I had (until it was written off last week, not my fault) a 206 Diesel 2.0 HDI D turbo. They are very powerful cars for their insurance group (group 5, same as the 1.4 petrol), brilliant for overtaking and good MPG too (55-60). I got mine for £1600 with 95K on the clock (not much for a diesel), air con, cd player, power steering, leccy windows etc. Good little car! I miss it EDIT: Very safe too, 4 star NCAP I think. In my crash I rolled 3 times, I came out completely unharmed (apart from my ego)
No way, I never knew it was group 5, that is so cool, man I wish I had gone for one of those instead.
my daddy bought me a ferrari, it's quite nice but i don't like the colour. pre-emptive slap for anyone who thought i was serious
If you are buying from a private individual or indeed even a trader, ensure you have someone with you who knows they're bit about cars, and i would steer clear of anything that is accident repaired, there seems to be quite an increase in unrecorded damage repaired cars, these can usually be spotted a mile off where the bonnet is out of line with the rest of the body panels, panels look like they've been resprayed etc for your £2000 you could easily get yourself one of the 51/02 reg honda civic's, bloody great cars! or, perhaps a mk III golf of a mk IV if your lucky
Don't get a Punto, theres a reason why mechanics call them Fix It Again Tomorrow (FIAT), as I've found out with my mams last two, the first of which later became my car, although they are easy enough to fix. I used to have an old 97 1.4 8v Polo, that had enough poke, reliable and only cost £800, only thing to look out for with Polo's is they have Chocolate gear boxes, so make sure the gear box is spot on before you buy one. Micras are bullet proof and great little drivers, theres the image thing with them but there good handlers as well, if you wanted sommit with some poke go for the old 1.3 si as well which is a decent little engine and can look quite nice, look out for rusting arches though. For the money you got, you could look at a Fiesta Zetec 1.25 16v, decent engines but do use a bit of fuel. You don't really need something like a Golf TDi imo as they cost alot for what they are, unless your planning on doing 20k+ miles a year, if you are I'd look at Citroen Xsara diesel or 306 Diesel. Could look at Seat Ibizas as they are basically a cross between a VW polo and Golf and might be able to get it cheaper, although they are hard to find. Honda civics good cars bullet proof engines but carry a bit of a premium. Essentially from all this find something that matches your needs and how much of that 2k budget you want to spend, as you could get something relatively new by spending most of it but with highish miles, but with the right eye you can get some real gems for hardly anything. Thats why I don't like golfs 2k for a Golf thats at least 11 years old for a mk3 is stupid and the GTi's are even worse. For £1500 I got an Almera GTi 69k miles, bullet proof reliability, full electrics, better handling and quicker.
I'd have to +1 your suggestion of an almera desert fox, its what im inheriting from my brother pretty soon and its a decent drive too i reckon solid car, not a single issue with my brothers in the 6 years he's had it, and it hasnt exactly been driven very carefully, but regular services though, its done 140k so far, for a W reg i guess its a little high, but a wonderful car nonetheless!
Swings and roundabouts. I've heard about bad examples of every type of car, imo Fiat have been tarnished with that brush for too long.
