Best used car under 1000?

Mrworth

Before answering please consider the following

• Looks are not really important, im not trying to impress anyone i just want a working car
• Average price of replacement parts - is there anyway to work this out
• Longevity of future on the roadness
• Quality of bodywork / resistance to rust
• price to tax and insure
• Known problems of suggested car with average costs to repair. I keep reading of micras have some kind of cam belt problem that looks pricey to repair.
• i dont mind soucing used spares

so a cheap car to run, probably a small car, purchased cheaply, with a long on the road life, that should be cheap to maintain.

Is 1000 enough to spend or should i spend a bit more. i know 'they' say you get what you pay for, but is this always true?

Plus i have very little knowledge of how to inspect a used car

Suggestions please

(if you have seen my other post please trat this seperatley as i didnt want to have one influence the other - Thanks)

Volcano

Hmm..I reckon this thread will be a long one......

Where are you buying it from? Privately could be a disaster if you have no experience of older cars. An established trader would give a bit more reassurance, but then you'll get less for your money. I think you should try and stretch to £1500 from a trader if you can. I'm sure others will be along with suggestions for car models you should be looking at.

skoda38

what about something like this
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Skoda-favorit-33k-new-mot-tax-very-clean-example_W0QQitemZ220450567562QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3353e0b58a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A7%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

i had one a few years ago. best value car i ever had.(and ive had a few)

delain

a nissan micra. I had a 1995 one for £400 and sold it to my mum. in the 2yrs we've had it there was one day it didn't start first time, and the second time it did!

Nissan are generally very reliable. Now i have a ford galaxy (1999) which was only £650 because it had a big dent in it.

mluton

I bought SWMBO a S Reg Skoda Felicia 1.3 MPI GLi for £600 18 months ago for her first car. Very cheap to run and a timing chain, not a cambelt, so no need to change it. Cheap insurance group and great MPG.

Our plans were to get rid of it after 6 months, as we knew she might have a few dings in it, then get a better car. But she loves the car and doesn't want rid.

Its still going strong and we havent spent a penny on it, only taxed it, fueled it and insured it.

Later Skoda'a are great motors and don't let anyone tell you different.

I am also a Skoda driver, been driving my Modified Octavia vRS for 3 years and its been as solid as anything, longest I have kept a car, so can't be that bad.
Also www.briskoda.net has saved me lots of money over the years on my car.

andyman2303

My first car was a R reg Renault clio 1.2, very good condition, low(ish) milage, brand new Firestone tyres, FSH - only £925, nearly 3 years ago now. Didn't have a thing wrong with it, and my sister is now using it perfectly well.

Parts are easy/cheap to get - £25 for a new bonnet at the breakers yard! £15 for a wing mirror etc.

Don't let people put you off saying rubbish like "stay away from renault" or "steer clear of citroen". Get a mechanically minded friend, or dad to help!

Good Luck!

AdrianHi

There are other small cars around with cam belts that do need replacing from time to time, every 40,000-60,000 miles is typical.
Thinking of the Clio, a friend of mine who visited over the weekend had the cam belt go on his. Luckily the valves and pistons have plenty of clearance on this engine so never came in contact with each other, otherwise the engine would be in shreds now. It's back on the road with a new cam belt. It's all his fault to because he never services it and if he had serviced it as per the schedule it would have had a new cam belt long before the old one perished and broke. Can belts do have a life span and if the car doesn't get a new one when it should its the owner to blame, unless you take the attitude its a bad design. I'd have sympathy with that view since most if not all cars today have a chain which never needs additional maintenance.

Nissan Micra thumbs up, Skoda Fabia - awesome small car and worth spending a bit extra on. Skoda Felicia, worthy but the Fabia represents a pretty significant leap forward in comfort and refinement IMO and worth an extra few hundred at least.

Pssst

You can bid for mine if you like. 92 Golf Mk3 CL,bombproof.

hewhoisnotintheknow

106 diesel

mcduff16

I`ll second the Nissan Micra- my one is a R reg and i have never ever had anything go wrong with it. Cheap to run and reliable

[Deleted User]

mluton wrote: »

I bought SWMBO a S Reg Skoda Felicia 1.3 MPI GLi for £600 18 months ago for her first car. Very cheap to run and a timing chain, not a cambelt, so no need to change it.

definitely agree with the skoda being a good car... but careful because chain driven cars still need the chain replaced. although this work doesn't need carried out as early as belt cars