[Closed] recommend me..a mid sized diesel car around 2k, possibly 3k

£2k will be a struggle, £3k opens up more options.

Are you sure you want diesel? A diesel in this price range will be pretty old and tired. A decent petrol might actually do a better job.

Focus 1.6, Civic or even an Astra would be my choices.

Passats are cheaper than golfs because they are less desirable. My sister just got a lovely 9 year old one with what, 90k miles for about £1.5k complete with the legendary 1.9 TDi engine. Avoid the old shape Civic in a diesel, that 1.7 was terrible.

A diesel in this price range will be pretty old and tired

Dunno why you'd think that. Diesels in that price range will be of pre-electronic injector vintage, so should be pretty reliable.

[img] [/img]Got a Audi a3 1.9 Tdi for sale at the moment, looking for 2.5k if your intrested mail me and i'll send you some more pics and the details.

flatfish, out of interest, what milage and year is you A3.wouldnt parts for the A3 be more expensive?
no ones rushing to shout the praises of peugeots then...

if you get a VAG, i'd avoid the PD engine. had a fair few problems with mine including a blown head gasket which wiped out all the fuel savings!

if i was buying in that price range, i think i'd stick with a small petrol.

also im happy to have high milage.the alhambra i had was 120k, full histroy and one owner.drives exactly like new.love it.

Older PDs are reliable - You were unlucky HH.

year is 2000 iirc and mileage is 111,000.
Some parts are surprisingly cheap and others are, you guessed it, quite expensive if you use Audi main dealer.
Mrs Flatfish loves it and doesn't want to part with it but she got a new company car so it's surplus to requirement now.
She wants 3k for it but i'll let you have it for 2.5 just to free up some drive space.

Scoda Octavia = slightly extended golf floorpan with a bigger boot

Scoda Superb = slightly extended passat floorpan (the passat gets the same floorpan in some markets, China rings a bell)

For £3k you could get a Fiat Stilo Estate with 50k on the clock. OK its noisy, and you get almost zero brand cudos. But the engine (1.9JTD) is the same one as Vauxall use and Alfa diesels are the same with a new (16v?) head. We had one (a tempra 1.9JTD) 10 years ago and once a handfull of bits of trim had fallen off (mainly unseen stuff like the covers on the seat sliders) it was the same as when we bought it for the next 60k (sold at about 130k).

Parents have just bought a new Fiat, road noise is still terrible, but its not even had any teething problems so for.

Avoid Pug's, we had a 206 and it was always in the dealers with gremlins in the engines electrics. Only cost £200 over 3 years but we sold it as soon as the warrenty ran out. And you only needed to look at it funny to knock the wheel alignment out.

prefer the german build quality over french

a complete myth in my experience. My golf had loads of build quality issues, water leaking in through the door sills, rear window washer stops working and leaks water into interior and stops boot catch from working. Rear brake lights need replacing frequently as they are too close to the boot. Interior peeled off and looks terrible. Shocks needed replacing at 100k, bushings at 80k, head gasket and EGR at 100k. Cambelt change is pretty expensive (350 ish at least with waterpump). Handling was utterly awful. Economy wasn't even that great and it rarely went above 50mpg unless driven at 50mph.

A Mondeo hatchback is longer than a Passat estate. Fact, believe it or not!

Whats with these VW threads today?

Oh well, predictable answer time:

Golf/Octavia estate. You could get a 2003 1.9 tdi for either of these for under 3 grand if you shopped around.
You'd get more options on the Octavia and probably less previous owners.

was gonna suggest the octavia actually.didnt they do a sporty greenline one or something/ dont know if it was a diesel but it looked pretty good iirc?

HH that doesn't apply to all VAGs. Mine's faultless...

Cheap/diesel/midsized - my (late) father's Focus diesel is now worth the square root of nowt (maybe £1500) and will be used by the family until it dies. As nothing (other than consumables and the odd bulb I mean NOTHING) has gone wrong, I'd suggest that it might be worth a bet.

Estate/hatch - your choice.

I've had many VWs and all have been pretty reliable, however some brands like Ford come out better than expected.

