Choose a first car by its mileage, not by its badge

In brief

• Price does not sort cars inside the band: half of all sales land between 3,690 € and 5,000 €.
• Mileage does sort them. The median for a hatchback is 190,000 km and for an estate 305,000 km, even though the prices are 4,490 € and 4,290 €.
• Dealers account for 42.9% of sales in this band and 63.2% across the market: a first car is usually bought from another private person.

Fix the sum before you open a single listing

A first-car budget is two numbers, not one. The first is what the car costs once. The second is what it costs every month after that. In Finland a first car is usually bought from the 3,000–5,999 € band, and there the purchase price is a narrower decision than buyers expect: half of all sales land between 3,690 € and 5,000 €, and the median price is 4,390 €. An extra thousand euros therefore does not move the buyer into a better car, only to the top end of the same band.

It is the second number that catches people out. The annual vehicle tax runs day by day whether or not the car is driven, and anything that does not run on petrol pays a fuel-type tax on top of the basic rate. According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), the fuel-type tax for a diesel passenger car is 5.5 cents per day for every 100 kilograms of total mass or part thereof, and a petrol car pays none of it. Motor liability insurance is compulsory, and Traficom requires it to be in place before the car is transferred to the new owner. On top of all that come tyres, the roadworthiness inspection (katsastus) and the one repair nobody manages to budget for.

There is no shortage of choice at this price, and that is part of the problem. In a month, 8,380 cars change hands in the band, 15.1% of all used-car sales in Finland, and among them are 671 different models. When there are hundreds of options and the prices all sit in the same narrow range, the decision does not fail for lack of supply. It fails because the buyer has no grounds on which to rule anything out.

The order starts with the sum for one reason: it is the only decision that cannot survive seeing the car. Fix the limit after the test drive and it gives way upwards every time, and what gives way goes into the purchase price rather than into whatever wears out first. In this band, though, the purchase price is the decision that changes the car least. The next one changes it most.

The kilometre is the price the listing does not show

The second decision is the mileage limit, and it is made before a single model has been looked at. The reason is obvious the moment the band's best-selling models are set side by side: the prices are practically identical, the readings are nowhere near. The Ford Fiesta changes hands at 4,899 € with 151,687 kilometres on the clock, the Mercedes-Benz E at 4,200 € with 433,000 kilometres. The dearer car has covered less ground, and the gap runs to hundreds of thousands of kilometres.

This is not a one-off but the structure of the band. The median odometer reading across the whole band is 268,100 km, against 188,000 km for the used-car market as a whole. The median model year is 2008, against 2014 for the market. Between three and six thousand euros, then, you are not buying a cheaper car but an older and harder-worked one, and that is exactly why price is useless as a sorting criterion here: it was spent when the band was chosen.

The same thing shows up in every one of the band's best sellers. The Volkswagen Golf leads it with 299 sales, and its median reading is 236,000 km. The Audi A4 costs less, 4,000 €, but has covered far more: 328,709 km. Once the limit has been set in advance, a line like that drops out on its own and needs no arguing with yourself in front of the listing. Without a limit it is always tempting, because the price looks right.

Set the mileage limit as a number rather than as a feeling, because the feeling recalibrates to whatever the listings show. When every other option has more than a quarter of a million kilometres behind it, a reading of three hundred thousand starts to look ordinary within a couple of evenings. A limit written down as a figure does not drift the same way, and that is the only reason to write it down before the search is opened.

At some point an older car stops being a cheaper car

The third limit is age, and it goes in right behind the mileage limit, because the two numbers move together. Inside the band the price falls with the model year only up to a point. A 2015 car has a median price of 4,999 €, a 2011 car 4,500 € and a 2007 car 4,000 €. After that the curve stops: a 2001 car costs the same 4,000 €, and a 1990 car has a median price of 4,050 €, more than one eleven years newer.

The odometer, however, does not stop where the price stops. A 2015 car has a median reading of 200,000 km, a 2011 car 257,000 km and a 2001 car 320,000 km. A buyer chasing savings by going ever older ends up, at some point, buying nothing but kilometres at no discount. In practice the floor of the band arrives somewhere around the mid-2000s.

There is a simple reason for this. At these prices a car's value is no longer set by its age but by what is left of it: whether it will pass an inspection, whether it has tyres and whether it runs. The model year stops affecting the price at the same point where it stops saying anything about the condition. In individual models the break can be sharper still, and then the price curve is left with an outright gap.

From this follows an age limit that is easy to set: the oldest model year worth looking at is the one after which the price stops falling. Anything older is not cheaper, only the same money, and in return you get more reading, more age and more of what has already been repaired once.

Body and fuel rule out more than the badge does

The fourth decision narrows the field before a model name has even been said out loud. Body type sorts this band more strongly than price does. A hatchback has a median reading of 190,000 km and an estate 305,000 km, even though the median prices are 4,490 € and 4,290 €. A price difference of two hundred euros therefore corresponds to a gap of more than a hundred thousand kilometres in distance covered, and that gap only becomes visible once the body type is fixed.

