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I need a comfortable 2nd car to do a daily commute of around 30 miles on motorway. I've had good service from Cavaliers in the past and there are many '94 cars at my budget of £800. However I've also come across some '92 Passats which also seem suitable. Has anybody got experience of them both and a view of which would be the better car?
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I'm going to definitively not answer this question... with a budget of £800, it comes down overwhelmingly to the individual car that you can physically get your hands on, rather than the general qualities of either.
I think I prefer the Passat, on balance, but not by nearly enough to stop me jumping at a Cav if the right one came along.
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Absolutely agree with David, if you can find a clean example which looks like it will be reliable it doesn't really matter what car it is.
For what it's worth, our '92 Passat has 130,000 miles and is still going strong as a dialy hack. Estates are worth more than saloons, the 16V engines are quite a bit more thirsty than the regular 8V ones (35mpg vs 42mpg), check for cambelt changes in the service book and any rust from stonechips, cracked windscreen etc, basically anything that would make it fail an MoT and blow your budget. Apparently 200,000 miles is common for the engines and the gearbox will last even longer. Fewer toys is probably better, but ours still has fully working electric windows, sunroof, central locking etc. The catalytic convertor was replaced just before we bought the car at about 110,000 but aftermarket parts can keep the cost down.
Finally, it's a buyer's market out there, you'd be amazed what gems turn up if you can wait (and be amazed at the overpriced dross that others still try and pass off!)
Gareth
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I agree with all the above, but if it was my £800 I'd trundle down to an auction with a view to picking up a Mondeo.
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There are a lot more tidier looking Cavalier's out there than there are Mondeo's for around £800
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For £800, I would go to the auction and be open minded and consider any of the following.
Mondeo
Xantia
Passat
Cavalier
Rover 200, 400 or even 600
Peugeot 405
Renault equivilent
Audi 100
Volvo 700 series
Exclude
Fiats - Sorry but they've got a dodgy parts availability reputation
Alpha Romeo - Finding certain bits can be like looking for hens' teeth
Any car that is obviously the high performance model in the range UNLESS there are genuine reasons to believe it has been very well looked after.
Eliminate cars that haven't got:
Service History of some sort
Body panels all the same shade and straight
Reasonable mileage, anything up to 80 to 90k
Panel damage limited to reasonable level.
All lights etc in good order - no cracked light clusters.
Evidence of being waterproof - if you can spot the obvious.
You'll be surpised at the wide choice you still have.
If your not satisfied with the choice you have, compromise on one or two of the above criteria and start again.
That is the approach I took when I bought my car from the auction. I had a budjet of £3K but spent only half of that on a car that more than met all my needs.
H
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Not sure I'd go for an elderly Laguna, and at auction a 21 will be dirt cheap and probably a bit too old and fragile for this money. 405s can be good, but most of them aren't, and big, old Volvos are probably too thirsty for this kind of mileage (15k+ per year).
If the budget allows it, spending more on a diesel in good condition might bring financial dividends. As for mileage - 80k is not particularly high for a three year old repmobile that has come off the fleet, so expecting the same on a ten year old is quite likely to ensure a clocked car.
I would say that, if the car is straight and has obviously been looked after, mileage of up to 130k wouldn't put me off - if the price is right.
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You will pick up any number of L, M, N plate Mondeos at auction for £800, that are only there because they've been traded in and have nothing wrong with them. Don't be scared of a 1.8 with over 100k, from your description it sounds like you're doing 14 - 15k miles a year. Get one with say, 105k on it, add another 15k to that and sell it again after a year, it'll cost you pocket money.
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