Hi, as said in a previous post, any car is as good as the service it has received, the service book is very important but nowadays people do not seem to bother with that! there are many cars out there & with diesel's you are not saving a lot unless you do a lot of mileage, derv's do not give as much trouble in very cold weather providing the heater plugs are glowing as they should be. as cars of today, a lot are serviced either 6 or 12 months intervals but that is not recommended, well I would not, not for the price of a service anyway, if & when & what car you decide on if you are not well up on the Mechanics of a car, It's worth paying someone £20 >>£30 to check the car out for you, If you can afford go for cash as you can barter with money in your hand but just be aware of the Warranty, make sure they have the V5 if they do not have this, do not bye, if you decide to pay by cheque & there is a problem within the clearance date you can stop the payment, Do not bye the car when its Raining as this can give out the wrong signs of the paints bodywork, check for over spray etc, if manual check pedal rubbers for wear, last by no means least, do not bye in haste???? otherwise you may pay the price.