Fuel works the same way. A petrol car has a median reading of 221,900 km in the band and a diesel 346,968 km, even though the median prices are 4,380 € and 4,390 €. The logic is plain: a diesel only pays for itself in kilometres, so a diesel that ends up at the same price has had time to cover more of them. Petrol is also simply what is on offer here. Its share of sales in the band is 58.8%, against 44.4% across the market.

A diesel also carries its own bill in this band. The fuel-type tax runs daily regardless of the kilometres covered, so it is spread over fewer kilometres the less the car is driven. Annual mileage on a first car is usually low, which is why fuel should be settled before the model rather than after it.

An electric car is not an option in this price band at all. Its share of sales in the band is 0.1% and the hybrid share 0.4%, against 10.1% for electric and 6.8% for hybrid across the market. A first-car buyer is therefore choosing between petrol and diesel in practice, even though the choice elsewhere in the market would be a different one. That is worth knowing before you filter by fuel, because the wrong filter empties the results list completely.

One body type is all but missing from the band. The SUV accounts for 9.1% of sales here, against 20.2% across the market. An SUV is not an option on this budget in the way it is elsewhere, and if one does turn up at this price it has covered a lot of ground: the median reading for SUVs in the band is 309,000 km. The same goes for the MPV, whose share is 5.4%.

A driveway sale and a forecourt sale are different cars

The fifth decision is who you buy from, and it too is made before the search rather than during it. Dealers account for 42.9% of sales in this band, against 63.2% across the used-car market. The first-car band is therefore the one where the seller is more often another private person than a trader, which is the opposite of the market average.

The difference shows in the car itself. A dealer-sold car in the band has a median model year of 2010 and a median reading of 242,000 km. For a privately sold car the same figures are 2007 and 292,600 km. On price the two sit at 4,890 € and 4,000 €. A dealer, then, gets you a car that is on average three years newer and some fifty thousand kilometres less worn, and you pay under a thousand euros more for it.

The type of seller tracks age so closely that you can read it off the model year. Of 2015 cars, 68.2% change hands through a dealer, of 2005 cars 34.1% and of 1990 cars 1.4%. The older the car a buyer goes for, the more certain it is that the other party is another private person. The checking moves with it: the older the car, the more certain it is that nobody has been through it before you.

Neither seller is worse than the other. Neither is selling the same car.

The choice is worth making before the search, because it changes what the search shows. A privately sold car in this band is older and harder-worked, so a tight mileage limit cuts private listings more sharply than dealer listings. If the limit is tight, the field shrinks quickly to dealer stock. If it is loose, the choice is wider the other way round.

On the test drive you read the paperwork, not just the car

The sixth stage is the first one where a single car is looked at. By then the limits already exist, so the test drive no longer settles how old or how large a car is in question. All that is left to decide is whether this particular car is, within the limit, what the listing claims. The registration number brings up the recorded technical figures and the inspection history, and both are worth reading before the car is seen: they tell you what to ask about on the drive.

The gearbox is settled at the same time, because here that too is a question of kilometres. An automatic has a median reading of 311,000 km and a manual 245,000 km, and the median prices are 4,500 € and 4,290 €. Automatics make up 36.1% of sales in the band, against 59.3% across the market. On this money an automatic is both rarer and, in practice, always the harder-worked car, and the difference shows up in kilometres rather than in the price.

Reading the registration certificate and the inspection history costs nothing and takes minutes.

A listing tells you what the seller thinks of the car. The inspection history tells you what an inspector thought of it, and it is the only place where the car has been judged by somebody other than its owner. In this band there is plenty of history to read: the median model year is 2008, so the car has more than ten inspections behind it. Repeated remarks about the same component say more than a single failure, because they say what has not been fixed.

The test drive itself is short work. Start the car from cold, because a cold start shows what a warm engine hides. Brake hard once on a straight, listen to what the suspension does over broken surfaces, and look at what is left on the ground when you park. After that the buyer knows whether the paperwork is worth taking any further. By this stage the decision is easy, because everything else was decided earlier.

Seven days for the paperwork, then a year at a time

After the sale there is little time, and here the order is compulsory rather than optional. According to Traficom, a change of ownership must be reported within 7 days of the date of sale, and motor liability insurance must be in place before the report is made. Insurance first, notification second, not the other way round. In practice both are handled at once through the insurer.

Put the inspection in the calendar at the same time. According to Traficom, a passenger car is inspected for the first time no later than four years after it was first registered for use and every two years after that, but once more than ten years have passed it must be inspected annually. For a first car this is not the exception but the rule: the median model year in the band is 2008, so almost every car at this price is on the annual cycle.

That means one fixed cost a year and one moment when the car's condition is measured regardless of what its owner thinks of it. The first inspection under your own ownership is also the point at which you find out whether the history you read before buying described the car accurately.

