Drive through the north Cork town of Charlville and you can’t help but spot the impressive line of car dealers. That was my shopping venue last seek as I went in seek of used-car value at two of the town’s most prominent dealerships. And there was certainly a lot on offer for those pre-Christmas car buyers.

I called into two prominent car dealers during a visit to the north Cork to see what the used car value there was for those drivers with €15,000 to spend on upgrading the family car. The original intension was to check out the €15,000 value, which is not always an easy thing to do as salesmen generally try to persuade you to buy the car of your choice and worry about the money later.

There were lots of cars on offer and access is great, giving close to 100 cars to view almost seven days a week by walking around the used car lots.

There is a great opportunity to see the value when the cars are well presented. And there is some good value to be had.

Cavanagh’s

I first called to Ford dealer Cavanagh’s of Charleville, where Shane Collins showed me what was on the forecourt at my price range. I told Shane that I was looking for a family car that was flexible, economical to run and would hold its value for another three years.

All of the cars in the used car area of Cavanagh’s are well labelled. The customer can see clearly all of the car’s details and the cost if opting to buy under the garage’s finance deal. The prices are headline prices and Shane was open to deal on all of them.

While my call was in December and coming up to the year end, Shane was keen to point out that they would have even more cars come the first week of January. The range of cars on view was impressive across a number of brands and most come with garage guarantees that are worth something extra.

Lucey’s

Across the road at Lucey Motors, a Nissan and Mazda dealership, I met with Frank Deery who had an equally impressive array of used cars on offer. While most of the cars were Nissans, Lucey’s had a range to come close to my price ceiling and Frank was open to doing deals to move cars on.