New used car drama

[Lukas]

Hi friends!

 

Let´s start the story at the beginning. I´ve bought me a old and battered 99 Volvo S80 2.4 with ~ 130.000 miles in February as a daily driver. I live in Vienna, park it on the street and need to drive long distances on the Autobahn to go home. So it seemed the ideal car. Good rust-protection for the salty winters, very comfortable, ideal for high speeds (100mph @ 3000rpm) and battered so scratches from parking on the street did not hurt.

 

But sadly it wasn´t a reliable car. I only had japanese cars (Mitsubishi, Toyota, Subaru) before and never had any problems with my cars. The S80 was the first car that left me stranded on the side of the road, the first car that did not start several times and the first car I did not trust because of that. It´s sold and I need a new one. But what should I buy?

 

I drive my brothers 07 Mazda 3 1.6i at the moment. Reliable and affortable, but noisy, low geared, thirsty because it always needs to work hard on high revs, nervous and it feels cramped inside. Not an option for me.

 

The Volvo was an old (14 years) car and gave me a lot of problems with the automobile electronics like the CAN-bus and such things. Now all my friends and familiy are saying "Get a newer car, you will always have troubles with your old cars." Ive looked at some newer cars but I did not like their looks (04 Nissan X-Trail), thought they were soul-destroyingly boring and bland (05 Toyota Corolla E12) or just have the fear of very high costs to repair the complicated hightech-commonrail-diesel-engines if anything goes wrong.

 

I would like a car that does not give me trouble the next 2 or 3 years. I would like a car that just works without any need of permanent repairs. Better get a newer car (max. 8 years old) and hope it works just as it should? I guess older cars, no matter how good they were when they were new, will give me more problems just because things go wrong when they get old and worn out.

 

What do you suggest?

 

Lukas

 

P.S.: My Camry (see signature) did leave me stranded on the road too the same day the Volvo died! The starter motor seized up. Another story, but that gave me an uneasy feeling about older cars.

[maxpower]

Honda? jap reliability

[Lukas]

Yeah, but which one? Jazz, Civic, CR-Z too small, Legend to old (?), the last generation Accord may be an option. I like my cars comfortable, realxing and big. Just a nice cruiser with automatic transmission and a petrol-engine to drive the Autobahn without hassle.

 

L

[maxpower]

Yeah, but which one? Jazz, Civic, CR-Z too small, Legend to old (?), the last generation Accord may be an option. I like my cars comfortable, realxing and big. Just a nice cruiser with automatic transmission and a petrol-engine to drive the Autobahn without hassle.

 

L

Accord.... but i would take previous model over the latest.

[skattrd]

Buy Dollywobblers Merc

[Faker]

Newer cars have their fair share of reliability issues too! How about a Toyota Avensis 2.2 D4d T Sport. 180hp diesel 4 door saloon, early ones are nearing ten years old now. Smashing run about.

[Tetleysmooth]

Not new by any means, but:

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/153684/mitsubishi-sport-waggon-thingy-medway

 

Quite fancy it myself, actually.

[Lukas]

Thanks for the suggestions, but buying a car in the UK is not an option. They are rediculously cheap, yes, but I don´t want to fly over, drive it here with some import-plates and need to pay a huge amount of taxes just to get it registered here and have a RHD-car at the end. Must be an austrian one.

 

The last Camry (XV30) did come to my mind too, but sadly there are only 3 for sale at the moment in Austria, all with manual transmissions. I´m thinking about this one, but it has been standing at the dealer for over a year now:

 

http://www.gebrauchtwagen.at/detailansicht.php?id_fahrzeug=2366975

 

Have to take a look how bad the brakes and stuff are fu**ed from standing outside over a year.

 

Lukas

[Junkman]

I never had problems with the reliability of old cars. Even my 37 year old Rover has yet to fail to start, or fail to complete a trip.

I stopped driving newer cars because they constantly gave me trouble of the sort you describe, or worse.

