Afternoon all

A series of unfortunate events have led to me needing sell my current (broken) car and buy another very, very cheaply.

I’ll have about £500, maybe £600 to spend on the car – at this point VED needs to be taken into account as it’ll be a significant percentage of the car cost itself.

Doesn’t need to be pretty, and I probably only need it till summer (3 months in my book), so it needs to be something that I can nurse along cheaply til then before punting on to someone else. Having a bit of space to launch stuff in the back (bike etc) is fairly essential, and if it has roof/tow bar then that’s a bonus.

Thoughts?

Old Micra had crossed my mind, most Suzukis are out of my budget I think. The odd Skoda Fabia appears at that pricepoint, but they most likely have terminal diseases to be selling that cheaply so best avoided I reckon.

A Ford Focus would be my choice at that price. plenty to be had for that kind of money

It’s useless stipulating a make/model at this price. Find the best car within 10miles and buy that on condition/history.

I’d trawl the Japanese brands first.

Red one.

EDIT: Hmm, second thoughts, maybe a green one.

I got a VW Scirocco GT for that. Bags of hatch space and back seat lifts out. Not so many about now tho…

It’s useless stipulating a make/model at this price. Find the best car within 10miles and buy that on condition/history.

Very good point, probably overthinking it.

Mk3 mondeo loads about dirt cheap!

Toyota.

… or any of the JapLand brands.

Yup something Japanese with an MOT and a 1.0l engine.

you will a one owner japanese car with less than 50k miles with full history for that, if you will drive an unfashionable car.

Father in Law bought an X reg Rover 45 Advantage for the MiL as she was destroying their Mondeo.
£200 and its absolutely mint condition 45,000 miles on the clock & it just went through an MOT with nothing wrong at all.
Sure its an old Rover but the K series engine is a peach if you rev the nuts off it 😀

Oh its mostly Honda under the skin

Ah ha !

This could be your lucky day !

I have a micra 1L Auto 3 door that Im sticking on eBay this eve !

W reg

40000 miles from new lots of battle scars but has been well looked after (owned by my friend till I bought it 7 years ago) I have used it for purely going to work and back !

MOT till end of June

Yours for £350 (cheaper than renting )

Im in London

With the seats down it will take 3 bikes and kit !

Give me a shout if interested !

Whatever has the longest MOT.

it it were me I’d be looking for a honda civic or other boring japanese hatch. Or a BMW 7 series just for kicks

Ah ha !
This could be your lucky day !
I have a micra 1L Auto 3 door that Im sticking on eBay this eve !
W reg
40000 miles from new lots of battle scars but has been well looked after (owned by my friend till I bought it 7 years ago) I have used it for purely going to work and back !
MOT till end of June
Yours for £350 (cheaper than renting )
Im in London
With the seats down it will take 3 bikes and kit !
Give me a shout if interested !

If you weren’t in London and it was a manual (being picky now..) I’d have had that off you! Based in Glasgow/Manchester just now.

So the consensus is long MOT and whatever I fancy really, probably Japanese.

If not a Micra then one ofthese

Not sure what the market is like for Micra’s now, but when I was looking about 4 years ago, they were still really expensive for the good ones. That said, if you only need it a few months, it probably doesn’t really matter..

I ended up with a Civic for not a lot more than your budget, and it still runs absolutely fine 50k miles later. They’re quite dated now, so you can pick one up with FSH for £500 if you shop around.

Wouldn’t worry too much about VED. You pay a premium for cheap economical cars. And there’s only 2 tax bands for anything pre 2001.

Toyota Yaris Verso- had one from new and it just keeps going, sails through the MOT every year – mechanics always comment on how well they are built. Will take a couple of MTBs standing-up in the back and will cruise on the motorway at 80+. Ugly as sin, so no one gives it a second glance.

If not a Micra then one ofthese

Not a bad shout. Just listen for any rattles. Some of them had issues with timing chains.

The old micra autos with the CVD were awesome. Was like it was winding up a large elastic band and then off it goes. Can’t get a much easier car to use in town.

Lots of sensible advice above!

So why not look for a an s type jag. Big and ugly and often sold for peanuts.

Another vote for Nissan ..

