More shed hunting....

Kilty_2

It's £699 for a 2002 02 - has full leather etc - I assume the price is negotiable. 60 miles away though, again, I can't be @rsed :rotfl:

Exemplar

1.6 is fine as it's full Honda, the 1.4 is the one to run away from, very, very fast! Or see if theres a diesel one about... they use the BMW lump IIRC?

mikey72

I've just looked on ebay - what do you do to cars up there?
Is there some sort of border control that I don't know about?
They're about half the price in the midlands.
Good thing is you're get your money back I suppose when you resell it.

the_big_fact_hunt

i recently picked up a W reg Mondeo diesel with tax until the end of july, mot until january, 181k on the clock, its in good condition, drives well and doesnt have the usual cracked bumpers, all for the princely sum of £450

mikey72

the_big_fact_hunt wrote: »

i recently picked up a W reg Mondeo diesel with tax until the end of july, mot until january, 181k on the clock, its in good condition, drives well and doesnt have the usual cracked bumpers, all for the princely sum of £450

Not north of the border?

bigjl

jase1 wrote: »

Meh... I own one, they're not all that great. Average, cheap runabout with a plasticky interior, nothing more.

They're a step up from the Astra (the mid-2000s model of which made a lot of French cars look well made) but they're absolutely nowhere near as good as some make them out to be. I'll be going back to Jap when I'm finished with this one.

Nothing wrong with the Mk4 Astra if you can look past the bland looks and rather sombre interior.

They handle well and are reliable. The 1.8petrol is a lot faster than many think.

Best bet would be a 1.7dti, it has an Isuzi lump in it.

Manual gearbox is strong, autobox isn't troublesome, most reliable car we had in the LAS, and we battered them 24hours a day for years. There are still some 51 plates being used as runarounds, still fitted with halogen rotators lightbars for the old school scraping sound!

The Focus is also a hardy little car, prone to driveshafts and lower wishbones on mega milers, i used a tddi estate a couple of years ago, was going to sell it on but it had been clocked, actually had 150k odd taken off. So i used it as a shed for a while, let anybody use it and take stuff to the dump. Sold it a year later on eBay for just over a grand, the oil light flickered on tickover. So sold as spares or repairs, though i put 25k on it with this issue. New owner put on a new oil pump and as far as i know is happy. He did email a few months later saying it was running well.

Though the Focus seats could cripple you if you get a run of the mill LX model.

Seats in the Astra are a little better, however we only had Elegance, Comfort and SXis at work, the SXis where on an X plate and ended in the reg GGO. They were both the most comfy and for some reason quicker, they had lowered suspension though and had a ahbit of loosing the sump on speed bumps, later models had sump guards made of thick steel to replace the plastic undercovers.

jase1

Yes, the MK4 was OK, although I found that even less comfortable than the Focus and they are prone to engine management issues, but the MK5 (which I was referring to) is a plasticky toy -- I was shocked by the poor quality of the interior. Very little better than the Daewoo Lacetti to be honest. And the handling seems to have returned to the "wobbly jelly" dynamics of the MK3.

funkycoldribena

Mk4 Astras are ok,pretty sure they need the cambelt changing every 40k though.

jase1

funkycoldribena wrote: »

Mk4 Astras are ok,pretty sure they need the cambelt changing every 40k though.

Yes, and don't forget about it whatever you do!

POS tensioners on GM engines of that period -- I'd be changing the cambelt, tensioner and water pump immediately after buying a late 1990s/early 2000s GM petrol engine regardless of what the history says -- massive achilles heel.

pitkin2020

MK4 astras can be picked up cheaply if you look around. If you want economy over performance go for the sluggish 1.7 diesel. I have the 2.0DTi and they are prone to fuel pump failure around the 100k mark, if you can get one thats had it done cheap enough it'll be good for another few hundred k, fuel pump replacement isn't cheap if it needs doing though. Plenty of good cars out there but as others have said when you have a limited budge its irrelevant what brand you buy you need to see the car in the flesh. Last year a friend bought an N reg micra with full dealer service history for £250 it only had 30k on the clock, the old couple that had sold it used it every day for very short trips, always garaged and had a full service every year from new, regardless if it needed it or not. Trouble is there aren't many little gems out there like that but everyone wants one