I bought a Tricross Comp this month and an Inbred for the missus \o/ Unfortauntely on the SAME day I handed across £1400, the car exploded in quite an epic fashion. Driving up to Cannock Chase as we do every weekend, the cam belt snapped while we were at a decent pelt, shagging the engine completely. The AA dropped the car in at the garage, who are now quoting £1000 just to remove the engine and have a proper look. Estimating £5000-£6000 worst case scenario, bonkers.

So even if we went elsewhere, a full engine overhaul is going to be almost £2k, it's a 6 year old Micra with a history of breaking down every 3 months for a variety of hideous reasons. I don't think we're going to pay it, it's cost us ~£2k in repairs in the last couple of years alone.

So anyway, back to my original questions. What cheap, reliable replacement would people suggest? We do short 14 mile or so a day, then 100 or so every weekend, with the odd 400 mile round trips to Scotland. Don't mind 3 or 5 door, needs to be able to fit a tow bar, cheap and easy to fix/service, and enough leg room for a 6'6" bloke to drive?

Fiesta/Corsa sort of thing? Probably about £6k second hand sort of limit.

Skoda Fabia.

Ace little cars, if you can find one!

Skoda Octavia hatchback

168 BHP diesel VRs if you can find one, boot is big enough for bikes, 50mpg economy, they go like stink and stick to the road like 5h1t to a blanket.

Pretty much anything you like the look of at that price range.

If you are stuck, walk into a car supermarket and browse.

Yeah, to be honest I don't drive, the missus does, so I'm shockingly naive in the car buying department. This is my attempt at doing research 🙂

The less the better, I'm completely skint after going stupid and blowing all my cash and banking on finance 🙁 I did actually suggest just getting a £500 banger for a while, this didn't go down very well though.

She quite likes the look of Corsas after having one in the past, which was cheap to keep going, and we had a hire car which seemed pretty solid. I like the idea of a Fiesta or Focus, as they seem common as muck, so I'm banking on them being cheap to keep going. There seems to be a lot of positive reviews floating about for both.

£6k isn't cheap! Loads of choice.

Oh or a DeLorean 😀

Corsas don't have a great reputation for reliability.

As for price – well you don't need to spend £6k to get a reliable car – but if you do, you have more chance of not having problems.

£500 cars can be great IF you get a good one. Knowing what's reliable and what's not is important though.

If you go to a main dealer you might get a small car for £6k.. main dealers charge more for their cars but currently (at least, when I bought 6 months ago) they were offering much better interest rates than banks.

Ah cheers, good to know. I think we'll have to have a hunt about this weekend. The garage only got back to us today, so we've not had a look anywhere yet. I'm just seeing if there are any obvious bargains or disasters to avoid really 🙂

Fiesta's drive well to be fair and as I am a hire car user (on occasions with work) I prefer to drive a Fiesta than a Focus.

I had a diesel Kia Cee'd last time as a hire car. It went fast and gave good economy – considering it was driven like a hire car – but didn't seem capable of turning with any degree of predictability, scary in a corner.

Estimating £5000-£6000 worst case scenario, bonkers… it's a 6 year old Micra

does not compute. You could get another 6 year old micra for less than that & probably get a mechanic to swap the engines over too

does not compute. You could get another 6 year old micra for less than that & probably get a mechanic to swap the engines over too

Yeah, it only cost that when she bought it. Seemed like such a barmy quote, I do wonder if they'd realised they'd us in a tight spot and could rip us off. Even at £1.5k I'd be hard pressed to tell them to do it though, that thing just chain breaks down. As mentioned before, the past 2 years has cost us well over £2k with fixes and services, starter motors (yes, plural), ignition replaced, EGR valve, locking electrics, internal wiper gubbins (£180 odd there curiously).

It's a Nissan Micra, but it secretly has Renault internals.

anyway; 18 months ago mrs_drummer's 1998 Astra gave up the ghost; we traded in for a '56 plate (i.e. 2 years old at the time) Citroen C4 1.6, £5000 I think it cost, with less than 30k miles on the clock.

OK people whinge about French cars being unreliable, but I had 3 renaults in a row & only one of them was a lemon, the other 2 were sound.

Anything Japanese. Corolla's are very reliable but bland. 1.6 goes like stink. Nissan's are Renault's in disguise.

Go Skoda/Seat – both great marques.

And if you really don't care, a corolla should go on and on.

6k should get you quite a bit of Skoda or Seat

Anything Japanese.

What scares me about Japanese cars is the cost of fixing them, should they go wrong, sourcing parts etc. Not an issue?

