For the last few years i’ve been driving around in a V70, big car but it’s been useful for carting kids around to and from school and dragging caravans and all that stuff. Now the kids are old enough to walk to school themsleves and i’ll rarely need a car that size. Especially as i drive 30 odd miles to work each day, i figured i’d keep the V70 in reserve and choose a small, cheap daily driver. I’d like something i can enjoy. Any ideas?

Don’t wanna pay more than £1500 as one of the reasons for the change is economy.

Boring answer – diesel Mondeo. 30 odd miles each way is at least an hour in it every day and they are nice and comfy. Reliable and I was getting well over 40mpg out of mine. Also for that price Rover 75, much underrated.
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fun answer – Porsche 944. Seriously. Classic insurance is cheap as chip, even more so as it will be your second car. What extra you spend on fuel will be made up for by the fact that a sub-£2k Porsche will not depreciate. Someone may try to put you off by mentioning repair bills or something, yes parts will be quite expensive but there’s hardly any electronics on mid 80s cars so much easier to fix than most modern stuff. See also Mitsubishi 3000GT

Small? Fiesta type thing? – plenty of small cars like that just make sure it’s been serviced and looked after 🙂

The diesel mondeo is not so fat from what i have. The fiesta type thing is what i was thinking of, but something which won’t make me cry.

I like the 944 idea, infact a 924 had crossed my mind.
Only problem being the miles i am asking of it and that i’ll not get classic insurance with that mileage. The point of this is to keep costs down

£1,500 will buy you something threadbare, or something that will need a small money drip attached/visits to a garage.

i.e. Puma (nice).

Personally I’d sell the V70 and buy something saloon ‘nippy etc. Why not a newshape 2.0T Octavia?

Need to keep V70, at least in the short term, still have caravan and holiday duties.

VW golf mk4 tdi

Problem is £1500 cars that are small and economical/cheap to tax/insure is what half the county seem to want at the minute, so you really don’t get a lot for your money. I’d size up a little and go Golf/Focus etc. Earlier in the year we sold a MK4 Golf Gt tdi with 90k on the clock with FSH for £1800 so they’re around.

Get a 1.7 2001 Puma. MUST be the 1.7 IMO. Awesome car.

Find a 205. Not a gti for that money but look out for either the 1.4 petrol or a diesel one. Still chuck able and fun to drive, much lighter than most more modern cars and despite their size pretty room inside. When we had ours we got me and the misses (I’m 6’2″) plus both our my a and our road bikes in it with a weeks camping kit.

Or I’ve got a stage rally prepped (road legal) Suzuki swift gti in my garage that just needs a gearbox rebuild and a few minor repairs, yours for 1.5k…

Don’t wanna pay more than £1500 as one of the reasons for the change is economy.

It’d have to be serious economical to save the extra tax, insurance, MOT’s, depreciation of itself since you are keeping the Volvo anyway.

Just drive the Volvo.

you can fit 2 bikes comfortably with wheels off in the back of a golf, just saying!!

My Beetle is on unlimited mileage classic insurance so it is possible to get if you wanted to go down the Porka route.

As allready said.

There is no saving to be had running a 2nd car for no reason, factor in the tax, insurance & MOT bills for running a cheap car & even if it did a million MPG it still wont stack up.

Flog the V70 & buy something that has better economy & still capable of towing.

Yay – Banganomics!

Get thee a dinky, no frills, Euro Box there’s loads of options:

-Fiesta
-Ka
-Saxo
-Punto
-corsa
-clio
-Ibiza
-Polo
-Micra maybe
-106

1.2 – 1.4 Litre petrol, forget about reliable Diesels in your price range (IMO) just buy a small 2 door car and minimize the amount of junk you leave in it.
You’ll probably manage to equal the fuel ecconomy of a “Proper” sized car on relative power to weight…

you should be able to under-shoot that £1500 maybe spend £1k on a ~10 year old euro box, don’t have anything with less than 6 months MOT / Tax (sorry VED) and save the difference for the first MOT…

My Dad’s running an X reg Ibiza (poor mans polo innit), he drives like a christian, leaves no misc’ crap in the boot and hence does OK on fuel…

If you think your kids will borrow it and park it in a bush when they turn 17, get a Ka as they are mostly Bumper, and they won’t be able to squeeze too many Mates in it…

there’s a t reg 318 touring up for sale near me, 6 months tax and 10 months test, 595!

Ford Puma…..or for something slightly more practical an Ibiza. You can get a 130PD Sport (later re-badged as the FR) for your budget. My 03 reg is on 216k miles (well, it’ll be on 217k miles by the time I get home today) and has been a great car. Decent size for a small car so good for chucking stuff in and it’s quite a large, torquey engine in a small car so is nice & relaxing to drive with plenty of shove when you want it.
They also do a 1.8 petrol version (the VAG 1.8T engine) with 150bhp, but not sure on prices for those.

