car and insurance under a grand

tylerjames

just wondering where i can find a cheap but reliable car, other than ebay or autotrader. i have got insurance quotes between £350-500 so i want to spend £500-700 ideally on a car.

i'd like something like a mk3/mk4 golf, polo, ibiza, punto or a3.

so are there any other sites worth looking on as well as those i mentioned above??

rev_henry

Local paper and newsagent windows? Other than that not really...what you're doing sounds fine. Punto is a bit of an odd one out in that list though...

buscape

Try Pistonheads, Gumtree, and Preloved.

red_eye

tylerjames wrote: »

just wondering where i can find a cheap but reliable car, other than ebay or autotrader. i have got insurance quotes between £350-500 so i want to spend £500-700 ideally on a car.

i'd like something like a mk3/mk4 golf, polo, ibiza, punto or a3.

so are there any other sites worth looking on as well as those i mentioned above??

for that kind of money your looking in the pile of poo end of the market regarding A3. Mk3 golf, polo and ibiza would be better.

Looksguywalker

tylerjames wrote: »

just wondering where i can find a cheap but reliable car, other than ebay or autotrader. i have got insurance quotes between £350-500 so i want to spend £500-700 ideally on a car.

i'd like something like a mk3/mk4 golf, polo, ibiza, punto or a3.

so are there any other sites worth looking on as well as those i mentioned above??

Reliable sites don't mean reliable cars....especially at a £500-700 budget. I'd physically trawl around smaller car dealers looking at their 'trade ins' for a cheapo deal.

forgotmyname

Golf and A3 etc hold their values so for the budget your looking at you will have a car with issues. Are you handy with the spanners and have a decent set of tools?

If not then look for something else. A new set of tyres and brakes could cost more than the cars worth on a £500 budget. So cars that need these items will be flogged on.

Personally i would be looking for something older thats been looked after. Serviced properly even though that costs as much as the cars worth each year.

jaydeeuk1

Get something like an old daewoo, kia, hyundai, daihatsu or suzuki. Plenty of old rios, sirions, lanos', wagon Rs, swifts and they'll probably be more reliable, newer and cheaper to insure than a golf of same price

Weird_Nev

At that price look locally and within friends and family.
No problem with looking at ebay - keep it local and phone people to see the car, make them an offer outside of ebay.
I got a BMW 328i estate for £700 and insured it for less than £300, ran it for 2 years and about 16k miles without problems. I found that through ebay, considered bidding but didn't and then when it sold but was relisted contacted the seller and paid cash for it.

mattyprice4004

Any older Rover that's a 2 litre diesel (1995 onwards, apart from the 75, that's a BMW engine) has the rather agricultural but brilliant L series engine. Known to trundle on for hundreds of thousands of miles with no issues, I've had 4 cars with this lump now and they've all been 100% solid.

Pick up a 1995-1999 Rover 420 diesel of some kind would be my advice, I've had 2 so far. The car itself is a Honda Civic shell with the only real Rover parts being the wiring, interior and engine. Even the gearbox is a Honda unit.

I got mine for 400 quid with 12 months MOT and 4 months tax, it's as slow as hell but who cares. Plus it does 55mpg.

Thank God the K series gave Rover a crap reputation and killed the resale values.