£3000 budget - 15k - 18k a year Diesel or Petrol ?

Shaps

Hi ,
can anyone give me some advice on purchasing
a used car with a budget of around £3000 .

I do around 12k- 18k miles a year mostly motorway ( around the midlands ) dealing in antiques
and musical instruments , nothing to heavy but quite bulky - guitar cases etc .

Been advised to look for Diesels due to the milage I do but my last two diesel cars have cost me a fortune in repairs / servicing .

Looked on Autotrader but there are so many in my price range
and not too sure what I should be getting for the money - milage , age etc.

I have a ford fusion at the moment that I regretted buying as
soon as I pulled onto my drive but the £30 year road tax - MPG and big boot
make up for its performance / look but the injectors failing - Clutch and flywheel change cost me a fortune.

Any help would be much appreciated
s

motorguy

Its probably borderline but i'd seek out a good 2.0HDI Peugeot 307, (Avoid the 1.6HDI), or a 1.9TDI golf, passat, leon, octavia.

Find one with a full service history and evidence of the belts being done.

s_b

why not lease something new like a vito van

bigjl

I would probably buy a Mondeo Estate or a Focus Estate. The V50 is good, I had no issues with mine but they tend to be more expensive than an equivalent Focus.

You could go for a last of the mk3 Mondeo estate with a petrol engine, 1.8 petrol is not bad on fuel really. You don't see many petrol Mk4 Mondeo estates and to be honest at your budget they are likely to be a bit leggy.

Can't agree with the 307 recommendation by Motorguy, they didn't have a great reputation for reliability when new and the only people I knew who had one had problems when they were fairly new, one had two new sets of clocks. I think thait was usually the issue with the 307 to be honest, electrical gremlins so perhaps a more basic spec model would be a good shout. You would struggle to find a better Diesel engine than a 2.0 HDi lump, not sure if they had the 1.9 XUD but that was a strong engine aswell.

I would add that the Berlingo is well within your price range, the mk2 up till 2008 is pretty decent, I have a 2007 1.4i Forte, not fast or that well equipped but it is basically a van. The ride comfort is better than it really should be for what it is, you hardly have to slow for speed bumps. Handling is a bit on the comfort side but it has lots of room and isn't that bad on fuel, we get just over 30mpg which is not bad as it spends most of its time in town.

I also have a soft spot for the Laguna and Megane estates though.

The big advantage with French estate is that they are cheaper to buy, likely because of horror stories regarding reliability, they aren't that bad, again, avoid those with loads of electrical goodies. The 1.9 diesel could also be problematic, but that was as much down to neglect as anything according to an article I read a couple of years ago.

The 1.5 DCi engine can be found in the Megane and Laguna, it is a decent enough engine in my experience, though I only have direct experience of the 68bhp lump in the Clio mk3, I don't know if the more powerful variants are less reliable.

pd52

Used diesels - ticking time bomb! ££££££££££££££

wrightk

pd52 wrote: »

Used diesels - ticking time bomb! ££££££££££££££

Dont agree with this, although they certainly cause a lot of trouble these days to people who dont know how to drive them, and there are various models which are more prone to problems.Modern diesels are much more finely tuned and a lot of people are still stuck with the notion that its still possible to drive around in a diesel in 4th/5th gear everywhere and wonder why they are in the garage for repeated forced regens or the turbo has prematurely blown.

worried_jim

What about an Audi A4 estate with the 1.9tdi engine?

bengalknights

I would suggest a pre 07 diesel car mainly as they wont have DPF issues

neilmcl

Michelle_Lang wrote: »

Personally I'd settle for an older Japanese petrol engine. They're usually bomb proof and fairly efficient, for example a 2004 onwards Toyota Avensis 1.8 litre petrol or a 2003 onwards Honda Accord 2.0 i-VTEC. Shouldn't struggle getting 40 plus mpg on a motorway run.


You can pick one up that is in good condition for around £2000. No worries about turbo failure or injectors and will see star ship mileage if taken care off.

Speaking of Japanese cars, what about a Yaris

bod1467

That was too easy Neil.

Herzlos

Michelle_Lang wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet even if the E46 and E92 M3 will be tiresome and noisey for long motorway drives, revving at 4K rpm at 70-80 mph. Honda S2000 and the GT86 will be equally bad.

... why do you keep doing this?


OP - look at something like a Mondeo Estate, and go on condition.