Sexy and desirable cars are getting seriously cheap. Just switch on your computer, go to the very wonderful www.autotrader.co.uk and click on used cars.
Tap in a silly price, press search and your jaw will hit the Axminster.
How about a 98S Jaguar XK Convertible with 78,000 miles and history for an astonishing £6,200? Fancy a 2002 Mini One with only 60k miles? Yours for four grand.
If you thought a Merc SLK was beyond your grasp, think again. There are loads of R and P-plate 230K autos for just five grand, while £4k buys a 97 BMW Z3 roadster and £2k is all you have to pay for a 99 Jag S-Type.
That evergreen glacial depreciator, the Porsche Boxster, isn't immune to the credit crunch, with early R and S-plate tackle down to eight grand.
A 2000W Mercedes ML320 with 60k miles is a piffling four grand and, get this, you can buy one of the first new shape 2002 Range Rovers for just £11,000.
A big push by manufacturers in March soaked the market with 08-plate stock. That created a wave of swappers at auction, causing the biggest falls in the value of three-year-old cars for the last four years.
Throw in a flat Easter, a 25 per cent hike in fuel prices, rising insurance costs and new vehicle excise duty rates, and you're looking at a market that's beginning to sweat.
But for you and me there's a cornucopia of choice out there, with dealers busting to deal and consumer confidence on the floor.
Adrian Rushmore, managing editor of Glass's Guide, says: " This is a great time to buy, not just the prestige and sports stuff, but also family cars like the Scenic, Picasso and Zafira".
My best buy this week has to be an 00X Toyota Prius with 50k miles for just £3,500. That's JD Power's Most Satisfying Car in Britain for the price of some new kitchen cupboards.
TECH FILE
Engine: 1497cc petrol/ electric hybrid
Power: 70hp
0-60: 12.5
Max: 101
CO2: 104g/km
MPG: 57.6
In A Word: Britain's most satisfying & reliable green motor
Going green can seriously damage your wealth, especially if you use this American home-based system that makes pure ethanol from stale beer.
Recently unveiled in New York, the E-Fuel MicroFueler could be sitting next to the jacuzzi in your back garden by the end of the year, if you're prepared to shell out five grand. Even Homer Simpson might take a while to get that back.
It had to happen. German tuner Hamann has given Fiat's new 500 a make-over and turned it into a seriously cute Mini Cooper-chaser called the Sportivo.
You can choose from twin-pipe exhaust, 17-inch rims, tweaked springs, hot brakes and remapped ECU, with prices starting at around £500 for the basic tuning pack. Tick all the boxes and you can kiss goodbye to a couple of grand. Looks a proper poppet, though.
Fancy a Daimler that was owned by a Deputy Prime Minister... for a thousand quid?
Then take a look at this factory-black 1976 Series 2 Sovereign that was originally bought new by William Whitelaw, Margaret Thatcher's second-in command until 1988. It has also featured in various TV productions, comes with a history and has only done around 90,000 miles. Further details on 020 8324 2664.
Here's a people-carrier that really can carry lots of people - and their luggage doesn't have to be sent ahead by train.
The Hyundai i800 can take eight adults in comfort and has twice the storage space as some estate cars. There are two seats upfront and two folding and sliding three-seater benches behind. Power comes from a 2.5 four-pot intercooled turbodiesel - good for 33.2mpg - and standard kit includes air con, privacy glass, ESP traction control, reversing sensors and a five-year warranty. Best of all, the very reasonable £19,495 price will come down even more when a lower-power, lower-spec budget version goes on sale before Christmas.
Alan Taylor bought a brand-new Focus ST-2 in November 2006. In March this year, at 42,000 miles, Alan's Focus broke down and was taken to a Ford dealership for repair.
They diagnosed a failed piston and crankshaft damage, which meant a new engine at a cost of £5,700. Ford are refusing to replace the engine under warranty, because the Focus was serviced at 13,000 miles rather than 12,500, and 33,000 instead of 25,000. Is this fair?
Quentin Says: As far as the warranty is concerned, you are on thin ice. Going over the recommended interval by 8,000 miles means your guarantee is toast. But you did have the car serviced at a Ford dealership and, in my opinion, this kind of engine damage should not have happened, even though you stretched the service interval a bit. Ford understandably don't want to cough up the lot, but they should offer a goodwill gesture. I'd say 50 per cent sounds about right.
Q I've read that you can save quite a bit of fuel by driving "in a green way". What does this mean, and how difficult is it? - George Firth, Lincolnshire
A it's easy. The more you use your accelerator and brakes, the more energy you create and then destroy.
Don't punch the pedals. Accelerate gently, get into the highest gear possible as soon as possible, and leave enough space between you and the car in front so you don't have to brake suddenly and burn up the energy you've created. I've proved it time and time again on TV shows - gentle and progressive driving can knock as much as 25 per cent off fuel bills.
Make sure your car's serviced too, because dragging brakes, dirty oil and blocked air and petrol filters can double consumption. Avoid roof racks, which are not good for aerodynamics, and clear out all that crap in the boot - it only weighs you down.
Plans to toughen up the driving test are long overdue. The insanity of sending kids on to the roads without having driven at night, in bad weather or on motorways contributes to 200 teenage deaths a year. Good driving begins with education. There are pilot plans to have Safe Road Use courses in schools, but why not a GCSE in driving? You may need maths and English to add up and to communicate, but a proper qualification in how to control a car would be more valuable. It might just save your child's life.
Well done to Jaguar for beating Mercedes, BMW and Audi in this year's JD Power UK Customer Satisfaction Index. The Coventry company was the fifth most satisfying manufacturer, while the S-Type came sixth behind the Toyota Yaris. Other surprises included the Toyota Prius as Britain's most satisfying motor, Skoda as second most satisfying manufacturer - and the hugely-popular Mini only managing 24th out of 100 in the satisfaction stakes.
If you're buying a used motor, make sure you check the V5C or registration document. There are 80,000 stolen blank V5Cs in circulation. They look genuine, because they are, but the vehicle and keeper details will look like they've been knocked up on a typewriter. Serial numbers to look out for: BG9167501-BG9190500, BG9190501-BG9214000, BG8407501- BG8431000, BG9282001-BG9305000.
New: 08-plate Peugeot 807 2.0 Executive Auto, delivery miles, alloys, climate, £13,699. Save £10k. 0845 413 3000.
Used: 06-plate Mini One 1.6, low mileage, ABS, PAS, £8,499. Save £3k. 0870 122 2984.
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