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As title.
We are moving soon and as such we will need a 2nd car as a run around for me or the wife depending on who uses the Octavia more (so it will more than likely be me then that gets the runaround!)
We have a budget of £1000 and it will need to be good enough to run up and down the motorway every weekend (100 miles each way) and also pootling around town.
What would you look at?
Cheers
Steve
Ford Focus?
Have we not done this already?
Nope we havent done this already ??
We've done this shit loads. A Japanese car was the general consensus and at that money as low mileage as you can get.
Peugeot 307 HDI 90.
Have you got a link to a thread please jekkyl
Best conditioned/ low mileage/ pensioners car that can do the job, make is unimportant at this price.
Honda or Toyota with long MOT etc
From what I see, I'd suggest some kind of saloon. Honda or Toyota are good calls. Civic, Accord, Avensis, something like that.
V8 - XJ, A8, Range Rover, Old 535 or 735, Lexus LS400
^^^^^ Needs to be economical
Make sure it's the right size. 🙂
I'd buy a Honda Jazz from your nearest lovely old lady who can't drive it any more.
Good little car, the Jazz.
Ha that would be my mom then !!
clio 1.5 diesel. cheap tax, and economical.
Micra
Ha that would be my mom then !!
So buy it then if it ticks the boxes, best thing about the Jizz is that the rear seats fold up for epic carryingwithout losing boot space.
SHAMELESS PLUG ... I'd look at my mark 3 Mondeo estate in the classifieds for less than half that (which fails all the advice above but is a good runner, has been neurotically maintained and is a dab hand at motorway journies).
I however am totally biased. 😉
If not the advice above from other advice is sound Imo.
Other than to say old cars with lots of short journies have had a rougher life than many give credit for. A life of cold starts, not being run at full temperature, endless use of the starter motor and if driven by someone like one of my relatives who thankfully gave up driving a few years back, have had the clutch ridden and accidentally side stepped regularly, gears crunched and bad gear selection with sustained high revs all of which is far worse than a car that's been sat for 100 miles at a time eating up a roads and motorways.
Now you're being picky, never mentioned economical.
Be more economical than a 307 hdi, bits fall off or fail every 50 miles going by the ones people at work have.
I've had both a 306 and 307 2.0l HDI and have done over 20k on each of them (final mileage when sold was 90k and 115k respectively) without either one of them needing so much as a bulb in a combined 6 years of ownership.
Both would do 800miles on a 60l tank of mostly motorway miles (60+ mpg) and around 640-670 (50mpg) of mixed driving.
MK1 MX5.
Check for rust on the sills obviously.
Sorry Daffy, thought your initial post was a sarcastic reply, the ones at work are truly terrible, one has just been scrapped.
Toyota Celica
Cheers all
Will get looking.
How reliable are the 306/307 diesels?
Do they have DPF?
EP4 Civic. 1.7CDTi, >50mpg.
Rover 75 Tourer. 2.0 diesel. Huge. Economic. BMW engine.
Rover values dropped when they stopped making them (my parents had 2!) so maybe a good buy for you
I am a fan of Japanese cars very reliable (Mitsubishi *2, Toyota * 2, Honda) and the Jazz is a good call as very practical for mtb and trips to tip and reliable with many hardly driven - most with be their auto box, they aren't great mororway cars with small engine version but they'll do. My only question is what you'll find for £1000 as values reflet reliability
Puma
Saab I paid a grand for a 2owner fsh car. Love it does 65mpg on a run
Toyota avensis here. Name it, change the oil every now and then and you might as well decide which one of your kids is going to inherit it now.
me an octavia driver too, was in the same boat a few months ago for my wife and settled for a nissan note. cheap, jap, petrol, wife loves it for razzing around.
Do they have DPF?
I'd doubt anything under a grand would be new enough to have a DPF
me an octavia driver too, was in the same boat a few months ago for my wife and settled for a nissan note. cheap, jap, petrol, wife loves it for razzing around.