If you want reliable go Jap (apart from the odd Toyota hiccup). If you want reliable and interesting go German.

nick - is your Dad's a TDI or TDCI? The latter are generally considered much better.

Mat, my father's car is a TDI - nowhere near as refined as the TDCI, but perfectly acceptable.

Still knocks out nearly 60mpg if you're cruising gently, a little under 50mpg the rest of the time.

Mondeo's Passat's etc represent much better second hand value than Golf's Focus etc.

I'm on my second Toyota Avensis (first was a diesel company car, this is the 1.8 petrol) The hatchbach has a vast boot (takes two stripped down bikes and a bit of luggage without dropping the seats) ecomomy is good, smooth, quiet, not underpowered. Generally a very good vehicle. (CD player is rubbish though).

I'd suggest a Rover/mg 75 estate/ZT-T. L-series engine is incredibly reliable and delivers 50mpg and 130bhp and is cleaner then the equiv aged VW's etc so lower tax. Will also come with all the bells and whistles. I've had 3x rover 200 diesels and have clocked up 400k miles with no bother on them.

Also available with BMW engines for a while if my memory serves me correctly.

I have a Mondeo TDCI and just getting a Focus TDDI, although the duratorq is older and less refined I prefer the ability to fix stuff on it compared to the TDCI. Gutless compared to the Rover engines though.

My golf had loads of build quality issues, water leaking in through the door sills, rear window washer stops working and leaks water into interior and stops boot catch from working. Rear brake lights need replacing frequently as they are too close to the boot. Interior peeled off and looks terrible. Shocks needed replacing at 100k, bushings at 80k, head gasket and EGR at 100k. Cambelt change is pretty expensive (350 ish at least with waterpump). Handling was utterly awful. Economy wasn't even that great and it rarely went above 50mpg unless driven at 50mph.

Hmmmm, to add a little balance here my Golf completely the opposite.... drives great, feels solid, has only required tyres and pads in the 89K it has covered so far, cam belt was less than £350 and just today did a 5.5hr round trip (90% motorway @ speedo 80mph) with an average fuel consumption of 50.3mpg.
Maybe yours is/was an older model - I've got an '07 Mk GT Tdi - which could be the difference.

As others have said above, I'd go for a Focus 1.6 petrol or similar. I have (well Mrs Boblo has actually) the 2.0 TDCI, 4 years old, 40k on it. So far; clutch, DMF, clutch slave cylinder, EGR and last week...ta daaaa, the f...ing alternator. I won't be buying another.

My wife had the 1.6 petrol before and apart from servicing and tyres, we spent NOTHING on it in 5 years from new. Yes we get mid 50's mpg from the diesel donkey (vs mid 30's fro the petrol) but there are no savings at all with those sorts of garage bills.

Last point, if you really must go diesel DO NOT GET ONE WITH A DPF. it will cost you a small fortune when it needs changeing. The Focus's is optional (not one we opted for thank Christ) and is a £700 spend at ~70k miles. 😯

Go petrol and save yourself some grief.

Boblo, what on earth are you doing to need a clutch at 40k? If it's a failure rather than wear, I'd have been making a claim to Ford as there's no way it should go that soon.

The OP asked for diesel, why are people telling him petrol cars?

A bad experience with a Ford diesel would tell me to try a different diesel, not go with Ford petrol.

Reliable diesels certainly exist.

DO NOT GET ONE WITH A DPF. it will cost you a small fortune when it needs changeing.

DPFs only go wrong if you ignore the instructions on how to look after it. They do not need to be changed at 70k miles.

Ok, Ford TDCI is a joint Ford/Peugeot developed engine range so are the same engines.

I have had a number of Peugeots and Renaults without too much drama, well certainly no more than VW, Vauxhall, Mitsi and Alfa all of which we've owned through the years.

You only ever hear mostly about cars faults etc , never too much about their positive points.

I currently drive a 56 plate Pug 307 HDi hatchback, nothing exciting but reliable so far and getting consistent 61-63mpg on my 30 mile round trip to work, nice yearly tax of £90 also.

