Car shopping reality check....

[Marina door handles]

My un-killable, highly dependable daily has let me down... The 24 year old Subaru Forester has eaten its rear wheel bearings and rear dampers, I think the bearings might be the originals! The parts were slow to arrive thanks to Evri and their amazing policy of only hiring drivers who are directionally challenged. The strip and rebuild is taking me an age, due to a painful level of corrosion in various parts, after two days of serious faff, I have only just got one of the hub carriers off..... Anyway that means I now have 4 cars off the road , so that's three projects and one not a project all in bits and my other half is getting tired of me borrowing her Ignis.

I have come to the conclusion that I really need to be sensible and get a slightly more modern daily but I am tight and I reckon that a budget of a grand should suffice... For various reasons I figured you cant go wrong with a cheap Focus or Fiesta? Sd far today I have looked at 3 cars.

Car 1 a lightly battered mk2 Focus 1.6 in dismal grey, £995 looked shabby, sills seemed okay, interior smelt suspiciously strongly of air freshener, engine had oil in, ran fine changed gear okay but the steering felt lumpy/notchy and weird.

Car 2 mk5/6? Fiesta£1500   - shiny silver, looked nice until you got to the drivers sill, what is this brown appearing on the sill? Walk away!

Car 3 another mk2 Focus, black and shiny on the out side, nice inside, looking good. Hop inside, insert key depress clutch " you're a crap clutch you're fat ugly you're mother was sandwich toaster etc" and fire up the engine, select neutral and hang on, were has the clutch pedal gone? Oh its stuck to the floor.....

I explained this to the salesman who informed me "its never done that before", well yes bit it has done it now pal! He hopped in and tried to make out it was fine and you know don't push the pedal so far! Gotta love the optimism.......

Got to admit I really missed buying tatt back in my early twenties in the mid to late Nineties. Mantas, Capris, minis and other nonsense could be had for a grand or so. These days its hard to find things that I actually want....

My other half decided that as I was getting increasingly grumpy she would do some window shopping for me (she is nice like that) and has found  some alternatives but the budget has now increased a tiny bit, reality is that finding a good used car for cheap just isn't happening.  So as a complete change of pace I shall be hopefully looking at an Audi TT £1700, a Merc Clk £1900  (yes the one were they forgot to design the rear end but it has a supercharger so swings and err hatchbacks eh?)  a Citroen C2 (£850 feeling lucky son??) and a Mondeo (£1250), will I like any of them? I will report back......

 

[hairnet]

toyota.

windom.

[ruffgeezer]

Does it need to be petrol?  Otherwise *Cough Cough*

[Bren]

Sub £1k is the new £150. End of life.

[Back_For_More]

I feel your pain with the Forester rear wheel bearings.... A total of 13hrs for both of mine - and I stole a mates 4poster and workshop..... 

Audi TT did spring to mind when you mentioned your budget - shit or bust time 

Happy hunting 

[Split_Pin]

I'd go with your Mrs' alternatives and see what you find.

[Marina door handles]

22 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

I feel your pain with the Forester rear wheel bearings.... A total of 13hrs for both of mine - and I stole a mates 4poster and workshop..... 

Audi TT did spring to mind when you mentioned your budget - shit or bust time 

Happy hunting 

I am carrying out the work over a pit, working on the ground with jacks and axle stands would be virtually impossible especially as I am having to employ all my tools to get utterly medieval on some of the nuts and bolts in the subframe, whilst trying not to further damage it (the subframe will need at least one rust hole welding up!). The big down side of the pit is just how many times I have had to climb in and out of it, my legs are really feeling it........

Oddly I am drawn to the  TT (I must be a bit of a tart or something?).

 

[Marina door handles]

7 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Does it need to be petrol?  Otherwise *Cough Cough*

Would almost be tempted by Lincolnshire is a right drag from my little bit of Cheshire.

[sutty2006]

I don’t understand the world sometimes. Folk say you can’t get a decent car for under £2k but I’ve listed a lovely Uber reliable long MOT’d Honda accord in the for sale section for less than your new budget with a brand new clutch and flywheel in it and no one’s interested. The mind boggles! 

[Mally]

I've also got a StreetKa for next to nothing . Been very reliable.

 

 

[sierraman]

The problem is you are paying scrap money, sub £1,000 doesn’t get you a roller skate. That said there is a Focus for sale on the relevant thread for £750 but out in the real world a £1,000 isn’t enough. 

[Marina door handles]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

I don’t understand the world sometimes. Folk say you can’t get a decent car for under £2k but I’ve listed a lovely Uber reliable long MOT’d Honda accord in the for sale section for less than your new budget with a brand new clutch and flywheel in it and no one’s interested. The mind boggles! 

Thats interesting, I hadn't seen that (or possibly ignored because its a bit sensible), re rear the add I will probably ring him! 

[Andy F]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

I don’t understand the world sometimes. Folk say you can’t get a decent car for under £2k but I’ve listed a lovely Uber reliable long MOT’d Honda accord in the for sale section for less than your new budget with a brand new clutch and flywheel in it and no one’s interested. The mind boggles! 

