Cheap, used car purchase, aiming to achieve cheapest motoring

Ally1205

I want to buy a small hatchback that is cheap to buy, cheap to run, and cheap to maintain, tax and insure. I'm only able to spend a few hundred (say £650 max, as I'll be buying on bank overdraft that I can't pay back quickly). It needs to be a car and not a motorcycle. I want to be fairly sure of getting at least three years of life out of the car. Anyone suggest which make/model/year I should be looking for? I don't mind buying at an auction if necessary. 99.9% of my driving is around my local town.

Thanks!

A

epz_2

Put bluntly that is not enough to buy/run a car on.

after the scrappage scheme all the old cars that might be decent are gone, small hatches cost more than big cars after a few years and any car you buy at that prices will cost a packet in parts as it will likely be at the end of its life/unsafe.

Kilty_2

You don't ask for much do you? :rotfl:

You should be looking at something that'll make it to it's next MOT, not 3 years

mikey72

We've done it with a diesel 106, £475 to buy.
It's needed usual things like oil, tyres, brakes, cam belt, a pair of back shocks, cv gaiter, but we have done over 40k miles in 3 years. Only other thing was a new radiator. None of the parts are dear, it's ok if you can fit them yourself.

anewman

I was given a 1994 Skoda Favorit when I passed my test in early 2007. The owner (GF's Dad) was going to scrap it and I offered to take it on, thinking at the time what am I letting myself in for. I kept it for about 3 years and all went well up until the third MOT when it was corroding within 30cm of the front suspension struts. Otherwise everything else was neither here nor there to sort for the MOT. I got myself a Haynes manual and in conjunction with some advise from forums on the internet I set about doing jobs myself. I figured the cost of the tools and parts would be less than getting it done in a garage, and I also have the tool for later if I ever need it. I learnt quite a lot, particularly about freeing seized and rusted bolts :rotfl:. GF's Dad also had another Favorit that was long gone and really did need scrapping, which he agreed to let me strip parts off before it went. I learnt quite a bit from that also, as I wasn't worried about breaking anything. (I still need to get rid of all those spare parts, eek). It was satifying to take the car for an MOT retest and have it pass having done the work myself.

I got rid of the car because my sister decided to get a new one, they offered her less for her current car (a Fabia) than she would get from putting mine in as scrappage, and given that rot had set in and the next MOT was coming up, I figured it may be time to get rid, even though the car ran sweet as anything and started on the dot every time. Never broke down, although I did try to put a lot of effort into maintaining it (I suspect many breakdowns are poor maintenance rather than mechanical failures). The only problem I could not cure was water ingress into the boot (managed to sort the sunroof and rear door seals easily). My car went for scrappage I had her Fabia.

My advice for bargain basement motoring is therefore.... Scout around for people, friends, family etc looking to scrap a car. Ask them why they want to scrap it. If the reason is "it's old, I have a new car and it's been laid up for a while, the sunroof is leaking and it is full of mould, and I can't be bothered selling it" then you're probably onto a winner, as opposed to "it just failed the MOT on x, y, z and will cost £2000 to repair". They may be glad for you to take it off their hands and think you're doing them a favour. They are also more likley to be honest about its history to you as you aren't a paying customer. Be prepared to get your hands dirty, get a Haynes manual, and a half decent set of spanners, socket set, trolley jack, axle stands, wheel chocks, and maybe wheel ramps. If you take great care, attention to detail, and don't mind laying on your back for half an hour looking at a rusty seized nut and bolt that's just rounding off the more you try to undo it, then you probably can't go wrong when it comes to DIY. Even if you're of the female gender I would still say think about DIY mechanics, don't dismiss it outright because "it's a man thing", "I'll need lot's of strength" etc as all not true.

If I had to suggest a car in particular I would say Nissan Micra, Toyota Starlet, or Skoda Felicia, but at this end of the market you really can't be that choosy and need to decide whether to purchase based on the condition of what you're looking at.

Inactive

Never use an overdraft that you cannot afford to pay back on demand, banks can and do on occasions insist on full and instant repayment.

motorguy

Ignore those who are sniffing at your proposal above. They've literally no idea.

For that budget i'd recommend a Ford Ka. You should easily get something like a year 2000 one with sensible miles on it for around £500. I just bought a mint 2001 one with 62K miles and a full years MOT for £680. The advantages of the Ka are:-

(a) easy to insure
(b) easy to fuel
(c) no timing belt - its chain driven
(d) simple mechanicals - its an old pushrod engine that keeps going forever if kept serviced.
(e) would definitely run for 3 years.

Recently i've had the following cars, all of which were MOT'd and taxed...

1996 Peugeot 106, 80K miles, cost me £180 to buy and i spent £120 on it on a couple of driveshafts and a set of decent wheeltrims...



2000 Ford Fiesta 1.8 TD, 110K miles, £325 to buy, £50 for a set of genuine ford trims...



2001 Nissan Almera, 115K miles, long MOT, £350



All of which i sold on for a small profit too.

Inactive

But, by the look of things that is in Northern Ireland.;)

Well all 3 cars have Irish plates on them..;):D

anewman

My understanding was the Irish tended to come over here to buy cars as it was cheaper to travel here and ferry a car back than to buy one in Ireland. That makes the above examples all the more impressive.

motorguy

Inactive wrote: »

But, by the look of things that is in Northern Ireland.;)

Well all 3 cars have Irish plates on them..;):D

They're not 'irish' plates - i'm in northern ireland. Its the Republic of Ireland you get the variance in price - a different country all together. And there are cheap cars all over the UK, if you're prepared to take the time to look

Inactive

pgilc1 wrote: »

They're not 'irish' plates - i'm in northern ireland. Its the Republic of Ireland you get the variance in price - a different country all together. And there are cheap cars all over the UK, if you're prepared to take the time to look

Well my dear old Dad, a car retailer, always said to me;

Never buy a car when it is wet.

Never buy a car in the dark.

...and most importantly, never buy a car with a Z or I in the number plate.

( I know things have changed with the new number plates. )