Her indoors has got a new job. Part of said new employment requires her to have a car to drive around various housing estates.

She rides to work at the moment, and is not keen to give this up (nor am I keen for her to give it up – anyone whose missus rides to work should be able to testify to the arse sculpting power of regular road rides 😉 ). Also, our only car at the moment is our Audi, which might be a bit ‘nice’ to wreck with daily use and parking up in housing estates – she’ll be doing some anti-vandalism stuff as part of her job. 😯

Anyway.. we were thinking that we should get a small, cheap car for her to leave in the work car park and use as needs be during the day; one which we don’t care about too much, but is a nice enough place for her to spend a reasonable amount of time and doesn’t cost too much to run/service.

Skoda Fabia was my immediate thought.

Any other suggestions?

Dave

Toyota Corolla, most reliable car in the world and it’ll run forever so you won’t ever have to buy another one 🙂

Mazda 2

Honda Jazz or Fiat Panda? Two that my mate was looking at when looking for a cheap car for town use.

I had some driving lessons in a Panda and it’s not a bad car inside. All models look the same. Lower end Fabia will not be any better inside, higher end models will will not be cheap.

Mazda 2 is a good bet as well, it top 2 or 3 in the reliability index but as it is fairly recent model so it might not be cheap.

my mum has a honda jazz, and it is a cracking little car – loads of space!

hadn’t thought about toyotas, they might be good from a reliability point of view.

fiat and reliability are not two words I would normally associate, but I have heard good things about the panda. She saw a fiat 500 the other day and commented how nice it looked 🙄 Hopefully I can stamp that out – at least she didn’t say she wanted a bloody new mini!

I know nothing about the mazda 2, is that the same floorpan as the fiesta (mazda and ford being one and the same)?

Dave

The Ford Fusion has looks that means even the most determined vandal will hardly notice it – faceless, simple, practical, cheap to buy and run.

Just saw a mint one go for £1800 on Ebay – 48k on the clock, FSH, lots of toys, 5 years old.

Bargain.

What’s your budget?

Micra? Small, reliable, loads around so cheap.

for that kind of role something low key and a few years old would seems sensible…

how about the dull but worthy Nissan Almera lots of cheap ones about

i’d say the panda or similar would tick most boxes – get something small from a mass market manufacturer and it’ll be completely discreet. Ford Ka, Seat Arosa would be 2 others I’d consider – I got the OH a 6 year old Ka for £1000 a short while ago

do the company give an allowance? if so do they have any rules (less than a certain age/milage)?

Mmmmmmm

Vandalism…. housing estates…..reckon she’ll be needing one of these…

thanks for the suggestions so far.

not sure about the budget yet; we’re in the middle of buying a house and moving – once we’re settled I’ll figure that out. Probably 2 or 3 grand ish?

To throw a spanner in the works… I had a thought on my way home. If we got something that we could use around town on weekends (supermarket etc.) and maybe for longer trips without bikes, that would pave the way for ditching the audi in favour of a bike van!

I had a couple of vans in the past and loved them for biking (chuck them in whole and still have somewhere to change) and the versatility with knowing you can transport anything (8×4′ sheets of plasterboard anyone?)

So… if the remit was extended to include weekend runaround and occasional motorway trip, how would that change the recommendations so far?

Dave

edit: budget could be pushed up if it was for a car we’d use more often.

I’d recomend the Almera v cheap 1/2 price of equivalent focus but robust and unlikely to attract any attention……

focus is a good option….

Skoda top of the list.. reliable holds its value cheap as chips to run

what about a postman pat van berlingo?

+1 for the Almera, plain simple motor for doing the council estate runs and plenty space to do the shopping and fit 2 bikes in on the odd occasion you might want to.
Had one for 4yrs and it was a great car, bought at a time when the VW cars quality had taken a dip 🙄 imo after having owned various VWs for 13yrs.
Just all depends if you are buying for the badge or functionality?
I and MrsT put driver comfort and function before the badge on the boot/bonnet.

I do try to avoid badge snobbery, and thanks for the recommendation – but I don’t think I can bring myself to buy a Nissan Almera. 😕

No offence, I just couldn’t do it 😉

Dave

I just got a panda, 1300 diesel one and it’s surprisingly fast and comfy, and £30 a year to tax
Going through the fifty mph roadworks on the M25 earlier and the fuel computer was showing 83.2 mpg 😯 and it won’t go below 60mpg no matter how much I hammer it, and it’s insurance group 2
It’s cheaper to run than my bike 😆

how about a bike…cycle to work …. 😉

Driving around council estates? Fit right in in one of these beauties…

If in the unlikely event that you don’t like that, there are plenty of other delights on barryboys.co.uk

EDIT It appears from the picture that you can get them in grey or yellow.

Toyota’s run forever….. It’s stopping them you have to worry about

If its for work (I’m guessing public sector?) is there an age limit on the car when purchased, plus maximum age it can be?

Also might be worth checking if they have any ‘incentives’ to run low(er) emission vehicles.

not public sector – its a housing trust. I don’t think there is any ‘allowance’ other than per-mile fuel expenses, so I doubt there are any rules about what it can be.

elaine anne – Member
how about a bike…cycle to work ….

I love it when people don’t read the OP 😆 🙄

little toyota or a panda both tempting. was wondering whether I could persuade my mum to sell us her jazz, but it is an auto (cvt) and the missus wants a manual (‘more enjoyable’ – her words!).

Dave

My parents have the auto version of Jazz (with a semi auto mode) and it’s a hateful car purely on the basis of gearbox. It’s a 6-speed which for an engine the size of the ones they put in a Jazz is far too much. A 4-speed one would make for a better driving experience. Whenever I drive it I have to have it in semi auto mode to make sure that I’m in an appropriate gear so that when I press the accelerator the engine doesn’t think about doing something for 10s, drop two or three gears then redline.

GF that sounds like a CVT, normal behaviour for a CVT. When you floor it it it redlines the engine and leaves it there, adjusting gears continuously to suit. It’s good because you always get max power, but it’s bad because you have to wait for the engine’s revs to climb and the gearbox to adjust before you can get any power!

Different driving style required. Squirt of juice, trundle, squirt, trundle and so on.

I think the 6 speed thing is an illusion created when you put it in manual mode. It just picks 6 ratios to stick to instead of infinitely varying them. My in-laws’ Insight has 7 ‘gears’ which is a tad excessive 🙂

EDIT: it seems that pre 2008 they were CVT, post they are indeed 6 speed geared autos.