I'm in a bit of a pickle, my car of 8 years has been written off after I got rear ended at 30mph while sitting in traffic the other day, I have a hire car through my insurer at the moment but I need to start looking for a new car. The problem is, I will be getting a new car next March when the lease on my Dad's car (paid for through his work) is up as I will be getting it for a stonking price and even though it has a fairly high mileage for a 3 year old car it has been fully serviced. I figure the best option is to buy privately, and ideally I want to do this as cheaply as possible, but will realistically have a budget of around £1000, maybe up to £1500 depending on how much I get as a settlement for my car (unlikely to be more than £500). I don't really know where to start looking though, so does anyone have any recommendations for a car which will be: - cheap to run (fuel economy) and insure as possible (my last car was a 1L Corsa, so pretty much anything will be an upgrade anyway) - reliable, something which won't be likely to develop faults over the winter as I don't want to be forking out loads in repairs and won't be able to afford to buy another car - retain strong resale value over the next year or so I'm not really fussed about the size as it will only be used as a daily runaround for now, I just want the best for the money I have (I know I won't get a lot with my budget but I don't think it's worth spending that much on a car I am going to sell 8 months down the line anyway). Even recommendations on cars to avoid would be appreciated!
If it's just a commuting hack the world is your oyster at the moment. Having a quick look on autotrader there's a couple of hundred cars for <£1000 around you (well, So'ton anyway). I narrowed it to diesels for a bit of extra cheapy and there's 33, all of which are pretty decent, but I think my choice of the few I've looked at would be this 306. If the condition is decent (check the rear suspension, there should be 0 camber on the rear wheels at all) then you've got plenty of budget spare in case of repairs needed, but the engine is absolutely bulletproof (non-turbo diesel, not fast or exciting but economical). Doesn't look to have any rust issues, and there's hardly any equipment to go wrong. Buy it, spend £100 on a stereo upgrade for entertainment and away you go. There's also this Mondeo, again a diesel, but a bit more fancy this time. Downside is it needs tax and test soon - haggle them to tax and test it for £1000 and you're winning. Still very reliable cars (everything has its problems, don't forget), comfy and spacious too. Instinct on cars to avoid: anything HDi and complex electronics - the cars in your budget are getting on for 10 years old now, and if something does break it'll be a very expensive fix if you can't DIY.
Thanks Krikkit, that was most helpful. I know I said I wasn't fussed about size but tbh that Mondeo is probably a bit on the large side since it will only really be used for the daily commute and the odd trip into town. The 306 is probably more the sort of thing I'm after really, it should be cheaper to insure than my old car (lower insurance group) so if I'm lucky I might even get a refund since I've only just renewed my insurance! I'm under no illusions about what I will get for that sort of money, I just want something that will be me to and from work without breaking down and costing me a fortune, so the fewer gadgets and electronics to go wrong the better tbh.
That 306 sounds right up your street then - even at its most complex it's a simple car, with a distributor ignition, no turbo, hardly any electrics etc. Not only will it be cheap to insure, but you'll likely get back what you pay for it as long as you don't wrap it round a tree.
Waaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt now is the perfect time to buy something that drinks more than a scot and enjoy the hell out of it before you get the next car this coming March. 6 months just 6 months! find something taxed and tested that runs out after March next year shouldn't be too hard, but most of all something FUN! SERIOUSLY most people miss there chance and have to wait for their mid-life crisis before buying something that's too hard going on their back and suffer. cars that could be interesting are Ford Puma 1.7 £550 Has to be the 1.7, its a little girly but its a decent chassis and goes very well. Can be had for less than £800 in very good condition. If you get a pre 2000 plate then is old car tax joys! 1998 TOYOTA CELICA GT £995 nuff said really 1998 Saab 900 2L Turbo Personal favourite because I own one, purchased from the bay for the total of £343.33 needed two tires on getting it £70 a corner total cost car at the start point was £483.33, plus 12 months tax (£220) £703.33 After that over the last 14 months of ownership I have clocked up 35,000 miles and in that time the following has been spent Full Service (last September) All fluids/filters drained, and the whole car crawled over by a Saab specialist I happen to know £200 Car Tax (last March) £220 Tires x4 (This August) £280 Front Brake Kit (This August) £108 Rear light (This August) £20 (somebody smacked it in a carpark) So 14 months without including the cost of insurance or fuel the car has cost me £1531.33 and all the last parts were mostly all serviceable parts expected with running a car. SO FOR 6 MONTHS BUY SOMETHING STUPID! The fuel prices might ruin your bank account, but f**k it have a laugh! Also buying an older high end car the less likely something major will go wrong compared to a cheap low end car
Could get a nice Ford focus for that, I bought one with recaro seats for £1000 four years ago or a Peugeot 206. Or you get something a little more fun, a Mazda Mx5, possibly a porsche 944 or my personal favourite a Peugeot 205 GTi great car, great fun my brother crashed mine into the shed years ago.. a very sad day.
