Best used car under 1000?

anewman

skoda38 wrote: »

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)

I currently have a Skoda Favorit but it's getting a bit old hat now I'm sad to say. The inner wings are corroding quite quickly and needed welding for last MOT (I suspect they will need doing again come next MOT), and oil leaks are sprouting everywhere.

But it has really been a great car, never broken down - not saying it hasn't needed stuff sorting though but when it has they were very easy to DIY and the parts did not cost much. Cannot fault it, but for the money being talked about here you can get a Felicia which would probably be a better choice.

Regarding the chains these tend to get noisy more than anything. Mine is on it's first chain at over 130k miles, and the only reason there seems to be to change it is the rattling noise. I understand it's relatively easy to change and a garage would do it for about £200.

Octavia's can be had cheaper than Fabia's but are more costly to tax and insure.

no1wf

I just bought my first car last week, X reg Ford Ka for £1000, love it to bits

I personally love the looks, I've wanted one ever since they first came out!
Not sure about replacement parts but 'they' say Ford ones are really cheap.
For being nearly 9 years old it's in great condition so I think I'll be getting a fair few years out of it yet
They do rust a bit, mostly at the bottom of the door wells and round the petrol cap but nothing a smooth and paint won't fix.
Insurance just cost me £409 for the year and if the car is before March 2001 it's only £125 to tax for the year

verityboo

Fiat sceicento or cinquecento? (spelling may be wrong!) Cheap to buy, cheap parts, cheap insurance and they have galvanised bodies, so as long as they have not been in an accident, they do not rust.

Be very careful if you buy an older Ford Ka. They are great reliable cars with cheap parts but they can rust very badly just about anywhere on the bodywork.

fatbelly

Nissan Almera, 2000/2001 vintage. zero image, solid car.

With a bit of a search you might find a 2000/2001 Skoda fabia and that will take some beating!

tomstickland

I bought a Mk3 Golf 1.9 TDi for £450 a few months ago. Since then I've spent around £800 sorting it out (£500 of that was "unecessary" improvements though, mainly 15" wheels, tyres and stiffer springs). I'm getting 45-50mpg out of it. I'm really impressed with it.

So, yes, you can get decent working cars for under £1K all in.

freeoffers

VW Golf are great cars with lots of spare parts. They come at about £500 for a K reg. Look on auto trader website.

pendulum

You want a Citroen ZX 1.9D or TD, the XUD9 engines are bulletproof, same engines as was in 406's and taxi drivers liked those cars for a reason, they're pretty economical, reliable & quick engines, 50+mpg on a run. ZX parts are cheap & they're pretty easy to service/repair yourself (I even managed to change the cambelt & tensioner/idler roller myself and that was my 1st ever cambelt job and DIY isn't my strong point). The only downside is the tax for a year is quite high but on the plus side you can get a good one for less than £500... they are very ugly, unstylish cars which goes a long way to explaining why they are so cheap

Mine has only ever needed basic home servicing in the nearly 3 years I've had it, its been a very very cheap car to run, the bosche injection pumps are tbe best and extremely reliable, they can cope running on 100% veggie oil in summer (thats actually the main reason why I bought the car in the first place, the car being so well suited to veg oil, and the reliability/cheap running costs), i did thousands of miles @ 56p a litre, until veg oil got more expensive than diesel, but now veg oil is 88p/l and falling so running on veggie oil could be worthwhile again soon ...

GeorgeI

My advice to you is to avoide Nissan Almera like the plague.
They have a Renault timing chain inside them which causes the engine to stall without a warning.
Fixing it can cost more than £700 in a local garage as it take 5 hrs to replace, God know how must it costs in a Nissan garage.
I'm lucky I'm alive today and No more Nissan's for me.

croakey

bubble shaped nissan micra (93 onwards from memory) will not ever go wrong...is nothing special but if reliability is key..go for it!

GeorgeI

Avoid Nissan cars.

Few links to convince you:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055170799
http://www.fixed4free.com/answers.php?id=73912
http://www.ilexa.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5867.0
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/446401/advice-needed-regarding-nissan-alme/
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60976607#post60976607