Need a new car – no clue what to look for

ally_bee47

Hi
MY VW polo I fear is on its last legs but has served me well with 179K miles on the dash. I now have to consider changing before the epic cost of getting it through its MOT next spring. I commute a round trip of 80 Miles a day and (very) roughly estimate with weekends -I do 21K miles a year,which i think is a lot?

I want a car that’s going to last me a good few years and not fall apart with the mileage. Only snag is that I only can spend £4,000 /£4500. VW is the only car that I am familiar with that is known to be long lasting but the VW cars I see in my price range seem to have a LOT of miles on them already. I am a bit clueless when it comes to other car make’s, so hoping you lovely people might be able to point me in the right direction?


I am sure this question has type of questions has been asked a lot before but can’t seem to find anything similar using the search function –so apologies

robpw2

i suggest looking form something with 4 wheels ..three wheelers arent safe

have you tried auto trader
gumtree?
local paper?

ally_bee47

robpw2 wrote: »

i suggest looking form something with 4 wheels ..three wheelers arent safe

have you tried auto trader
gumtree?
local paper?

Hiya, Yep all of the above. I am grand on searching for car's for sale :Dbut I wanted advice on which car brand / type I should get for my needs from people that are more knowledge on these things here

Thanks

System

What engine polo do you currently have? Are you looking for same size car again?

My personal preference for that kind of mileage on that budget would be a mid size 1.6 petrol such as a Civic, Golf or Focus.

ally_bee47

Walcott wrote: »

What engine polo do you currently have? Are you looking for same size car again?

My personal preference for that kind of mileage on that budget would be a mid size 1.6 petrol such as a Civic, Golf or Focus.

Currently Drive a 1.9 polo SDI. I have found actually not to bad on diesal being a 1.9 but wouldn't mind going down size

Butterfliesarepretty

Speaking from experience of owning a 20 year old mx5 which may not be your choice as regards miles per gallon, I thoroughly recommend a japanese car mazda 3 or something honda because japanese engines are far more reliable than others. And I know because most mx5 owners (mazda) would probably agree.

So go for mazda or honda when you dont even have to spend £4000. try pistonheads.com for cars for sale.

markelock

We have a Honda (11 yrs old, 165k) which is pretty reliable and well built, and a Mazda 5 (the people carrier type) which is pretty reliable, but Mazda's are very thirsty, even on paper...

Japanese cars do appear (despite the toyota weekly recall) much more reliable, VW's have a reputation for it, but I've had 2 golfs, and both were not reliable (one blew a head gasket at 3.5k). My wife also had two, and same story there.

£4k is a lot for a second hand car, there are several well versed bods here who could advise on what to get for that

System

ally_bee47 wrote: »

Currently Drive a 1.9 polo SDI. I have found actually not to bad on diesal being a 1.9 but wouldn't mind going down size

The SDI cars are very economical and reliable because they are about as basic as an engine gets.

A 1.6 petrol will not give you that kind of economy and most probably most diesels won't either.

There is an SDI Golf too if that interests you. Otherwise its really your choice as to what you want engine wise. If you are going to buy to keep for the life of the vehicle I would still prefer a 1.6 petrol as the engines are simpler and economy is reasonable as well as being reasonably priced.

Tobster86

I would stick with the Polo and put it through it's MOT.

1.9 isn't 'big' as far as diesels go and you'd struggle to get much better fuel economy from a newer car. What you would be gaining from a newer diesel is a lot more electronics, sensors, a DPF (I believe the SDI engines don't have one) and a turbo that can all go wrong.

Does the engine have any issues currently? If it doesn't smoke excessively and fires up on the first turn, hang on to it. All else that can go wrong for the MOT are normal wear & tear components.

Butterfliesarepretty

markelock wrote: »

We have a Honda (11 yrs old, 165k) which is pretty reliable and well built, and a Mazda 5 (the people carrier type) which is pretty reliable, but Mazda's are very thirsty, even on paper...

Japanese cars do appear (despite the toyota weekly recall) much more reliable, VW's have a reputation for it, but I've had 2 golfs, and both were not reliable (one blew a head gasket at 3.5k). My wife also had two, and same story there.

£4k is a lot for a second hand car, there are several well versed bods here who could advise on what to get for that

Yes mazdas are thirsty but I have a eunos 1.6 mx5 that does 35 to the gallon on motorways and I use it everyday. I wouldnt go bigger and would stick with a mazda. As long as you check your fluids, oil water etc and service the car, and are interested in looking after the car, you cant go wrong.

If the op can get the polo through its mot and survive another year while at same time put some money aside for another second hand car, but I wouldnt spend £4k. Mine was £2900 five years ago and its a ltd edition and you can pick these up for less than 1k sometimes.
If it was me I would try and put polo through mot and see what is wrong with it, if too much to repair, sell it with listing whats wrong with it and put that towards another good runner.