Need a reliable car. Please advise.

lpaluszk

Hi

Apologies for another one of those threads.

I was made redundant in 2008 and ended up jobless with just under £20k of debts. I signed up for DMP with CCCS which has ended in December 2012. I changed careers and now have super-secure job (org. is 60+ years old and growing rapidly; I worked there before and left 2 years ago, only to re-join 1 year later after being asked to do so by the company, on good terms).

Me and my partner are currently debt free and earning approx. £55k combined although we haven't been able to save much as we had a lot of expenses which were long overdue (stuff we couldn't/didn't want to get while on DMP - things like clothes, shoes, new computer, citizenship application, etc.).

I currently drive '02 Vauxhall Corsa which I paid £1400 for and another £800 in repairs over 7 months I've had it. This seems to be the pattern in my case. I have taken my last 4 cars to the scrapyard myself and I usually spend car's worth on repairs if not more.

My partner is currently pregnant with twins, so we're going to need a bigger car. Those twin prams are massive! I am also scared of getting anything second-hand as I just don't know enough about cars to make the right choice. The Corsa I've got now, was checked by an independent mechanic and came with 3 months warranty. After £400 worth of investigation when it broke down, Vauxhall said it needs a new ECU (£800).

I could do with a car that's reliable enough, so my girlfriend can use it to move around with 2 kids. I don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, or worse, if she gets stuck with kids.

After the DMP my credit is really bad so I don't have many options in regards to financing the car. One of the creditors seems to be putting 6 months in arrears marker on my account every month, even though the balance has been paid in full. I've also got a £68 default from 2009 which I didn't even know about until I checked my report. I will be calling both creditors on Wednesday to see if there is anything I can do.

Even so, I'm not holding my breath. The mess will be visible on my account for another 5 years at least so there's that.

I will be trying LingsCars as I could easily afford the 2 year lease on a nice new Kia Sportage, which would be my ideal option, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get rejected.

I'm not considering any personal loans, or PCP/HP at all. Not interested.

So my question to you guys:
I could probably save up to £2000 + whatever I can get for my Corsa (£700 maybe, maybe tad more).

What do you think I could get for that kind of money? I need an estate or an SUV (in my dreams yeah I know) to be able to fit everything in. It's pretty much given that car for that kind of money will break down (probably within first 6 months), so I would prefer something that's cheap to repair (in authorised garages as I don't know any reputable independent mechanics in my area).

Please help.

EDIT: Apologies for the long post.

TradePro

lpaluszk wrote: »

I will be trying LingsCars as I could easily afford the 2 year lease on a nice new Kia Sportage, which would be my ideal option, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get rejected.

I'm not considering any personal loans, or PCP/HP at all. Not interested.

Hi, if you don't mind me asking, why are you interested in 'lease', but not in PCP? I suspect it may be because you don't fully understand them? (I'm not having a go saying that, just may be able to help).

Also, the Sportage whilst reliable enough, doesn't have much boot space - I suspect you are choosing that because it looks good, rather than because the buggy will fit in the boot well...

lpaluszk

TradePro wrote: »

Hi, if you don't mind me asking, why are you interested in 'lease', but not in PCP? I suspect it may be because you don't fully understand them? (I'm not having a go saying that, just may be able to help).

I might be wrong I think that PCP requires a sizeable deposit which I just don't have. I'm also pretty sure that I wouldn't be keeping the car after the lease period. I really want a long term rental, and nothing more. I'm happy to pay more every month just for the privilege of driving the car without the hassles of owning it. This is what I understand personal lease to be. Please, do correct me if I'm wrong.

TradePro wrote: »

Also, the Sportage whilst reliable enough, doesn't have much boot space - I suspect you are choosing that because it looks good, rather than because the buggy will fit in the boot well...

I have looked at the car (co-worker drives one) and it does seem to have a decent size boot. It's also quite cheap, and in fact, on LingsCars cheaper than most estates, excluding Fabia Estate (which just isn't big enough). All other ones are only £10-£30 pm cheaper than the Sportage which I definitely do like more. It's also the cheapest SUV available on the market at the moment.

westwood68

Most cars will last if looked after (good service history) but for reliability, my own experience is that you can't beat an older diesel estate on high miles (not ex-taxi) that's had the same owner for a long time.

No ecu to go wrong and the very fact that it's reached high miles means it's been looked after.

e.g. old (pre-1995) Mercedes, older Citroen (pre-2000 with 1.9TD...) or a 1.9TD from the VAG group (Audi, VW, Seat, Skoda)

The Volvo V40 is always near the top of the list for used car reliability as well:-


I only speak form my own experience

Strider590

As your looking for a bigger car, look for a motorway mile muncher instead of MPVs or 4x4's or whatever.
Bigger cars designed for the fleet market are much better built, the market is too important for the manufacturers to skimp on quality.
Typical family cars and small hatchbacks are designed more to keep you coming into the dealerships for repairs.

