More used car questions.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice/opinion on what age/mileage gives the best value for money when buying second hand. Looking at a Toyota Corolla around 2005.

Which is better? 40000 at £6700 or 70000 at £4500?

I’d definitely go for the higher mileage one at a £2200 saving. £4500 still sounds a touch high for an ’05 though.

Has the 70k got a full service history, what’s the interval on major work like belt replacements, what mileage do corolla clutches go at, are there a load of receipts for consumables on the 70k one. Diesel or petrol?

Check out honestjohn.

£6,700 is alot of money for an 05 plate.

+1 I was going to say that.

Used car trade is virtually dead at the moment. I saw an 09 Vaux Astra with 14 miles on it last week for £7k.

we’re looking at the 1.4 diesel. They seem to be in high demand. Have to agree, they do seem expensive. There was a 24000 06 for £5000 but it had gone by the time I saw it.

How many miles do you do a year? Do you definitely need a diesel?

How many miles do you do a year? Do you definitely need a diesel?

Good point, at what point does diesel save you money? Is lots of little journeys in a diesel a waste of money? Stop/start greater wear and tear, more expensive parts etc

That’s the thing. I’m starting a new job soon which is why we need an extra car. I’ll be based 40 miles from home but could be travelling to locations around Yorjshire and the North East for residential courses for the next two years.

I’m expecting a to do big runs up and down the country rather than nipping around town. I thought that’s where a diesel came into it’s own. I could be wrong.

That 1.4 diesel is a cracking engine. We had a yaris with it in and loved it.
Bought it at 18 months old with 50k on the clock and sold it after about 5 years at 120k.
Never did anything to it other than changed the oil regularly.
Its a chain cam – no belt replacement to worry about. 😀

Would have another one tomorrow.

I think we’ve sort of narrowed it down to the 1.4 D Toyota, 1.6 D Kia Ceed or a 1.6 D Focus.

Can’t help feeling that the Toyota will be the better car when I’ve added 100000 miles to it. Not into changing cars every few years.

Depends on you and the car.

Deprectiation is relatively fixed for any given car, you can guess with a fair ammount of accuracy what it’ll be worth in 12/24/36/48/60/72 months time.

Serviceing costs are fairly fixed, you know how often and how much stuff like clutches, tyres, brake pads, serviceing are going to cost you for any given car. So a BMW costs a lot more than say the equivalent ford in tyres.

Repairs is where the gamble is. Warrenty direct have the stats on their website for repairs and what they cost on average. But that’s an average. If you really dont want to break down (lots of business miles, or family in the car?) then statisticaly the new car will be better, but at a cost. Although the older one has a £2200 saving and you’re unlikely to save that much on repairs in 30,000 miles.

Assuming that at arround 110,000miles the depreciation and repair costs start to even out and the car becomes a case of bangernomics, then both cars are actualy about the same price in terms of cost per year left untill that point……..

Can’t help feeling that the Toyota will be the better car when I’ve added 100000 miles to it. Not into changing cars every few years.

Warenty direct actualy show toyotas as not that great, when I looked into it an avensis estate broke down twice as often and cost twice as much to fix as the c-max i bought.

Interesting TINAS. Do you have a link? Actually, does anyone have a useful like on long term owner satisfaction?

Kia = 7 year warranty. We nearly bought a Ceed the other week, but my mrs is short and couldn’t use the clutch without banging her knees on the steering column. Very good specs for the money though.

We then looked at Astra’s and a Focus. Bought the Focus in the end.

I always thought of the Kia as cheap cars. Looks like I’m wrong. They seem to be really making a name for themselves.

Any suggestions for other cars? We want an ecconomical mile muncher that will fit two bikes. Don’t care how dull or bland it is.

The wife doesn’t like Vauxhall or anything French.

Onza – look on Autotrader at owner reviews. Honest John also is also worth a look

We’re also looking for a cheap (second hand) family car for two and a half bikes plus three people… like Onzadog, Mrs 16 and I don’t care about dull or bland… we were heading towards a Fiat Multipla, on the basis that we can fit bikes, tent, family and possibly our house inside… is this crazy?

Camo, I wish I had that many options. Mrs Onzadog sees Italian cars and being a lower subset of French ones!

Spot on…….except that it’s a Fiat and therefore likely to be mechanically unreliable and have trim come away in your hand. Good for space though.

Back to Onza, the Kia Cee’d seems to be well made and good enough to drive – maybe Kia are the new Toyotas, and perhaps a tad less boring. The Focus should be OK mechanically too, and fun to drive.

