One of the first things things you'll need to do is decide on your budget - how much can you afford to spend to buy the car? What's your monthly budget for running costs, including any finance you plan to use?
Then think carefully about what exactly you want the car for, both now and over the years you're likely to keep it. How many people do you expect it to carry? Will growing kids mean you'll shortly need more space in the back? What sort of journeys will you be doing - local or motorway? Will you be carrying shopping bags or towing a caravan? Are you after something practical or fun?
Start
by picking a general category of car: City Car (Peugeot 1007, Mini); Supermini
(Fiesta, Corsa); Small family (Golf, Civic); Medium (Mondeo, Peugeot 407); Executive
(Audi A6, BMW 5-series) or Luxury (Jaguar, Audi A8). Or maybe you're after something
a bit more specialist, like an estate or sports car, a 4x4 or an MPV ('people-carrier').
Next look at what the different car-makers have to offer in the category you've chosen. Which have the features you want? How do prices vary between different makes?
Decide
whether you'd prefer a petrol or diesel engine. As a general rule, diesels
are good for towing, high miles, are cheaper to run and are better for the environment.
On the other hand, they cost more to service and you'll pay more to buy one. Petrol
cars are quieter and faster and these days are catching up with diesels in the
economy stakes. If you're not sure about diesels, try test driving a few and see
how they suit you. You might not be able to tell much difference between petrol
and diesel in newer cars, but older diesels are likely to be noisy and slow.
