Buying a secondhand car can be stressful. Will you bag a bargain - a well-loved used BMW or used Mercedes with practically nothing on the clock perhaps? - Or will you end up paying over the odds for an old banger? Whether you’re buying something smart and nearly-new or a bargain-basement runaround, make sure you get a good deal.

Do your homework

Before you even set foot on a forecourt, know the market value of the car you’re looking at. Consumer price guides are available online or at a local newsagent. Look at the prices for similar cars advertised in your area – is the price of the car you’re looking at in line with the general trend? Make sure you’re clued up on the different versions of this car: the most popular models, the desirable engine choices, equipment, must-have features and so on. These could all be good bargaining points. Would you want a luxury saloon without leather upholstery, a budget city car with a thirsty engine or a family car without a decent entertainment system – unless it was suitably cheap?

Nevertheless, with roughly one car for every two people, it's probably fair to say that the UK is still in love with its cars. So, if you are considering buying a vehicle - whether new or second-hand - what do you need to know about recent developments in the car tax system?

VED - an overview

Applying to cars registered from March 2001 onwards, there are 13 VED (Vehicle Excise Duty), or tax bands, based on CO2 emissions. Band A is for cars which produce up to 100g of CO2 per km travelled - typically, hybrids, and some petrol and diesel cars with smaller engines. These pay no car tax at all - a clear message that lower-polluting cars are finding favour with those in power.

For each subsequent band, the rate of VED increases, with even a relatively modest 1.6-litre petrol version of the popular Ford Focus slipping into band G (with emissions between 151-165g/km), and attracting a £165 rate.

In fact, above 120g/km (band C), all the rates have increased in cost for 2011-12, compared to the previous year. Below this level - in keeping with the Government's drive towards providing an incentive for buyers to go for less-polluting models - there has been no price inflation for 2011.

At the upper end of the scale, this now sees owners of cars which produce more than 255g/km - typically, the largest executive saloons, sports cars, and bigger 4x4s - hit with a VED bill of £460.

If you’re considering a road trip holiday in some far-flung destination this summer, it would be prudent to make sure you know how much you’re going to be shelling out for your hire car. Varying vastly from country to country, the cost of your car might well either make or break your holiday budget.

Back in September last year, the Telegraph featured an article covering both the cheapest and most expensive countries for car hire (based on airport prices), centred around a survey by a well-known travel price comparison website.
If you’re considering a trip across the water to sunny Ireland, then you’ll be surprised to learn that you’ll pick up the cheapest hire car of all 131 locations featured in the survey – a bit of a change from their notoriously expensive €6 pints of the black stuff and high cost of living. Ireland’s a beautiful (and rather convenient) place to motor around on a 10-day jaunt, so this revelation comes as a very nice surprise indeed.

Now that we’re into April, we can safely say that 2011 is shaping up to be the year of the green car. Hybrid systems and cars powered fully by lithium ion batteries are making their way onto the UK’s roads sooner rather than later and shaping the future of motoring as they go. But for a look at what else is on the horizon for the industry, we can turn to a number of pioneering, hi-tech designs and concepts from recent years that could blaze a trail into the future of driving.

Opel Insignia

It might seem quite a while since the Opel Insignia picked up the 2009 European Car of the Year award but, two years on, it remains a benchmark for motoring technology. The Insignia was the first production car to offer traffic sign recognition to drivers, thanks to the use of a dual-function frontal camera. Car insurance for the Insignia is not cheap in the UK, but if you can find a good deal then a fine driving experience awaits you.

What Car? is calling on the Government to radically change the drink-driving law, reducing the limit to effectively zero, after research revealed the difficulty in judging drink-drive limits.

What Car? used a driving simulator at the Transport Research Laboratory to measure four adults’ reactions when ‘driving’ under the influence of alcohol. While reaction times slowed by 8% at the current legal limit of 80mg/100ml of blood, what was most alarming was the different amounts of alcohol required to get the individuals to that level. One tester needed an alarming 12 shots of vodka to reach the legal drink-drive limit.

What Car?’s research follows official figures that show a 14% rise in positive breath tests between December 1, 2010, and January 1, 2011, alongside a 24% reduction in tests carried out over the same period. Drivers are clearly confused by the contradiction of the Government’s ‘don’t drink and drive’ message and the presence of a law that allows them to drink ‘some’ alcohol before driving.