Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

misskool

Think we have decided to buy a car for £1k, and hope it runs for the 3 years I have this job

PasturesNew

£1k... expect to spend £250/year shovelling it through the MoT and it should be fine.

dopester

misskool wrote: »

Think we have decided to buy a car for £1k, and hope it runs for the 3 years I have this job

The MoneySavingExpert.com page, and associated thread, on MOTs has proved useful to me.

As in the Council run MOT centres for council vehicles, police/emergency cars, taxis also. They don't advertise to the public, but by law, they have to accept MOT bookings by the general public if contacted.

You might assume the test is stricter at MOT council places, imagining police cars having to have extra life on brake pads/discs ect, but actually the testers just have to pass a vehicle provided it meets all of the lawful minimum requirements for a pass. These test centres also got no repair facilities, so have no incentive to fail you on something in order to get the repair fees. That said, some regular test centres are pure MOT only, and don't do repairs, so that would be my 2nd choice for testing.

Last time I went to a council run MOT centre, four years ago, there was a special offer on, technically for council employees so got it done at £27. I've only used one once, but would take my car again to one if I was failed somewhere else on an item I thought unreasonable. Downside is a few of them have a longer backlog for appointments.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

misskool

Don't suppose you'd want to recommend what I should get for £1k dopester?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

£1K is an awkward price point.

It's enough money that you'd be upset if it conks out right away, but not enough to guarantee anything decent.

I'd be looking for an older Honda or Toyota with lower miles owned by an OAP that's stopped driving. It won't be abused and the maintenance history should be good.

dopester

misskool wrote: »

Don't suppose you'd want to recommend what I should get for £1k dopester?

I thought of making a suggestion but there is always the risk of a lemon among any choice. My general outlook is, the less sophisticated a car, the fewer things to go wrong with them. Your turbo can't clonk if you don't have turbo.

For instance, air conditioning is obviously desirable, but it is advisable to run and use it regularly, including in Winter, else the seals can perish and other faults develop. It also uses slightly more fuel when A/C on. They supposedly need regassing every so often but mine hasn't been done over 8 years.

If I had to buy a circa £1K car, I'd personally be looking towards the Toyota Corolla, even the pre-2001 one. Which reminds me... another law I have is to buy cars which have been built towards the end of the range.. a year or so just before a new model is released. By that time, virtually all the design and part faults are all sorted out in the final build.

An incredible amount of factory improvements are made on so many cars thoughout the model build, which only come to light from failures reported by owners. Eg, plastic clips to support the windows changed for metal supporting clips.. there were something like 120 improvements made to the MK4 golf from its first build in 1997 to it's end build in 2004.. including one gearbox where they found destroyed itself because design used metal rivets which would sheer... and so gearbox was improved for a new design with longer metal hardwearing bolts. Good luck in choosing something reliable and I wish you well.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/usedcartests/38409/toyota_corolla.html
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/toyota/corolla-hatchback-2002.aspx

vivatifosi

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I'd be looking for an older Honda or Toyota with lower miles owned by an OAP that's stopped driving. It won't be abused and the maintenance history should be good.

I'd agree with the older Japanese cars rule. Don't rule out Nissan either. Something that doesn't have much street cred but will run and run, like a Civic, would be a good idea. If you can't get an old Japanese car, then an old German car would be my next bet. If you ever go to the Baltic states they are full of old German cars that get sold on once the richer nations of Europe give up on them and they still run fine.

Hamish is right about the £1k though. £1.5 would probably get you something better, though look at Sue and eBay, anything is possible!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

vivatifosi wrote: »

Hamish is right about the £1k though. £1.5 would probably get you something better, though look at Sue and eBay, anything is possible!

It's a difficult price point. Unless you can find a low miles OAP car with good history, (and they do exist) mostly everything at that price is hit or miss.

If you go cheaper, it becomes disposable, run it til the end of the MOT and bin it. For 2K - 3K you're into something much more reliable and much lower miles.

I'd totally agree with the earlier mentions of a civic or corolla though, and towards the end of a model run.

