Low mileage? Naturally? Good residual value? That goes without saying. So why, then, do so many people choose to ignore their own guidelines and buy a used vehicle that ticks none of these boxes?

That is a moot question when it comes to buying a used car at Autoplatz in Walkinstown. To begin with, it only deals with quality used cars.

And, more than this, it only deals in quality used German cars.

"German cars make up about 20% of the market in Ireland, " said Leon Wood of Autoplatz. "But, more than this, they are considered among the most reliable cars on the road."

Not only are the cars German, but the majority of them are relatively new, and most come from the UK . . . Autoplatz simply does not touch Irish cars, for a number of reasons.

"What most people don't understand is that, in the UK car market, a huge number of the cars sold are not sold for retail . . . instead, they are sold to the corporate market, often for short-term leases, " said Wood. "This means that there are large numbers of high-quality, low-mileage cars available for sale in the UK, and the market simply cannot absorb them all. It was estimated that 57,000 vehicles were taken out of the UK into Ireland last year, and that figure is 40% greater than it was just two years ago. Most of these vehicles are at the high-quality end of the scale, and the dealers in the UK are more than glad that there is a market here to take care of the surplus."

A quick trawl through the pages of Autoplatz. ie will throw up a selection of high-quality Audis, BMWs, Mercs, Minis, VWs, even Porsches . . . but what is noticeable is that the ticket prices are generally relatively high.

"There is an acceptance that hasn't dawned on many people in the Irish market that you can get better value if you get your car regularly serviced by a franchise dealer, " said Wood.

"They realise this in the UK, and, also, they tend to take better care of their cars, avoiding the nicks and bangs that you can get in car parks. Because we offer low-mileage, late second-hand cars that have been well-looked after, our prices can be higher. But very few dealers, even franchise dealers, will have cars of our quality, and I am confident that the Irish market is willing to pay higher prices for quality cars."

There is also the issue of spec . . . and UK cars tend to have higher specifications than their Irish counterparts.

"Dealers seemed to be holding back on the spec in Ireland, " explained Wood. "Take, for example, air conditioning . . .

many dealers didn't believe that their customers would be prepared to pay for it until recently."

This is not, of course, a problem with cars that have been sourced in the UK, where the market has become used to higher spec vehicles over time.

But higher spec is not the only thing that Autoplatz offers . . . it also comes with certain guarantees.

Indeed, many of the later years cars that Autoplatz sells (2006, etc) will still have at least a part of the manufacturer's warranty in place. But, in addition, every car that leaves Autoplatz comes with a two-year, insurance-backed warranty . . . now there's confidence in a product.