Definitely don't buy a new car!!
I wouldn't say that so strongly.
If he's looking for a big car (upwards of the Golf) your probraly right, but with small and very small cars things can be different.
Not sure how the situation in GB is (did you also have some sort of cash-for-clunkers program ?), but real prices for new cars (read after you negotiated a 10-20% rebate) are at a alltime low around here, while younger used cars still cost about as much as as some years ago. A new car means full warranty, mabe lower taxes and insurance and better resale value later on (as it's still younger and will have only 1 previous owner).
Small cars by reasonable brands can be had for as little as 10k these days, how much cheaper must a 3 year old be to make sense ? I'd say atleast 5k ....
If your looking for an older car you need 4 things:
Expertise, luck, more luck and even more expertise
