overall good car?

Hammyman

petabear wrote: »

theres no need to be rude...not everyone has enough for expensive cars and this is moneysavingexpert so I was hoping I could be pointed in the right direction for a cheap car that will save me money

£600 is precisely £400 more than a scrapyard will pay for some cars. £600 is serious banger money and what you get will have lots of faults and require a whack of work for the next MOT.

When my son passes his driving test, I'll buy him a £600 car because he'll most likely stuff it in the first few months.

Strider590

Everyone is after small cars, so even the real bangers are worth far too much.

For £600 you can either buy a small car at a premium or a newer larger car.... But at that price your going to have problems eventually whatever you buy.

tupac662

Older shape Renault Clios? My partner drives a 2001 model and never had any real issues with it, just regular oil and filter changes.

sgoode

Older Seat Ibizas have been pretty reliable in my experience. They have proven VW engines that can take a lot of abuse. Rust has set in quite well on some of the older ones. I'm not sure how good the economy is on the smaller engines but I had a 2.0 one and it was incredibly economical for an engine of that size.

BM-AK

MK3 Golf (1994-1998). They are built like tanks so even a high miler will be strong if looked after.

1.4 engines are relatively decent on MPG too.

harz99

Not very fashionable, but a Skoda Felicia could also be useful and £600 could get you a sub 60k miles 98/99/00 model. Look at autotrader.co.uk

catflea

Morris aside I've never bought a car for more than £275

First car was a '95 Fiesta, I ran that for 4 years with minimal work required on it for MOT (£25-50 each year)

Currently running a 95 Rover 114 GTA which flew through its first MOT with me apart from a blown no plate bulb and a tyre fitted in the wrong orientation (my fault, I put the wheels back in the wrong place) its just about to go for its second one with me and I've no doubt it will do OK.

Cheap cars do not have to be money pits IF you have a good look into what you are buying and if something drastic does go wrong its an easier descision to get rid of them rather than fork out £1,000s in repair bills.

There are a lot of little gems out there in the price bracket and I would reccomend for £600

Mk3 Fiesta (1989 G - 1995) gor for the 1.1 or 1.3 HCS engine.
Pug 106 1.5 Derv
Rover Metro Diesel 1.5 (same engine, but cheap due to the name) just make sure the rear arms have been greased
Ford KA - basically the same as the above fiesta, but avoid the zetec engine if its not had a recent cambelt change)
VW Polo Mk2 or Mk3
I've not had any experience of Micra's but hear they are OK

Best tip I can give you is look at the car and base your descision on the seller and their attitude towards the car, if they dont have a great attitude then the car prob wont have been looked after well.

catflea

tupac662 wrote: »

Older shape Renault Clios? My partner drives a 2001 model and never had any real issues with it, just regular oil and filter changes.

I wouldnt reccomend a clio for that kind of cash. A good friend of mine had an N reg Clio 1.3 between 2000 & 2004 and the amount of things that broke, fell off or simply stopped working was incredible. He spent a FORTUNE keeping that car going

Outpost

catflea wrote: »

Ford KA - basically the same as the above fiesta, but avoid the zetec engine if its not had a recent cambelt change)

Did they ever put Zetec engines in the original KA?

catflea

I may be wrong, but I believe it was fitted into the later models after about 2002.

ETA, just double checked - from 2003 and it was a duratec which is basicly the same thing with a different name