Might be wanting a new shitter. Advice please

[Felly Magic]

Well the current motor is dropping to bits, and to be honest it aint going to survive winter without about twice it's value spent on it, so could well be after a reasonable shitter with plenty of rent & rates on, and not too big, and as complex as a knife & fork to mend. Budget will probably be about £400-ish, any ideas? Nothing with mahoosive engines, as it's needed as a commuter car, so needs to be good on juice, and both me & swmbo are on low incomes, and both need to use the car

[Wilko220]

I'd definitely go for a Rover 820...

[gadgetgricey]

Xantia Hdi, all day long.

 

- Dave -

[dugong]

VW Taro.

[cort16]

Mk1 or 2 Mondeo? You seem to be able to get nice ones for buttons and parts are plentiful. They're also pretty nice to drive .

[Felly Magic]

Wilko I don't want to be filling it up every day, or phoning the AA, plus anything French is out of the equation due to past experiences of French cars on both our parts. Small hatchback is what we are after really, and there seems to be a shortage of small, cheap motors in East Anglia at the moment. We do about 60 miles a day commuting, which can vary between town driving or dual carriageway. I was thinking about a Fiesta again, but the last one we had was a yearly weldathon, and loved 5w30

[bub2006]

Would say my merc but only does 24 ish around town

[Barry Cade]

Toyota Starlet. A blue one. With daisies on.

[rml2345]

Daihatsu Sirion? DW seems to be getting on brilliantly with his. 

[castros_bro]

1.2 MPI   Fabia from Hayes CO16 XXX   plus  £30 OBD code reader

[Felly Magic]

I will never, ever touch a Fabia again, too many things go wrong,, especially on the EPAS, and I was chatting to Oldford recently about the 1.2, and how the engine likes to eat it's valvegear. I know Hayes very well, as my current car wears their dealer plates & sticlers, and they recently lost the Skud franchise. I did think about another Felicia, but they are all firmly in the same boat as mine, aka ticking timebombs, and are either battered to hell & rustbuckets, or insanely over valued. Just looked on Hayes site, cheapest motor they have in stock is an overpriced 1.4 Fabia estate at £2300, which is £1900 over my budget

[Twiggy]

Peugeot 306 ? Plenty around, pretty unburstable given some regular attention, economical, and a nice drive.

[oman5]

Peugeot 306 with an xud, turbo or not, they are worthless and totally brilliant. great handling, cost buttons to run and pretty reliable. The 306 has become my default banger of choice if I get caught with no functioning transport.

[Station]

I think if I was looking for a sub 400 shutter I'd look no further than a Volvo 440 Si 1.8 with a CVT box in metallic browny silver with 97000 miles on the clock, etc

[Lacquer Peel]

I don't know, maybe something that fits your needs, is local, with recent service history.

Failing that, Lamborghini LM002 or Maserati Quattroporte II would be my top choices.

[Rocket88]

I think, for £400, the world's your small limpet. Anything with rent and ticket for that money will have "issues".

[derskine]

mk2/mk3 polo

[gary_davidson]

What about one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111213934522?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

[Felly Magic]

I think if I was looking for a sub 400 shutter I'd look no further than a Volvo 440 Si 1.8 with a CVT box in metallic browny silver with 97000 miles on the clock, etc

 

Gallons to the mile mpg LOLOL, prob is we only have 1 day a week to go car hunting as well, and it seems all the old misery car lots have vanished around here! Sod all sub a grand on 99% of 'Arfur Daleys', even where I got this from, they have sod all under £1500 now.

[Felly Magic]

Hmm, Datsun Drizzle, misery cars, learnt to drive in one, the 1.4 16v lump is surprisingly potent. Will keep a peak out for them, pref a misery 1.4L, as sod all electrics to go wrong

[gary_davidson]

I had one on long term loan back in 04/05, for a cheap car I couldn't fault it - just watch out for rot around the sills/rear wheel arches

[Stanky]

Keep a look out for a Nissan Sunny/Almera. I've got a 1.4 Almera which seems to be completely bombproof (except for crusty sills at the back), delivers 45mpg most places I go, is a doddle to service and cost me £400. its sailed through 2 MOTs now and is cheap(er) to tax.