6k should get you quite a bit of Skoda or Seat

Good stuff, I was picturing the worst case scenario on my ride home* actually. The more I thought about it, the more expensive cars were in my head. Glad to see I've over estimated if anything, my browsing prices on t'internet was lots of dealerships I think.

*which was good fun btw, after years of commuting on a mtb that tricross is like a rocket (and doesn't have an EGR valve or cam belt).

no, they're often made in the UK – Swindon (Honda), Derby (Toyota) or Sunderland (Nissan) – so parts shouldn't be an issue

Mrs. Coolhandluke has a 1.4 petrol Merc A class that's never let her down in the 110,000 miles its done, most of which are in a tough commute to Manchester at rush hour. Surprisingly roomy too.

Her previous car was a Fiat Punto which lasted 60,000 (hers from new) doing the same journey day in day out before we had to scrap it.

From that, I'd say the A class is reliable and Fiats aren't.

I'd go for a Fiesta….at least Ford are cheaper to repair if they go wrong (much cheaper compared to my old Renault Megane) + just about any garage is going to be pretty familiar with them.

OK people whinge about French cars being unreliable, but I had 3 renaults in a row & only one of them was a lemon, the other 2 were sound.

66% success rate? That's pretty desperate mate, and backs up everything I think about French cars to the hilt!

I part-exed a 3 year old Seat Ibiza, fabulous car, in 2005 for £4k. That same car will still be going strong and be worth maybe £2.5k now?

Japanese car parts used to be hard to get in the 60s – now, most of them are made in the UK, so it's a non-issue. Nissan made in Sunderland, Honda made in Swindon etc.

A bit concerned, as I've never heard of an unreliable Micra before – has it ever been serviced?

You've had it 6 years, is that right?

From that, I'd say the A class is reliable and Fiats aren't.

Well there's a newsflash 🙂

honda jazz

A bit concerned, as I've never heard of an unreliable Micra before – has it ever been serviced?

You've had it 6 years, is that right?

Yeah, it was bought 6 months old, as an ex-rental car. It was fine for the first 3-4 years, then things started going rapidly, for the past 2 years things have just been dropping off every couple of months. It was one of the random few that were made by Renault, the EGR valve issue for example is something quite common with Renaults from that era.

It was bought on the reputation of Nissan and Japanese cars in general I think, we just got a bit of a duff one. The last service was in Jan '09 actually, so technically it's a bit past when it should have been, it's not been abused though. It didn't dawn on me there was a rubber belt living in there which might explode and completely kill the car when it got over 75k miles, we were still sub 80k so it literally hit it's target and disintegrated instantly.

now, most of them are made in the UK, so it's a non-issue. Nissan made in Sunderland, Honda made in Swindon etc

is there an echo in here?

It didn't dawn on me there was a rubber belt living in there which might explode and completely kill the car when it got over 75k miles

That'd be the fault of the garage you took it to then. Any garage should look at a car coming in with mileage near the cam belt service interval and ask questions about the cam belt. Shocking behaviour on their part, NEVER GO THERE AGAIN! Seriously!

From that, I'd say the A class is reliable

When we were looking for a titchy car *noone* had a good thing to say about A classes – horribly disaster prone was the general consensus. By the sounds of it you've been lucky 🙂

Running a 1996 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles here- it's been massively dependable and has had nothing major go wrong. It's just had it's MOT and service and despite the age, with the bits that needed replacing it only cost £250.

You can get 3 bikes, 3 people and quite a bit of kit in with some imaginative packing, and I've had 4 people 4 bikes with a boot rack for a weekend. Also, unlike a lot of cars like this from this age the inside isn't like a toilet at a 70's train station- it's comfortable, looks nice, isn't made of Fisher Price plastic and it's wonderful to be in. Fun to drive too.

Estates are less common but go for buttons.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1998-HONDA-CIVIC-1-6i-ES-AERODECK-ESTATE_W0QQitemZ260552705907QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3caa26c773

Hi – if I were in your shoes, I'd be looking at:

Honda Civic
Toyota Corolla
VW Polo/Golf
Skoda Fabia/Octavia (essentially VWs)
Seats Ibiza/Leon

and spending about £3-4000 and getting a 1.4 or bigger petrol, or diesel if the budget allows.

It seems like you're after advice on buying, my own tips are to do a HPI check (essential really), check for full service history (cambelts at about 60,000 miles) and drive a similar model for comparison before parting with cash. Good Luck! Oh and I'm sure that everybody will offer their scrutiny if you find something you're considering, just post it up!

