So have £500 to £1500 budget for astra sized car. Avoiding anything really small or too big.

Thinking high mileage 90k plus, astra leon or similar

Whats reliable for 20 mile daily commute and then longer drive once a week fir probly 6 months until company car?

Other options or thoughts/experience or pitfalls known wear issues on astras or leon from 2006 onwards pls

Drive slowly in a circle on full lock in both directions, listening for clunks. C.v joint.

Drive slowly and break listen for some ball jount knocks.

Turn steering max look at brake hoses and for weeping. Turn other way and check other side.  Try and look on rear too.

Check car does pull to one side when driving.

Buy a cheap code reader and read codes.

The most recent style of Astra isn’t a bad car at all, the GTC version is a really nice drive, and comfy. The Leon is also a really good drive, has VAG connections but cheaper than a VW or Audi, Skoda Fabia might be worth a look alongside the Leon. Not had a huge length of time driving any of them, a few hundred miles in total, but if you find any with FSH, and a decent mileage, I don’t think you’d be disappointed, it’s just personal preference as to how the car feels when driving it.

Not sure you’d get a GTC Astra in budget :-).

We have an 04 plate Astra g estate (boring shaped one.

Its a simple 1.6 8v, Watch for all the usual old car faults and timing belt changes.

Gearbox can be a bit notchy. Oil change and greasing the linkage helped ours.

Ours had water getting in the cabin, was the panel join under the roof rails, easy fix once traced.

Nothing really stands out except over cooling. Mayo on the filler cap doesn’t necessarily mean head gasket. I blocked off some of the radiator and change the oil  more frequently.

It’s done about 40k in our care and it cost £300 (due to the water leak). Parts are buttons and it’s taken us to the Alps and back twice. Everything still works including the Aircon.

For reliability I would always look towards the Japanese marques. Having known quite a few people to have catastrophic failures at your price point I would avoid Vauxhall like the plague. As ever, buy on condition.

Had an Astra of the shape mentioned, 1.6 turbo petrol 09 plate fsh with 70k when sold. Engine sounded tappety and it needed a new clutch release bearing (6 speed gearbox shared with 1.9 diesel a known weak point) shortly after purchase. A bit artificial in terms of steering and throttle response. Also had both rear springs go within a year, as well as a front droplink, parts are cheap that said.

As a mile cruncher worthy, but I’d look at a VAG car with the 1.9 tdi pd engine, my current Passat at 175k could probably go on forever and is much more comfortable.

Honda Civic from a more mature member of society

Second vote for a PD engined car. My old mans Passat has just passed 200,000 miles. Pulls well, comfy, reliable.

Edit: his old apprentice from his spannering day’s has one as well, somewhere north of 275,000 miles I think. That one is definitely well used day to day.

Toyota verso 1.8 is probably the most reliable car in your size bracket. Bomb proof 1.8 petrol post 2004/5. Not to big. Avensis tourer is much bigger. Just bear in mind the new tougher MOT test. A lot of perfectly good diesels like the 1.9tdi PD will fail on visible smoke due to slight wear on the injectors. They aren’t cheap either. I would stick with petrol.

Thanks all

Good shout on the new mot regs

That would explain all the 2 month mot left “bargain diesels”

That amount of money – petrol and Japanese. Do not pass go, do not spend money on another countries cars (including German which are no more reliable than anything else).

Honda Civic estate is the one I’d go for.

Inbred, tha bit about visible smoke only applies to vehicles fitted with a dpf.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/102431/mot-test-changes-2018-new-failure-categories-and-tougher-tests-for-diesel-cars

half way down that page it mentions it.

Although, apart from that, I’d agree with everyone else, go petrol.

and KISS, keep it simple stupid.

the less gadgets an older car has, the less things there are to go wrong.

Ford focus 1.6petrol, only buy with a full mot, my wife had a mk1, one of the best cars I’ve ever seen, it went well for a 1.6, it wasn’t greedy on fuel, and it never broke down.

a japanese car may be slightly more reliable, but if you need parts they will probably be more expensive than a ford.