Used car advise

shell820810

I need a new (as in new to me, but used) car. Thinking Megane size, so perhaps Golf, Megane, Fabia, Focus etc.

Dont want to spend any more than about £5K, and hoping it will last a while, so probably not older than 2005-2006. must be diesel.

Have also been considering going to England for one.

Can anyone suggest a model first, and then what is the best value for money?

ballyblack

Fabia would probably be the best value. Avoid Renault as they can have reliability issues in my experience

gordikin

Try posting over in the Motoring forum.

fadetogrey

shell820810 wrote: »

I need a new (as in new to me, but used) car. Thinking Megane size, so perhaps Golf, Megane, Fabia, Focus etc.

Dont want to spend any more than about £5K, and hoping it will last a while, so probably not older than 2005-2006. must be diesel.

Have also been considering going to England for one.

Can anyone suggest a model first, and then what is the best value for money?

why go to england? be patriotic and let your local boycie screw you out of £5k.:D seriously though if you buy in england and big probs occur you wont have any warranty,at least buying locally you can have somewhere to bring it back to. You cant go wrong with a ford or vw for that matter but only buy a diesel if you do the miles to need it.It will cost you more to buy and diesel is at least 5 pence a litre more than petrol.saltmarine cars have a 2007 ford fusion 1.4 zetec 5door with 26,000 one owner and FSH for £4,995 and a 2008 ford ka 1.3 16,000 miles for £4795.have dealt with them before twice and they will give you a good deal either by lowering the price or doing servicing and they give a years warranty parts and labour on their cars with no quibble.

fredy34

fadetogrey wrote: »

why go to england? be patriotic and let your local boycie screw you out of £5k.:D seriously though if you buy in england and big probs occur you wont have any warranty,at least buying locally you can have somewhere to bring it back to. You cant go wrong with a ford or vw for that matter but only buy a diesel if you do the miles to need it.It will cost you more to buy and diesel is at least 5 pence a litre more than petrol.saltmarine cars have a 2007 ford fusion 1.4 zetec 5door with 26,000 one owner and FSH for £4,995 and a 2008 ford ka 1.3 16,000 miles for £4795.have dealt with them before twice and they will give you a good deal either by lowering the price or doing servicing and they give a years warranty parts and labour on their cars with no quibble.

why would you not have a warranty if you buy from england? Ive bought 3 cars from england of varying ages and all have a warranty and work carried out over here. There are absolutely no problems bringing a warranty to NI.

If you are looking for something Golf/focus size then my advice is have a look at the golf and the focus, they are both great cars. Do your sums on petrol vs diesel before u jump at a diesel. A diesel car will have a lot more miles on it and be older for the same money. If you are doing less than 10k a year i would concider a smaller engined petrol. Having said that i had a 1.6 Focus and the fuel consumption was rubbish as was my girlfriends 1.8 Diesel Focus. I then had a 1.9TDI VW and the mpg was a lot better (I averaged 45mpg).

At your price range how about a VW Bora/Jetta? They are essentially a golf with a boot and are cheaper to buy.

caz2703

Have you thought about a Civic? Not advertising my car for sale at all but mine is a 2005, worth maybe £4500, just hit 30K miles, 2 owners including me, averaging 37mpg on the rush hour work run and it's petrol. With it being a Jap car it has a pretty bullet proof engine, runs well, never serviced but had to replace the break pads & discs which is the only major work carried out bar new tyres in the 5 years I've owned the car.

I too would avoid Renault. A friends diesel Laguna has literally just been sold for scrap yet it was only around 7 years old. Poor mpg (my Civic beat it on similar journeys), heavy & noisy diesel engine, blue smoke alert hence selling it and it failed its first MOT due to incorrect headlights which were factory fitted European spec units and not UK ones. It also broke down though I can't remember why but it was expensive to rectify and didn't like supermarket fuel which caused it to stall.

Snoozle

I'd avoid Renault too.......got my fingers burnt badly with a second hand Scenic, which just fell to bits despite being only about 5 years old. I could cry just thinking about it.

almillar

Fabia is not Megane size, it's a supermini. Skoda's 'small family car' is the Octavia, with the same chassis as the Golf. You say must be a diesel but don't mention your mileage, 10,000 miles+ needed to make diesels worthwhile, and they're really inefficient for short journeys too.

hethmar

Thats surprises me as the Octavia seems much bigger than the Fabia or the Golf?

I think the OP needs to give a budget before people can really advise.

motorguy

hethmar wrote: »

I think the OP needs to give a budget before people can really advise.

They did give a budget

shell820810 wrote: »

Dont want to spend any more than about £5K, and hoping it will last a while, so probably not older than 2005-2006. must be diesel.

gmm30

caz2703 wrote: »

Have you thought about a Civic? Not advertising my car for sale at all but mine is a 2005, worth maybe £4500, just hit 30K miles, 2 owners including me, averaging 37mpg on the rush hour work run and it's petrol. With it being a Jap car it has a pretty bullet proof engine, runs well, never serviced ....

Japanese engines are bulletproof so long as they're serviced properly. Recent Hondas in particular have quite advanced engines which need regular attention. 30,000 miles without an oil change is asking for trouble.