Best auto under £4000

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Mon 26 Mar 2012 11:16
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
Hi all

Due to having a ruptured disc and sciatica in my left leg I need an auto for under £4000

I have just sold my trusty landcruiser as it was too thirsty and having tried a few manuals I have realised its just too painful to push the clutch in.

Must be comfortable, economical and have a good safety rating.

Nothing too small - must be family sized

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

Amanda :-)
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Mon 26 Mar 2012 12:24
Best auto under £4000 - Craigdm

3.2L Mercedes CLK with Tiptronic.

Space, grace and about 30mpg...

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 13:46
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
Thanks but I would also like something I can afford to repair lol :-)
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Mon 26 Mar 2012 15:54
Best auto under £4000 - gordonbennet

Economical auto tends to lead to Diesel and that invariably ends up as an automated manual, comfort ease of use and long trouble free service life don't necessarily follow and will not match your present beast for durability.

So in petrol form consider Avensis or the rare but excellent Avensis Verso, Honda Accord or Civic up to 2005, assume 30 as an average mpg with 35 possible.

For Diesel auto you could consider Hyundai Sonata, Kia Carens.

Others to chomp over, Chevrolet Epica (probably over budget) or Lacetti.

Some preferences from you, eg soft roader, estate, petrol diesel, type of auto box etc would help.

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 20:48
Best auto under £4000 - Jase

E39 530i SE auto maintained by a good independent.

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 21:37
Best auto under £4000 - Collos25

BMW and MB cost no more to repair than than most other makes.

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 21:57
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
Ideally we need an estate, large hatch or Mpv as we have 3 dogs to throw in the back

I can't drive or sit in a car very far because of my back aching so much so it's difficult to find something as the range is limited

I have so far been warned off audi multitronics, vauxhall semi auto's, any Renaults, any citroens and ford autos lol

Quite fancy an Audi avant or allroad but all have massive mileage in my price range or are 2.5 tdi's and very greedy!

Thanks :-)
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Mon 26 Mar 2012 22:08
Best auto under £4000 - unthrottled

There are quite a few affordable marques (Citroen, Peugeot etc) that use the Aisin AW 6 6 speed torque converter auto, but they tend to be the top range engines so they will be heavy on insurance and fuel.

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 22:50
Best auto under £4000 - balleballe

BMW and MB cost no more to repair than than most other makes.

From a good indi garage - I agree. Their parts are normally quite expensive though when compared to other brands; so this will have to be factored in

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Mon 2 Apr 2012 16:56
Best auto under £4000 - CJay{P}

In August 2009, I spent exactly that on a 2002 December BMW 530i Sport touring Auto.

Apart from 3 oil + filter changes (each under £50 from National tyres), and a air filters (Eurocar parts, £20 or so a go), two rear tyres my expenses have been limited fuel.

These can now be picked up for £2.5k or so. An SE model can be a good £500 or more cheaper. E39s are truly well built cars, that cost nothing to run. if you clean them regularly they do not have the rust problems that Mercs of this era have.

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 23:17
Best auto under £4000 - balleballe

Volvo s60/s80 D5 geartronic may be worth a look. There's a few good examples on autotrader for under 4k

There's a nice 2005 2.7d jaguar s-type auto for under 4k too

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Mon 26 Mar 2012 23:36
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
Thanks everyone for your advice

One of my problems is I can't sit in a car for long so need to find something quite local and Norfolk seems to be incredibly short of decent autos lol

Plus they seem dearer down here than up north. Not sure why?!

Loads of mercs locally but it worries me that HJ slates them! Certainly the ones in my price range anyway :-D

Part prices are always the problem with the better makes - we bought parts for our landcruiser from Milners so they were always cheap as chips. I had a dreaded X-Trail once and was quoted well over £1000 for an exhaust while the landcruiser exhaust was only about £300.
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Mon 26 Mar 2012 23:40
Best auto under £4000 - balleballe

Traditionally - cars are generally cheaper up North

1k for an exhaust - surely can't be right? Sounds like they were trying it on lol

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Tue 27 Mar 2012 00:06
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
That was Nissan - maybe the cat converter was included too?

I didn't pay it - I sold it lol :-D

Anyone know of any good garages up north who deliver?!

