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Reliable Used Car for around £2000

124

Comments

  • benham3160
    benham3160 Posts: 735 Forumite
    amdowney wrote: »
    E36 BMW 3 Series. Rock solid! Been driving them for years and they never broke down. Fro £2k you can pick up a good one with FSH. Great to drive and are still cool!

    Be careful with 3 series, the four cylinder ones are very partial to head gasket failures, six cylinder engines are a much better proposition.

    Also, they tend to rust underneath quite nicely too, especially the E36's.

    Regards,
    Andy
  • avantra
    avantra Posts: 1,331 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    A Civic from 02-03 should fall into your price bracket.
    Also Not all Rovers are the same, their 2000 and up diesels are bullet proof and tend to go mega miles. You can pick a very nice one from an old gentleman with good service history for less than your budget.

    Our 45 Diesel (from new!!) is over 170k now and all it needed so far is consumables and a new clutch at 150k.

    You will have 0 image but you wanted reliability didn't you?!
    Five exclamation marks the sure sign of an insane mind!!!!!

    Terry Pratchett.
  • sassy_one
    sassy_one Posts: 2,688 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    benham3160 wrote: »
    Now, automatic Fords are always on everybodies "Must avoid" list (notice automatic Mondeo's are worth far less than their manual counterparts) the C4DE in the Mondeos is a joke frankly. It fails with alarming regularity, and I'm sure would probably win an award for the least reliable auto 'box ever made. You've been lucky with yours, many of them were failing well within 50,000 miles.

    I know you are happy with yours, but I can assure you with much bitter experience the V6 Mondeos are the ones most likely to misbehave, Fords C4DE autobox WILL break catasphrophically at some point, so probably not a great recomendation.

    I still think you are wrong that it'll manage higher mileage than the four-cylinder Zetec engines.... I know which one I'd rather risk as a higher miler, and which one is far cheaper and easier to fix....

    Regards,
    Andy


    May be I am just lucky then, but I can honestly say my Automatic box has never failed me and always changes swiftly to each gear.

    I have the late 2000 one, may be the design was changed by such time?

    Any way, if you go on the Mondeo forum you will get any one tell you a 2.5 V6 DuraTec engine will do 400.000+ miles and still be running smooth, as for the Zetec, there rubbish nasty tappy engines that lack power!
  • andygb
    andygb Posts: 14,655 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    sassy-one wrote: »
    May be I am just lucky then, but I can honestly say my Automatic box has never failed me and always changes swiftly to each gear.

    I have the late 2000 one, may be the design was changed by such time?

    Any way, if you go on the Mondeo forum you will get any one tell you a 2.5 V6 DuraTec engine will do 400.000+ miles and still be running smooth, as for the Zetec, there rubbish nasty tappy engines that lack power!


    I hate trolls, you must have lots of trolls who have done 400K on one engine.
  • I read here earlier on another thread these V6 Mondeos do 170mph...... :rotfl::rotfl::T:rotfl::rotfl:

    Gold:D........
  • sassy_one
    sassy_one Posts: 2,688 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    andygb wrote: »
    I hate trolls, you must have lots of trolls who have done 400K on one engine.


    Ask in the Mondeo forum, you will find quite a few V6 owners who have one with 330.000+ miles on them, still going.

    The 2.5 V6 DuraTec engine is bullet proof, provided you keep on top of oil and filter changes and maintain the engine, it will last hell of a long time.

    Mine is hitting 100.000 miles, and I will be honest, there is not a tap/knock or misfire or any loss of power on it, at all.

    It starts as new, even in extreme cold weather.

    May be the wrecks of the ST24 you have had or seen are worn through, but looked after V6 engines on the Mondeo will go on for a very very long time if looked after, like mine.
  • sassy_one
    sassy_one Posts: 2,688 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I read here earlier on another thread these V6 Mondeos do 170mph...... :rotfl::rotfl::T:rotfl::rotfl:

    Gold:D........


    You read correctly then :)

    See here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mondeo

    141 MPH without any MODS ;)
  • andygb
    andygb Posts: 14,655 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I read here earlier on another thread these V6 Mondeos do 170mph...... :rotfl::rotfl::T:rotfl::rotfl:

    Gold:D........


    Not the whole car, just the pistons when they exit the cylinder heads and fly through the bonnet :rotfl::rotfl:
  • benham3160
    benham3160 Posts: 735 Forumite
    sassy-one wrote: »
    May be I am just lucky then, but I can honestly say my Automatic box has never failed me and always changes swiftly to each gear.

    I have the late 2000 one, may be the design was changed by such time?

    Any way, if you go on the Mondeo forum you will get any one tell you a 2.5 V6 DuraTec engine will do 400.000+ miles and still be running smooth, as for the Zetec, there rubbish nasty tappy engines that lack power!
    Zetecs are only tappy with the wrong oil in 'em! Not confusing them with the old OHV engines are you? They have hydraulic tappets in a lot of them, so no reason at all they should be "tappy" as you describe it.

    I don't get the Zetec hate, Zetec-E (the 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 engines in the mk1/2 Mondeo) are very solid old engines indeed. I certainly wouldn't be scared of a high mile one. They are one of the most long lived petrol engines when cared for. The V6s I don't disagree can last a long time, I've never even said they are a bad engine, but I think you are giving them a tad more credit than they deserve.

    Regards,
    Andy
  • Gordon_Hose
    Gordon_Hose Posts: 6,259 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    I'd take a turbo-charged 4 cylinder engine over a heavy, sluggish V6 any day of the week.
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