Just keep the V70. Like has been said above, you’d have to do soooooo many miles to recover the cost of a second car.

Clio 172 if you want something small, fun and cheap to run at £1500.

Though the belts aren’t cheap to replace at £550-£600 every 5 years, so make sure these have been done (aux belt is every 3 years)

Is the V70 petrol? If it is, £1500 will get you a gas conversion.

I’d either ditch the V70 for something a bit smaller / more economical that can tow or just keep it. £1,500 will buy a fair amount of fuel, especially when you add on insurance, tax, MOT, repairs etc.

Not all small cars are cheap to insure – we’ve just replaced my other half’s 1.2 Corsa which I hated with a passion for a 330 M Sport and the BM is cheaper to insure (not by much, but is…£16 a year). Other running costs are much higher but the insurance thing amazed me.

If the Volvo is in good nick / doesn’t cost a fortune to run I’d just hang on to it.

MK2 MX5

+1 for the Puma great little car and great to drive especially on the b class country roads. Done a very similar thing and just bought a 51 plate golf GTI 2.0 petrol for £1500 with 12 months tax and 12 months warranty great car and gets between 38 – 42 mpg on my 30 mile there 30 mile back commute to work

206 19d cheap and agricultural but will run forever , if the electrics hold out

It’s not justbfuel costs, running cost could be a little better too. puma looks pretty

my brother just bought a 1 owner st170 with 80k miles and fsh for £1500. I think the mpg is a bit pants though

1.7 Pumas are a hoot to drive cheap to run just watch for on rust rear arches and the seam along the sills are problem areas on earlier cars.
205s are amazingly hard to kill fun to dive very basic inside which is a good or bad thing depending what you want.
Any of the small hatches would do what you want even a saxo.

Had a 3 205 between us over the years
First gti was a money pit
Other two 1.9 and a 1.1 (4speed) were perfect
But guess a good 1.9 will fetch lots now

Simple to work on
Fun to drive
And almost depression free

But best £1500 I spent was a mk4 golf estate at the start of the year
130 tdi 6 speed cheap to run nice to be in

Middle aged man? Wants enjoyable and nippy but sensible? Surely the answer is motorbike (at least for summer).

Mitsubishi Colt, wife used to have one for commuting, 70 mile round trip, used to get 45mpg from her 1100cc 3cylinder.
All motorway miles too

One of my neighbours is selling a tidy Mk1 MX5 for £995.

Something like that would do, surely?

+1 for Mitsuibishi Colt 1.1 3 cyl – Did almost 70k miles in mine and it didn’t miss a beat, still wish I had it, liked the red seats and green interior lighting… Engine is really zingy and you rev the nuts off it and it seems to like it, handling good too.

Replaced it with a 320d Touring Auto, one of the most dissapointing cars I owned(still not as bad as a SAAB), auto gerbox was a joke and engine as lumpy as overcooked cold porridge.
Now got a Mazda 3 diesel 1.6 – pretty anonymous car but just does all that you want well.

Candodavid – Member
Mitsubishi Colt, wife used to have one for commuting, 70 mile round trip, used to get 45mpg from her 1100cc 3cylinder.
All motorway miles too

Not sure if that’s a good recommendation or not?

My Ibiza diesel averages around 55mpg, dips to about 52mpg in the winter and up to about 60mpg in good weather on my commute (40 miles each way). Last tank was just shy of 62mpg.
It’s got plenty of poke – it’s very relaxing to drive with a heap of torque. They do a 100bhp version too, which is still plenty grunty enough and will do apparently do a few more mpg (I test drove a few but preferred the power of the 130, over the 100bhp version).

Probably buy 3 colts for the overinflate price of a vag groupe leet car though…..

Heres my old Puma. Goodbye sweet princess 🙁

trail_rat – Member
Probably buy 3 colts for the overinflate price of a vag groupe leet car though…..

Probably not.

Heres my old Puma. Goodbye sweet princess

Princess!! I knew it looked familiar!

How many seats do you need? If you only need 2 – MG TF’s are dirt cheap atm. Ignore the rubbish about them blowing up. If its been sorted then they are fine (or no worse than any other £1500 car). I’ve done nearly 30k in 15 months and the only issues have been consumables (tyres, service etc). If you don’t fancy an MG, MX5 are good, though I preferred the drive and the look of the TF to the mk2. The mk1 MX5 still looks great.

Oh, and you can fit a bike rack on a TF 😀

Cheap, reliable, 60+mpg, cheap to service. Ours has done 90k/12years and I had our first garage bill other than tyres or service a couple of weeks back as I had smacked some ice this winter, damaging the sump and bearing.
Its not exciting mind. It is economical motoring however.

I might have a puma for sale. Love it but change of job may force it.