I’ve been saying i’ll buy a new car when my Avensis estate dies for about 5 years.

Got the money in the bank and everything but just can’t justify buying a new car when i’ve got one that rattles, has a blowing exhaust, burns a bit of oil just keeps on truckin’

170k miles btw, been in the family since 10k!

I have to say it cost us a lot more than £500, but our Yaris 1.3 is ?15? years old and works as good as new.

1.0 with VVTi might be findable in budget?

Ah, you’re near Glasgow, so what about something like this?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/ford-focus-2.0-zetec-3dr/1160928064

That was just a quick Gumtree check.

Or maybe this:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/ford-focus-zetec-1yrs-mot/1160350660

If you weren’t in London and it was a manual (being picky now..) I’d have had that off you! Based in Glasgow/Manchester just now.

I work in the southside of glasgow and there’s a garage near me with a couple of old cars for sale. They’ve had a polo there since last summer, on at £795, think mileage is about 70k, had 12 months MOT in june and I’m sure they would stick it through again when selling. As it’s been there that long I reckon an offer of £500 would get you it. Very tidy condition too.

I phoned them about it in june as I was looking for a car for my son, he didn’t like the colour!

It’s this place JR & M motor engineering ltd, if you go on street view the car is sitting outside, it’s dark blue. – Inglefield St, Glasgow

edit: they also have a tidy 4 door suzuki sift in this week but it’s slightly over your budget, its pretty unusual in that it’s almost like a mini estate car, never seen one before, again tidy but it’s white.

The garage keep some very tidy classic cars so I’d imagine the cars are decent.

Looks like this only a bit more wedge like

Cheers for the suggestions!

I had actually looked at stupid cars, like an old Merc/Jag for a laugh, but knowing me it’d go horribly wrong and I’d end up with another dead & worthless car 😛

That polo could be worth a look, cheers for the heads up- I’m keeping an eye out on gumtree and auto trader for anything that pops up locally.

Seriously look at the Ford Puma. They are extremely cheap, I have seen one go for £300 including Tax & MOT and it was cared for. If anything does go wrong with it, parts are cheap and easily fixed. They are £250 – £600 on Fleabay.

The 1.7 is quite pokey and the handling is perfect. When it comes to selling it, strip the interior out and take it for a thrashing at a local track day. 😉

Suzuki swift? Get the GTi 1.3 😉

Ford Puma

Be careful of rust, very careful.

puma is not such a good shout – working where i do many people have had them, and at least 10 of them had to get the rr subframe bushes replaced and its an 800 quid job apparently. most chose to sell it

I got myself a mk3 mondeo estate for £500 a few months ago, been very impressed so far, Ghia X model so has full leather, heated seats, parking sensors ect which all (Surprisingly) work. It’s on 170k miles but on the whole drives pretty well and has survived 1500 not-particularly-careful miles so far! And doesn’t feel as though its imminently about to die. It is however painfully slow for a theoretical 143bhp. If it lasts me a year I’ll be happy!

I can’t believe nobody has suggested a lease yet. I thought we’d all agreed it’s the cheapest way to run a car ?

😀

Be careful of rust, very careful.

I’m pretty sure rust will not be an issue if it has an MOT, as he said he only needs it for 3 months.

puma is not such a good shout – working where i do many people have had them, and at least 10 of them had to get the rr subframe bushes replaced and its an 800 quid job apparently. most chose to sell it

Rear Subframe bushes are not £800! 😆 Someone is taking you for a ride! Under £200 inc bushes, or £70 if you get Poly Bushes and do it yourself. 😉

Cheap Mondeo is a good shout if you need to take bikes.

Milkie – Member

Seriously look at the Ford Puma. They are extremely cheap, I have seen one go for £300 including Tax

Not recently you haven’t.

I have a berlingo multispace for sale for not much more than that, 1.9d one so will go forever. Will be going through MOT shortly. Has a tow bar and a roof rack too

In N Ireland though

I have a 2000/2001 honda crv i’m about to put on gumtree nxt wk, MOT till sept would get through another with a little cash spent on it like(tyres/exhaust). 160K miles, ok condition for age. couple of minor things don’t work. 2.0 petrol. its got a picnic table!
Based in Edinburgh /Fife £350