I haven’t bought a new car for some time, and when I say new I mean new to me, but I do boast being a regular visitor to the site AutoTrader  (www.autotrader.co.uk & www.autotrader.com),  and there’s nothing like it.  Forgive me, humour me and read on as I’m not a used car salesman and this site is a cracker.

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The website itself is reasonably humbling, the colors not out of the ordinary but it is quite busy on the front page. The site itself offers links to finance your car, insure it , service it, carry out financial checks, etc.  You name it, if it’s car related it’s generally there!

I have grown up with AutoTrader and watched from its humble beginnings as a very good classified and local car magazine all the way through to today with its fantastic website and 10’s of thousands of cars for sale.

I didn't find the website until I bought my last second hand car and was so delighted that I did. So much so that I thought this could be a seriously good topic for those who are unaware of what they are missing. The last time I bought a car I had been searching locally for literally months and was unaware of the AutoTrader website. I was looking for something quite specific in terms of make, colour, engine size, cost, age and mileage.  I can almost hear you chuckle at what I was after, and no surprise that I couldn’t find it within all my parameters?

That’s where you are wrong because at AutoTrader you can do all of that and more! I kid you not, AutoTrader's search facility is phenomenal, but let me warn you, before you log on tell your other half you’re unavailable for the next several hours, because trust me you will simply disappear into the site.

Back to me ... one of the search facilities allows you to locate your second hand car within a desired mileage from your location, but on my visit I figured having canvassed all local press for months that perhaps this was unrealistic and opted for a national search.  For the sake of example, I have run details below based on current advertisers. The beauty is you can leave any of the parameters blank or fill in as many as you want. With each new selection the search is narrowed and the amount of available used cars is reduced based upon your choices.

Categories	My Selection	Cars Available	My Comments
Make	BMW	20,000+	Built for Comfort
Model	3 Series	10,450	Tidy Size
Car Type	Saloon	4,500	I need the space
Fuel Type	Petrol	2,250	Diesel hasn’t convinced me
Price From	£5,000	1,150	I’m Skint
Price To	£10,000	485	But can dream
Mileage	Up To 60,000	219	Still an excellent chasis
Age	Up to 5 years old	62	Best Value for Money
Colour	Silver	21	Change is good as a rest
Engine Size	2 Litres – 2.5 Litres	13	Hey I’m not sooo old!
Transmission	Manual	9	And love a challenge

So, with the selection procedure finished I can expect to find out what is available, see a multitude of pictures and learn the history and other internal specifications of the used car. I also have further opportunities to enter keywords to aid my search, or at any time tweek the selection and recalculate i.e. different colour or model.

Where else can you buy a second hand car with your own specification?  AutoTrader has a selection of over 300,000 cars.

My last car, which was found on an almost identical search took me half way across the country, was it worth it? Ohh yes.  The best thing about buying my car via AutoTrader was when I returned home with my prize , being a cautious type of individual, I took it to my local dealer for an initial service I was offered £2000 more for the car than the amount I purchased it for.

I didn’t sell it and can’t make any such promises that others might do as well. But one thing is for sure, when I come to exchange again next year there is only one place I will need to look. I’ll still be buying a second hand car, and whilst I’m unsure what it may be I guarantee it will be from AutoTrader I simply can’t praise them enough!