If I needed a car for what you need one, I'd still use my Rover. Or the very next OMGbarg thrown at me for 300 quid, unless it's a BMW of course.

[Lukas]

I thought like that too! But I had bad luck with my old cars the last weeks, so I am a bit out of track on this topic.

 

My Camry is giving me trouble regularly with refusing to start. Maybe a faulty sensor or such a thing, hard to come by because when I am at a workshop, it starts fine. Until I am trying to start it alone in the night somewhere far away from the next village.

 

And my old Pajero is giving me trouble too. One or maybe more injectors may be faulty, the engine knocks and rattles more than it should be, the oil pressure needs ages to build up after starting the engine (with horrific knocking sounds from unter the bonnet) and the rear floor has two rust-holes, each as big as my hand.

 

So I am a bit fed up with old cars, always giving me trouble and not being reliable. I am looking for a Toyota Camry XV30 too, but they are rare here.

 

Lukas

[FredTransit]

As we are all in the EU, would you really need to register it there? Don't you get some month's grace that gets reset if it goes back out of the country (even for a day)? Would insurance on RHD and UK reg be a problem?

[dollywobbler]

Older cars are prone to bouts of going wrong I find. They'll be fine for ages, then will hit a proper gremlin patch, then will be fine for ages. Looking after them is very important - my 2CV's bad patches usually coincide with a complete lack of care/expenditure...

 

Mind you, newer cars have their own problems! Go mid-1990s I reckon. A Nissan Primera perhaps.

[hairnet]

ls400

 

xg30 hyundai if you can find one auf osterreich

 

sonata?

 

early e39 bmw

 

to munch miles id do these

[Joey spud]

How about an is200 Lexus ?? ,Cheap,reliable,japanesse,autobox/wafty transmission etc etc...

 

ticks all the boxes,whats not to like ..

[drum]

I bought a 2000 audi A4 tdi avant for our France holiday, £650. 2400 trouble free miles at > 55mpg. It has done 198000 miles with no service history. I bottled it and had the timing belt changed. Proper audi timing belt kit and water pump for another £300. Great mile muncher, quiet and smooth. I had planned to sell it but I really like it and having spent 300 I should keep it.

[vulgalour]

I was going to give you some sound*, reasonable* advice about cars but you said Vienna and now all I can hear is Ultravox.  Sorry.  This means nothing to me.

[Sean]

Another vote for Audi A4 Tdi (I'd have an estate) Good looking, comfortable, powerful and really economical at 90-100.

 

Newer Japanese cars really aren't ina league of their own with reliability any more.

 

German is the way forward.

 

Another alternative would be a TD Mercedes Vito as a curve ball!

[Station]

*****Lists every car I like*****

 

Seriously though, you can't got wrong with a 90's Toyota. Reliability is week documented. Get a Camry or something.

[RichardM1]

*****Lists every car I like*****

 

Seriously though, you can't got wrong with a 90's Toyota. Reliability is week documented. Get a Camry or something.

I'd second that, my 99 Avensis has been 100% reliable, the gearing on the 1.8 is a bit short though (3000 rpm at 70mph)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[warninglight]

Pre 98 Volvo! the first S60/S80 shape was plagued with electronic issues, and it doesn't help that Volvo had introduced fly by wire throttles and coil packs in 1998, which both give a huge amount of trouble.

 

A pre 98 S70/850 will have a throttle cable and conventional distributor and HT leads, the only electrical problems they ever really have can be dry joints in the ABS ECU, and sloppy ignition switches.

 

If it's an auto and won't start, or even try to start, it's often the PNP switch in the gearbox not sensing that you're in park or neutral. A few minutes of throwing the selector up and down the gate usually cures it!

 

They're not all bad!

[Sigmund Fraud]

The Volvo was an old (14 years) car and gave me a lot of problems with the automobile electronics like the CAN-bus and such things. Now all my friends and familiy are saying "Get a newer car, you will always have troubles with your old cars."

