New cars that plummet in value can make brilliant used buys

As car enthusiasts/geeks/bores, pretty much everyone at Auto Express is well versed in trawling through used car selling sites, usually accompanied by some sort of noise about the price a certain car is selling for. It could be that something one of us loves is looking increasingly like a bargain, or that prices of an obscure or older car have started to turn north again, out of our reach.

But, be it mainstream, realistic and sensible, or exotic and fanciful, we love looking at used cars. I know I’m not the only one to pine for the days when you could pick up a magazine full of small ads and flick through. Curse you, internet, for bringing that to our screens, rather than a printed world of unrealised opportunities.

That enthusiasm is why we love the annual Auto Express Used Car Awards. It’s a chance to put ourselves in the shoes of buyers across 19 very different categories of car, and decide on the best choice based on value, reliability, satisfaction, practicality and the all-round ownership experience. We aim to help you pick out the best used car, no matter what you’re after.

As for our winners, we’ve flagged where the sweet spot is in the line-up, and an indication of what you might expect to pay for a car of certain age and mileage.

It’s always interesting how different our Used Car Awards winners are to the top choices in the Auto Express New Car Awards that we hand out every summer. What makes a good new car doesn’t always make a good used one, especially when you look at value for money. Whisper it, but some of our Used Car Awards winners are cars that don’t always hold their value brilliantly, so in the second-hand market you get a lot for your money.

In other cases, the same things that make a new car great also apply used, so there’s a whole spectrum of considerations that lead us to the results. I won’t spoil those now, especially with our thought-provoking overall Used Car of the Year. Whatever you’re looking for, though, our selections will get you thinking about your next car.