used car recommendation

stationairy

hi need a bit of help

looking at buying a car, now i have narrowed it down to three and was wondering what you guys would think is best, or maybe recommened something a car a may have missed

also it you can help me with any problems to look out for on your recommenedation

looking at a year 2000 for about £2700, the three cars are a fiat brava, fiat punto and leading the way at moment rover 25

balsingh

All these cars lose value very quickly so you will get a lot of car for money (when compared to Astras/Golfs etc).

The Rovers are a bit dated but more reliable. I drive a Rover 400 and its been excellent. I think the spec in the Rover is likely to be better too.

The main reason for picking a Fiat is more that its the 'trendy' option, being Italian. What I do know is that Fiats are prone to electrical problems.

www.honestjohn.co.uk will have detailed info about these cars and what is good/bad about them as well as info about what is likely to go wrong with them.

Hope that helps.

vansboy

The Rover will have the ...Oh they've gone out of business, type attitude , from many - not really a problem, plenty of parts/garages that can fix them. Beware you WILL have head gasket problems - so check the cooling system with a proper pressure test. If it's around 38-40000 miles, it'll be on it's way out - so think about that !!

Fiat - lots are anti Fiat - not really as badf as they once were.

The Brava (assume you don't mean Bravo) is dated, slightly more, as it's been out of production for a while.It's also got more doors than Bravo. I bought one, for a customer, a couple months back 71000miles 1owner & Fiat dealer, very nice condition, £1200 - so the price you've seen is a little high, even in a dealer. Did you look at engine size here - you could get 1.6 - so higher insurance & tax.The smaller engines, need to work hard for the heavyer body.

Punto is still made - although totally new shape, comes early next year, so you've still a modern looking car.Also the 1.2 engine is cheaper on tax & pretty lively.My choice, from those 3.

Have you thought of Astra - just to add some more confussion???

The HJ link is good - check in Car by Car Breakdown page, for what to look for on all cars.

https://www.whatcar.com has a free valuation page, but they do seem to go at the top end of prices,

Ask again if you need to know more.

stationairy

so the rover a no no then as head gasket failure sounds a lot
how do i check the pressure

sorry i dont no a lot about cars

but out the lot i think i like the rover most and the prices are good from what i have seen

also your advise on a seat ibiza going to see a w reg one on saturday what i should be looking at in the car to make sure its a good one

also is a hpi check worth it if i definatly buying car

sorry for all questions

tomstickland

Rover K series engines can suffer head gasket problems. It's all due to the way that the engine was designed - they didn't over engineer it. Plus the coolant system design has been questioned - they designed it to warm up quickly. I read a technical article on the web all about this.

Anyway, as long as the coolant is monitored and the engine serviced properly the head gasket problem is reduced.

Should the head gasket go then they can be replaced for around £600-800.

HPi check - personally I don't bother if the car is over 5 years old or cheap to buy.

moggins

Fiat Punto - no question!!!

trigger_mike

Well Personally I Won't Touch Any Of Them, Rovers Have Head Gasket Problems As Do Puntos, (used To Work For A Motor Factors And Was Often Getting Head Gaskets And Head For Puntos, Even Late Ones) And Bravas Lose A Lot Of Money And Carnt Easy To Sell On, I'd Go For A Peugeot 206 Or Early Ford Focus If It Was My Money.

tomstickland

Have a look at Nissan Almeras too. Good all round cars, with Jap reliability and cheap due to noone really liking them for some reason.

balsingh

I'll second that ... Ford Focus.

jjames_3

tomstickland wrote:

Have a look at Nissan Almeras too. Good all round cars, with Jap reliability and cheap due to noone really liking them for some reason.

Yup, can never work out why people have such a downer on Almeras. They're no more bland than an Astra, handle pretty tidily and don't look too bad either. The build quality is very good, reliability impeccable and once they hit a certain age the depreciation slows to a virtual stop as well and they end up being worth more than the cars they were worth less than a few years previously. Peverse but that's how it pans out. Overall one of the best value used cars on the market.

And while we're at it the Hyundai Accent is in the same category. Plenty around, very reliable mechanically (the overall build quality is pretty good as well although the interior trim is a little flimsy if abused) and dirt cheap second hand. A better bet than a Fiat because the underlying engineering is Japanese (Mitsubishi) and very solid.

Also in the same sort of area is the Citroen Xsara (Peugeot mechanicals, reliability not perfect but better than Fiat/Rover and very cheap to buy), Skoda Felicia and Seat Ibiza/Cordoba (these three with VW mechanicals and generally solid cars).

vansboy

Checking the pressure of the cooling ststem, is something a garage/mechanic would need piece of equipment, to do - not hard or expensive, for them.

Your Q's answerd on HJ site, regarding Seat - fairly popular, but 'cheap' build quality.

HPI checks - £40 well spent, if buying private or from traders, rather than a garage/dealer with premisies, that you can go back & complain to!!

VB