Car up to £1000

avantra

Wondered if I can get a good advice on buying a car as my Metro finally died.
Only have a £1000 and I want to keep it for as long as possible with minimum problems and insurance group not more than 4.
My neighbour say I should look at a Nissan Almera 1.4 at this price as he had 7 years of trouble-free motoring with this car.
Any advice is welcome as I can't really rely on the Bus here.

Thanks

hibitdat

If you want some good solid info on cars try the Honest John website at https://www.honestjohn.co.uk (he writes in the Motoring section of the Saturday Telegraph) and, having been connected to the motor trade all my life I can confirm that his information is reliable. Click on the 'car by car breakdown' button on the left hand side and select the cars you are interested in for details of good and bad points, recalls etc. Hope this helps.

ttoli

I'VE TWO WORDS FOR YOU....HONDA CIVIC

You really cant go wrong with a Honda Civic, Cheap and very reliable,(the 1.6 VTEC's are v quick too!!), mostly bought by silver surfers who keep the servicing up to date, true some parts are expensive but having owned them for 15 years the most expensive item was a cambelt from a motor factor at £21.

jjames_3

Two more words... Nissan Almera (or Sunny, although these are getting too old now really). They share the same attributes as the Civic but are even cheaper to buy/run.

Japanese is the way to go with old cars IMO, although at this price range condition is everything. A Fiat Brava that's been treated like it's made of gold will usually be better than a neglected shed of a Honda.

EDIT: Hah, didn't read the bit about the Almera in your post. Seems your neighbour has given you some good advice there. Our second car is a Nissan Sunny which has given us no trouble whatsoever in the last 5 years (it's now 11 and a half years old).

Silent_Bob_3

I'll second the Nissan Almera big ups. I had one for 4 years with not one problem with it. My t'other half has one, next door neighbour has one. In fact everyone I know thats had one has not had any problems with them.

Cheap to insure, quick for a small engine car and comfy too.

I wouldn't buy a car unless it was Japanese (with the exception of an Aston Martin or a Noble)

The reason Jap cars are so reliable is that after the 2nd World War when they were trying to sell their cars to the west and no-one would buy them.

Wanting to get into the market in a big way they looked at Fords way of producing cars (i.e. using the cheapest components for maximum profit) and built their cars with more expensive and longer lasting reliable parts (and thus better build quality) and sold them at the same or a cheaper price.

Thus they got the reputation of better built cars that would last longer for the same amount of money. The rest is history.

hellofreebies

peugeot 306 sedan sr 1761cc..rare...but really cheap insurance...not as popular as the hatchback back but the price is very good for this reason ....to be honest i think they look less dated than the hatchback ....its heavy and sit on the road nice..good driving position and good extras such as remote central locking..rear central arm rests..drivers airbag..decent factory fitted stereo, volume switch on steering wheel..factory fitted imobilizer..for a 1995-97, for the price its value for money. can usually get these at low mileges as they were popular with the elderly when they first come out rather then the typical boy racers or sales reps....

when buying second hand stick to low milege cars..with one or two owners..that way you usually get a full service history...stick to those guidelines no matter how cheap the car is...there is a less likely risk of it turning out to be a white elephant that burns a hole in your pocket along with the inconvenience.........

Silent_Bob_3

hellofreebies wrote:

when buying second hand stick to low milege cars..with one or two owners..that way you usually get a full service history...stick to those guidelines no matter how cheap the car is...there is a less likely risk of it turning out to be a white elephant that burns a hole in your pocket along with the inconvenience.........

Not necessarily true. If a car has low miles and has been used on short journeys then the engine will be in a far worse state than one that has done high mileage on long(er) journeys.

The only real rule to follow is to buy one that has been serviced regularly with the paperwork (and of any repairs) to prove it.

vansboy

If you're prepared to buy as 'trade sale - providing the dealer would sell to you, try main dealers, part exchange stock.

You'd need to ask the sales staff if they auction trade ins, or wouold consider letting you buy WITHOUT A WARRANTY though.

