anything i should be aware of?

gonzo127

hey all

ok i have been given the green light to get a 'new' car (second hand car with ~£2000 budget) anyways i have got some criteria to meet, main one being as cheap as chips to run, next one the ability to drop the back seats to fit a lot in (for uni run)

i currently drive roughly 80 miles a day (80% motorway) and do the wonderfull uni run for my step son which is about 300 miles each way on the motorway - so was thinking down the lines of a diesel due to the better mpg, however i have also been looking at other costs such as insurance and tax,

taking these into account and looking on autotrader at whats about i have narrowed it down to a few cars which are interesting and was wondering if anyone knows if there are anything i should be aware of with any of the cars, these are

Citroen C3 1.4 hdi
Peogoet 206 1.4 hdi
ford fiesta 1.4 hdi
renault clio 1.5 dci

all of the above according the facts and figures should do over 60mpg are insurance group 4 or less and come in at £30 a year tax, although to get any of them at under £2000 i will be looking at having one with over 100,000 miles most closer to 120,000 which i know will mean looking for one with service history and checking the mot's and other work will be important, just a case of if there is something on any of those models which is more important to check for

Hintza

You are doing quite a few miles and your budget isn't huge. Any car at that sort of price can/might/will give you problems.

If you aren't handy around cars then I think you might need a rethink (if that is possible) and pay a bit more.

A true £500-£1,000 banger might even be a better bet (ie disposable)?

If you are handy you might then sort out minor problems at the side of the road.

Don't envy your choices.

bigjl

By virtue of the popularity of small diesels when they get to below £2000 they can be a bit on the ropey side.

I personally wouldn't use any of those for the kind of miles you are talking about, you may find that buying a petrol one will give to access to lower mileage cars, newer in terms of age aswell.

Or go up a size, plenty of Focus size cars or Mondeo size cars about that are ex fleet and going for peanuts as they don't have the supermini premium attached.

As an example the wife paid, from memory, £5700, for a 3 yr old Clio DCi, 5 dr, aircon etc, low miles though. This was about 15 months ago.

A diesel Mondeo could have been had for less at the time if you went for the last of the MK3's (56 plate)and a Focus or similar would have been in sight aswell, though to get into a Honda Civic meant going for an older one, 55 plate, or a high miles new shape, 56 plate, 102k. A Mondeo at this price would have had around 50k on it.


Doing the kind of miles you want a Clio or Corsa will be a pain, literally.

It will hold it's value better in the long run though, but isn't really designed for high miles motorway runs.

A girl at work drives into East London from Peterborough every day and had sterling service from her Kia Picanto, it was a petrol and gave 50+mpg over the 4 years she owned it. She changed it for a Focus, and said it made her journey much less wearing.


Additionally a lot of the cars you will be looking at will be ex driving school, especially the small independant instructors, don't forget that recently these cars rarely have dual controls fitted.

Don't forget the unfashionable cars that may be a good cheap buy.

The Police have lots of Astra size vehicles in use all over the UK, and if you can find an Astra with the 1.7 dti engine they are fairly reliable, the Met have been abusing them for years now. Though a work colleague that lives in Norfolk and commutes to London does his three shifts then goes back to Norfolk has had an X reg Astra estate, the older shape made till 2005 and that has been troubloe free, and has given a regular 40 mpg, even though it is an estate and a 1.8 petrol.

If you can find a older shape Astra hatch with a 1.6 engine then I reckon you will get better mpg, perhaps 45mpg on a run, they are a very underestimated car the old Astra, but they handle well, have decent enough engines, we had them as RRV's in London since 2001, they where supposed to be replaced by the Zafiras, but we still have a few left, they took untold amounts of abuse without complaint. They were 1.8 petrol Autos though.

