You havn't yold us what you need it for.. single person, couple, small family, large family etc.
Got a 405 TD estate, mint in/outside, 165k, but good SH, £600. Does 85 very happily, 40+mpg, and I can get my pushbike in the back no probs. Suits me fine.
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She is single and after a car of Focus-size - mainly because she will be moving stuff to/from uni at some point in the year like me. She insists she cannot park/manoeuvre larger cars than this (she learnt to drive in a Corsa, but has driven her Mum's Golf)...
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punto then, big as a cave inside and you will get a proper low mileage minter mk1 out of the trader for £1500 with power steering (s/t reg, just check before going).
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It'll be the Astra, then!!
Even 1.4 will be OKfor her useage.
VB
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When buying anything cheap, consider three things, condition, condition and condition.
Any car that's down to 1k5 will have been used a lot. How much of this use has included abuse is indeterminate until you look at it carefully. I'd go with a petrol engined mkIII golf or a Focus, mostly because these are more likely to be reliable than anything else, provided they've been reasonably well looked after.
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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You won't get a Focus for £1500, and a Mk3 Golf will be quite old and very expensive to fix if it goes wrong.
Perhaps something French - what about a Citroen Xsara? Great value for money, you'd get a nice SX with air conditioning for this sort of money and although it's not flawlessly reliable it is at least inexpensive to fix.
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check the heater matrix first then.
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Almera, unless you need something bigger.
You should be able to get a decent 99 to 2000 reg one for that sort of money.
It will be the older N15 version, but that really doesn't matter.
SWMBO drives the 1.6 16v SRI Auto. The build and drive quality is very good IMO. We took it to Chippenham over new year. It drove well on a variety of roads, the low c of g is especially good for country lanes.
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A 306 with the back seats down can shift loads. Managed to fit 2 hamster cages (1 huge, 1 small) 2 LCD monitors in their boxes, 2 tower PCs, at least 5 boxes full of stuff, 2 speaker sets (thx subs are huge!), 2 big rucksacks, lots of little bags and I could still use my rear mirror! I dont think many cars of that class of size would struggle either.
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The Almera makes a lot of sense. About the right size, fairly safe, reasonable handling and most of all, reliable. They are also fairly cheap to fix because a lot of 'pattern parts' (wishbones, racks, rads, exhausts etc) have come on to the market recently at low prices. The only thing to watch out for is timing chain stretch on the 1.5 models. Get someone who knows what they are doing to take a look at the engine - steer clear of any with the 'check engine' light on, or not working.
Avoid a Renault at all costs; not reliable, awkward to work on and dear parts.
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Brace yourself Aprilia. I'm going to agree with you on a jap car. Yes - that's right, my suggestion? An Almera! My mate has an R reg one with the tinted indicators so I assume that's a facelifted 1.5 model? In any event, he's got 3 kids and it has been compeltely faultless bar the usual service items for near on 3 years.
Impressive reliability and oddly doesn't look as boring as the newer Almeras.
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She buys a car for £1500 - great! What is her budget for insurance? She might need another £1500!
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The '99 Almera has one of the worst NCAP test results although, interestingly, Folksam placed it in the 'at least as safe as the average car' category.
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i've a 99 t reg citroen xsara 1.8i exclusive for sale for £1200
based in bristol
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I remember the pre 00 (or 99?) almera' having a note against its NCAP rating of 2 stars about high risk to chest area on impact. Its what put me off an almera in the end, being a first time driver at the time.
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Just looked at the HJ CBCB and it states 'low death rate' 3 out of 9.......?
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What did people do before the 90's and all this NCAP stuff? (Don't say "die")
Personally, I wouldn't let a safety rating put me off or persuade me to buy a car. If anything, it would make drive even safer.
I'm sure my priorities would change when I've got kids.
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i drive a mondeo, cheap as anything,as aprilla suggests nissan almera would be my bet...
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What did people do before the 90's and all this NCAP stuff? (Don't say "die") Personally, I wouldn't let a safety rating put me off or persuade me to buy a car. If anything, it would make drive even safer. I'm sure my priorities would change when I've got kids.
I'm sure you would drive safely but there's no telling what idiots are on the road at the same time as yourself.
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Many years ago, there was short article where one of their writers was describing how, whilst driving a BMW, a driver in a Renault 5 came towards him on the wrong side of the road. He stopped, she noticed too late, he sat there helplessly until the crash.
His comment was that up until then, he had never thought about car safety, but he was glad that the situation was not the other way around (ie he in the Renault5, hit by the BMW...)
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