The Kia will be worthless when you want to sell. It’ll depreciate at a much higher percentage than the Toyota/Ford.

I’d only consider a Kia if I was keeping it till it died a death and was scrapped.

I get the Italian thing. I have to say (with possible shame) that my current ride is a Fiat Panda… which, all said, isn’t bad except for the size issue. Don’t fancy hanging bikes off the back or having bikes on the roof either… Is there a more reliable alternative to a Multipla that isn’t a van and isn’t overly expensive?

Fiat’s aren’t as bad as people make out. People just spout off about them these days as they can’t joke about Skoda anymore.

Mrs Onzadog here.

Just as a point of reference, our current car (and the one I’ll be using back home while Onzadog is off swanning round the north of england in the shiny new whateveritis) is a 1997 Toyota Corolla 1.3gs. I bought it 10 years ago and the thing has been the most fantastic little reliable workhorse of a car. We plan to keep it until it doesn’t go anymore or works out to be uneconomic to repair it (currently has 106,000 miles on the clock and is still going strong)

Ideally we’ll be looking to do the same with this ‘new’ car, so not interested in resale value – just longevity, reliability and economical to tax, insurance and fuel.

I’ve been reading Honest John and Parkers for reviews and all three on the shortlist (Kia, Toyota and Ford) all seem very well reviewed by owners and industry alike. My only reservation with the Kia at the moment is whether the boot space will be capacious enough for our bikes, as I’ve never actually seen one in the ‘flesh’. The Corolla and the Ford Focus hatchback we already know works fine.

Onzadog: your head is frazzled enough as it is with the current three options we have without inviting further makes and models into the mix 😛

Stalked by my own wife!

Having owned a Focus hatch and currently owning the-Toyota-that-cannot-be-named-without-a-flame-war-starting, I’d buy the Corolla every time.

how come konabunny? I’ll be getting rid of a corolla soon and was thinking of a focus

I can thoroughly recommend a Seat Ibiza diesel.
They do a 1.4TDi, or a 1.9TDi with either 100, 130 or 160bhp (Cupra).
I’ve got the 130, but the 100 is perfectly adequate in terms of power, plus you’ll get a few more mpg out of it compared to the 130.

Something like this:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201119386626583/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/7000/fuel-type/diesel/price-from/5000/model/ibiza/make/seat/postcode/sg61ln/page/1/radius/1501?logcode=p

Before the facelift around 2006, the 100 & 130 looked the same. When they were facelifted the 100 version remained the Sport & the 130 version got the FR badge instead. Not sure about the 1.4 to be honest, as I wasn’t looking to buy one of these.

The facelift one looks like this:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201133410257123/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/7000/fuel-type/diesel/price-from/5000/model/ibiza/make/seat/postcode/sg61ln/page/1/radius/1501?logcode=p

Mine has got 165k miles on it and 55mpg is easy. Currently getting over 60mpg+ driving with a very light foot and limiting my top speed. Most I’ve had recently over a tank was 64mpg.

konabunny, very interesting statement. Please expand.

Konabunny, don’t say something like that and then run away! Please, tell us all why?

We have no idea how good we have the UK used car market.

I was driving the missus’s sisters CRV yesterday, 9 years old, cost her the equivalent of 7,000 pounds and it’s a bit of a dog/

My mate had to pick up a new (to him car) a Nissan Sunny 15 years old, cost him just over 3,000.

Where’s that? Just so I don’t accidentally buy a car there?

I usually buy Fords to run until they die, they are cheap to buy initially and reasonably cheap to run, I’ve always been pleased with the reliability upto 200K (usually get rid at that point). I don’t know much about them, but the C-Max seems stupidly cheap
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201128402798381/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/c-max/make/ford/page/2/postcode/bd162qy/radius/1500?logcode=p
(this one appears too ridiculously cheap)

Mrs Sandwich has just acquired a 1.5 diesel Note which appears to be spacious and economical and reasonably spritely. The Micra Sandwich junior has inherited has been with us since 2002 and is still going strong. It too will be run until it drops or is uneconomical to repair.

I know that there are lots of Ford Focus Fans here, so I’m not going to start a flamewar about it, but all I’m going to say is that IMO/IME the Focus was a rattly, plasticky, unergonomic car with everything “in the wrong place”. I admit that it was the 2.0l petrol automatic built in Sth Africa, which is possibly the worst variant in the whole range. But still, I was glad to have got rid of it.

If it’s not going to be pretty or cool or efficient, it could at least be tedious and well-made (Toyota).