I'd personally avoid Fiat too. Had a Mk1 punto as well, 1.1 55S - well looked after but just cost me more and more in repairs - needed a new exhaust, head gasket, suspension arms, various oil leaks etc... Very fun to drive though. Swings and round-abouts indeed though. Few friends have had fords - cheap to buy, cheap to repair! RwD
Right....my turn. From what I gather, older Fiesta's are rust traps - I've heard the description 'Dagenham dustcart' a fair few times Mk1 Clios are fun, but they do need repair work done on a regular basis - on the plus side I rolled my first one (I'm on 3 now) and I came out unscathed 1.4 MK3 Polos - I've got a 1996 one at the moment - had it nearly a year, and apart from a slightly gippy clutch I've had no problems with it - as said a few times, VW appear to be fairly bulletproof My friend has a 1.9 litre turbo diesel punto - apparently he's had no problems with it, and insurance is low(ish), but as a passenger it's not something i'd be interested in Corsa B - It's a double sided sword - my girlfriend used to drive one till we moved out and I bought her Clio number 3 (it was more for myself at weekends but hey) - The corsa felt unstable - corners could be quite scary - originally I put this down to her driving style, but now she's not in one I can say it was the car, not her. On a plus point repair bills are failry cheap, as is insurance. Almera - Another one of my friends used to have one - apparently bulletproof, with the exception of one minor fault - putting hazards on would blow the fuse. It was the 1.4, and was by all accounts a nice fun car - also you can get a rather large 6'4" person driving it with no probs 206 - One of the potentials (as with Golfs) for my car next year - nice interior, nice place to be, and apparently the 1.1 is fairly pretty reliable - not ure for any others though. To be honest, look for a car that looks like it suits you - don't go for something with too much grunt, and check around the net for what people have to say about it - every car has problems, but it's a case of weighing up the pro's and cons, and working out if it's a place you want to spend a lot of time sitting in. Hope this helps..
If you have access to Honda's I would look into them. Accords or Civics (I don't care for the Civics cause they feel really small to me, but if your a string bean then have at it!) And I couldn't agree more on the 'you get what you pay for'. I have had a lot of 'cheap' cars, and they simply don't last for anything. Never have regretted spending a bit on a Honda, the car is solid and runs fantastically. I'm a bit biased towards them, clearly...
It's late, so I apologize for sounding blunt here! Punto - No. My brothers Fiance had one and it was hopelessly unreliable. Enough said. Mk1 & 2 Clios - Also no, simply because there is always something wrong with them and you can't get a decent MK1 these days for trying. There are a LOT of Mk2's on the road here lately, they must be cheap to run and insure but I have a friend who works at the local Renault dealership and he tells me bad stories :/ Micra - Might be bulletproof, might be cheap to run, but the shame.... Saxo - Good as long as you don't ditch them Pug 106 - Awesome car Dad bought one about 6 years ago with light rear end damage and repaired it himself, and he and I drove it for a couple of years before selling it on. They are a workhorse. A couple of guys I know have had one for ages (One for about 7 years and one for slightly less) and both say that they are very reliable and cheap to run. Civic 1.4 - Good car also if you can find a good one that has been well looked after. A friend of mine from work bought a very clean one (that had been nicely tuned) a few months back to replace his heavily modified Mk2 Clio and it was an awesome car until he put it in a hedge He's driving the Clio again Ford Ka - Please don't? :/ Drove one as a courtesy car for about 4 days whilst my car was in getting repaired, and it was the most awful car that I have ever driven Dealership had a cheek putting me behind the wheel of that thing tbh. Fiesta - I personally don't like the older models and hear that they are a nightmare to keep running properly. The newer model (before the current one) are quite nice I have always thought, but only in 3 door. A good friend of mine drives a 5 door version and even she admits that it doesn't look right with rear doors. No idea what they go for but hers is definately reliable! Rover 25 - My brother used to drive a Rover 200, then got one of these (and is now driving a civic), but the 25 is still sitting in the driveway for now and Dad and I keep it maintained. I think you should be able to pick a good one up for less than £1100 and his was mostly reliable once it was given a good service. Generally referred to as a workhorse as well, as my brother aptly demonstrated by hauling amps, speakers and guitars around in his 3 or 4 nights a week for about 2 years!
i got a 206 1.4 lx and i know exacly what you mean about the thin line between car lover and boy racer. she was a bit of a mess when I got her thanks to 2 previous women drivers. (dont give me that crap that they're better drivers then men cause its utter bollocks! esp when they get an SUV and a kid!) damn fine car after I fixed it up but be weary of denting them, thier popularity means finding second hand parts (especially front end) an utter bitch.