I am using one daily, 52 plate, whilst doing a research project, it has 200k on it, having been loaned to East of England for 2 years, and is due for scrapping after I am finished with it, to be honest it drives fine, a bit "loose" compared to new, but has no strange noises, doesn't use oil, gives well over 30 mpg, mostly round London, the seat is comfortable. probably not worth more than £500, but similar aged civilian cars will still be cheap, for your budget I woudl think you could get a decent spec car on a 53 or 04 plate, though the old Astra was rare on an 04 plate.

Lum

I agree with avoiding the small cars. They are really not ideal for a long motorway run.

That said, outside of the uni run (which will be what? 4 or 6 times a year?) what is your normal usage going to be. If you're only going to be doing short trips the rest of the time then a diesel really isn't going to be cost effective.

At your price range, I'd buy based on condition rather than model, though I'd probably still be reluctant to buy a French car.

Strider590

Peugeot / Citroen are one and the same.... and haven't built a decent car since 2001 when Peugeot stopped making the 306 GTI6/Rallye (which was only good because the ride/power made up for the shoddy build quality).

Inactive

Strider590 wrote: »

Peugeot / Citroen are one and the same.... and haven't built a decent car [STRIKE]since 2001 when Peugeot stopped making the 306 GTI6/Rallye (which was only good because the ride/power made up for the shoddy build quality)[/STRIKE].

....................

gonzo127

cheers all so far with your input

ok a little bit more information,

i am currently driving a 1.8l petrol mondeo which is returning around 38mpg so ideally i am wanting another car to be giving closer to 60mpg as i wish for the fuel savings i would make to cover the insurance and tax of any car i buy (i know this limits things however at th emoment i am looking at 'ideal' before i move towards a compromise)

i will be keeping the mondeo as it is our family car, there are 5 of us including step son at uni and one of them is 2 1/2 so has a car seat so need a bigger car when there are all of us, however the reason for buying another one is i just dont want to be putting the millage and wear on the car that i currently am doing,

although my normal usage is upto 80 miles a day on weekdays, the uni run will probably only be as someone has stated maximum 6 times a year and more than likely only 2-4 times,

as to being weary driving, i like to believe i am still reasonably young (28) and so shouldnt find it that difficult, especially compared to the fact i used to drive from Manchester to Kent in a old style mini once a month or so.

now having had a quick look at the other suggesting the focus/astra ideas under 2k they seem to generally have above 100,000 miles on the clock (of course there are a few which are lower), even going for the petrol models, and also give less mpg, and are higher to tax and insure,

of course i will not discount anything (well other than the agila and wagon R 'shudder' )at this stage and am going to widen my search a little bit to maybe include the 'small family' market of cars instead of just supermini's

Gene_Hunt_2

bigjl wrote: »

By virtue of the popularity of small diesels when they get to below £2000 they can be a bit on the ropey side.

I personally wouldn't use any of those for the kind of miles you are talking about, you may find that buying a petrol one will give to access to lower mileage cars, newer in terms of age aswell.

Or go up a size, plenty of Focus size cars or Mondeo size cars about that are ex fleet and going for peanuts as they don't have the supermini premium attached.

As an example the wife paid, from memory, £5700, for a 3 yr old Clio DCi, 5 dr, aircon etc, low miles though. This was about 15 months ago.

A diesel Mondeo could have been had for less at the time if you went for the last of the MK3's (56 plate)and a Focus or similar would have been in sight aswell, though to get into a Honda Civic meant going for an older one, 55 plate, or a high miles new shape, 56 plate, 102k. A Mondeo at this price would have had around 50k on it.


Doing the kind of miles you want a Clio or Corsa will be a pain, literally.

It will hold it's value better in the long run though, but isn't really designed for high miles motorway runs.

A girl at work drives into East London from Peterborough every day and had sterling service from her Kia Picanto, it was a petrol and gave 50+mpg over the 4 years she owned it. She changed it for a Focus, and said it made her journey much less wearing.


Additionally a lot of the cars you will be looking at will be ex driving school, especially the small independant instructors, don't forget that recently these cars rarely have dual controls fitted.

