£5000 to spend on a used car....

cyclonebri1

BeerBelly wrote: »

Apoligies,

Still not sure which cars you mean for that price/age. Am on autotrader now and just tapped in up to £5000 and going from highest to lowest - theres only about 25000 results for me to get through! Some good ones though - been a wally for now doing that in the first palce, was looing at specific models.

Exactly, forget brand, model etc. Go out and try whatever is available in your price range.

If there was a correct answer to; "what car should I buy.....", we'd all be driving the same one.:eek:

It's what suits you;) :T

BeerBelly

Your right there, can narrow it again though NEVER want to buy a French car, no matter the make!

Apart from loads of reapirs I will actually miss the car for the drive: fun, nippy drive - the standard bucket seats and interior was nice as well.

Thanks for all suggestions

Before I 'go away' I can narrow it down a bit more:

-Need bigger than a hothatch (so no clios, smart cars, 2 seats sports)
-No MVP's (5, 7 seaters out)
-Don't want a French make
-Don't want anything smaller than a 1.6l engine
-Budget of £5,000
-I do low annual Mileage
-If possible would around 02 or newer
-Want it to be a nice drive
-No preference over petrol/diesel (petrol is fine for me)
-I am in my late 20's, don't want something too 'boy racer' nor something too Grandad (pardon my expressions!)

Has that given you anything more to go?

BeerBelly

Is there a good and bad year for Astra's?

A lot of peiople are selling their 2005/2006 Astra 1.8i AUTO with 15,000 for around £4800 - is this or the model before 'the better one'? Maybe I'm just getting a little suspcious?

Manual's at an older age with higher milesage going for same price - it is just people's preference in general or not a good drive?

BillTrac

If you don't mind driving an ex-company car(although they tend to be higher mileage they are always fully serviced etc) you could try Arval. They do lease cars for private/companies and the cars I am talking about are the ones at the end of their fleet use.
I haven't actually used them myself yet. Just they have sent us an e-mail at work.(Approved by the office first-not just a chancer e-mail)

I have had a quick look and some of their cars are from £3k

doesn't hurt to look.

Bill

Idiophreak

BeerBelly wrote: »

A lot of peiople are selling their 2005/2006 Astra 1.8i AUTO with 15,000 for around £4800 - is this or the model before 'the better one'? Maybe I'm just getting a little suspcious?

The new shaped astras started from the 04/54 plate onwards...My 04 is the very last of the old shape, which had all of the bugs worked out, was end-of-line so good value etc.

That having been said, I've not heard of any major problems with any of the new shape astras, so that sounds good value to me.

(consider that I bought my 04 mid 2005, it had 4k miles on the clock, is a relatively high spec one (sxi) and only set me back (iirc) 8k, so one a couple of years old is gonna be much less than that....)

chorlton

Your list sounds like it includes suggestions from everyone from petrolheads to grandparents!!
I reckon you'd like the SEAT Leon - you could afford a Cupra which is what I've got. Really nice interior, it's comfortable pottering around town but goes like stink when you want it to!
If you don't want the performance (and running costs) of the cupra there's plenty of more tame versions.

ArsenalFC

I think you have enough suggestions and info on here already and should not be asking for more work from others and actually do the real work yourself from here on.

You should really now make a short list on about 2-3 cars you want and research it more by reading reviews (parkers, whatcar -owner's review too) then decide on the trim. Test drive them all and then buy the car u like the best. If you want great drive then a bmw 3 or 5 series.

jscalow

Beerbelly also think about resale in a few years time. An astra/focus/mg will all be worth next to nothing . If you purchase German/Japenese they will retain more value. Bigger cars will also depreciate more than smaller ones eg £5k spent on bmw 3 series will be worth more in 3 years time than £5k spent on bmw 5 series. If resale is not important then you could get more car for your dosh if you did go for a Rover MG- but I would advise extreme caution. If you really want no brainer worry free motoring go Japenese. Good luck !

thunderchump

Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 Twin Spark Lusso

You could get an absolute peach for £5k

Pulse

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Mazda MX5.

Do you use PH? :rotfl: