Cheap, used car suggestions please

pusb

I am on the lookout for a cheap runaround, just to last me a year or two until I can get something better.
My requirements are reliable, costs around £1k, and doesn't need to be huge but at least as big as say a 5 door Fiesta. Preferably easy to service, as I don't mind changing the oil etc myself. 
Not really bothered about looks/features etc.
I have looked at a few Ford Focus' on ebay. Some look ok, but its becoming the sort of car now that hasn't been looked after well so you don't always know what you're getting.

What car would people recommend I look for? 

AdrianC

Look for whatever's for sale around you for that money and isn't totally knackered.

jimjames

I still run a 19 year old VW Golf that would fit that requirement but as above look for any car locally that's been well looked after and ideally had long ownership. Buying direct from the seller will get more car for your money than a dealer

Grumpy_chap

At this price point, buy on condition and history.  So long as there is enough space to do what you need, nothing about brand / model matters.

shinytop

pusb said:

I am on the lookout for a cheap runaround, just to last me a year or two until I can get something better.
My requirements are reliable, costs around £1k, and doesn't need to be huge but at least as big as say a 5 door Fiesta. Preferably easy to service, as I don't mind changing the oil etc myself. 
Not really bothered about looks/features etc.
I have looked at a few Ford Focus' on ebay. Some look ok, but its becoming the sort of car now that hasn't been looked after well so you don't always know what you're getting.

What car would people recommend I look for? 

We have 2 old, cheap cars in the family that have been very reliable.  One is a 5 door Fiesta 1.2L petrol and the other is a Skoda Fabia.  Unless you know what you're doing, in the £1k range you might be better buying from a trader as you have some chance of comeback if it goes pop a mile down the road. Older Toyotas and Hondas seem to have a good reputation but also tend to be more expensive when I was looking. 

forgotmyname

Unless you know the seller very well and trust them 100% you never know what your buying.

Applies to £100 cars or £10,000 cars. There will be good and bad examples of every car.

Someone back in the late 70's selling something foreign and often unwanted but asking way over book value

when questioned on the fact its way over book value they replied with "if they were all like this the book value

would be higher".

Hard to argue with that.

Look hard enough you can find a very nice Focus for under £500 which may or may not be in better

condition than £1000+ cars. The trick is cherry picking the good ones.

Took 2 years to find my current car where I paid half the insurance companies valuation. High miles but

I cover a low mileage so it evens out in 5 years and it costs me very little.

noclaf

forgotmyname said:

High miles but

I cover a low mileage so it evens out in 5 years and it costs me very little.

I was always in the camp of 'find the lowest mileage car' but realise it's a flawed logic without knowing how the car was driven or serviced/maintained.
I do about 3-4k per year and it's probably been even lower last year so will be more flexible with my next car and the mileage focussing more on the service history and condition.

Herzlos

shinytop said:

Unless you know what you're doing, in the £1k range you might be better buying from a trader as you have some chance of comeback if it goes pop a mile down the road.

The dealers selling £1k cars (which is probably a £100 trade in) won't be offering much warranty on them, if you can find a dealer with stock. You'd probably stand a better chance buying privately in this case and assume there's no warranty anyway.

At that budget it's really just condition - does it have a long MOT? Does it seem OK? Does the seller seem legit?

AdrianC

shinytop said:

in the £1k range you might be better buying from a trader as you have some chance of comeback if it goes pop a mile down the road.

Not a hope.

Remember, the Consumer Rights Act caveats the supplier's responsibility with reasonable expectations for used goods around the age, relative price, and apparent condition.

Reasonable expectations for a sub-grand shed are minimal.

Even then, you face the issue of actually getting anywhere... You're going to have to get the car dragged back to their premises, leave it there, and issue a small claim to take them to court. You might win. Then you've got to get them to pay...

fred246

AdrianC said:

shinytop said:

in the £1k range you might be better buying from a trader as you have some chance of comeback if it goes pop a mile down the road.

Not a hope.

Remember, the Consumer Rights Act caveats the supplier's responsibility with reasonable expectations for used goods around the age, relative price, and apparent condition.

Reasonable expectations for a sub-grand shed are minimal.

Even then, you face the issue of actually getting anywhere... You're going to have to get the car dragged back to their premises, leave it there, and issue a small claim to take them to court. You might win. Then you've got to get them to pay...

The usual rubbish. The CONSUMERS RIGHTS ACT is to protect consumers. If you pay £1K for a car it should be free from major problems. It should function as a car. If it breaks down immediately it is obvious that it was sold with a problem and the dealer needs to fix it. It is there to protect the public and stop dealers selling cars on that they know to have major faults.

bengalknights

Go private and look for a old honda jazz/skoda fabia/proton/daihatsu
The first two are quite reliable the latter two use toyota tech and are generally cheap to buy but rare to find