Bangernomics Estate car, advice needed please.

cybervic

Hi all,

Our 1994 Toyota Carina is coming to the end of its life, our budget is extremely limited as we are trying to save up for a deposit on a small flat and for a new baby next year, we need an cheap estate car hopefully can last us for 3+ years with minimum work/repair. At the moment, my search criteria are:
- £500 - £750,
- manufactured 2000-2003,
- no more than 130K on mileage
- Petrol
- Manual
- Engine 1600 - 1999 cc
- good service history (3 years+)

We are considering Volve V40, VW Passat, Audi A4 because we think these are reliable brands. After some searches, we also see some NISSAN PRIMERA which are cheaper than than the above makes.

My question are,
Is any of our preferable make really reliable or we are wrong?
Which is the most expansive to maintain should things go wrong?
Is Nissan Palmira worth considering?
Anyone know if 3 years history is good enough to determine how much work needed for the coming years?

Thanks.

jimjames

Audi A4 diesel is an excellent car in that price range - IF you find the right vehicle.

As well as the Passat I'd also add in the Golf estate. It's not as big but we had one when our son was born and it was perfect size.

You really want to find one with full service history not just 3 years. They are about but pretty rare. I bought a Golf with FSH and 1 owner for £700, ran it for a year and sold it for more than I paid and only minor maintenance needed.

EdGasket

Hyundai Lantra estate (or the later Elantra if you don't mind a hatchback) . £500 - £750 will buy you a good Lantra/Elantra but won't get you much of an Audi imho or Passat for that matter. Have you actually seen Audi/Passat's for £500 that are any good?

mgfvvc

I believe the Primeras were pretty solid, but I have no actual experience with them.

If you can find a good Skoda Octavia estate, they are pretty solid too with great boot capacity. I ran an Octavia vRS for 8 years and 100,000 miles.

Marktheshark

My ten pence.
The V40 is not an estate, it has a boot lip and is basically a hatchback car, all models are expensive on car tax, however they run until someone shoots them and if someone hits them, you are unlucky to even get a dent, God help the other bloke..
Nissans are Renaults and you can save a badge mark by buying the Renault in the first place, old Renaults have poor wiring issues.
Passat petrols in 1.8 are OK, the 2.0 petrol drinks expensive fully Synth oil like a thirsty builder.
Mondeo 1.8 Petrol Estates offer huge bank for buck value and rep-mobile relatability without the hassle of repetitive DMF issues the diesels suffer from
Vectras can be good with a service history but road handling in wet is like a drunk camel on ice skates.
The Honda accord V-tech is a cracker and so is the Toyota estates which along with the Skoda 1.9 diesel estates are the work horse of the taxi business, this is because they can not afford to be off road.

cybervic

I've seem a few good Audi & VW around just under £800, although both have a bit more mileage and are 1 or 2 year older compared to Volvo and Nissan, but we thought if they are good make then it should be fine.

I tried to find some Octavia but I rarely see them available in my price range.

We will being buying an old flat and revamp it ourselves, not sure if Golf is big enough for the revamp project?

forgotmyname

Your on a budget age and mileage should be low down your priority list.

CONDITION should be top with CONDITION second and CONDITION third and guess whats 4th and fifth? If your answer is not condition then try again.

Why restrict to less than 130,000 miles? I always buy cars with 120 - 130,000 miles on the clock and run them for 5 years or so and then repeat.

My old 2001 petrol Mondeo had 150,000 miles on the clock when i sold it in 2009 and its still going strong. And it was in better condition than the cars that were 4 or 5 years newer with less than 100,000 miles on the clock.

Not sure what you mean by 3 years history? Service history? Even though a car maybe older i still insist on a full service history, the car may take some finding but its worth it in the end when 5 years later its still running well and had no major repairs.

jimjames

forgotmyname wrote: »

Your on a budget age and mileage should be low down your priority list.

CONDITION should be top with CONDITION second and CONDITION third and guess whats 4th and fifth? If your answer is not condition then try again.

Why restrict to less than 130,000 miles? I always buy cars with 120 - 130,000 miles on the clock and run them for 5 years or so and then repeat.

I'd missed the bit about mileage.

I think finding one for that price AND mileage will be even more of a challenge. Far better to get one in price with high miles that has perfect service history than one that has 3 years SH and low miles. You never know it might have already been clocked so you're paying over the odds for an identical car to the high miler.

cybervic

forgotmyname wrote: »

Your on a budget age and mileage should be low down your priority list.

CONDITION should be top with CONDITION second and CONDITION third and guess whats 4th and fifth? If your answer is not condition then try again.

Why restrict to less than 130,000 miles? I always buy cars with 120 - 130,000 miles on the clock and run them for 5 years or so and then repeat.


Not sure what you mean by 3 years history? Service history? Even though a car maybe older i still insist on a full service history, the car may take some finding but its worth it in the end when 5 years later its still running well and had no major repairs.

Ah, I guess I got it wrong then, I thought age and mileage give a good indication of its condition when comes with good service history? The only reason for the 130K limit is because we think an engine might start to cost us dearly after 180K. I think the most difficult bit for us is how to judge a car's condition. We plan to ask question about advisory items on last MOT and service and the last time cam belt was changed,
and hope we could get some idea of how long the car will last us.

Marktheshark

One overlook and a cracking car, based on mondeo but with japenese build quality is the mazda 6 estate, roomy in the back and very well built.

xHannahx

Forget the age criteria. A well looked after 90s car will be better than an abused early 00s car. Cars registered Pre April 2001 the tax is normally cheaper on larger engines than those registered after.
The mechanic we regularly use advised us to only consider cars from the VAG stable, so VW, Audi, skoda and seat being the main ones from VAG. The 1.8 20v engine is near bullet proof, available in Turbo or non turbo. The 1.9tdi is also near bullet proof. The 1.9tdi being the choice of taxi drivers says a lot about the reliability and cheap running costs.