That'd be the fault of the garage you took it to then. Any garage should look at a car coming in with mileage near the cam belt service interval and ask questions about the cam belt. Shocking behaviour on their part, NEVER GO THERE AGAIN! Seriously!

Yeah, still wondering if there's anything I can do about that. :/ It was an '04 reg, and I took it in for a full service Jan '09. So it was nearly five years old, and had 61,000 miles on the clock. According to their official book, the cam belt doesn't need replacing until 72,000. My Nissan booklet says 72,000, or 54,000 if it does over 18,000 miles a year (I do just under that). If they'd replaced the belt, then:

a) It probably wouldn't have exploded
b) If it had, the AA cover we have would have paid a good chunk of the cost

As it is, the AA won't pay up (not entirely unreasonably) as it should have been changed. Seriously though, my Micra has been nothing but trouble for years:

1) Entire section of engine electronics and starter motor needed replacing one week before the warranty expired.

2) It's been recalled 3 times for central locking and ignition issues

3) Aside from the recalls, the ignition barrel had to be replaced because it kept on burning out starter motors

4) It's had four starter motors over its lifespan – the original, the pre-warranty replacement, the third one two years later, the fourth one two weeks after that…

5) The wiper linkage broke, had to replace the entire thing

6) Rear wheel bearings have gone twice

7) The EGR valve had to be replaced

And now it's properly pissed on my chips. The garage said it'll cost £500 to strip the engine and diagnose the fault, another £500 to put it back together again, then the cost of any parts, which apparently "Would be the expensive bit". Couldn't believe it when they said £5k – £6k as worst case scenario – the bloody thing was just under £7k at 6 months old with 6,000 miles on the clock. That was the Nissan dealership, mind.

My Seat Leon? Its got a tow bar and a free pendle 4 bike rack! Check my classifieds…

(cheeky plug)

Diagnose the fault? The cambelt snapped, WTF does he think the fault is going to be? Mashed valves and pistons is the fault, there you are, sorted that for you!

The engine would need a rebuild but no-one ever does that – you just pick up an old engine for a few hundred quid and re-fit that.

That mechanic needs a slap in the face. Telling you it'll cost triple the value of the car to fix the car is stupid.

That garage is hoping that they can buy the car with the very expensive
engine fault off you cheaply, they will then just drop in a second hand engine and sell the car on for a rather handsome profit.

Find a small local independent garage , they will fix the old car for a
much more reasonable price,

The micra is a valuable small second hand car at 6 years old. 3k + on the forecourt at a guess.

just to give you an idea, complete s/h engine for 2004 Micra = £250-£400

Berlingo Berlingo Berlingo!
Got mine in November:
They're cheap cos no one wants them cos they're old-person-mobiles, they carry 5 people and lots of luggage really comfortably, they are like vans (in a good way), they tank up and down the motorway happily, me and fortunateson09 share it and regularly drive it between Fife and Calderdale full of people and bikes on 1/2 a tank (yes really), they look like bell huey helicopter gun ships (you can drive along with the door open and pretend to shoot out of them and everything), the parts are easy to get hold of as all the frenchy cars have fairly standard parts, and they have massive windows so you can admire the lovely view! Ours is a 1.6 diesel and it's not the quickest off the mark, but it's AWESOME!
We've not had it that long but it's had no problems yet (as you'd expect) and we're all in love with it! You should definately get one.

That garage is hoping that they can buy the car with the very expensive engine fault off you cheaply, they will then just drop in a second hand engine and sell the car on for a rather handsome profit.

Funny you mentioned that, they did say £5-6k, we said no. We spoke to the previous garage which had serviced it, to moan about them not replacing the cam belt. They said it was JUST under needing a new belt (62k on the clock at that point, 5 years old), but they said they might know someone who'd buy it off us for cheap.

Are you and Mrs Toast at the launch on Saturday? If you are I'll try and find you if not PM me on the Chasetrails forum. I may have a man that can help you…. 😀

Any idea what we should be looking to pay for getting an engine fitted? Don't really trust mechanics at the moment, independent or dealership. :/

Are you and Mrs Toast at the launch on Saturday? If you are I'll try and find you if not PM me on the Chasetrails forum. I may have a man that can help you….

Ooh, curious. Help in which department? 🙂 Yeah, we were planning to go along, not sure quite how though. Hiring a car with a tow bar for the day is the current plan I think.

Gah,got quotes from seven different places about 2nd hand Micra engines, ranges from £600 – £900 – not including VAT or delivery.