After years of scootering, I'm going back to the warmth and dryness of a car. I'll be using it 1-2x a week at 35miles a pop, on my own mostly.
I used to drive an N reg Corsa 1.4 for about 6 years, and it served me well. I'd probably look for something of a similar size again. Looks/cool factor aren't that important, reliability and economy are.
Of course, I want to spend as little as possible, but not so little I drive away with a pile of rust. What do you ladies and gents recommend setting as a budget for a car that'll get me from A to B reliably and cheaply for the next 3 years or so?
And any model suggestions? I'm being deliberately open minded to start with.
Thanks in advance.
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I'll start then.......
Well if it was me I'd be looking at something under £2000 well looked after and with a Honda badge on it. Fulfills the reliability request and generally comfortable and reasonably economical.
Check out the Autotrader, you'll find loads of Civics 7/8 years old but still good looking motors at that sort of price range or less.Try and find a genuine low mileage one and you can reckon that it will be good for 200 K.
They tend to be the property of middle class , older people who look after their car and do not do astronomical mileage.
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A £2K Honda makes sense, with the slight caveat Hondas fetch good money secondhand.
You might be able to get something newer of another make which would be almost as good.
If the OP is really strapped for cash, old Nissan Micras are pretty bomb proof, and simply made, which makes them cheap to fix.
If the OP has a bit of cash, how about a heavily discounted new Fiat Panda?
They look good value to me, and 20/30 miles shouldn't be too far.
A diesel would be worthwhile as much for the extra grunt as the extra economy.
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Diahatsu Sirion, roomy supermini, absolutely reliable, 50+ mpg despite (unburstable) petrol engine. Not the best looker in the world, but the badge snobs stay away so prices are cheap.
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If you want a small car and can find one (as they're getting pretty rare at 20+ years old) A MK ii Polo. £150.
On the other hand, as you're doing 3,500 miles a year, so the MPG is irrelevant, buy yourself something bigger, better and more fun. Nissan QX. Audi 100. £100-£200 and enjoy the luxury.
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I've been buying cars in this range for a while, so I've formulated some theories as to the best jalopy to go for, which hopefully you'll find useful.
IMHO when buying a sub-£2000 car you can go one of three ways when reliability is the main concern (and street-cred isn't). All of which are perfectly good ways of finding a car and should see you well.
1) Buy a car with an excellent reputation. By this, generally, any Japanese car fits the bill. In particular the previous Micra, any Honda, Almera with the 1.8 rather than 1.5 engine, Toyota Yaris, Mitsubishi Colt, any Suzuki or Daihatsu are strong choices. With these you get a winning combination of excellent reliability and durability coupled with a mature user base. You're unlikely to get one that has been ragged, and the abused ones probably will still drag themselves along with minimal fuss. Skodas provide more of the same.
2) Buy from a bulk-seller, i.e. Vauxhall or Ford. These are nearly always fundamentally strong cars which suffer from minor problems but the parts are usually cheap. I'm not entirely convinced by this argument -- these brands tend to be no better than average (not that that is a bad thing anymore) and they are more likely to be well-used, especially Corsas and Fiestas which are bought by the kids. Plus, if you get your car repaired at a garage, the parts costs tend to be less of an issue as most of what you pay tends to be labour.
3) Go for a car with a real image problem. These are becoming a bit rarer now as people start to accept Hyundais and Kias more than previously. But if you buy a Fiat, Citroen, Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, Proton or Kia you can take advantage of the heavy depreciation. And in the case of the Korean cars, they tend to be very nearly as reliable as the Japanese cars, so you get a bargain.
Of course, in an ideal world you would seek to combine all three. The nearest I've found to this is Nissan, but unfortunately quality took a nosedive around 2002 and the newer cars are very average. Take advantage of a pre-2000 Almera, pre-2003 Micra or pre-2001 Primera though, and you have a mainstream Japanese car that sold in sizeable numbers and tend to be as reliable as a Swiss watch.
Buy on condition of course, but if you can find one of the odd Hyundai Getzes that crop up from time to time, undersold at around £1800-2000 at around 4 or 5 years old, I can think of few better long term prospects. That car will almost certainly live to around 13 years old or so without major issue if looked after, and there aren't that many <£2000 cars you can say that of. They are surprisingly pleasant to drive as well -- not drivers' cars but certainly no worse than your Corsa (in fact IMO orders of magnitude better) with nice light controls and a slick gearchange.
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Just realised after all that that £2000 was quoted by another poster and not the OP. Sorry about that.
Would tend to agree with Mapmaker. Something a bit bigger. And if you're after a mainstream car, the two frontronners IMO are a P11 Primera or MkII Mondeo. Both bulletproof, both easy enough to repair, both great to drive, both stupidly cheap (a 2000 Primera would cost no more than £300).
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Thanks very much!
A lot of cars I wouldn't have considered, so that's a great help. I was expecting to shell out £5k for something reliable. Is there any point in stumping up the extra cash given the basic requirements?
Another option I'm considering is to buy a car on bank loan, sell it after 3 years and hope to spend 4-5k on depreciation. Is this comparable to buying a banger for 4k and expecting it to be worth £0 after a few years?
(out of the car buying game for a long time)
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Is this comparable to buying a banger for 4k and expecting it to be worth 0£ after a few years?
You really don't need to saddle yourself with a bank loan. You'll be losing out on depreciation and paying interest.
I'd say 4k is plenty to buy anything that primeradriver recommends, all tough and reliable cars, and I would agree with everything he has said. If you are only keeping the car for around 3 years, you should be able to run it cheaply enough and get some of your money back after that period. The most important thing is to get something that is looked after, and you should have no worries.
Edited by corax on 21/01/2010 at 20:40
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Tell you what, if you're really looking at spending £4000 (which I personally wouldn't advocate given your needs) you could do a lot worse than buying a Kia Picanto on the scrappage scheme.
These now come with a 7 year warranty, and can be picked up in base spec for £4600 plus your old Corsa.
Now I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea (too small and slow for my tastes, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy one as a second car) but if you were to buy this I can cast-iron guarantee that it would only lose around £2000 over three or four years if sold on after that time on a private sale (they typically sell at three years old for about £3000-£3300 and this is without the warranty).
Three years of guaranteed motoring for a couple of grand? Sounds reasonable to me.
And of course there's no reason this little car shouldn't last ten years plus (and possibly a lot more), which means that you're talking £400 or so a year. Banger money.
All that said, I'd still source a decent older car if you want a bit more comfort than that.
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good looking cars to boot too
now wheres me stick...................
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Hey, I only suggested it as an option!
If style genuinely isn't a problem, then I see no other good reason not to.
Yes they're fugly (especially the facelifted ones) but the engines just don't go wrong very often and the rest of the car has very decent build quality.
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they have front bush problems in the suspension apparently
but im not knocking it
but the cars do allegedly ;-)
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:)
Bushes in the suspension? NP for the next 7 years!
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