So my car is pretty much terminal without me spending £800 to fix it. As it cost about £800 2 years ago I figure its about time I got a new one, or rather that would be best for my finances. I reckon I could spend up to £2000 on a new car (or well, a used car). I am also considering one of the hire purchase type options though, this for example: http://info.citroen.co.uk/new-cars/car-range/citroen-c1/offers/?i=lease The thing is I dont want a fantastically expensive car in any way, im happy with a nice basic package that is above all cheap to run, and fairly reliable. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to go down the finance route as I know its a massive rip off (unless its a cheap cheap car with a good 0% interest deal!) but I might be happy to lease and would be happy to buy if I knew it wasn't going to cost me lots in repairs etc. I bought this last car off my brother so it was nice and easy, but now im on my own and looking at slightly pricier options so could do with a bit of experience Thanks Bogo edit: thanks but sod it, ill just buy a 2nd hand cheap thing off my brother
Check its scrap value before you get rid of it, my 406 ended up being worth about £250 and she is also terminal. http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=229380
Generally I'd say thats a good call. He's your brother he isn't going to screw you over most of the time. Hes also likely to be a bit chepaer than the man on the street.
My opinion is that you've got two options these days - you can either buy a new car on a hire purchase jobby, then consider handing back the car at the end, or you can purchase something in the used market at the approximate budget. For what it's worth I'd go for the used option - I'm not sure how practical a car you need, but £1500 buys you a decent small hatch, I'd probably go for a Mk.2 Punto with alloys etc, and leaves a few quid in the bank in case of breakdowns. They're pretty reliable, and very cheap to run and repair, at the end of it you still have an asset as opposed to pretty much renting the lowest base model of C1 you can for a couple of years.
Krikkit, are you aware you've just said a Fiat is reliable?? I'd be going for a Ford myself, fiesta, or maybe a Focus. Depends what sort of driving you'd be doing.
Anything German of Ford would be my target. It's true German build quality has slipped somewhat in recent years but they are still strong. Honestly you can't go far wrong with Ford or VW. I'm not being racist but don't buy French. They use 14mm bolts which are just wrong.
I bought one of these for £2k last October: 2.2dci, fsh, all the toys, 70k. I don't care what it looks like, it's comfortable, Japanese and reliable. Only downside is 45mpg - quite low for a diesel, but it pulls nicely!
The Wife and I just bought a 207 on the Just add fuel offer that they are doing: http://www.peugeot.co.uk/finance/finance-offers/just-add-fuel/ It's for 3 years and at the end we can either get a different New Car or we can pay off the remaining balance to own it out right.
Build quality has slipped and parts are generally quite expensive when it does go wrong. Fords are very good of the era, but they're a bit more expensive to buy in good nick with economical engines. The 1.6 and 1.8 petrol Focus' are surprisingly inefficient, and a good diesel is at least as much as the budget. I owned a Mk.1 Punto for 6 years and it was almost flawless. The only times it had to stay in the garage for more than an hour in my ownership was when the sump had to be changed (that was 1.5h and £30 for a new sump, about £100 all told) and the dreaded head gasket (120k miles of hard driving) which was only 3 hours labour and about £350 all-in. For 6 years of Fiat ownership I think that was pretty good. A friend has had a Mk.2 for the past 5 years, nothing non-consumable has gone wrong in that time, and it still drives really nicely.
My Mums 500 is only 18k miles old and the steering rack is having to be replaced because a bush has gone, . I'm just repeating TopGear, *dons flame proof suit*
Honda civics are pretty much bullet proof. Ran mine for 9 years with barely any problems. Couple of exhausts, tyres, wiper blades, bulbs and a fuse pretty much sums up the work it needed over that period. I didn't do many miles though.
That's pretty poor, but I'm assuming it's warranty replacement? No cars are free of that these days. Last Audi my pa had went in for cam tensioner replacement at the same mileage... Yet no-one says Audi's are unreliable yet? That said, I've got a bit of a skew, a mate is a master Audi tech and he sees the ridiculous failures they get. Last week was an A1 TFSI which had to have a full rebuild after 5k because the rings had gone, not to mention all those DSG boxes he's had to replace the clutch pack on.
Mostly driving Fiat/Renault and Alfa here, cars with a lot of notoriety, get them cheap due to that, can't fault 'em myself and often amused with the amount of failures others have in the office with their premiums brands, that'll teach them for taking the piss out of my car choices My Puntos (Mk1,Mk2 and now Evo) have been particularly solid I have to say and I punish them on track days the lot, the guys in the office can barely survive the work commute in BMW or VW group stuff
Don't go VAG (Volkswagon, Audi, Skoda, Seat) they don't deserve there bullet proof reputation. PLus they're almost all over priced You want a cheap car to run go for a Vauxhall Corsa or if you want to be very cheap get an old clean 1l 16v Micra, fun cars but dirt cheap and never break. You can pick up really good ones for like £700.
You could pick up a Lexus is200 for around 2 grand and they are great cars, or a BMW e36, possibly an e46. Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
bloody hell, 5k and the rings were gone! Did they drive around constantly at the red line and no engine coolant? Yeah its being covered under warranty. Bit stupid really, we told them about a noise before the car went in for a service and its First MOT. It passed its MOT, but they said the brakes were 90% worn and tried to sell us new front brakes for £250 (they got told to get stuffed ). Then they started investigating the noise, first thought it was ARB bush, then they found it was a bush in the end of the steering rack. Appanrently, you can't replace this bush, and have to fit a whole new rack, and it was going to be so expensive that they had to get Fiat to approve it, who first had to send out an engineer to look at it. Luckily, they have approved it under warranty.
They couldn't decide on the cause of the Audi's failure - it was a lady who drove it, with the DSG box, so I doubt it was ragged, it just went. Manufacturing fault most likely I suppose, but having to get the block rehoned after 5k miles doesn't exactly fill you with confidence! Sounds like a pretty rare failure on your 500 if they had to get a tech from Fiat HQ to come and assess it, otherwise they'd just give it the nod.
I say go Honda. My family has had a Honda Accord for 8 years, done about 160k miles and it still drives as new. Incredible machine. (that is assuming the car is properly maintained)
This is the crux of the matter. These days, there are very few "bad" cars, only poor maintenance and mechanical sympathy. When buying used, it's best to purchase a car with the fewest previous owners possible (preferably just the one, then you can easily make a judgement of them and their practices on the spot).
Japanese? I thought they were French? The other downside is that other people will care what it looks like.