@ Nickf. Apparently I've been 'unlucky'. Even though I have never had a replacement clutch in any other vehicle I have ever owned (bikes and cars). I've taken cars from new to 150k miles in the past without major drama. To say I was unimpressed is an understatment. Ford UK gave me the royal run around and were, essentially, uninterested in resolving the problem. The dealer (after loads of aggro) partially underwrote the repair by putting the parts and labour in at their cost price. BTW, we average mid 50's mpg with this car and fronts get in excess of 25k miles - it is not being thrashed.

@molgrips. Check the service schedule on the 2.0 TDCI. New DPF at 75k miles, top up with Eloys additive at 37k. And (yes there's more) if your driving style/type does not allow the DPF to 'regenerate' (i.e. complete its cleaning cycles) you could bugger it up well before that.

Despite the above, I'm a real diesel fan. By choice, my past dozen or so cars have been diesel (excluding my wife's previous 1.6 petrol Focus) but, when SWMBO's car is due for change, it will not be for a diesel.

I bought the 2.0 TDCI with a view to longevity. She does less than 10k miles per annum, waddling to work and back. Long journeys are usually travelled in my A6. I wanted something understressed, good MPG, reasonable service/running costs and depreciation. It fitted the bill. But, clutch, EGR and alternator (over £2k at Ford dealer prices) on a 4 year old car.... not good enough. Hmmm, 'bad luck'. Don't want anymore of that sort of luck 🙁

Maybe yours is/was an older model - I've got an '07 Mk GT Tdi - which could be the difference.

Yes, it was a mk4, 2001. I.e. the sort of thing you'd get for 2-3k.

I clearly had a friday afternoon job, however, theres always a few on ebay with similar problems and a number of reports of similar things on the net. The garage had seen similar head gasket problems before and quoted around 700 quid to fix it, including the cambelt.

Basically, when spending 2-3k check it *really* carefully, and don't assume its going to be more reliable just because of the brand.

Yes, it was a mk4, 2001. I.e. the sort of thing you'd get for 2-3k.

Good point.... this is the price range the OP is looking at.

Check the service schedule on the 2.0 TDCI. New DPF at 75k miles, top up with Eloys additive at 37k. And (yes there's more) if your driving style/type does not allow the DPF to 'regenerate' (i.e. complete its cleaning cycles) you could bugger it up well before that.

I don't think that's the case with all DPFs is it? From what I can tell the DPF on VWs needs inspecting after 120k miles, to see if it needs to be replaced or manually regenerated.

Seems like it's a case of Ford being crap to me. As for driving style, it specifically says in my instruction manual that if you get the light on you must take it for a spin at high revs. Your 'style' may or may not require this, but if you don't do it you're in trouble.

Like I say, you had a turkey of a car, diesel or not.

Avoid Pug's, we had a 206 and it was always in the dealers with gremlins in the engines electrics.

@molgrips. No it's not the case will all diesels - granted. Especially the ones that don't have them 🙂

I was suggesting, from my own experience, the Ford 2.0 TDCI has been less than stellar and given the OP is looking to spend a total of <£3k on a car, he/she may wish to avoid the mantraps of built in significant scheduled service costs.

If he really must have a diesel, older design Pug 1.9's or VAG 1.9's should not have such fripperies as EGR's, DMF's and DPF's. Cars of this age might well be self selecting due to the budget.

As for Ford being turkey's, all I can say mine certainly has been but I think a lot of the issues I've highlighted are becoming more common as manufacturers chase compliance with Euro polution standards. This means DMF's (not strictly speaking to do with pollution more to stop high torque diesels lunching gearboxes), EGR's and DPF's are common place on newer vehicles.

More caveat emptor for buyers of higher mileage, lower cost diesel cars.

DPFs I think are only on very recent VAGs. My 2006 doesn't have one, but they are mentioned in the manual.

I think I recommended older Passat earlier on 🙂

I was under the impression that DMFs were to improve comfort and noise, rather than to protect the transmission. Many people are replacing them with solid flywheels without issues I think.

Fair point about diesel technology, but it seems to be massively dependent on how you drive the thing. They really don't like pootling around town, but I think this is becoming understood now.