The other option that springs to mind for a grand is an old mercedes diesel, 190 series or the like. Ugly but relatively bulletproof. And even a very high miles one that's been well maintained will run forever. You can sometimes find ex-minicab or other high mileage ones that have had new suspension, discs, gearbox etc within the last 50K miles, and whilst they may have 250K or more on the clock, it can work out well.

dopester

dopester wrote: »

An incredible amount of factory improvements are made on so many cars thoughout the model build, which only come to light from failures reported by owners. Eg, plastic clips to support the windows changed for metal supporting clips.. there were something like 120 improvements made to the MK4 golf from its first build in 1997 to it's end build in 2004..

Sorry, just to expand on this - I've got a full list somewhere on a CD of the parts and design improvements + the factory recalls.

A couple of others from memory... the electrical looming (a thick cable carrying a range of electrical wires).. to the rear of the Golf MK4 run through the roof and exit at a rubber protected exit point at the rear lid, before running into a new panel entry point. After a few years, lots of electrical problems for many owners, traced down to loom wear at the exit point, probably from fair use of the boot (opening and closing). Improvement = much tougher superior outer loom cable in later builds.

SingleSue

My experience of older cars.....

Renault 14 TL (not made now) purchased for £150 when it was around 10 or so years old....did god knows how many miles in it but I used to drive a lot in them days and go away a lot. Comfortable drive but the body work let it down..basically, the engine would have kept on going with the bodywork rusting around it. Had it for 2 years before a CV joint meant we made the decision to scrap it (wrong wrong move)

Lada - Can't remember what kind, only that it was a crap car...cost me £100 and only did 10 miles in it before it completely died.

Vauxhall Astra estate - Cost me £235 and it was approx 11 years old. Good work horse but it leaked around the estate bit and developed a fuel leak/dodgy brakes. Can't remember how long I had it but it did the long journeys fine.

Vauxhall Cavalier - Cost £350 and about the same age as the Astra. Very reliable car, did oodles of miles in it...sold it to a neighbour when we came into a little extra money and upgraded to the car of my dreams (at that time), she then sold it onto my brother a few years later who ran it until it basically died.

Ford Sierra - Cost £450 and had been my dream to own one...until I actually owned one, I hated it. It was reliable though and it did what was expected of it but I just didn't like it very much. Sold to the same person who had purchased my Cavalier when we got offered a car from now ex hubbies work...I was glad to see the back of the begger even though it had caused no problems nor had been expensive for repairs.

VW Passat - My first diesel. Cost us £2400 and was 6 years old when we got it. An absolutely brilliant car, so reliable, so comfortable to drive, looked like a tank, protected like a tank (a lorry decided it wanted my lane on the motorway and even though he gave me one hell of a whack, we were all fine and the damage not too great on the car.....we would probably have been badly injured in the flimsy Sierra). Sailed through the MOT first time for the 4 years I had it, cost very little in maintenance and I did approx 60k miles in it. This car paid for itself, prior to having it, a full tank of fuel would last 200 miles, a full tank in this car would do 600 miles. Sold it on when we upgraded to another of ex hubbies wife's cars when she upgraded her car again....and boy did I regret it.

Audi A4 Diesel - Cost £3000 and again was approx 6 years old. A complete white elephant, a pain in the bum, failed the MOT every time and it was always expensive to get through. I detested this car, the cockpit felt too busy, too cramped, the car itself felt flimsy after the Passat but it was quick off the mark at junctions, something the Passat had not been. I got the car as part of my seperation as ex hubby did a sly one and instead of receiving his bonus (circa 6k), of which we would have been entitled to some of, he got his boss to buy him a car instead, so he didn't need it. The cambelt gave out on this one (despite only having done 8k miles) and I sold it to the local garage as the engine was completely knackered.

Then onto my current car - Vauxhall Astra Diesel estate. Cost £461 from Ebay. It didn't look much, was already getting on in years but I was desperate, my parents were desperate (I kept nicking their car or asking for financial help for transport - my school run at that time was horrendous with 3 schools, the furthest one 6 miles away and none on the same bus route). So far, it has been reliable...not as good as the Passat in that it has cost something to get through the MOT each year and it has its little problems but it gets us from A to B to C and handles the cold weather fine. Have now done around the 20k mark in it.

My dream is to get another Passat although I don't like the new shape as they appear flimsy...not like the tanks they used to be!