Sometimes they're glad to off-load cheap cars, rather than auction, where they get very little £$£$£ back after all the costs involved, in sending them to the sale.

The attraction to you is, there's every chance someone who goes to main dealer for their new car, pays top £$£$ & has also looked after the old one, reasonably well. In fact if it's same make as garage sells, they might have a thorough service history, more so than just stamps in a service book!

VB

jjames_3

Silent_Bob wrote:

Not necessarily true. If a car has low miles and has been used on short journeys then the engine will be in a far worse state than one that has done high mileage on long(er) journeys.

The only real rule to follow is to buy one that has been serviced regularly with the paperwork (and of any repairs) to prove it.

Seconded. In addition, at this sort of age/price, the kind of low-mileage cars you'll get can be horror stories. Bear in mind that at 10 years old, 80,000 miles is "low mileage". 40,000 is ridiculously low and means that the car has only done 10 miles a day. Likely as not it has *never* been warmed up fully in its entire life -- it's likely to be totally worn out. And if it's been owned by an older person, there is the very real possibility that it's only been serviced intermittently, and abused invisibly through its life (clutch ridden for 40,000 miles, kerbed every time it goes out, driven at 25mph in 5th gear its whole life, dry-steered etc etc).

Old low-mileage cars like that can be completely and utterly knackered, don't be taken in.

albreda

I got a 1995 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.8 GLI for £875 in Jan 2002. It had done 121k miles and has now done 151k. It's needed around £300 worth of minor repairs during the time we've had it. It has proven to be very reliable and durable, making small work of the regular long journeys from Edinburgh to Great Yarmouth and back. It even copes with the mountains of Wales and Scotland without complaining. My partner is an Intensive Care nurse and does agency work all over the central belt and as far north as Inverness, south as far as the borders. It has been a great car, comfy for the long journeys and good fuel consumption for it's size.

I understand that Vauxhall Cavaliers are cheap to maintain and that their engines last for years.

I'd certainly not hesitate in buying my car if I had the choice all over again.

Of course what I really want is a Subaru WRX STI or a nice big old Jag, but that'll be a few years coming yet.

Hope thats useful to someone.

cerebral

I have just joined to reply to this topic. I love my current car, an Almera.

I had a fantastic time with my L reg Nissan Sunny 1.4, great car - i particularly liked the catch on the seat which allowed you to lower the seat to almost horizontal position, and also return to your pre set driving position - very useful, and sad my current Almera 1.6 doesnt have this. However, I am really chuffed at the improved ride quality (better suspension) but the engine looks almost the same, so it has the same reliability and even though its a 1996 N reg (sharing the plate with the outgoing sunny) it runs very smoothly and still feels new past 90,000 miles (6,000 miles of which i have had trouble free aside from the £100 CV boot joint work when i bought it, and some new brake pads (£30 inc fitting, bought the parts seperatly), which is no big thing. Both cars only cost me £595, and aside from oil and fuel never spent a penny on the Sunny (it was an L-reg without power steering...hehe, proper old skool!).

On the other hand I had a 2.0 Cavalier SRi 1995 N-reg in between the two nissans, and it was always breaking down. I loved it very much, was a lovely car to drive, shame it hadn't been treated too well. I could see that a decent example could get to 200,000 miles. I bought mine at 60k miles and scrapped it at 68k after the window fell into the drivers door, the lights started flashing people occasionally of their own accord, the fumes from the hole in the engine pumped into the cabin, and it stalled when it felt like it sometimes, when the gauges sometimes pinged backwards and forwards due to the crazy electrics....yeah, it had to go. Also £595.

To the original poster: Get a Nissan, or something japanese, if its been looked after then it will be good as gold. I also think that £1000 is more than enough to find a decent reliable car as long as you look for long enough, and perhaps far enough. I discovered my almera in the autotrader at a place in a tiny norfolk village, it was located on a crossroads and had cars from £595 to £20,000+ for some cars. These cheaper cars had been part exchanged for the more expensive ones, and the owners mostly lived in the country meaning it had not been clutch ridden all the way round a city. The clutch has a nice ping to it when you bring it up.