I have thought of doing it that way but difficult as I don't know the garages reputation and really don't want to buy a duffer :-s
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Tue 27 Mar 2012 01:01
Best auto under £4000 - balleballe

I would never buy a car without driving it and seeing it first; if you do not, the chance of buying a lemon would increase i'd imagine.

There are recovery companies who will deliver for you. My brother used one to deliver a car from Croydon to Birmingham (around 160 miles) and it was only £120

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Tue 27 Mar 2012 01:04
Best auto under £4000 - Wicker

Saab 93 or Saab 95 ?

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Tue 27 Mar 2012 11:51
Best auto under £4000 - John F

Late 90s A6 with ZF 5HP 19. No rust, excellent engineering.

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Tue 27 Mar 2012 14:13
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
I would go for a BMW as there are some nice ones around but I can't stand rear wheel drive. Had a Toyota surf once and it was all over the place in the wet :-s

I like the Saab 9-3 but also had one of those and had nothing but trouble including flywheel and clutch, windows not working, central locking fail etc etc etc

Losing the will to live to be honest lol. Searching is doing my head in!
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Tue 27 Mar 2012 15:54
Best auto under £4000 - daveyK_UK

For 4k you vould get a very good hyundai sonata / kia magentis 2.0 or 2.5 petrol auto.

Lots of toys, ultra reliable auto box, smooth, refined, lots of power to make the journey hassle free and on a run you can hit 40mpg ( i averaged 40.3 once in the kia magentis along Scotlands A roads).

Parts are not as hard as people would think, they sold these cars by the bucket load in the USA, I obtained parts for the Magentis with ease.

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Wed 28 Mar 2012 00:17
Best auto under £4000 - Avant

Amanda - (a much prettier name than Evilmoo!)

I think you need above all something with comfortable and supportive seats - Volvo's seats are some of the best in the business, and you should get a newer one for your money than a BMW or Mercedes. The V70 is front-wheel drive, and the XC70 and XC90 are 4WD.

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Wed 28 Mar 2012 19:26
Best auto under £4000 - retgwte
toyota corolla auto
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Thu 29 Mar 2012 09:50
Best auto under £4000 - evilmoo
Thanks for all your advice

I tried a Volvo V70 and actually found it uncomfortable - I think the seats were almost too soft - i know some people find them really comfy but unfortunately I didn't :-(

I did an 'Ask HJ' and a corolla auto or focus was suggested.

I looked for a Toyota corolla auto but couldn't find a decent one in my price range in my area.

So yesterday I bought 'Malcolm' a 2004 focus 1.6 auto with genuine 34k on the clock. It had a new gearbox fitted at ford in August last year and has only covered 100 miles since as the gentleman who owned it passed away sadly.

His wife had poodled around in it but decided to give up driving at the age of 82 so decided to sell. It has every bit of paperwork since it was new and is in immaculate condition. Only cost me £2200 so not bad at all considering the gearbox was £3000! Apparently it was a faulty gearbox sensor and the lady's son was very annoyed when ford changed the whole box as he thought the sensor could have just been replaced. He thinks they ripped his dad off but not sure on that one myself

Not going to set the world alight but it will do me for now.

Thanks again for all your help :-)

P.s Evilmoo is hubby's pet name for me...not sure why XD


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Fri 30 Mar 2012 00:55
Best auto under £4000 - Avant

Good luck with it. As you suggest, performance will be so-so, but the handling is as good as anything in this class of car.

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Mon 2 Apr 2012 10:42
Best auto under £4000 - John F

It had a new gearbox fitted at ford in August last year and has only covered 100 miles since as the gentleman who owned it passed away sadly. His wife had poodled around in it but decided to give up driving at the age of 82 so decided to sell. It has every bit of paperwork since it was new and is in immaculate condition. Only cost me £2200 so not bad at all considering the gearbox was £3000! Apparently it was a faulty gearbox sensor and the lady's son was very annoyed when ford changed the whole box as he thought the sensor could have just been replaced. He thinks they ripped his dad off but........

This sort of story makes me despair at the incompetence....or worse.... of UK motor mechanics. We have a 1.6 Focus auto. As far as I know the mechanicals of this box are extremely reliable. It was developed with Mazda in the US and can cope with much greater power than the 1.6 produces. I wonder what happened to the old 'faulty' gearbox?

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