Buying a New To Us Car

[nicki]

We bought a car less than a year ago from a friend of our family. It cost us £1200 for a Peugot 106XS, N reg, 3 door. Now the problem is that we keep having problems with it.

Since we bought it 29th November 2004 we have spent £75 in December (basic service & cooling system repair), £21.97 January on stuff from Halfords, £170 on MOT & Repairs in April, £77.98 June for two new tires, £18.48 in Halfords (oil etc) in June, £139.00 on a superservice with some minor repairs. Thats a total of £502.43 WITHOUT insurance (£850), tax (£110 as we bought it for 12 months) or the other items that have been paid for out of cash in hand. It also doesn't include the fact that it was involved in a minor bump which cost us about £300 in total (we did get it back though through the other parties insurance) between excess for repairs, car hire costs (which turned out to be for a days hire!), train fare daily to work for two weeks and the inconvienience of my OH (the driver) having a 2 hour journey EACH WAY to work on public transport daily.

We've decided that it's time we bought another car. We can't keep up with the cost of repairs especially as there are still repairs needed to be carried out which Kwik Fit won't do. Now for the specs for buying this car which I would like recommendations on:

Must be economical as it will be used every week day on a motorway for a 40 minute journey EACH WAY at about 70mph, plus fairly frequent trips to visit family which is another 2 hours on the motorway.
Cheap for insurance. We're currently with Churchill and are not happy with the service but thats another matter.
Easy to drive as I am hoping to get my provisional licence in the next 12 months. Also cheap to have a learner driver on it!
NOT AN AUTOMATIC - but I guess that is down to the individual car :confused:
Reliable as we have our daughter in the back and don't want to get stranded on the four-lane section of the M6! :eek:
Brands not considered (OH choice, not mine as I don't care as long at it meets the previously mentioned criteria!) Skoda, Daewoo and Nissan Micra. Apparently nothing else ATM but that could change as when we last looked for a car I had a list of "No"s as long as my arm! :rolleyes:
We don't particularly want to end up in this situation again 12 months down the line so any advice on this matter would be VERY gratefully received!

[vansboy]

It's easy to spend more than the purchase price, just running an older car, without anything nasty going wrong!!

You might just find, it worth keeping it a bit longer, unless you're coming up in year by a good jump!!

Anyway...........

Fiesta - I'd have said - not sure why you've missed it out!!

Daewoo will be cheap to buy - but not so cheap to fix!!

Micra - plenty around, but finding a sensible priced one, another matter.

Skoda, depends which model you want, but certainly won't be lots to choose from (compared to Fiesta!)

How much is your budget, though??

VB

[Bossyboots]

Skoda, depends which model you want, but certainly won't be lots to choose from (compared to Fiesta!)



VB

We have just bought a Skoda and there was lots of choice. I get a bit tired of people just saying they don't want Skoda because of some perceived snobbery (not naming any names but if my boss is reading this, he knows who he is).

We have been running Skodas for the past 8 years. Until last month we had two Felicias, both bought at six months old. We have had minimal work done on them and I would say that is all wear and tear anyway (brakes, CV boot, tyres).

My car was written off last month and I now have a Fabia. It is a bit different to drive but you soon get used to it. I can't imagine any features I would want that I don't have. It has bigger tyres than my last car and I like the way it holds the road.

[blue_haddock]

I won't go into the in's and out's of running cars but things like insurance and tax will have to be paid regardless of which car you own so these should be taken out of the equation when totalling up the cost to keep the car on the road.

Also move away from kwik-fit - they are not particularly cheap and will often recommend work needs to be done that isn't required. You are better off finding a good local independant garage who will do the necessary work and nothing more but will advise you on possible things to be done.

[boogiemaster]

Just ask friends or family what cars are good runners? I like Vauxhalls because they always start in a morning for me and the engines last.

But always have a service?
New sparks plugs
Air filter
Oil filter
And always buy a good battery. Not just a cheap £20 one from a motorists shop
Buy one from the makers at £40-£50 because a cheap battery wont hold its charge in winter.

Vauxhalls are cheap on parts too 

[michaels]

Sounds like you do a lot of miles so it is worth looking for a car with a 12000 mile service interval rather than a 6k or 9k one.
Otherwise at the price level you are at I think it will always be a bit of a lottery as to whether you get a good one or not, but getting someone who knows cars to come with you at purchase could save you a few quid on things like how many miles the tyres, brakepads atc have in them.
Also given current petrol prices and your mileage you might find you can save back the higher purchase price of a diesel in better mileage and therefore less petrol purchases.
As advised above you colud have shopped arround and found tires a lot cheaper than the pair you got from QuickFit

[MrSmartprice]

Buying an "older" car is always a bit of a gamble, but I have found that you can get reliable runabouts very reasonably if you are careful.

NEVER buy off a boy racer or someone who has clearly used it as a mobile shed or skip. Try and buy off an older person who has had something from new, and looked after it. They often advertise in the local post office. It's amazing how many older people sell cars that have done low mileages. make sure, of course, that the V5 ties up with the fact they have had it as long as they say.

And of course, don't buy a Rover!