First car - Clio 2008. Good choice?

wrrrrmrrr

I am looking for a cheap runner as my first car. I found ad - £800 Clio campus 2008  1149, 96K miles with MOT done 3 days ago with advisories as below:

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

• Rear Sub-frame pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement both (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Offside Front Brake pipe corroded, covered in grease or other material (1.1.11 (c))

Is it worth it? My budget is £800. What do you think about Clio? Thank you

Ebe_Scrooge

You'll get all sorts of opinions.  We got a 2008 Clio for my son to learn in, we've had it 2 years now, and there's a smidge under 100K miles on the clock.  It's pretty good on fuel consumption, ideal as a small runaround, but I wouldn't want to be regularly doing long motorway jaunts in it.  But great for round town.

It's had a few electrical gremlins - annoyances rather than anything serious, and nothing that can't be fixed by a bit of tinkering.  But do take the time to check that everything works - lights, horn, windscreen wipers, radio, etc.  And the heater fan - I'm led to believe that a common fault is the resistor pack fails, meaning the fan either doesn't work at all, or only works on some speed settings.

Check that the cambelt has been changed when it should, if not then budget for getting it changed.

Have you got a tame local mechanic who could give you an estimate to fix the advisories if and when they become necessary?

But overall, at that age you need to buy on condition and history.  Has it been serviced regularly?   Doesn't matter if it's main dealer serviced or not, as long as it's been done by someone who knows what they're doing.

Check the MOT history online https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history    It can help to give you some idea of how it's been looked after in the past.  There are no guarantees, of course, but it may throw up a few clues.

wrrrrmrrr

I always check MOT history. I know that for that price it is difficult to find a decent car. I also found citroen c3 2004 with 100K miles on clock, MOT till Oct 2022 for £500. No advisories on MOT. Would it be better choice?

Ebe_Scrooge

wrrrrmrrr said:

I also found citroen c3 2004 with 100K miles on clock, MOT till Oct 2022 for £500. No advisories on MOT. Would it be better choice?

It's impossible to say.  Really, at that sort of age and price-point, it's nigh-on impossible to say that one make/model is better than another.  Sure, the old chestnut about Japanese cars being reliable still holds true - but you've got to buy purely on condition at that end of the market.

Don't get me wrong - it's eminently sensible to be looking at the price you are doing for a first car, rather than spending thousands on a brand-new one.  And you can find some real corkers - but you need to take your time, and check everything really thoroughly.  And accept that you will have to fork out for repairs at some point in the not-too-distant future.  But there's no reason you can't get a perfectly serviceable little car that'll last you for quite a few years.

I assume you're looking at private sales?  You should be for a sub-£1000 car, it's pointless paying dealer prices in that market - bear in mind a dealer has to make a profit, and probably offer a warranty, even if it's only 3 months.  So if he's selling a car for £800, it's a £500 car with his costs and markup on top.

You say this is a first car?  It's worth checking what the insurance will cost you if you're a new driver.  You're looking at "sensible" cars from an insurance-price perspective, but there's no harm in getting a ballpark-figure before you buy by putting some details into one of the price-comparison sites.

wrrrrmrrr

Thank you for your reply. There is no rush so I will be looking around for some Japanese cars, as read few posts that French cars are not so reliable. I am looking on gumtree and Facebook Marketplace an groups for private sellers.I want something cheap for first year or so and then I will buy more decent car for myself. 
I don't worry about insurance prices as I have few years no-claim discount bonus already. On car used by my husband. 
I have a driving licence for 9 years, but I was scared of driving and finally decided that it's time to start. Hubby has Kia Sportage but I don't want to start learning in a SUV.

mgfvvc

wrrrrmrrr said:

Thank you for your reply. There is no rush so I will be looking around for some Japanese cars, as read few posts that French cars are not so reliable.

I have long been prejudiced against French cars, but my best mate has had a couple of old Renault Meganes and a couple of large Peugeot people carriers and they have been pretty reliable. I recently had a moment and bought a Peugeot 207 with close to 120,000 miles on the clock I've done 6,000 miles in at and so far I've had to replace a camshaft sensor, which isn't unreasonable in a car of that age and replaced the disks and pads at the MOT. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

jimjames

wrrrrmrrr said:

I always check MOT history. I know that for that price it is difficult to find a decent car. I also found citroen c3 2004 with 100K miles on clock, MOT till Oct 2022 for £500. No advisories on MOT. Would it be better choice?

Is the car a private sale or from a dealer? If a dealer then you're paying their margin there and it's probably a £400 car with markup and maybe hidden faults. That could still be the case with a private sale but less likely to be done up to cover issues.

Ditzy_Mitzy

My experience of French cars, Citroens mostly, is that they do lots of things well but cannot be relied on.  Japanese cars are reliable, engine wise, but that's about it; they are very much built to a price and that shows when they get older.  I've never had a bad Ford, although plenty of people have, and haven't heard too much about things going catastrophically wrong with Vauxhall Astras and Vectras as long as they are petrol powered.  Condition is king, as others have said.