To be honest, I'm pretty disheartened with my search now. I've made 6 or 7 serious enquiries, they've all been a 2017 or 2018 and to be quite honest, most are in a shocking state. I had really hoped that the later cars were better. I sorted my last car (2013) when I got it, powder coated the rear braces and treated the underside, a very satisfying job if truth be told. The car was 6.5 years old at the time with 36k miles and because I bought in at the very bottom of the market I didn't mind doing a little work. Car was from the Bradford area.
Now I'm looking at 5 year old cars with a budget of £45k to £50k and really struggling to spend that money knowing what it looks like underneath. Different story at half the value. I know it's mostly superficial, but this is a long term keeper. I could go through the same treatment process, but to be honest after 3 years with my old car, it was coming back.
This one in the video below has only done 9k miles and is a Jan 2018 car. It is a Scottish car to be fair and I could buy a car from southern England, but I'm 180 miles further North than this car and don't feel I shouldn't have to garage it every winter to help protect it from rotting away. None of my previous 20+ cars (mostly German) have ever looked like this at 10 years old, never mind 5. Wish I could get it out of head and enjoy the outside beauty.... not what's lurking underneath
https://video.citnow.com/vtKVRFbHZ_v