 

If this one dies I'd have another in an instant. The lady i bought it from had just bought herself an MGF which presumably has eaten substantially more than £400 worth of head gaskets by now.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I fear that for £400 with T&T you will be looking at some pretty undesirable cars... Some of them will be decent cars that have had a very hard life, others will have an awful reputation but may have had easy lifes. I reckon the latter type is far more likely to last the winter and beyond.

 

It's a pity you don't want to buy French, early Meganes are fairly decent cars and the horrible reputation of later models means nobody wants them. There are dozens on the 'bay and gumtree, some of them even have reasonable mileage and service history !

[Felly Magic]

We had a P reg Clio a while back that had clearly done it's head gasket more than once, and had been in a nasty crash by the looks too, as it didn't drive straight, and then the wipers started to play up, the central locking stopped working, and then the leccy windows died, and the sunroof had been sealed shut, put us off froggies for life. We want something as simple as possible, no leccy shite, and no sunroof if poss. We did think Microbe, but seeing how bad these things rot scares us. A neighbour has a 1.4 Almera, and it's newer than what we have, and scarily both sills have needed drastic surgery, and all 4 arches are crusty on it. 

[Jim Bell]

1987 Nissan Sunny 1.3.

That's what you need. Ideally a gold one with brown and beige interior. Ahem.

[Felly Magic]

LOLZ!

[garethj]

We had a P reg Clio a while back that had been in a nasty crash by the looks too, as it didn't drive straight, and then the wipers started to play up, the central locking stopped working, and then the leccy windows died, and the sunroof had been sealed shut, put us off froggies for life.

 

I’m not sure you can blame a car, or an entire nation of cars for being involved in a collision.  Pretty sure that happens to all of them.

 

The problems you describe could easily be down to poor repair afterwards; if it doesn’t drive straight then the garage could have been less than dedicated in protecting the wiring from the welder.

 

I’d say a 306 is a fair choice if you can find a basic one.  The diesels fetch relatively good money (like £600) but an economical petrol should be well under £400

[Parky]

Civic, Corolla, or Yaris if you can get a leggy early model in budget range - like these?

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1993-Honda-Civic-LSI-1-5-Auto-Motd-Taxed-/111213345185?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item19e4d4f9a1

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-TOYOTA-COROLLA-GS-BLUE-/161146884006?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item25851a4fa6

 

Japanese stuff should be pretty reliable........

[Rocket88]

You can't condemn an entire nation's motor industry as being shit on the basis of of one bad experience. I admit that Peugeot / Citroen / Renault have turned out some awful dross over the recent past, but most of the stuff pre [and including] Peugeot 306 era ain't bad. I'd be looking for a 205 or a 306, or something of that era. A £400 one of those is going to be a far better proposition than something newer which is larded with electrical fandanglements.

 

Plus, if you buy a car that had "clearly done it's headgasket", and Gawd knows what else, I would be inclined to blame myself for buying it in the first place!

[Felly Magic]

I know someone who had a Ryton made 306 base model XUD, and it never ever, ever, ever went wrong, no matter how he treated it, and it did seem well nailed together, I think a trip to my dads may be in order 'oop norf' as there seems to be a greater choice of chod up there. Even piles of scrap with MOT in seconds around here seem to be £500+

 

We don't want any electric shite, as in every car we've had with leccy windows, they have all been 'problematic' shall we say. Keep fit windows are deffo a must, all we want really is a basic car, and I have a decent stereo already to slot in. I did see a Felicia advertised locally with long-ish test, it has had a replacement rear door on that doesn't quite match by the looks, and it is the misery spec non PAS low compression 54 bhp model, and it's exactly the same age as what I have, but it's had new clocks fitted, so I don't trust the alleged 44,000 mile claim that it has allegedly done before the clocks went FART. 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Felicia-1-3-MPV-5-Dr-Hatch-Long-MOT-Cheap-Runabout-Car-SALE-ON-/161118821230?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item25836e1b6e