£5k is banger territory.

For you, maybe. £100 is banger territory for the rest of us

Speak for yourself. ;-)

Banger definition - a car which is currently legal and functioning, has covered a mileage and is of an age where long term reliability cannot be assured, and where major failure means sc***page may loom. Reliability will be seriously at risk.

A quick look at Autotrader to identify at what price bangers start using criteria - mileage over 100k, age over 15 years.

There are 13400 vehicles with more than than 100k on the clock and registered 2010 or earlier. Of these 11300 (85%) are priced below £5000. Those priced above £5000 are likely more premium models.

There are also 14200 vehicles with less than 100k on the clock registered 2010 or earlier. If well maintained and serviced they could provide reliable transport and probably don't deserve the "banger" descriptor.

£2500 may better meet the banger definition - fewer good cars out there, competent DIYers can be more tolerant of repeated failures, but:

• having an independent garage fix a major failure or a selection of moderate MOT failure points can easily cost £1000
• no certainty that another major fault won't occur a month later
• most cars at this price level and mileage is likely to be outdated, low spec, tired
• reliability is likely unassured

Less than £500 seems to buy non-runners, or cars with very visible major faults.

Edited by Terry W on 15/07/2025 at 14:33

£5k is banger territory.

For you, maybe. £100 is banger territory for the rest of us

You'd be surprised at how many old cars that used to be well under £1k are now going for a LOT more. I regularly see many 'normal' ICE cars going for around 50% of their original list price when around the 10yo market.

City cars and especially superminis, petrol autos (not DCTs or Jatcos) in particular going for a song in the current market.

Not helped by the stipulation whereby any dealer selling a car has to provide a 6 month (although many state 3) 'warranty', and thus often have to put a decent amount of work into providing a properly roadworthy car that they just took in px for £500 or less.

You won't get much for £100 these days, maybe no car in running condition at all. A second-hand, 10+yo bicycle, perhaps...

Cars in very poor condition, at least structurally, are often in demand as scr@p for parts, because they are also so expensive these days.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 16/07/2025 at 12:10

Toyota Auris estate, either the 1.4 Diesel or the 1.2 petrol, the 1.6 Diesel is a BMW unit, enough said.

£5k is banger territory.

This is a term in fairly common use on the forum now to describe cars in the (roughly) £3-5k range. It is undoubtedly a bit of an exaggeration (and so probably shouldn't be taken too literally), but it is perhaps useful to point out that with the rise of used car prices over the last 5 years or so, that budget isn't going to go as far now as it once did.

Personally, my advice for the OP would be to stick with the current car. No, not very exciting, no, not exactly a rocketship, and no, not that efficient. But as you already have it, it is a known quantity and as such (unless there are problems you are aware of) it is already a safer bet than anything else you may consider. As for performance, yes you may hanker after more, but the max speed limit is 70mph and the Focus will happily do that all day long.

Diesel purchase at this price is an absolute minefield, you may get lucky, but equally you may end up with something on the cusp of very expensive problems, blocked DPF, injectors, etc. In fact my mate's Brother is currently in the middle of trying to sort out problems on a diesel Honda CRV he bought. Don't know much details as my mate isn't really a "car man", so don't know the age, mileage or whether 2.2 or 1.6, but I'd suspect the price paid for it was some way north of £5k.

For a petrol engine with more power, you'd need to be looking at either a larger capacity n/a or something with a turbo. With the former, you have a decent chance of reliability, but the economy will probably be worse, with the latter you have a merry-go-round of potential problems not unlike diesel. Probably the most common turbo motor at this budget would be the Ford Ecoboost, but that has a well known reputation for problems. Then you have early VAG TSI engines with their potential timing chain problems. You're also got early PSA Pure tech engines and their potential wet belt problems. Again, you may get lucky, but why would you risk it when you already have a car that does what you need for the majority of the time?.

As has been said, the dated radio is not a major stumbling block, either an aftermarket job or some bluetooth or DAB converter/connector.

As for the economy of your Focus and running costs in general, it is easy to fixate solely on mpg, but reliability is likely to play a much bigger part of the running costs of a £5k car. Your current mpg may not be brilliant, but it only needs one relatively minor problem on a diesel to wipe out what you've saved on fuel.

If you really must change, I'd be thinking along the lines of SLO's, now departed, Terrence the Toyota. This was a 3rd gen (2009-2018) Avensis 1.8 petrol, and they are pretty much bulletproof in terms of reliability (though there is a possibility the EPB may misbehave). Decent economy if driven sensibly, and very comfortable. Performance wise, 145ish bhp (if memory serves, not much less than the 2.0), so a chunk more than a Focus 1.6, but bear in mind it is n/a, so will need some revs to get things moving.