Don't forget the unfashionable cars that may be a good cheap buy.

The Police have lots of Astra size vehicles in use all over the UK, and if you can find an Astra with the 1.7 dti engine they are fairly reliable, the Met have been abusing them for years now. Though a work colleague that lives in Norfolk and commutes to London does his three shifts then goes back to Norfolk has had an X reg Astra estate, the older shape made till 2005 and that has been troubloe free, and has given a regular 40 mpg, even though it is an estate and a 1.8 petrol.

If you can find a older shape Astra hatch with a 1.6 engine then I reckon you will get better mpg, perhaps 45mpg on a run, they are a very underestimated car the old Astra, but they handle well, have decent enough engines, we had them as RRV's in London since 2001, they where supposed to be replaced by the Zafiras, but we still have a few left, they took untold amounts of abuse without complaint. They were 1.8 petrol Autos though.

I am using one daily, 52 plate, whilst doing a research project, it has 200k on it, having been loaned to East of England for 2 years, and is due for scrapping after I am finished with it, to be honest it drives fine, a bit "loose" compared to new, but has no strange noises, doesn't use oil, gives well over 30 mpg, mostly round London, the seat is comfortable. probably not worth more than £500, but similar aged civilian cars will still be cheap, for your budget I woudl think you could get a decent spec car on a 53 or 04 plate, though the old Astra was rare on an 04 plate.

Can he ever post without mentioning Police or Ambulances?

He's worse than an ex-postie.:D

bigjl

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

Can he ever post without mentioning Police or Ambulances?

He's worse than an ex-postie.:D

Can you ever post without being a knob and completely irrelevant to the thread?

If there was a thread about opinionated pedants that have no relevant experience in anything but an opinion on everything then I am sure you would be well placed to comment.

If however the thread is about, reliable cars, that are cheap to buy, reliable if maintained then any hard use is relevane, be that use as a Courier, Private Hire Driver, Taxi driver or High mileage fleet user.

I assume that you where knocked back by both the Ambulance Service and the Police Service and therefore have a deep seated hatred of the additional experience and knowledge that can be gained from working in such an environment.

It is hardly irrelevant that I have an opinion based on my own and friends high mileage use of cars, this experience makes me very well placed to judge what is or isn't a good prospect for private use.

You seem more focussed on my job and the jobs that my work colleagues do rather than actually contributing to any thread, whats the matter you are unable to spout your opinions based on nothing.

If I posted without putting my reasons and thoughts into context you would post that I have no practical hands on experience and therefore you would post negatively in that respect.

I am trying to find out when you last posted constructively to any thread?

You seem to think that the fact that the Police have used Astra for years is a negative? Sorry but the Police spends thousands of pounds researching what cars are up to the task, they test them and put them through assessments to make sure they are up to the job.

It seems rather stupid not to take their well researched opinion into consideration.

It is also normal for a person to use personal and work experience
to help others without the benefit of this experience, this may mean they mention their job and possibly parts of their private life, such as for example when a person uses a car to drive to work for many years over long distances they may feel it relevant to mention that or they used a particular car to do their job as a salesman over many miles and felt the need to put their usage into context.

You, however, never mention your job or your usage of a car, so your opinion has no context, this is probably because you have never worked perhaps? Or are currently not working.

Feel free to ignore my posts as they are not intended for you to read, but rather to assist the OP.

Remember the old saying "We can't all be heros, as somebody must be able to wave as we drive past", so a bit jealous are we?

Don't worry both my Ambulance and Police colleagues will continue to wave at you as we drive past.

Again, feel free to never reply to any of my posts ever again, I feel it won't affect me in any way.

Strider590

Bloody emergency services with their blue light's and fancy siren's, arrogantly queue jumping like they own the road, while the rest of us wait patiently in line!!!!!!!!1111 *baa, baa, bleat, bleat*

bigjl

Yeah, we are such selfish ba*st*rds.