Cheap Cars for Sale in Scarborough

Cheap to buy is not the same as cheap to own

Almost everyone who rings about a cheap car is asking the same question: how little can I spend and still get to work on Monday? It deserves a straight answer. The cheapest car on any forecourt is not the cheapest car to own. A £1,200 car that needs a clutch, two tyres and a set of front discs in its first month has quietly cost you over £2,000.

That is why this business runs the way it does. L.A Motors has been trading since 2001, these days from Pavilion Garage on Somerset Terrace, and in over 25 years Lex has learned which cheap cars stay cheap and which only look it on the day you hand the money over. What gets bought, and what gets turned down, is decided on that basis long before a car reaches the current stock list.

What your budget really buys

There is no mystery about what is here. Prices and stock change daily, so the stock list is the only accurate answer on any given day, but the shape of it rarely moves: sensible small cars rather than anything nearly new.

Over the years almost everything sensible has been through here: Corsas, Astras, Zafiras and Merivas, Fiestas and Kas, 107s and 108s, C1s, Picantos, Rios, i10s, Aygos and more besides. Which of those is on the forecourt on any given day changes constantly. Small hatchbacks, superminis and practical family cars, which is what most households on this coast actually need. It is broken down further on our cars under £3,000 and cars under £5,000 pages.

At this end of the market another £400 rarely buys more car. It buys a better example of the same car: fewer owners, a thicker folder of paperwork, tread on the tyres and no three-year hole in the history. That is money better spent than stretching to a bigger engine.

The bills that carry on after you have paid

The purchase price is the number everyone compares and the least important one over three years.

• Insurance. Group matters more than anything else, especially for a younger driver. A 1.0 Aygo, C1, 107, i10 or Picanto sits about as low as insurance gets. Move up to a 1.4 or 1.6 family car and the premium climbs for the same journeys, so run quotes on the exact registration before you commit.
• Road tax. Plenty of what we sell was registered before April 2017, so it is taxed on emissions rather than the flat rate. A 1.0 three-cylinder C1, 107, Aygo or Picanto of the right year costs nothing at all to tax, and plenty of the rest are £20 or £35 a year.
• Fuel. A tidy 1.0 or 1.2 supermini genuinely returns high forties to mid fifties to the gallon. For school runs and short local trips, buy petrol rather than diesel: modern diesels want long hot runs, and four-mile journeys eventually become an expensive problem.

Why every car gets the same treatment

This is the part that matters most, and the reason the word cheap does not make us flinch. The cheapest car on the forecourt goes through exactly the same process as the dearest. There is no bronze, silver and gold, and nothing sold as seen in the back corner.

Before anything is advertised it gets a road test of at least 50 miles, long enough for a gearbox to warm through, a clutch to show itself and a wheel bearing to start talking. It then gets a full mechanical health check, and anything that cannot be put right properly does not go on sale.

Every car is handed over with 12 months MOT, a full service before collection and a three-month engine and gearbox warranty. That warranty is aimed squarely at the two failures that would genuinely hurt at this price.

Buying a first car for a teenager

Buying a first car usually means a newly qualified driver, a fixed budget and a strong wish not to repeat the exercise in six months. A few things help.

Start with the insurance, not the car. Get quotes on two or three specific models first, because for a seventeen-year-old the premium often costs more than the car. Small engine, low group, standard specification. Anything modified or wearing a sports badge pushes the number up.

Five doors are worth having even if they look duller, and a car with two keys and a service history is easier to live with and easier to sell on. If your new driver passed in an automatic, or finds hill starts on the town's steeper streets unpleasant, automatic cars do come in, though they are less common at this money. Bring the young driver along and let them drive it.

How buying works, and how to find us

You deal with Lex directly. No sales staff, no targets, no add-ons waiting in a back office. Tell him the budget and what the car has to do, and he will say honestly whether he has something that fits or whether you are better waiting.

Payment is bank transfer or card. There is no finance, hire purchase or PCP here, which is part of how the prices stay where they are; arranging your own funding is completely fine. Part exchange is welcome, subject to appraisal, and Lex also buys cars outright if you simply want rid of something.

We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, with weekends by appointment. Lex is often out collecting cars, so please ring or WhatsApp 07900 910 588 before travelling. Directions are on our location page, and the wider range is listed under used cars in Scarborough.