Most reliable car.

Hintza

Pre 1994/95 Mercedes EClass and the parts aren't expensive either.

I find one of the best ways of deciding such things is to look at what they are driving in Africa and they tend to be old Mercedes, Toyotas and in francophile areas Renault 4's.

cyclonebri1

lauren_1 wrote: »

I want your veiw on reliable cars from 1985 to 2000!

Clearly i dont care about looks, i just want a cheap, practical, spacious and reliable banger

Thats a very wide range?????

Anyway because of that, my Mk111 Cavalier was fantastic and hardly cost me a penny over many years. Jap spares, ok if you need them, aren't always exactly cheap.:rolleyes:

OrangeProse

Right there with you on the Germans. I've had both a BMW 5 series (1992 model 525i) and Mercedes E Class (1988 model 200E) and I unreservedly loved both of them. Neither cost me more than £1000 to purchase.

The BMW was more fun to drive, but parts were a bit more expensive. It still wasn't bad though, as nothing went wrong very often. The Mercedes was amazingly comfortable, quiet and never EVER went wrong in the 3 years that I owned it.

The way to run one of these is to do servicing yourself every 6 months and find a good independent specialist who can do any jobs that you can't do yourself.

The only downside with cars like this is a) finding a good one to begin with and b) high cost of fuel and (sometimes) insurance.

How about a VW Golf, Passat or Polo if you need something small?

Red_Cat

Get a Nissan Sunny. Old late 80s ones (87 onwards) have great engines, but bodies are a bit lightweight. Post 1992 ones are probably the best as they are rock solid, great engines and better safety (side impact bars). Still basic by today's new car standards, but good reliability and low cost yields cheap motoring. I used to have both of these cars and moved onto a newer Nissan, but it isn't as good.

Red cat

cyclonebri1

You know you're gonna look at this lot here and think, what should I chose?

To be honest if you are even considering a car from as far back as '85, you must be thinking pretty low budget? yeah?

What matters more then is not what make, model etc bur what condition, ie, milieage, service, detials. previous mot history...

Buy a car you know the history of:money: if you can of course,:T

Inactive

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

To be honest if you are even considering a car from as far back as '85, you must be thinking pretty low budget? yeah?

The over-riding theme seems to be to buy Japanese.;)

anewman

Condition and service history are more important than mileage IMO. But still make is important when it comes to spare parts costs - and proneness to problems. For example, DO NOT BUY A LADA :rotfl: it will rot a horrible death and break down every five minutes. Ok I exaggerate, but they're probably not the best cars about. I'd be surprised if you can still get good second hand one of anything but a Niva in roadworthy condition anymore.

The good thing is now the MOT is computerised so I think you should be able to see at least the past 2 results of the MOT's on the internet, if they failed and what they failed on. But bear in mind, if it failed an MOT and has been repaired, then that problem is less likely to occur again, so faults coming up on MOT's aren't a bad thing - so long as it's not due to neglect by the owner.

Anyway Lauren_1 would be nice if you get back to tell us what car you got

cyclonebri1

anewman wrote: »

Condition and service history are more important than mileage IMO. But still make is important when it comes to spare parts costs - and proneness to problems. For example, DO NOT BUY A LADA :rotfl: it will rot a horrible death and break down every five minutes. Ok I exaggerate, but they're probably not the best cars about. I'd be surprised if you can still get good second hand one of anything but a Niva in roadworthy condition anymore.

The good thing is now the MOT is computerised so I think you should be able to see at least the past 2 results of the MOT's on the internet, if they failed and what they failed on. But bear in mind, if it failed an MOT and has been repaired, then that problem is less likely to occur again, so faults coming up on MOT's aren't a bad thing - so long as it's not due to neglect by the owner.

Anyway Lauren_1 would be nice if you get back to tell us what car you got

Can you actually buy a Ladder in the uk?

I thought the otherside ahd bought them all back for more than they offloaded them over here?

Don't even ask me my favourite Lada anecdote.:eek:

anewman

I think people here shipped them back because they paid good money in Russia. There's one on Ebay that's not too bad nick. I wouldn't buy it though. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lada-Riva-Estate-5-speed-18-000-from-new_W0QQitemZ320220114560QQihZ011QQcategoryZ116507QQcmdZViewItem

These have to be the best hing they ever made http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LADA-NIVA-4X4-OFFROADER-OFF-ROAD_W0QQitemZ160210725226QQihZ006QQcategoryZ116507QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

goldspanners

have a look at what lada are up to these days.
http://www.ladacars.org/

i was in bulgaria last year and the lada is still as strong as ever over there,and prague too.