 

If your 14-year-old car is giving you trouble, replace it with an older car !!! This may sound like the cliche Autoshite answer, but there's logic* in it :

 

Most cars after the mid-1990s have far too many electronic bits that give little or no warning on when they are going to fail. Older designs of fuel/ignition systems give you ample warning when they are deteriorating, and they still allow the car to start and run even if the odd sensor is borked.

 

In addition, most older cars can be fixed by an idiot with a basic toolkit on his driveway during a Sunday afternoon. It takes far more equipment and dedication to sort out problems in modern, complex stuff, plus parts can be prohibitively expensive.

 

My advice would be to shop around and buy primarily on condition rather than reputation because a neglected car will always bring trouble. My old 'bulletproof' W124 had been abused for 170K miles with very little maintenance and caused me endless grief. I'm sure that if I had bought a 'fragile' 60K mile, well maintained Renault 25, it would have been a paragon of reliability by comparison.

[ShiteRider]

E34 525 tds? Should be easy to find a good one in central europe.

Failing that how about a V6 frenchie a-la 406/XM.

[Lukas]

I´ve just found this:

 

http://www.automobile-riekmann.at/verkauf/buick_park_avenue_1994_grau.htm

 

 

Oh what a beauty! But big doubts regarding it´s reliability in my head.

 

L

[RichardMoss]

It's my experience that American cars (except Jeeps) tend to be good value, comfortable, reliable and cheap to fix. The interior quality is usually very poor but that is something that you can live with.

 

Jeeps are shite - I've got 2 of them!

[purplebargeken]

That looks bloody good except the seats have no buttoning on the cushions.   

[Justin Case]

Hello Lukas, can I suggest a Mazda 6 petrol pre 2008 model. I have one and it will cruise on motorways at 80 mph (130kph?) with no effort. It is comfortable and economical for a large car (up to 40 mpg on long journeys) and nothing has gone wrong in three years. The only snag is that it is dull and uninvolving to drive; we were on holiday in North Wales last week and to get there we had to drive on one of the finest roads in Britain (the A5 through Snowdonia), but I might just as well been pressing the buttons on my washing machine (except the views are better )

[Lukas]

This one might be an option:

 

http://www.gebrauchtwagen.at/detailansicht.php?id_fahrzeug=3448125

 

 

I´ll go there tomorrow and take a testdrive. Maybe it suits me.

 

L

[Junkman]

I had a new 1993 Park Avenue back in the day. Drove it 380,000 kilometers in 7 years (yes, those figures are correct), then sold it. It now has over 500,000 kilometers on the clock and is alive and well. The biggest thing it needed in those half million kilometers is a gearbox rebuild (750 Euros). The cylinder heads were never off the engine.

 

As for your reliability doubts: You do realise that a car is as reliable as you treat it?

[Sean]

Yes, every Audi my family's owned have been paragons of reliability*

 

German cars are massively, massively over-rated, and over-priced for what you get.

Both audis I've had and the many many BMWs have all been absolutely brilliant reliability and mpg-wise. There's a good reason there are plenty of VW/Audi TDi cars with upwards of 300,000 miles on.

 

Each to their own I guess though, I've owned two lexuses (lexi?) and hated both of them whereas my brother absolutely swears by them

[Sean]

None of the German stuff my family have owned lived up to the hype, MOTHA_WATANABE's A1 being a case in point. It's cracked three windscreens in the space of two years.

 

Two of the A6s FATHA_WATANABE ran leaked, and one had trouble with the rear brakes and the rear axle. It also chewed several head units.

 

On his second 5 - Series a light cluster FELL OUT and the power assistance failed during a lane change on the M60.

 

 

Yes, German stuff's brilliant. I can totally see why people bum them senseless.

Gotta wonder though - why do mother and father keep buying German?

 

A light cluster falling out?! Did the fixings break?