You guys are both right - and if it was me I'd have an MX-5 all day long, especially with some ditchfinders on the rear for a bit of winter hoonage, but smc just wants the cheapest most reliable hack possible. p.s. Arch, you're not recommending a 20 year old french hot hatch as a reliable winter car, are you?
I'm with Burnout here... but sadylt the bank account dictates a bit... I did something similar a few years ago, where I bought a Mk. V Golf GTI with 40.000km on it, 3 yers old for 25 grand under book value, then sold it 6 months later for 16K more than I paid for it, thereby recovering about half of my installments during that time. turns out I didn't like the mk V GTI much, but it was an experience to actually own something that was WAY beyond my affordability bracket at the time.
I do see your point, but honestly, I don't drive all that much - only really to and from work which is a 10 minute commute each way on the most boring roads you could imagine. I'm not someone who drives for the pleasure of it (don't get me wrong, I do enjoy driving on the right roads in the right car, just not on the daily commute), so such cars would be wasted on me and the running costs (fuel, insurance, repair costs) would be too high for me to justify it. Sadly I'm taller than Clarkson and I don't think I would fair any better than him in one
Well, I thought I would update this as I have now received the settlement for my car from my insurance company, which means I now have 10 days to find a car before my hire car needs to be returned. Unfortunately as it has taken so long it looks like I have missed out on that 306, however I did receive £700 as settlement for my old car which was more than I was expecting, meaning my budget is now a more comfortable £1000 (or a bit over). I'm now looking at some slightly newer cars, however most of them do have fairly high mileage (I figure a newer car with higher mileage is better than an older car with lower mileage though). As an example, here are a few of the ones I've been looking at: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...w/page/2/radius/30/postcode/so303bw?logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...w/page/2/radius/30/postcode/so303bw?logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...w/radius/30/postcode/so303bw/page/1?logcode=p Do any of those seem like particularly good/bad buys for the money? Those are all petrols, I did search for diesels as a comparison but there weren't as many available (they're generally older and higher mileage), I don't know if it's worth spending extra to get a decent diesel or not though? I figured it wouldn't be since most of my driving is about town and the Golf diesel I'm driving ATM is only averaging ~35mpg.
Strange, they still work fine for me, even after clearing my browsing data. The main two I'm looking at at the moment are a VW Polo (W reg, 100k miles, 1.4L petrol) and a Clio (51 reg, 120k miles, 1.2L petrol), both up for around £1000 (will obviously haggle lower if poss).
Get the polo, build quality is far better and should maintain its value a little bit better for re-sale The Clio is a fun car, GF has one with a 1.2 however its a tad gutless and trim is pretty poor.
Polo looks good, but don't discount older, lower-mileage cars by default. With everything car, buy on condition.
Tbh, sub £1000 car is classed as disposable so mileage and age is never really a factor, just mechanical reliability. I would avoid cars that were always cheap when new, when buying sub £1000, they don't tend to like the higher mileage and generally end up turning into money pits. The little Polo is refereed to as the "little Mercedes" in German, as the build is superb and reliability is very high. The little Mazda is equally as fine as the Polo, but less likely to maintain its value.
Small, cheap cars are equally able to withstand large mileages as the expensive ones - it's just owner abuse and neglect which will spoil that. The cheaper a car is, the less well cared-for it tends to be (generally, not always true thankfully). Buy on condition, always #1 rule with buying anything 2nd hand.