It's a generalisation, but it's generally true.......

lpaluszk

westwood68 wrote: »

Most cars will last if looked after (good service history) but for reliability, my own experience is that you can't beat an older diesel estate on high miles (not ex-taxi) that's had the same owner for a long time.

No ecu to go wrong and the very fact that it's reached high miles means it's been looked after.

e.g. old (pre-1995) Mercedes, older Citroen (pre-2000 with 1.9TD...) or a 1.9TD from the VAG group (Audi, VW, Seat, Skoda)

The Volvo V40 is always near the top of the list for used car reliability as well:-


I only speak form my own experience

Thank you very much. That's exactly what I was looking for.

I don't know enough about cars (I know a lot about computers instead), so advice like this very much appreciated.

lpaluszk

Strider590 wrote: »

As your looking for a bigger car, look for a motorway mile muncher instead of MPVs or 4x4's or whatever.
Bigger cars designed for the fleet market are much better built, the market is too important for the manufacturers to skimp on quality.
Typical family cars and small hatchbacks are designed more to keep you coming into the dealerships for repairs.

It's a generalisation, but it's generally true.......

Thanks.

Do you mean something along the lines of Ford Mondeo, Skoda Octavia Estates?

What other cars would be classified as fleet cars?

fivetide

Mondeo, Vectra et al.

Personally I have an old C-class Merc for the daily commute, cheaper to run and buy than you might think

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/classifieds-cars-sale/155751-2002-c180-2-0-petrol-sheffield-%A31895.html

The issue is of course if things go wrong but that's the same with most cars as you've found with the Corsa.

Apart from that, I'd look at (predictably) Honda stuff or Toyota Avensis etc. Basically, the cars taxi drivers have!

jase1

westwood68 wrote: »

Most cars will last if looked after (good service history) but for reliability, my own experience is that you can't beat an older diesel estate on high miles (not ex-taxi) that's had the same owner for a long time.

No ecu to go wrong and the very fact that it's reached high miles means it's been looked after.

e.g. old (pre-1995) Mercedes, older Citroen (pre-2000 with 1.9TD...) or a 1.9TD from the VAG group (Audi, VW, Seat, Skoda)

The Volvo V40 is always near the top of the list for used car reliability as well:-


I only speak form my own experience

Errr, pretty much every car built after about 1985 has an ECU!

I don't understand this obsession with electrical faults anyway. I've driven more then 400,000 miles in various cars -- all with modern electronics -- and never once had a non-trivial electrical fault (the odd O2 sensor or MAF sensor malfunction notwithstanding, none of which stopped the car from going).

Maybe its my preference for Japanese petrol cars, I dunno.

Strider590

jase1 wrote: »

Errr, pretty much every car built after about 1985 has an ECU!

I don't understand this obsession with electrical faults anyway. I've driven more then 400,000 miles in various cars -- all with modern electronics -- and never once had a non-trivial electrical fault (the odd O2 sensor or MAF sensor malfunction notwithstanding, none of which stopped the car from going).

Maybe its my preference for Japanese petrol cars, I dunno.

The electrics failure thing was largely pushed by old school mechanics, even now if you go to an old garage with old school mechanics, they won't have a clue when it comes to electrical faults. But in fairness they don't waste time/money running diagnostics before changing a pair of brake pads.

The remaining issue is French cars, which are simply terrible for electrical issues, mostly because of using cheap terminations/connectors which rust/corrode very quickly and when you have an ECU with 200 connections, that's never a good combination.

wba31

fivetide wrote: »

Mondeo, Vectra et al.

Personally I have an old C-class Merc for the daily commute, cheaper to run and buy than you might think

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/classifieds-cars-sale/155751-2002-c180-2-0-petrol-sheffield-%A31895.html

The issue is of course if things go wrong but that's the same with most cars as you've found with the Corsa.

Apart from that, I'd look at (predictably) Honda stuff or Toyota Avensis etc. Basically, the cars taxi drivers have!

Had a diesel Accord, great car, but if you're having kids you'll want to look at hatchbacks or estates, the boot opening on my saloon accord was tiny (there is no hatchback accord, only saloon or estate. but i think the mondeo and the octavia are available in hatch or estate...) the diesel engine uses a chain and not a belt which i was always told is favourable on a high mileage diesel.

I think if you have £2500 to spend you'll get more car for your money if you get a mondeo or octavia over a Toyota or a Honda, that being said you might find a barry-bargain if you shop around.