buying an older car for commuting.

ianbar0 · 15 October 2016 at 8:49AM

hello, i have only ever bought new or 1 year old cars so this is a little out of my comfort zone. basically i am changing jobs and instead of a round trip of 5 miles it will be now 50 miles. my wife and i currently share a car and really this won't be possible with my new job. in a perfect world i would spend as little as possible on a car, id rather not get a loan etc as i am getting a pay rise and the loan would soak that up. which leaves me with at most £3K for a reliable diesel, preferably i could spend less.

if was to get a loan i would probably push to 5k. my real issue is i have so little experience buying older cars, there are plenty with say 70k on the clock but then i realise they are 10 years old and i worry how long they will be reliable.

any advise and experience is more then welcome, the commute is 50 miles as i say and maybe a little over 40 would be A roads and motorway. thank you in advance

consumers_revenge · 15 October 2016 at 9:27AM

not pushing these but looking at buying a mid range dacia sander 1.2 petrol for myself.

quoted from the dealer 99.58 per month in finance with 5 year warranty and that from new. can either keep at end of term or hand back. final payment price was about £800 below the average price on ebay so could make some money if I could be bothered.

might be worth considering....or at least play around with some figures.

I took one for a test drive and actually for what they are ( read older tech ) they are pretty good cars.

Scrimps · 15 October 2016 at 9:48AM

We bought an old/new car with a 5k budget a couple of years ago. We went for a clio dci with 45k miles on the clock. Good MPG, low tax, nice colour too

It came in 600 under budget I think, that was from a local dealer too so had a warrenty etc. Its given us a lot of trouble free motoring so far. We're looking at getting a second car and ive been looking for the same vehicle at the same age, so cheap now!

There seems to a be received wisdom about not buying french cars due to electrics reliability. The french cars just seem to be very good deals to me, you can find horror stories about most makes of cars. Personally, I would start my search with those.

A point to consider, would your current car serve the work trip better than what you can get for 3k? If your wife will be doing less driving, could she use the car youre looking to buy?

(crossing my fingers to hope that I dont get any car trouble now)

martinthebandit · 15 October 2016 at 9:55AM

Buy a car for under 1k, preferably a big unfashionable barge and out of the remaining 2k or so pay for a full service and put the rest in the bank for any repairs etc that are needed over time.

That's about the best way to get worry free budget motoring.

jimjames · 15 October 2016 at 11:11AM

Fopr under £3k I'd get a car with the VW PD 130 engine. So that's cars like Passat 5.5, Golf mk4, Bora, Skoda, Seat.

Hugely economical engine that's very reliable. My Golf cost me £500, just done nearly 10,000 miles in it since Feb without missing a beat. Mine has 150k miles on clock so 70k is nothing at all. My last 2 had 190k and 250k on them when I sold, both are still going according to their MOT.

On long journey you can get over 67mpg, not bad for a 15 year old car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcT3KtTuSNA

ianbar0 · 15 October 2016 at 1:05PM

to reply to everyone, thank you all good points. i have looked at clio's as i think they are pretty decent. if honest i would prefer something slightly bigger so maybe a megane, focus, vectra etc. we did used to have 2 cars but wen too one to get a larger comfy car (c-max) due to the wife having issues, so she really needs to keep this car.
a dacia...now there is an idea. the only thing is i would rather not have a per month payment to own a car as my pay rise really would evaporate, but depending on how it worked out once there i would possibly look to buy a new car like that.

as for vw pd 130 engine sounds a good plan. i have owned a golf before.

consumers_revenge · 15 October 2016 at 3:10PM

dacia wise 3k rise - so better off 3k a year - 12x£99 still 1800 up and you have a new car with no mot to worry about plus a warranty.

or daciaretail.co.uk do a 3yo one with years warranty for £73.67 monthly ( +900 desposit ) for 4 years.

think I'd rather have the new one with 5 years warranty and no MOT headaches when I do though. the finance is much lower too.

Joe_Horner · 15 October 2016 at 5:30PM

Have 2 old diesels at the moment - a 1995 Peugeot 405 and a 1993 BMW 525TD. The Pug is on 225k miles and the BMW on 77k, both are 100% reliable.

Neither have annoying things like DPFs or DMFs to go wrong and both return over 40mpg real average around mostly country lanes but will push 50mpg on a run.

IMHO 8 - 15 years or so is a dangerous age to be looking at cars because it's around when people are getting rid of lemons. Go younger and they're still being reasonably looked after, go older and whatever's survived has likely been looked after pretty well to make it that far.

Scrimps · 15 October 2016 at 6:02PM

ianbar0 wrote: »

to reply to everyone, thank you all good points. i have looked at clio's as i think they are pretty decent. if honest i would prefer something slightly bigger so maybe a megane, focus, vectra etc. we did used to have 2 cars but wen too one to get a larger comfy car (c-max) due to the wife having issues, so she really needs to keep this car.

Given that your wife needs to keep your current car for use: Yes to your comment...If I did have to do a commute such as yours I would like something more comfortable with a bigger or more refined engine. I find I have more than enough acceleration and it goes along at decent speeds just fine, but on longer journeys (many hours in a day) it can get more tiring/wearing than I think if I had a bigger vehicle or something that sat more comfortably at 70mph. You dont want to arrive at your new job (or back home for that matter) unnecessarily tired.

If you did go for something at the lower end of the price banding, if anything did go wrong with your car, aside from the headaches it causes, if necessary, could you use the cmax to get to work for a few days?

If not, I think would ere on the side of paying more......our car is absolutley fine (I feel like im tempting fate here) and I see equivalents such as this on the market for less than 2k, unbelievable value!! (I find cars here, deep in the southwest, seem to be higher priced) But I would be thinking of contingency if something went wrong in buying something at 12 years old with 90k on the clock as ours is.

Scrimps · 15 October 2016 at 6:11PM

Also, Im less nervous about higher milaege cars than I used to be, really not so much of an issue any more. compared to when I was a young thing (im only 34), my parents always bought cars at 90k miles, knowing that they only had a couple of years left in the engine and always needed so much welding and fibre glass infills. I no longer think this is the case.

I would be more concerned about vehicle history, MOT advisories and service records.

tacpot12 · 15 October 2016 at 7:56PM

I'd second jimjames' recommendation for something with the VW PD 130 engine. My 54 plate Skoda Octavia has done 140k miles and will clearly do another 140k based on what you see for sale on eBay and how it drives today. I get 56mpg on longer journeys and find the seats very comfortable. It's never broken down and the times when maintenance has been needed, it's not cost very much. They are selling for £800 on ebay.

buying an older car for commuting.

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