Ok lads here's the challenge for you. We're moving house soon, and the new place will need serious renovation. The kind of renovation that will need loads of trips to the dump and loads of trips to homebase / ikea / trade centres etc.
So I'm thinking it would be a good time to buy a cheap load lugging car. Key requirements are:
- cheap purchase price
- fairly reliable
- cheap to repair / solid mechanicals.
The good news is that we won't be going very far with the car so fuel economy isn't really relevant, and also I'm not too bothered about mileage - have had plenty of 100k+ cars in the past with no worries, although I would like to see evidence of a proper service history.
What kind of car are you thinking would be best? I'm sure an estate would be handy, although perhaps an MPV?
So far my thoughts are that the best car would be a Ford Mondeo: Plentiful hence cheap to buy. Easy / cheap to repair. Probably built quite well.
What do you think? Thx Richard
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You'd get a very decent Cavalier for that.
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Toyota Carina E estate? Far better bet than a Mondeo in this price range, the lean burn 1.6 and 1.8s are very frugal, the 2.0 litre surprisingly pokey, plus of course the obligatory reliability!
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If you're talking about serious renovations of the knocking down walls, ripping up floors variety then just get a towbar, then buy/rent a trailer. That kind of activity quickly does serious damage to the interior of an ordinary car and £1000 is quite a lot to pay for something you will destroy in a matter of months and may yet cost you more in repairs. In fact for £1000 you could hire a lot of large vans and do it in less frequent but bigger loads. This plan goes for double if this will be your only car.
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I'm assuming that the intention is to buy it, use it as a sort of "motorised" wheelbarrow, and the condition of it at the end of the work is not that important. If that is the case, why not look for an old Citroen BX estate? they are as cheap as chips, have an extremely usable load area, with no sill to lift stuff over and you can lower the rear to help with the really heavy stuff. If you look for a diesel, they are cheap to run and also extremely reliable.
You never know, you may not even lose much with depreciation.
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A Peugeot 405 diesel estate springs to mind. I reckon you could get one of the last ones made well within your budget.
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Volvo 940 Estate?
Vauxhall Carlton Estate?
Biggest estate that you can find basically.
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why not just buy an old van?
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NW - because old vans tend to be in worse condition, worse to drive and cost more than old estate cars. Although, if the sole reason for the vehicle's existence is to move loads, a van is unbeatable and probably relatively easy to sell on.
Anyone who needs to carry passengers in the same vehicle on a regular basis, or simply can't face driving a van (it's really not difficult but some might be too nervous or proud) is better off looking at a car.
In this price range though, whatever you can find that's not broken. That's most likely to be a Volvo 940 but anything else that's massive and well looked after will do the job nicely.
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wow loads of replies.
This will be a second car and will be used a couple of times a week as a car - it's for the wife, who walks to work but sometimes she'll go to Tesco, go to the gym, go out with friends etc. so she'd value the ability to carry 4 people occasionally.
Other consideration I should have mentioned is it would be really nice if, at a push, the car could be used for driving down to the Alps for our annual ski trip next Feb. So with this in mind I could increase the budget to £2000 although would still be happier with £1,000 purely from a 'depreciation' point of view (less to lose) although really I'm looking at totaly cost of ownership so if there's an ultrareliable £2k car around I'd rather buy that than a £1,000 car that could need £500 of work every 6 months to keep it going. By the way I intend keeping whatever car we get for around 18 months. Oh and the renovation work will involve us carrying tiles, plasterboard, garden waste, furniture etc. but not really that much rubble hopefully.
Will look into the options you've given me above.
Thx Richard
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Found a couple, first of all the N reg Volvo priced at £1,999 below:
snipurl.com/e448
looks like a good'un
oh and how about this fella:
snipurl.com/e44b
(the one at £1,450)
but then again this modeo ghia (£1,325) looks fantastic:
snipurl.com/e44d
Rich
{links shortened as was screwing up the page width. DD}
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Mk2 Mondeo without a doubt. Fail to see how a Carina would be better at any price let alone that price.
The Ghia X Estate you see there would have self levelling rear suspension as well. Useful.
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Oh, and if you are going to use it for trips to the Alps, you'll struggle to find a more modern, up to date car with plentiful equipment levels for comfort. Cruise control, leather and air conditioning - great for long journeys.
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Also trying to find a Carina E estate would be difficult - only 23 in total on autotrader at the mo.
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Probably because the owners like them too much to sell!
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Load lugger:
1. Gloria. That is to say, a Ford Transit. It wouldn't do for those Alps trips, but otherwise, it's just what you need. 500 quid, and they're built like the proverbial brick house. Not a joy to drive (at that price), but to the dump or Travis Perkins & back again & you'll be happy as Larry.
2. A pickup. You might, might, might just find a Hilux at that 1k price, but I doubt it. For 2k you will. Unbeatable, frankly. But it's quite a long way up to lift the load - they are high loading.
Car:
Audi 100 estate (the A6 shape. previous model available for the price of a bag of chips - and no less reliable (until, like every cheap & old car, they need 5 new spark plugs & replacement time arrives.)) Huge, and you get Audi reliability, luxury, comfort etc. They do have a carpeted boot, though. You could get a Carlton, but then you have to face up to their reliability. You probably won't get a sub-10 year old audi for that money, though, which might be an issue if you're driving abroad and want AA cover. What about a Mercedes W123 estate? Supreme luxury for under £500.
And there you have a list of the 5 of the last vehicles I've owned/used a lot - and all bought for the reasons you demand.
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