£1500 - £2000

Jonnyah_2

So I have between £1500 and £2000 to spend on a car.
I've carried out a load of searches on Auto Trader, Ebay and Gumtree, and there looks to be plenty of choice in this price range. But what's best to get? I can get a Ford Fiesta or Focus with around 80k on the clock which is around 8 years old, would this be more of a liability than anything else?
I've been been informed that a Toyota Yaris or Honda Jazz would be a safe bet from a reliability point of view, but most of these seem to be ever so slightly out of budget.
Would I be better off in the long run using the £1500 - £2000 as a deposit for something newer with less miles and made in Japan?

Any help would be appreciated.

AlexisV

Focuses are generally very reliable and the parts are cheap. My mate's is on 140,000 with few problems.

They're common, so you should be able to pick up one with 70,000 on the clock for £1250 if you search hard enough.

Notmyrealname

Jonnyah wrote: »

Would I be better off in the long run using the £1500 - £2000 as a deposit for something newer with less miles and made in Japan?

I had a VW Passat that was over 10 years old with 200,000 on the clock.
I had a Sierra which was 10 years old with 185,000 on the clock
I had a Vauxhall Cavalier which was 8 years old with 160k on the clock
The last car I've just sold I bought at 3 years old with 90k on and sold at 8 years old with 165k on and it had less than £500 non-service/consumable repairs in 5 years/75k done at garages.

This is no longer the 1970's and 80's where a car that had done 100,000 miles or was over 8 years old was past it and heading to the breakers.

casseus

fiesta not really,, like the KA's tend to rust away.

focus, depending on what engine size and insurance cost your looking at i'd say a 1.6-1.8 Yreg to 03 is within your budget reliable-cheap parts, hell i even know someone who's selling a body kit for one of those for just £100 bumpers skirts and rear bumper.

one niggly fault with the focus is the anti roll bar links go quite often and is a mot specific item, but at £9.00 a side and two bolts to replace thats nothing compared to some cars.

1.8 is dearer to tax and insure, but you get a decent power under the bonnet and a decent MPG for a 1.8.

they say once you go jap you never go back! but have you crying when come time something goes wrong.

with your budget i would say stay in the ford realms.

Jonnyah_2

Thank you very much for the quick responses. I'll carry on my search for Fords, appreciate it

Lindopski

Buy a Rover 420 SDI (diesel)
cost you about £400 - will probably do about 500,000 miles - maybe more.
The trim will keep falling off but that's fine as all the petrol K-series 400s are in the scrappy so you can get bits easy.
My 420 has saved me thousands over the last 4 years - its total win!

avantra

£2k can see you in a 2004-2005 Focus 1.6 or a Nissan Almera 1.5, The focus is better to drive but might mot be reliable as the Almera. Find a nice one with full service, I would avoid diesels at this price bracket.

Martyn_H

The only thing I don't like about the old Focus is the poor fuel consumption.

Lindopski

Depends really - Jap is reliable,american (ford) is cheap,European are hit and miss some are brill - most pugs,Citroen diesels - some are total and complete cack - the Renault Meganne.

If you just want to spend a few coppers though and drive an old wreck that will start during any disaster 2012 lobs at it, could drive through Mordor and up mount doom before coming home to do a few circles of the equator - and would win a fight against Chisora and Haye then a shagged out old Rover Diesel wont do you wrong

Tremour-88

I recently brought a 2003 Ford focus 1.6 for £1500, full ford main dealership service history (the previous owner had a A4 folder full of every single bill hes ever had for the car), 1 previous owner, all the extra's with 115k miles.

There are tons of Focus's around your price range which are good

forgotmyname

Think bigger, Mondeo sized cars can be cheaper than slightly smaller cars.

In 2009 i paid a touch over £2000 for a 2004 diesel estate. Over 100,000 miles but receipts
for lots of work.