Jap? Can we not just avoid such terms!
The professionally offended have arrived to take words out of context
Meanwhile I see your point timber but our t5 and hilux pool cars ain't holding up very well either and seem to be continually falling apart from abuse because they have no designated driver.
renton - MemberHow reliable are the 306/307 diesels?
Do they have DPF?
No DPFs or DMFs and Turbo's can be had for under £220. There are plenty on ebay with almost 200k on them. The only real big bill is the cambelt service which is around £80 in parts, but around £300 in labour as it's a pain to get to in the engine bay.
The bodies are galvanised, so rust isn't a worry, the electrics are typically French...my 306 occasionally needed a quick tickle of the under seat electrics to stop a dry connector from flashing an airbag light on the dash.
The real beauty of the 2.0 is that it's not highly tuned, it's well understood, very simple to operate and cheap to repair. Also, being a Pug, they're pretty comfy and drive okay. The 306 drives better than the 307, but the 307 feel nicer inside...as much as a 10 year old French car can.
Keep an eye out for a low mileage one on ebay. My 306 was bought for £1100 with 66k on it and sold for £1435 2 years later with 90k on it.
Killer with the 306 is the rear beam.
Get on the floor behind the car and look at the angle of the back wheels. Also check in the arches for signs of the wheels rubbing on the arch liners. Decent used beams are increasingly difficult to get, some refurbed ones do appear but the best seem to be from a place in Poland but £350 + fitting is a lot to spend on a sub £1k car.
Also fold the rear seats flat and check for signs of water/rust as if the arch liners are not present (some not fitted at all, some removed due to wheel rubbing) then mud goes up into the top of the arch and eats the shell around the seat belt mount very quickly.
Great cars when they work but the electrics to the doors will probably be failing and the aircon most definitely wont work and it's beyond a simple "regass". But it's a £1000 car that will probably be cheaper to run and nicer to drive than anything else for that money.
Had a 306 (1.4 petrol) for ~20,000 miles and only needed consumables. Aircon didn't work (vaguely remember it being something to do with the pipes begin low down at the front of the car so they corrode badly, a common fault), but apart from that everything else worked, even the electric heated/moving mirrors! It was comfy and drove nicely but the engine was gutless and slow - bought for the cheap insurance due to age. Was written off by my brother putting it through a hedge.
Now in a Citroën Xsara estate (not the Picasso), which is mechanically identical to a 306 just a lot uglier. It has the 2.0 Hdi with 110hp (not an option with the 306 - only has the 90hp without the intercooler). Drives very nicely, economically and can easily chuck bikes in the back. It's on 170,000 now and hopefully will do over 200k. Cost £520 and most electrical things work.. Favourite fault is that the brake pedal also activates the rear wiper motor! But can't complain for the price.
The professionally offended have arrived
This phrase is increasingly used to excuse or avoid reflecting on unpleasant behaviour.
I'm not offended, professionally or otherwise. I just think the term Jap in any context is unpleasant and it is much nicer, for little more effort to say Japanese. This applies to lots of other terms which can be casually distasteful.
I typed Jap but then edited to Japanese as I thought someone would try and make a point. The Asians have many expressions for us Caucasians and they are not comolimentary the Japanese are no differentband are probably thr most divisive and racist of all the nationalitites. Thry do make very good cars which is what we are taling about
Well, I'd not generalise to that extent. Some of the terms are complimentary or at least neutral. But I know what you mean. Nevertheless, this not something with which we should engage in a tit for tat in terms of offence. Japanese is a more courteous term which will not cause offence, so we should use it.
Apparently the PM has just bought a bangernomics Nissan Micra for his Mrs, good enough for him/her etc....
wonder if "Dave" tuned into this thread for advice before buying a second hand run around for his wife?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36359921
Mazda 323... unglamorous but very, very reliable. [url= http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/mazda/323/used-mazda-323-1-6-gxi-5dr-st-neots-fpa-201605224210982?logcode=p ]Random example here[/url]