What is the cheapest car to run I could buy (under 600)

[Milford Cubicle]

1000cc cars are a total false economy in my eyes. Sure they are fine & dandy trickling around town, but show them a dual carriageway or extended motorway stint and it all goes to shit, massive noise, huge discomfort and unprecedented thirst. It's just not worth it. Then couple to the fact that every old biddy and teenage twit is fighting tooth-and-nail for small 'cheap' cars, so they aren't even very cheap. And definately not cheerful.

Peugeot 106 1.1s are GR8, you can row them along at a fair lick and they are comfortable, apart from the pedals requiring ballet pumps, and economical with it.Also the 3-cylinder Subaru Justys are surprisingly quick and reasonably comfy.Properly small cars aren't bad when combined with 1000cc-ish engines, it's just the inflata-fake-superminis that suffer. I had the misfortune to drive a lardy Mk2 Corsa 1.0 for my Pass Plus course, and that was a horrific thing - completely gutless and it had to be ragged to keep up with the slowest of traffic.

[pogweasel]

1.1 106 would be OK. I had a 1.1 205 many years ago, that was a hoot, but 4-speed box made for tiresome long distance runs. It was hot on acceleration, blezzed the fuck off my mates' then new 206 1.1. Those Corsa 3-cyl 1.0 jobs are fucking horrendous. Harshest engine evAr.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

My Fiesta 1.1 was superb economically. I used to keep all the petrol receipts* because I couldn't believe how little fuel it was using, despite my driving style. I once did Manchester to Littlehampton and back, and it averaged 51mpg despite me driving like I was carrying live organs for transplant.*I even had an Excel spreadsheet

[Albert Ross]

I had a Fester 1.8 dieseasel on a M plate. I got it to replace a S class Merc, so it seemed really cheap on fuel. I was getting less "yellow fiver" vouchers from Morrisons, so it must have been cheap to run. It got stolen the very day my Wife passed her driving test in it.....Insurance company gave me 1700 sheets for it 17 days later (it was 2002) It stood me about half that. Go on, slum it!

[Pillock]

Those Corsa 3-cyl 1.0 jobs are fucking horrendous. Harshest engine evAr.

Damn right. If I bought one of those new, I'd use it to run myself over as punishment. They sound broken.

[Mike D]

Those Corsa 3-cyl 1.0 jobs are fucking horrendous. Harshest engine evAr.

Damn right. If I bought one of those new, I'd use it to run myself over as punishment. They sound broken.

I had one as a courtesy car, I actually had to stop on the way to work and pop the bonnet as it sounded kippered, the 3 plug leads gave it away then!!

[Richard]

There's an art to making a car work well with a small engine. The French are, or were, good at it. Vauxhall aren't. If you're looking for something cheap to run don't forget things like tyre size. There's no point in getting 60mpg if it goes through a set of low profile 18" tyres every six weeks.

[Gompo]

Those Corsa 3-cyl 1.0 jobs are fucking horrendous. Harshest engine evAr.

Damn right. If I bought one of those new, I'd use it to run myself over as punishment. They sound broken.

..My ex is just about to 'scrappage' hers. To be honest I dont mind being driven around in it now and then.

[Station]

I've heard about the 1.0 Corsa engine, nothing good. I don't know how chavs drive around in these things with the body kits, it must be so humiliating driving with no power.

[RedSparrow]

[pogweasel]

I remember when Mrs_Pog brought round her Coarser for the first time, I made some comment along the lines of 'sounds broken', for which I earned at best a thump. Thing was to her it was probably quiet and smooth, her previous two cars having both been 1.1 Fiesta's. Mmm, rattley. I never could get on with that car, and the only reason I used to drive it was because it would at least start on a damp morning unlike whatever rusting old rammle I was pooting at the time. Even as a passenger it was dreadful, and for longer stints we would always opt for my big but old car. Eventually she saw the error of her ways and bought a 1.6 Astra instead, which was much betterer. Unfortunately the Corsa lived on with my in-laws until last year, by which time it was diastaerously unreliable and rotten throughout. from brand new to stone dead in 8 years. Utter crap! We then gifted them Focus v1.0, which is a much better mode of transport (but also starting to rust alarmingly for a sub-10 year old motor)

[254575]

Citroen AX diesel. 60mpg no problem.

i came in to say this.

[angorabedsock]

Citroen AX diesel. 60mpg no problem.

i came in to say this.

I like the old AXs a lot, despite the fact that it would cripple me to drive one. However the 1.4 diesel is well-known for having cooling / headgasket issues and the 1.5d, whilst being much better, just ain't as good as the 1800cc XUDs. There seems to be loads more petrol AXs around and they're so light that they can easily exceed 50mpg. I think I'd plump for a 1.0 or 1.1 if I was having an AX. I remember a mate at school having a AX GT and it was huge fun and very economical if driven sensibly.

[Station]

I've just sold the Porsche and I've put my name down for that Suzuki Whizzkid on RR and will probably be going down on Thursday to get it (pending reply via private message).

Am I making a massive mistake? I almost certainly am having sold that 924, which is the best car I have EVER OWNED.

 

[dollywobbler]

I almost bought that last weekend but the seller went completely incommunicado. Couldn't even get hold of him on the mobile. It does look good and when I mentioned that I was hoping to look at one, lots of people told me how much fun they are! Plus, they'll happily cruise at 80mph apparently.

 

Here's the expired auction - contains a mobile number.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0456856171

 

Good luck! I'll end up envious if you have it... (though I've decided that I've got enough motors for the time being - just need to get some of them working...)

