was great, but this is so much better - absolutely delighted with it! Haven't tried putting bikes on it yet, but it'll take roof bars, and more importantly has a retractable towbar so we can use our Thule bike carrier.

Many thanks to everyone for all the advice.

Don't forget new excise licence rules. If your  3 year old car cost more than £40k when new you will pay £410 luxury tax  per year until  5 years old. If you buy it before 1st April EV tax is still free.

So there may be a bit of a rush in late March to avoid the £410.

The extra tax over £40k has been going on for years, first paid it on a 2016 car.

My new to me Van still has another 3 years of the extra 'tax' - It's until the car is 6 years old - year 1 fee, then the enhanced fee for five years.  My van is classed as a car though (seats).