Advice on buying a car

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 6 Mar 2008 16:50
Advice on buying a car - dj0586
HI guys, im hoping for some advice on which car to buy next. I had a Fiat Brava which has gone to the great garage in the sky so i'm on the look for a new car.

Ideally, i would like a diesel and like the look of the vauxhall Vectra but have been told its not great for short journeys (15 miles down motorway to work) and ones i have see (51 reg) have about 140,000 on the clock.

I have a budget of 2k ideally would like to spend £1700. Does anyone have any suggestions????
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Thu 6 Mar 2008 17:04
Advice on buying a car - RichardW
For that money, Pug 306 or Cit Xsara 1.9TD or HDi. Not sure you will get a half decent HDi under £2k - most will be pretty baggy. Petrol ones are cheeeeeap, and may not work out more expensive overall if you not doing mega miles.
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Thu 6 Mar 2008 17:15
Advice on buying a car - oldnotbold
150 miles for work each week, plus weekends gets you to about 10k a year - no real payback on a diesel.

Buy the best, and most boring car you can find for £999, and bank the rest. My top tip would be a Nissan Almera or Primera. Very, very boring, but often well-looked after, and should last a long time.

This is what you can get: tinyurl.com/2gf6np and tinyurl.com/3awcbj



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Thu 6 Mar 2008 22:13
Advice on buying a car - dj0586
I had diesel suggested to me because i do quite a bot of driving at weekends, 100 miles to see parents most weekends and 250 about once a month for work reasons. If i was to get a diesel what would you suggest.
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Thu 6 Mar 2008 23:42
Advice on buying a car - spikeyhead {p}
I'd find a peugeot 306 diesel with good service history.

Should be able to pick one up for less than a grand and keep the rest to sort out any issues that crop up.
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Fri 7 Mar 2008 08:48
Advice on buying a car - oldnotbold
At 15,000 miles a year with a diesel is starting to make some sense.

Buy the nicest Peugeot 405 1.9 TD saloon you can find (about £600) with a long MoT. Fill it up with 80% vegetable oil from the shelf at Tesco/Asda etc for £0.70 a litre, and 20% diesel. You can also use a 306 1.9 diesel, a Citroen ZX and a Citroen Xantia. In any case make sure the injector pump is made by Bosch (easy, it says so on the side)

Totally legit so long as you a) keep receipts and b) use less than 2,500 of veg oil a year.
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