[Station]

Ah! If I -do- end up buying it, and if you're interested in a couple of months or whatever, I doubt I'll be keeping it forever as I can't see the 47bhp inspiring me much. Hopefully he is actually serious about selling as I no longer have a car! It looks incredibly good fun either way.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDbgYtMxO7U

[Negative Creep]

Citroen AX diesel. 60mpg no problem.

i came in to say this.

I like the old AXs a lot, despite the fact that it would cripple me to drive one. However the 1.4 diesel is well-known for having cooling / headgasket issues and the 1.5d, whilst being much better, just ain't as good as the 1800cc XUDs. There seems to be loads more petrol AXs around and they're so light that they can easily exceed 50mpg. I think I'd plump for a 1.0 or 1.1 if I was having an AX. I remember a mate at school having a AX GT and it was huge fun and very economical if driven sensibly.

If anyone sees a decent one in the South West let me know. The only ones I can find are the 1 litre, which is painfully slow even in a car this light and only has a 4 speed box

[garethj]

I had 2 of those Whizzkids and they were tremendous fun. Rust is the worst thing, they need watching all over - sills, suspension mounts, the whole lot. The engine is the typical 1 litre Suzuki unit, as used in the SJ410 and probably the little Suzuki van (looks like a Bedford Rascal), it's pretty tough and even though it makes maximum power at about 5500rpm the red line on the tacho is past 6500 I think?

 

Gearbox is quite weak, downchanging to second means you'll probably have to rev while it's in neutral. Don't worry, it's the sort of car that you drive like that anyway.

 

The first youtube video shows a Japanese market 2 stroke, all UK cars had the regular 4 stroke engine but that second video is pretty much how it is to drive. There's a bit of understeer, but really the main feeling is how planted the back end is. To provoke a tail slide in the dry is very difficult unless you flick it left and right, this means that in normal driving you can hoon about at 10/10ths and it'll always get you around the corner. Experiment a bit with tyre pressures, I seem to remember it was better with higher pressures than the book recommends.

 

In the wet you can flick the tail out more easily but it's still very stable for most driving. Attack a roundabout a bit fast, steer in hard as you come off the power and then accelerate hard in 2nd gear and it'll drift around like you're some kind of driving god. The steering is very sharp and because you're so low to the ground and it all feels so urgent it's a lot like a go-kart.

 

Luggage space in the front is tiny, I seem to remember I could get an A4 folder in there, but that's about it. The rear window opens like a Hillman Imp but generally you chuck stuff on the rear seat anyway. It's certainly no use for putting people there.

 

The seats are quite comfortable, the dashboard has got more dials than are really necessary and there's just enough leg and headroom if you slide the seat back and recline it a bit. I'm 6'1" and I fitted fine, although when people saw me getting out and standing next to this looooow car it looked a bit funny.

 

Heater works ok, the fan is fine to demist the screen and the eyeball vents on the side of the dash blow cold air at a tremendous speed. I normally pointed them towards the side windows and got cool air bounced off the windows onto me. Point them straight at you and it's like sitting halfway down a hoover hose.

 

I've got a book of road tests somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it out. It's from the Transport Series Books, sort of a cheap version of Brooklands Books.

 

Motorway cruising.... well cruising isn't really the word! It sort of darts about with a sense of urgency everywhere. There's not much power but you'll have no problems sitting at 70 and it accelerates alright upto just short of 90. It's noisy, but it sort of suits the mood of the car. If you wanted a waft wagon, buy a Volvo.

 

Access to the engine is through the bootlid in the back, or you flick down the rear seatback (with the thing that looks like a seatbelt buckle on the parcel shelf) and under there is a removable panel that gets you access to the things on the front of the engine.

 

Imagine driving down an A or B road in a "sporty" modern car. You can have 50-80mph on the speedo most of the time, it all feels a bit numb and quiet and of course it corners like it's on rails.

 

How crap.

 

In a Whizzkid on the same road you're between 40 and 70mph, revving the engine like it's a motorbike, feeling every bump on the road and getting fantastic sensations through the steering. The brakes need a big shove and because acceleration is slower you need to conserve momentum instead. Because it's so narrow you can take every corner on the racing line and never cross the cats eyes. It'll get you around pretty much every corner, but you feel like you're making it hang on, not 235 section tyres.

 

Thrash it, they thrive on it.

 

Found a pic of my first Whizzkid, with a much larger rear-engined car I had at the same time

 

And despite how the picture looks, it isn't towing the caravan

[Station]

Awesome write up there, I couldn't find that much on the entire interweb, especially about the storage area! Think I'll have to sort some kind of roof rackage.It looks -TINY- in that picture.

[M'coli]

^^^Sounds like it's very Imp-like. Have they ever been road-tested side-by-side?

[garethj]

^^^Sounds like it's very Imp-like. Have they ever been road-tested side-by-side?

Don't think so, but the Imp was mentioned in road tests of course.A brochure here: http://storm.oldcarmanualproject.com/suzukisc100gx.htmI'll do a scan of a road test later

[garethj]

I'd forgotten that LJK Setright had one of these, and he knows a thing or two. His article is here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid013.jpg

 

Brochure here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid001.jpg

 

There were only 2 thorough road tests done, the one below is good but there's another one where they must have had a duff car because it would struggle to hit 80mph. That same car was lent to a few magazines and was slow every time. Anyway, the one below in all its 87mph glory

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/garethj/scans/RWhizzkid011.jpg

[Alpineandy]

If your unlucky and the clutch (or whatever) goes, what should have been a cheap car becomes expensive (obvious but true). Renault R5s are cheap and easy to repair. Although the Renault parts pricing system bears no relationship with logic, most parts can be obtained at reasonable money. Over 7 years my R5 oilburner has cost me more than my Safrane oilburner has over 2 years, but I know when the safrane electrics start to play up i'll be better off giving the car away (even though it is very low milage).