Charade or Puma? Which is better choice?

salubrious

I had a Puma and they are a cool car, I enjoyed driving it, but I found it far too lacking in rear seat/luggage space. It was rubbish on fuel too, although mine was a 1.7

Main thing is to watch for corrosion, they suffer with it quite bad.

They are basically a Fiesta coupe

Brallaqueen

Well the charade is gone so that's that out of the running.

Took peoples sensible advice and ran the Puma past my insurer - it will add 100.75 total onto my policy which has 4 months to run. Ford KA would add nothing but that's no surprise.

Scheming_Gypsy thanks for your input. I've been doing 12 mot because there are few small cars in my price bracket that have service history. The Puma has both FSH and a 12 MOT advertised ...that's good right?

Horizon81

Not necessarily. There's been a few posts lately with cars being sold by dubious garages knocking out a passed MOT for any old dog.

Don't assume 12 months MOT is a way of assuring a car is any good. You're better off taking a punt on a private sale with a lot of history. You can always ask the seller to put the car through an MOT before you buy it. If they don't oblige then you can walk away.

Forget about a Puma/KA/Fiesta of that age. Will be a completly rusty dog. I've suggested a 1.3 Yaris. How about a 1.3 Suzuki Ignis. You haven't got a lot of money to play with. The Charade was a decent idea. Small and Japanese should give you a lot less grief than the equivalent popular Ford or Vauxhall.

Brallaqueen

Hi Horizon - I'm not discrediting your input please don't think that - there just aren't any Yaris or Ignis available within 20 miles.

Have updated first post with potentials

Horizon81

No problemo. You can only buy what's available! Are there any old shape Suzuki Swifts? Daihatsu Sirion?

scheming_gypsy

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Scheming_Gypsy thanks for your input. I've been doing 12 mot because there are few small cars in my price bracket that have service history. The Puma has both FSH and a 12 MOT advertised ...that's good right?

The Puma states it's got good bodywork so it might not be too bad.
It's also got 98k on the clock so you'd need to check if / when the timing belt was done. If it hasn't been done it will need it doing which is additional expense or risk damaging the engine if it snaps.

funkycoldribena

Finding a Puma without rusty rear arches,for that sort of money-nearly impossible,shame really great cars.
Ford Ka-engine will outlast bodywork.
Matiz-forget it.
Megane-forget it.
Peugeot 306-the last decent peugeot.
Ignis-underrated.
Yaris-good car but tinny.

Try for Fiesta,not 1.3,or 306,polo,Ibiza,Fabia.

Brallaqueen

I hate this car buying business!

The ones I wanted have gone as couldn't get a bloke to come with me this weekend. I'm starting to panic and I should not have left it so late to start looking.

Some others have come on but now I'm too stressed out to think!

OddballJamie

What about that 306 I posted a link to, looked a nice motor.

jaydeeuk1

Don't panic, otherwise you'll either end up paying over the odds, or buying a wreck, or both.

The daihatus sirion mentioned was a good shout, quite nippy and if looked after will go on and on. The daewoo/chevy lacetti and kalos also worth a look, lacetti is astra sized, the 1.8 is the one to go for (cheaper to run and quicker than the 1.6). Nissan almeras are cheap, toyota starlets if you can find them

Also car models get bigger and bigger. Compare the first gen Yaris to the new one, its about twice the size. Same goes for the civic, first couple of models are about Jazz size!