Estate car under £3000

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Fri 2 Jun 2017 22:51
Estate car under £3000 - Hat751

I am going to buy an estate car for under £3000. My requirements are petrol (drive less than 5000 miles a year) and automatic (dodgy knee).

I dont know what to buy, a 10 year old Mondeo or similar or a 14 year old 5 series or Mercedes.

What should I be looking for and importantly what should I be avoiding. If I look at a car what should I be checking for such as timeing chains etc.

Edited by Hat751 on 02/06/2017 at 22:52

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Fri 2 Jun 2017 22:58
Estate car under £3000 - gordonbennet

Avensis, just do your normal checks, no real vices.

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Fri 2 Jun 2017 23:13
Estate car under £3000 - Stumblebum

I got a Honda Accord Estate approx 10 years old at 60K miles at this price, 2 litre estate. It was reliable but heavy on petrol (30mg). It was a top of the range model. The high cost extras that caused me problems e.g. powered tail gate motor no longer worked which meant that I could only open it from the outside (until fixed by an auto electrician). So at this age I would go for a more basic model (I was paranoid the powered seats would fail in between being adjusted for me at 6 foot and my wife at 5 foot).

The car was reliable for 30K in 18 months, until it was taken out by an SUV driven with more enthusiam than skill.

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Sat 3 Jun 2017 00:09
Estate car under £3000 - SLO76
Beaten to it so I'll just back em up by recommending looking at an Avensis and an Accord. At this money they're far less likely to go wrong than anything else, particularly an old BM, Merc or Mondeo.
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Sat 3 Jun 2017 23:12
Estate car under £3000 - Hat751

Hadn't thought of the Avensis. Thats got me thinking.

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Mon 26 Jun 2017 22:13
Estate car under £3000 - Broomhall

have a peugeot sw estate. Been ok, very cheap to run

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Tue 27 Jun 2017 08:55
Estate car under £3000 - nellyjak

Toyota Avensis...!...would be a good choice.!

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Tue 27 Jun 2017 11:10
Estate car under £3000 - lordwoody

I wish I'd never sold my Volvo 940, faultless for 3 years I owned it, massive interior space, very comfortable, still some good ones about.

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If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?