Hi there,
I need to buy something which will be good over potholed roads and farm tracks, but also being well-behaved on normal roads. I sometimes have to take 1 or 2 dogs in the car as well, and sometimes my elderly mother-in-law. It does not need to go off-road. As we are now on a much tighter budget than previously, it needs to be reliable as well. My husband has just purchased a 2003 Toyota RAV4 which he is extremely pleased with and I was thinking of looking out for a similar one, it doesnt matter if it is the shorter version, but my budget is £4000 and preferably less, but they are very few and far between. It can also be something like a Yaris, but being high up in the car is quite a good idea around where we live. Obviously maintenance of the car is an important factor too, but most people with Toyotas have said reliability is extremely good. Any suggestions and help would be appreciated here. I am based near to Brentwood, Essex.
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If you dont need to go off road you dont need a SUV, how about a 4wd estate car like subaru legacy, volvo 850/v70 awd or audi allroad. possible to get one of these for around 4k
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Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I do not really agree with an SUV but some of the potholes around here are a good 9" - 15" deep and the estate car we had did not fare very well, we were always getting punctures, before that we had a Renault Espace. I forgot to mention that I am only 5' tall, and so some of these very big estates will not suit me because they are far too wide for me to manoeuvre about and our lane is very narrow. So any other ideas would be helpful. I usually exercise the dogs around home, so their journeys would be to the vets and on a few other occasions.
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Medium sized estate car fitted with steel wheels and normal (i.e. not low profile) all weather tyres. Spending money on decent tyres is, in my opinion, better than wasting it on 4 wheel drive, unless you live in the Andes.
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Buy the cheapest Volvo you are prepared to be seen in!
I live down a muddy track, as do many of our friends, and I manage quite fine in a Peugeot 405 estate. 4x4 only needed if you are towing horse trailers/caravans on/off wet grassy fields. Much overated for SE England.
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You want an estate car with a "dog rack", by the sound.
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Another Scoob to consider is the Forester, smaller luggage space than the Legacy / Outback but about 10% more ecomical. It has very good ground clearance, a very comfotable high driving position and a low ratio gearbox which is good for towing. Prices are falling with Turbo versions looking very good value.
Edited by *Gongfarmer* on 04/09/2008 at 14:25
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All the farmers around where I live own Subaru and Volvo estates, as has been mentioned already. There's a reason for that I would have thought.
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Who owns and how long is the track? Might it be easier to get a gang in for a day to fill the holes? I can buy 20 tonnes, about 10 cubic metres, of tarmac planings for £150.
Hire a flat plate compactor, buy a few barrows and a shovels and you are done for about 18 months. Far cheaper and more comfortable than driving through potholes. They'll knacker any car, 4x4 or not.
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My better half (or third as some of my kind friends refer to her as) had one aim in life; to reach the height of 5'
She quite happily drives my V70, and drove a friends 406 estate for the first time in France (adn had to keep up with 2 people in LHD white vans...)
I'd not worry about the manouverability of the car, an older V70 is actually quite narrow compared to many of the newer cars.
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How about a Renault Scenic RX4? Sounds ideal for your needs. If you can find one!
Perhaps a Suzuki Ignis with 4X4 if you can cope with a smaller car?
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I really don't see why anybody thinks OP requires a 4x4.
I don't know what sort of a car OP actually wants, or how image conscious. "4k - or preferably less" is a horrid amount of money to spend on a car. You can "easily" get a 2k bill which effectively writes the thing off. I suggest a budget of 1k, to buy a Mondeo. Even better, if the potholes are going to destroy it, would be a budget of £500. You might get a 2000 or 2001 example for that money if you look hard.
Chances are it will last you 2 years before it fails the MOT on suspension issues. And if it does fail on something more exciting, buy another one with the money you saved from £4k budget. 1999 FORD MONDEO 2.0 GHIA AUTOMATIC £470
tinyurl.com/6mle6p 6 miles from Brentwood.
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Toyota RAV4 which he is extremely pleased with and I was thinking of looking out for a similar one,
See if you can find a Honda HR-V [some are 4x4, some are 2WD] for your budget. Or CR-V, or a Nissan X-trail.
HJ's car-by-car: Honda HR-V
www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=141&
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Daihatsu Terios?
Toyota reliability, good ground clearance, £4000 should get you a 2003 or 2004 example.
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>>Who owns and how long is the track? Might it be easier to get a gang in for a day to >>fill the holes? I can buy 20 tonnes, about 10 cubic metres, of tarmac planings for >>£150. Hire a flat plate compactor, buy a few barrows and a shovels and you are >>done for about 18 months. Far cheaper and more comfortable than driving through >>potholes. They'll knacker any car, 4x4 or not.
That's the best advice by a country mile - I speak from experience of living some time ago 1.5 miles down a potholed lane in Devon. Regardless of what car and how it is shod, the pot holes will kill it if they are a foot deep! Once a year square the sides of the hole. fill them in with stone chippings or tarmac and in between brush the chippings back in that are gradually removed by rain, frost, 4x4s etc. Ours was a shared track and we had a big BBQ every summer where everyone mucked in for the day, enjoyed the work and benefitted.
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