My sister and her husband just had a cambelt snap on their 97 Daewoo resulting in an uneconomic-to-replace situation with the wrecked engine.
Unfortunately I am too far away from them to be able to help them find a car, and they know absolutely nothing about cars, other than that they need one!
They have £4000 to spend, and say they have been recommended a company called Club Autosave who will source a car for them and deliver it.
I'd like some advice on what they should be looking for. They do around 10-12k miles a year, and this car will need to last 4 to 5 years. They have two small children (2 and 6 months) and possibly another on the way, so my sister says it's essential they can put a child seat in the front, which means a switchable airbag is req'd.
The 'M' word keeps springing to mind, but does a Mondeo have a switchable airbag? I have no idea. Seem to be some with 50k ish miles on a 2002 for their budget (1.8 or 2.0LX)
Thanks for your thoughts!
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I think most cars will have a switchable airbag, so wouldnt worry too much on that front.
Mondeo sounds ideal for the budget, but theres plenty around so would cut out Autosave.
If there really unsure better to buy private and get some sort of AA/RAC check for piece of mind.
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Anything 'mainstream' is going to be OK for them. I would suggest Mondeo (petrol) or Avensis (petrol).
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If not an M, how about a Focus estate?
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If there is a significant likelyhood of a third child then they really should factor in whether car will take 3 child seats in the back, especially given how young first two are. I don't know the answers but I have heard conflicting suggestions about whether or not child seats can touch each other.
Some friends of mine had a Pug 406 which would just take 3 seats but they got rid in the end (swapped for toyota minibus) because it was so fiddly to reach between the child seats to strap all the kids in.
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If they were happy with the Daewoo and it doesn't have any other major problems then why not find out what it would cost to have a secondhand engine put in? You would need to get the belts and water pump changed for new ones before it goes in however it might turn out to be a lot cheaper and a lot less hassle for them. WIth three young children they will probably have to be careful with their money and this could be a lot cheaper.
They don't sound like people who have the experience and time to go round looking for a decent second hand car and it can be a minefield if you don't know what you are doing and you are in a rush.
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A '97 Daewoo will be far too rusty now to be worth spending any money on. For the user as described, a petrol Mondeo or mainstream Japanese car of similar specification would be a sensible choice.
659.
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A '97 Daewoo will be far too rusty now to be worth spending any money on.
Not necessarily. All depends on the model -- the older Nexias and Esperos were a bit rot-prone (based on 80s Vauxhall designs, what do you expect lol), but the newer Lanos/Nubira etc etc seem quite reasonable on the rust front. No better or worse than any other car really.
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I'm not sure that the Mondeo actually has a switchable airbag, which is a shame as it sounds otherwise perfect.
Blue
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Not necessarily. All depends on the model -- the older Nexias and Esperos were a bit rot-prone (based on 80s Vauxhall designs, what do you expect lol), but the newer Lanos/Nubira etc etc seem quite reasonable on the rust front. No better or worse than any other car really.
Maybe, but its still not worth spending several hundred pounds on.
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Toyota corolla, nissan primera or a even a Skoda Fabia.
Why not get in touch with HJ's reccomended auction buyer to source the car
Mark
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Maybe, but its still not worth spending several hundred pounds on.
If it's reliable otherwise, it might be but it depends on the overall condition vs how much the replacement engine etc is going to cost.
The only reason Daewoos might not last as long as any other car is precisely because people decide they're uneconomical to repair earlier than say a VW -- purely down to depreciation. I personally wouldn't bother with *any* car of this age that needed a new engine, as the engine effectively *is* the car and you don't know how the new one is going to behave, but I'd be no less inclined to fix up a Daewoo than a Ford/Vauxhall etc.
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Citroen Picasso 1.8 Petrol - should be able to get a decent one for £4k (may be able to get a diesel too for that budget). 3 proper seats in the back too.
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How much is a Lotus Carlton these days?
Jasper Carrott described it as a family car the for Fittipaldis!
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Colin-E
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