The first year of ownership is worth sizing accordingly. Four costs are known at the moment of sale, and they are worth adding up before the price is agreed:

• The annual vehicle tax, which runs day by day regardless of the kilometres driven.
• Motor liability insurance, which is compulsory and must be in place before the change of ownership.
• The roadworthiness inspection, which falls due every year on a car more than ten years old.
• Tyres, paid for in one go and most often in the first autumn.

On top of those four sits only what cannot be known in advance. These four can be, and that is what separates a first car that stays on the road from one that stands in the drive with its inspection overdue.

The first winter arrives before you are used to the car

The last stage falls, for most people, in the first autumn. According to Traficom, winter tyres must be used from 1 November to 31 March if the weather or road conditions require it, and the main grooves of a winter tyre must be at least 3.0 mm deep. For a summer tyre the legal floor is 1.6 mm. Both are minimum requirements rather than targets, and the lower figure describes a tyre that has already been worn out.

For a first car this is rarely a theoretical question. When the median reading in the band is 268,100 km, the car has been through several owners, and the tyres were last changed according to what the previous owner considered sufficient. The tyre is therefore the part of the car whose condition says more about the previous owner than the listing text does.

Groove depth is measured from the bottom of the groove, not from the edge of the tread, and a coin or the tyre's own wear indicators will do. Check both shoulders and the centre of the tyre, because uneven wear points to the wheel alignment rather than to the tyre. Groove depth is also the only part of a car a buyer can check at the point of sale without tools and without the seller's help.

Tyres are also where a first-car budget most often gives way. A set of winter tyres falls due in one payment and usually in the same autumn the car was bought, before a single service has been carried out. At the point of sale, then, ask what the car is running on and what is waiting for it, and check the answer yourself. Measuring the groove depth takes seconds and moves the price of four tyres onto the purchase side if the set is finished.

For a young driver tyres carry a second meaning as well. According to the Finnish Road Safety Council (Liikenneturva), close to one in four of all those killed or injured in a car is aged 15 to 24, and the population-adjusted risk of death for car drivers aged 17 to 20 is almost double that of the population as a whole. The tyres on a first car are therefore not an accessory but the point where the risk of an age group meets the condition of a car.

The cheapest listing is often the band's dearest car

One trap comes up in this band more often than any other. Large German models cost the same as small Japanese ones, but their readings are in another class entirely. The BMW 530 changes hands at 4,400 € with 432,000 kilometres on the clock, the Mercedes-Benz E at 4,200 € with 433,000 kilometres. The same money buys either a middle-aged small car or a large one of pensionable age.

In this band the buyer is not choosing a price but what the price contains: years or kilometres.

In the listing these two cars cost the same. In use they do not.

Against the argument stands the fact that a large car gives you more space and more equipment for the same money. That is true, and there is no point denying it. In return the buyer gets a reading 61.5% above the band's median, and a car's running costs follow the reading rather than the price. For a first car that means the cheapest listing and the cheapest car are two different things, and the gap between them is paid during the first year of ownership.

The second trap is a body type this money only buys against age. The median model year for both the coupé and the convertible in the band is 2001, and the median price for a convertible is 4,800 €. Both exist on this budget, then, but only as a car from twenty years ago. For a first car that means the body was chosen before the age, when the order says it should go the other way round.

The third trap is what dealers do not take into stock. Of BMW 530 sales, 9.1% go through a dealer, and of Mercedes-Benz E sales 22.7%, against 42.9% of sales in the band on average. When a model moves almost entirely between private owners, the buyer has to check it personally: nobody has done it for them.

Four limits, all set before the test drive

The order in which a first car is chosen comes down to four limits, and every one of them can be set before a single car has been looked at:

• The total sum, which covers tax, insurance and tyres rather than the purchase price alone.
• The mileage limit, set before the model, because inside the band price does not tell cars apart.
• The oldest model year worth looking at. It arrives at the point where the price stops falling.
• Body type and fuel, which narrow the field more than the badge does.

Once those four are settled, the rest is checking. The test drive looks at the individual car, the insurance and the change of ownership are dealt with after the sale, and the tyres are checked in the first autumn. None of those stages changes what sort of car was bought. That was settled before a single listing had been opened.

The order has one concrete consequence, and it only shows afterwards. When the limits are written down before the search, the results shrink from hundreds of cars to a few dozen, and every one of them has already met the conditions the buyer set. Without limits the list stays hundreds long, and the choice gets made on whichever listing happened to be open when the decision could no longer wait.

A checklist and an order differ in one respect. The items on a checklist can be done in any sequence, and that is precisely the point of a checklist. For a first car the order is not free, because each decision narrows the next: the mileage limit cannot be set before the sum is known, and the body type should not be fixed before the age limit exists. Taken in the wrong order, the same decisions lead to a different car.

That is the whole reason for the order. The decisions are made while no actual car is yet in view, because at that stage they are guided by figures rather than by one particular listing.

Browse cars from 3,000 to 5,999 €