Which Car? Please help....I am so confused.

taliwillow

I am so confused....where do I start?

Due to financial reasons we are having to sell our car and buy something cheaper. We are looking at buying something for around £3k ish but the less we can spend the better. We don't want to go too low as whatever car we buy now needs to last around 4 years as we don't think we will be able to afford another car in that time. The car also needs to be big enough to fit child seats in the back with legroom (which our car no longer allows for leg room now our children are over 1 so we need something slightly bigger anyway. We prefer diesel cars but would consider petrol. We don't want to go to anything too slow as the cars we have at the moment are quite quick so it would feel very different so would prefer a 1.6 plus.

We are currently between the following two vehicles but are still open to suggestion.

2002 Astra 1.6 Sxi 5 door with 61000 miles on it

2004 Mazda 6 2.0 TS Diesel with 116000 miles on it

(As an update, I have now found that if I am willing to travel around 150 miles to the car then I could get a Mazda 6 with only 80000 miles on it for the same price - this may change opinions?)

As we want something that will last at least 4 years we initially thought we should go for the newest thing that we could, but now we are wondering if the Astra could be considered newer (even thought it's older) as it has been used considerably less than the Mazda. We do really like the look of the Mazda though. We tend to do around 6000 miles a year so over the next 4 years the mileage will have increased by around 24000 miles. What do you think the effect of this would be when we try to sell the car or will they be worth so little by then that it really won't matter?

We also wondered if the car with the higher mileage may have already worn the originals of many parts out therefore it would have already had work done on it so hopefully very little for us whereas the lower mileage car may be about to wear out and therefore will need lots of money spending on it. Or is that just wishful thinking? Is it actually a case of higher mileage = higher costs to us?

I'm not expecting many answers as it's New Years Eve and most of you probably aren't as sad as me being sat at home looking on MSE.

But thanks in advance for any replies and Happy New Year to you all.

Taliwillow

ukjoel

In your case you need something simple, basic, reliable, and cheap to run.
Its unrealistic to expect a 3k car to be problem free for 4 years so needs to be cheap and easy to repair as well.
Petrol probably will be cheaper than diesel (especially on a sub 50k car which is what you really are after). I appreciate some cars run forever but buying a 116k Mazda 6 is always going to be a risk.

I would go Focus 1.6 petrol. A 5-6 year old car with 60k on the clock.
Also would consider Vauxhall Astra but reliability at that age not as good as Focus.
May also want to consider a Fabia Estate of a similar age.

A lot of the higher mileage cars you refer to are ex fleet cars.
Their first owners may have done 60-90k on them but you are buying them from their second owners at the 3k mark and these guys will be passing them on just before the big bills start coming in.

Homersimpson

I would recommend looking for a Ford Mondeo, I know a few people with these and even the older ones are bullet proof. Look for a more basic one (without all the bells and whistles to go wrong) and it should be really reliable. In my experience larger cars seem to be cheaper than smaller ones when they get older (Mondeos generally seem to be cheaper than Focus's for example).

Just my ten pence worth but I reckon you can get a really good reliable car for around £1500 these days, age isn't really important to a car within reason, mileage and previous usage are. My brother has a 2001 Volvo S40 which had only done 53k, one owner, well cared for and in 18months its been fine (touch wood).

Generally I would steer away from cars with over 100k, if you intend to keep the car for 4 years and do say 10k a year it thats 140k by the time you change it. Look for something with 50-60k on it thats not been used for the school run.

Also try and buy a mainstream car such as the Mondeo, Vectra etc. as the more common the car the easier and cheaper parts tend to be for them. I was given a Daewoo Nubira which is a great car but parts for it are much more expensive than for the equiavalent Ford.

rev_henry

Have a look for a 2.2 petrol vectra. It'll have quite a bit of power, plently of space, but they're really cheap atm because everyone wants the less thirsty diesel.