Buying a used car (vectra maybe?)

liam8282

Hi,

I am looking to buy a used car, well possibly two.

1st car, looking for a punto < £1,000, preferably an active sport 1.2, around > 2002.

2nd car, looking for a vectra < £2,000, 2003 - 2005.

Also have a ford focus 1.6 LS, 2000 V, that can either be sold or p/ex.

Could anybody offer any advice?

Does anybody have any tips on any problems or anything I should be looking out for on the above cars?

Does anybody have any experience with motor auctions, as I was thinking about going along to my local and having a look?

Strider590

Vectra = a lot of car for the money, lot's of toys, boot is bigger than most 4x4's/MPV's/etc (but you'll need a torch because the light there is useless).

Punto = popular "small" car which is likely to command small car premium prices, plus it's a Fiat so it's going to break down every 5 minutes.

liam8282

To add to this, the Vectra would be for me, the Punto is for my girlfriend. So it is not a choice between the two. We will be buying two cars.

I have just sold a mk4 Golf. I was undecided on what car to buy, but in that price bracket, Vectra's seem to me, to be good cars for the £. Insurance isn't too bad, tax also reasonable. All I really want is a half decent, reliable car, to last me say 2 years, with relatively low maintenance, so I can save up to buy a new(er) / better car.

My girlfriend has the Focus and she wants a smaller car, she wants cheaper petrol costs and tax. She prefers the Punto rather than another small car. She used to have a Seicento and I cannot really remember having too many problems with that (apart from it was too small eventually). I prefer the active sport range, simply because they look better, have the sport seats, cd player etc.

AlexisV

I wouldn't touch a Punto personally, but have a read: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Fiat_Punto_1_2_8v_Active_Sport__Review_5463804

Has she thought about a Seat Ibiza / VW Polo / Skoda Fabia? The same car underneath and pretty reliable. The Seat looks pretty funky.

TiTheRev

Why did you sell the Mk4? Steer clear of the Punto, Vectra will be ok & cheap to buy/run but not great reliability.

What is your budget? Jap or German is the acceptable rule for reliability etc, anything else is more of a gamble.

Strider590

AlexisV wrote: »

Has she thought about a Seat Ibiza / VW Polo / Skoda Fabia? The same car underneath and pretty reliable. The Seat looks pretty funky.

I/we had a 1996 Seat Ibiza 1.4cl, my mum bought it in 1996, I bought it from her in 2000 and owned it until 2005. It only ever had a new exhaust and 4 new tyre's.
Nothing else ever went wrong in it's 9-10 years of life.

I'd not be so confident of the newer models though, I think VAG cars have generally gone downhill in the last 10 years.

liam8282

AlexisV wrote: »

Has she thought about a Seat Ibiza / VW Polo / Skoda Fabia? The same car underneath and pretty reliable. The Seat looks pretty funky.

I thought so too, but after getting rid of the MK4 Golf, I am steering clear of the above. I had a few problems with mine and had to sell it as an MOT failure in the end.

I was advised by a very reputable Volkswagen specialist that the 1.4 & 1.6 engines around this period were notoriously poor. He said the chances of having a decent MK4 Golf were about 1 in 5.

Also the prices for those cars are more around the £1500 + mark, rather than £1000.

jase1

You won't get your GF to accept anything else -- once a female has something in her mind....

I'm not sure I'd buy an old Punto though, I've known of a few of them being scrapped at 7 or 8 years old due to faults that exceeded the value of the car.

Vectra? Drive one first. I found the car to be a typical Vauxhall -- roly-poly handling and a nasty tendency to understeer in the wet. OK if the car is cheap enough, but not something I'd be actively searching out. Might as well buy a Korean car if you want anodyne handling -- at least it'd be reliable and cheap(er).

Strider590

jase1 wrote: »

Vectra? Drive one first. I found the car to be a typical Vauxhall -- roly-poly handling and a nasty tendency to understeer in the wet.

Because many are fleet owned and will have been fitted with cheapo nasty tyre's under contract with crapfit.

The standard suspension parts were rubbish and only last around 40'000 miles. The springs snap and the shocks become bouncy/unstable.
£150 will buy a set of Eibach lifetime guaranteed springs. £40 a corner will buy Bilstein B4 shocks.

With this combination the car will then have handling to compete with the very best German prestige cars and be far more comfortable.

You can also remove the airbox restrictor plate to get marginally better fuel economy and power (basically fitted to meet some stupid EU new vehicle test requirement), not needed for the UK at all, it simply blocks off half the air filter to cut down airflow into the engine.

bigjl

Personally I would go for a MK3 Mondeo on a 2004-2006 for the same money as an older Vectra. If you like the Vectra then go for the less refined 2.0 DTi or 2.2 DTi, avoid the 1.9 CDTi, too much of a risk.

A left field choice for your girlfriend would be a MK4 Astra, not the most attractive but a solid reliable car, the 1.7 DTi is reliable and the 1.6 and 1.8 petrol engines are fairly reliable.

Have been driving retired Astra response cars for the last few weeks, whilst doing an audit at work, two are 51 plate, 1.8 Auto both with 150k on them, the other is a 1.8 Auto on a 52 plate and has 130k on the clock, they have been abused from new, hammered from cold, jumped over speedbump, been kerbed, battered and generally treated like a hire car, they are the most reliable response car we ever had.

These cars are worthless and I wouldn't adivse buying one for more than £200, actually we are just scrapping them in a few eeks time, but you can find loads of privately owned ones with a manual box in the autotrader, you can get a nice reliable comfy car for around a grand easy.

The estate MK4 Astra is actually a very nice car aswell, our training dept has 6 of these, all blue estate with a 1.6 engine and autobox, they have been faultless, they have been treated more like a private car, and they have needed no repairs, just servicing, not bad when youconsider they are on a 53 plate.

If I was looking for a slightly larger car than a golf I would go for an Astra estate before a Vectra, The Astra estate was one of the cars I was looking for when I bought my Mondeo back in 2008, one of my mates bought a 2.0 CDX estate which is mega rare, he has put 75k on it in 2 years, and only serviced it and put on tyres.

Inactive

If you want reliable, buy a Toyota, Honda or Mazda at that price range.