What used car to buy?

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Hi,

One of my daughters recently moved from the south to the north-west. She owns a used 12 year old Mitsubishi Colt which has served her very well over the past 5 years (bought it for £1400). When in the south, she only used her car at the weekends and would only do about 3-4k miles a year as she prefers to live close to work and shops. It has performed admirably over the past many winters, starting without a problem after being stood for many days (even 2 weeks in January at Gatwick once!)

In the north west, she again lives in the town centre close to work so her car usage pattern is the same - infrequent and mostly short trips. She takes the train when she visits us as it's much quicker. Since autumn started and things got colder, she has been having starting trouble. The battery goes weak and dies out if she doesn't use the car for 3-4 days. It's a fairly new battery, was replaced about 14 months ago during a routine service. She got someone to look at it who said that given the colder weather up north, old cars just have to be driven more frequently or she will keep having this problem with batteries getting weaker.

I know very little about cars (except that I always stick to buying full depreciated Japanese hatchbacks and that's worked fairly well for me) but was hoping someone more knowlegeable could give me some advice -

1. Is is true that old cars can't be left standing for more than a couple of days to maintain battery health?

2. For someone who uses a car only during the weekend and does a max of 4-5k mileage a year, is there any particular model or type of used car you would suggest is likely to be most reliable?

Unfortunately, public transport is pretty poor and not having a car at all is not an option.

Grateful for any advice at all!

Thanks.

lincroft1710

Even though battery is only 14 months old it may be failing. Or alternator is failing to charge sufficiently. Or just needs heavier duty battery. My 12 yr old Fiesta is often left for a week and usually starts first or second time.

If there is nothing wrong with the car otherwise, she should get this problem sorted and keep the Colt for as long as poss.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Thanks for your response. I was thinking the same, it can't be right that you just have to use your car every few days to keep a battery healthy. There's absolutely nothing else wrong with the car.

The alternator apparently is working a-ok. A "heavy duty battery" is what she was advised to get as well. What does that mean? Doesn't every car have a specific kind of battery capacity that it can take?

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Even though battery is only 14 months old it may be failing. Or alternator is failing to charge sufficiently. Or just needs heavier duty battery. My 12 yr old Fiesta is often left for a week and usually starts first or second time.

If there is nothing wrong with the car otherwise, she should get this problem sorted and keep the Colt for as long as poss.

lincroft1710

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

A "heavy duty battery" is what she was advised to get as well. What does that mean? Doesn't every car have a specific kind of battery capacity that it can take?

https://www.crownbattery.com/news/what-makes-a-battery-heavy-duty

Ganga

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

Thanks for your response. I was thinking the same, it can't be right that you just have to use your car every few days to keep a battery healthy. There's absolutely nothing else wrong with the car.

The alternator apparently is working a-ok. A "heavy duty battery" is what she was advised to get as well. What does that mean? Doesn't every car have a specific kind of battery capacity that it can take?

Is there anything else switched on when the car is not being used,my 14 year old vauxhall astra stood for two weeks while we were away on holiday but started first turn of the key.
I would take it some place ( other than halfords or quickfit )and have the charging system checked out,you might want to check the alternator belt is tight as a slack belt will not charge the battery properly.
A heavy duty battery is normally the same size as a standard one but has more plates inside so holds more charge but also cost a bit more money,there is no point spending money on a heavy duty battery if its not charging correctly.

The_Rainmaker

She needs to check there isn't a drain on the battery too.

loskie

or get a trickle charger.

The whole north south story is utter codswallop

NeverEnough

I also think it is nonsense this north / south thing or that older cars have to be driven more......short trips / infrequent use will always be an issue for battery life, alongside winter weather, whatever the age of the car.......



OP, is your daughter able to connect up to a battery maintainer like a CTEK charger or a variant of that (sometimes sold inexpensively in Lidl / Aldi)? this would not be an option if she has to park on the road, but perhaps if on a driveway? My partner uses her car infrequently / short trips and I hook up to a CTEK - battery has done really well, lasted several years on it so far.

chelseablue

I haven't heard the story about driving an old car every few days

I went to Australia for 4 weeks last December and left my 12 year old Nissan on the drive, started first time when I got home

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Not an option unfortunately as she parks on the road.

She's decided to spend some more money and give it one last full lookover at a garage, replace the battery with a heavy duty one if needed and see how the rest of the winter goes. Hopefully it'll be fixed or else she can just sell/scrap it as it's given her more than her money's worth over the years.

NeverEnough wrote: »

OP, is your daughter able to connect up to a battery maintainer like a CTEK charger or a variant of that (sometimes sold inexpensively in Lidl / Aldi)? this would not be an option if she has to park on the road, but perhaps if on a driveway? My partner uses her car infrequently / short trips and I hook up to a CTEK - battery has done really well, lasted several years on it so far.

bigisi

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

Not an option unfortunately as she parks on the road.

There are some solar trickle chargers available, not sure how good they are but this could be an option if she can't plug in.

I'm inclined to say there's an issue though as it should be ok even in the coldest of our winters.