If I needed a car tomorrow, this is absolutely what I'd buy. If I can ignore the Low cost, High Liability thread for long enough 🤣🤣

[Split_Pin]

Last month, I sold my black Saab 93 on here in about 3 hours. £1300, very nice condition full years MOT, needed absolutely nothing doing at all. I lost track of the messages I received about it!

If you can wait, something always comes up here, although for a weak man like myself that's not necessarily a good thing!

[sierraman]

I agree, on here things pop up regularly but out on Autotrader/Gumtree etc no chance. 

[Bitzer]

What you really want is not Mk2 Focus. You know you want Mk1 Focus. In 1.8 Zetec flavor. Believe me.

Because 1.8 petrols (non-Zetec) in Mk2s are shite. 1.6 74 kW weak. And fancypants 1.6 85 kW Ti-VCT nothing but PITA.

[garethj]

Part of the ‘shiter’s skill is seeking out value for money.  Everyone knows a Fiesta is a good little car and a Focus is a good family car so everyone types that into their searches.  Demand is high, price is high for what you get.

Something less well known is where the value is, cast your net wider and be more open to a good example of something lower profile, rather than what the motoring press said was good 15 years ago but is now fucked.

[sierraman]

10 minutes ago, Bitzer said:

What you really want is not Mk2 Focus. You know you want Mk1 Focus. In 1.8 Zetec flavor. Believe me.

Because 1.8 petrols (non-Zetec) in Mk2s are shite. 1.6 74 kW weak. And fancypants 1.6 85 kW Ti-VCT nothing but PITA.

Nonsense. Mk1 in worthwhile condition are thin on the ground, the Ti-VCT will give you no trouble at all if it’s maintained. The Mk1 1.8 drank like a fish and was no quicker than the 1.6 in the real world.

[Bitzer]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

The Mk1 1.8 drank like a fish and was no quicker than the 1.6 in the real world.

I surely beg to differ here, Sir. I have the pleasure of owning both of these fine vehicles, 1.6 hatchback and 1.8 station wagon. Their fuel consumption is very comparable (long-time average 7 l/100 km), but, compared to 1.6, 1.8 drives like a bat out of hell.

The 1.8 only develops a nasty drink habit in town, for which, indeed, the 1.6 gets a lot of Brownie points. On long highway journeys (stable 130 km/h), the 1.8 is nicely torquey and actually drinks less than 1.6.

But yes, yes, I know it is easier to find rust-free Mk2 than Mk1. I guess I just needed to point out that Mk1s can still bring a lot of joy for peanuts.

[Marina door handles]

I might just have bought a Honda.......

[RoverFolkUs]

The notchy steering will be the rack on that Focus. Well avoided, because it's a £500-600 job unless you're doing it yourself. My old one went like that, there was no way of avoiding it 

If you rock the wheel from left to right on any MK2 Focus you'll hear it knocking, so it's just a thing they all seem to have 

£1500 is much too dear for a Fiesta of that era, maybe that's what they all seem to be advertised for but they're nothing special with the oldest ones being 20 years old now.. 

4 hours ago, Bitzer said:

And fancypants 1.6 85 kW Ti-VCT nothing but PITA.

I beg to differ, they're far from it. Ford actually knew how to make a VVT system work reliably for a long time with those! Sometimes they'll rattle a bit on startup but it doesn't cause any actual problems 

[Bitzer]

2 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

VVT system

My understanding is its life cycle is limited to 150-180 kkm, after which both wheels must be replaced, which is not exactly inexpensive.

[HMC]

 

2 minutes ago, Bitzer said:

My understanding is its life cycle is limited to 150-180 kkm, after which both wheels must be replaced, which is not exactly inexpensive.

I’ll report back In due course (although 5 minutes / 100 miles is probably how long I’ll own it for)

[HMC]

Just now, HMC said:

 

I’ll report back In due course (although 5 minutes / 100 miles is probably how long I’ll own it for)

If you take that literally I’m going around caning it to death

[BorniteIdentity]

What about just letting a garage fix your car? Radical I know - but then you’ve paid to have your own, known vehicle repaired - rather than added to the stress and woe with another unknown. 

Just a left field idea 😉

[Marina door handles]

17 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

What about just letting a garage fix your car? Radical I know - but then you’ve paid to have your own, known vehicle repaired - rather than added to the stress and woe with another unknown. 

Just a left field idea 😉

What kind of parrallel universe do you frequent?! Have pit, have tools, will have a go! And get another car to add to the fleet, win win........

[RoverFolkUs]

32 minutes ago, Bitzer said:

My understanding is its life cycle is limited to 150-180 kkm, after which both wheels must be replaced, which is not exactly inexpensive.

A 1.8 will be burning oil and failing MOTs due to the emmisions long before that point!

That's not strictly true either, I know of plenty that have reached 100-150k miles with no problems

They're nothing to be afraid of is what I'm getting at

[BorniteIdentity]

19 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

What kind of parrallel universe do you frequent?! Have pit, have tools, will have a go! And get another car to add to the fleet, win win........

I’ve had the therapy and come out the other side! No shame in paying someone’s wages, and then you’ve got a known entity working this side of your own death!