Terminal bangernomics – Help me buy a new car

My £1k, 108k miles Polo needs £1500 of welding and work to get through MOT. Time to call it a day I think. I’ve got two teenagers, one driving and the other learning later this year so need something small, cheap and easy. I also need to organise something quickly. Car will only do about 5k – 7K miles per year.

Is there a good reason to not buy this?

https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/toyota/aygo/details/208b6fd7-5e47-468d-b817-9d2dda29daf1

Its hardly cheap but cars are just not cheap anymore.

Perhaps better option is Skoda Citigo, 6 years old but only 18k on clock and under £8k.

Thoughts?

Kia Picanto? You’d still have 3 years manufacturer warranty left too…

https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/kia/picanto/details/e8358982-1cbe-41a0-ba50-309c92f2010d

My GF was car shopping with her niece recently and they picked the Picanto as being a bit better value, and slightly less inhumane for rear seat passengers.

Personally I’d sort my local autotrader and gumtree adverts by max £2k and 10 mile radius and stick with the Bangernomics approach though.

Plenty of room in the back of an Aygo – we’ve a MK1 for ‘the kids’. A 10-12 year old Aygo will set you back £2k-3k

Plenty of room in the back of an Aygo

I haven’t sampled it myself, but their use case was 4 adults being ferried to the pub TBF

Our 2012 120k Ibiza Estate 1.4 16v refuses to die. MOT next week and I expect no issues at all. Cheap to insure because granny car. Currently does 12k a year, including daily foray’s across the rural Trossachs. Not a speck of rust and so simple and cheap to fix without turbo or sensors etc. I should say it has cost two springs and dampers, an alternator and welded exhaust above usual servicing and wear. We have had it since 28k/3years old. Big boot and touch more space than a wee car. Cracking thing.

Looking online they are much cheaper than what you are looking at, proper bangernomics type territory. We are likely selling ours, and currently I would expect £2k for it – been offered £1k trade in…

This one is similar to ours

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312114737238?advertising-location=at_cars&atmobcid=soc5&body-type=Estate&fromsra&make=SEAT&price-to=3000&sort=relevance

I haven’t sampled it myself, but their use case was 4 adults being ferried to the pub TBF

Pfft, I once had seven in an old Mini and I am sure that is far from a record.

The Mk5 Fiesta is pretty much ass cheap and reliable as you’ll get. You can pick one up for £500.

Ours is 20 years old (owned by my OH from ~9months!) and just keeps passing MOT’s with nothing more than consumables wearing out.

This year has been expensive with:
Cambelt service
New front shock
4x tyres
Exhaust sensor
A few bits of cheap trim needing gluing/replacing/tarting to make it look nice.

But most of that would be saved by buying a newer car, it’d just be getting it’s 2nd rather than 3rd cambelt, 5th rather than 8th set of tyres, etc.

Routine stuff I service on the drive as it’s so easy to work on which keeps costs down, and ford parts are almost ridiculously cheap. This is probably why it’s lasting so long, It doesn’t get ‘extra’ stuff like oil changes more often than every 12 months, but I do fix the odd faffy job myself before it becomes a garage emergency or piles up at MOT time.

Usual banmgernomic rules apply, buy it based on the owner, any car will look good after £10 at the local human traficing ring / scratch and shine carwash, so figure out if they’re the kind of person who’d
a) maintain the car impeccably
b) sell a car that had no faults

The Mk5 Fiesta is pretty much ass cheap and reliable as you’ll get. You can pick one up for £500.

That would be my first choice. Brilliant to drive and really reliable. I had the 1.4 petrol and loved it.

Will probably even have a heated windscreen.

Rubbish for transporting modern geometry 29ers though.

We were looking at cars for a similar price and ended up with a Hyundai i10 from MotorPoint. No reason not to buy the one you linked to, we just preferred the Hyundai and its long warranty.

Pfft, I once had seven in an old Mini and I am sure that is far from a record.

Regularly 11 colleagues in a Lada Riva estate to the Cross Keys and back from our rural outdoor centre…

I don’t see four seats (rather than five) as an issue. I think limiting number of passengers for an 18 year old driver is a very good thing.

Hyundai and Kia good shouts. I drive a big clunky 4×4 Hyundai and it has bene faultless for 70k miles.

How about a Citroen C1? An Aygo in all but name.

Plenty of choice here:

https://www.chorleygroup.co.uk/used-cars/?manufacturer%5B0%5D=Citroen&model%5B0%5D=C1&currentPage=2&nfcSearchVersion=1.0.0

Rubbish for transporting modern geometry 29ers though.

Yea, but that’s a function of it being a small hatchback. Like just about anything that size it’ll do 2 adults and 2 bikes with wheels off. The boot opening is actually quite a bit bigger than the inlaws Golf.

If bike carrying is a requirement, then get the same era C-max 1.6 petrol. It’s a huge volume of practical but unfashionable car for the money. Mine did 155k with nothing more than servicing, brake pads, tyres, batteries, 1 alternator and front suspension bushes. I’t still felt like a new car when it got written off!

I used to have a Citroen C1 (same as the Aygo) and a VW Up! (Same as the citigo).

Both good little cars, economic, cheap to run etc. but of the two I’d go for the Citigo.

Not an estate, but my Wife’s Ibiza is a 12 plate 2 litre diesel, which we’ve owned since Aug 2013.
It’s got over 140k miles on it. I’m struggling to think of anything that’s actually gone wrong with it. We’ve had pads/discs etc. replaced but apart from that…..?! Would have to scour the service documents, but biggest bill that springs to mind is cambelt.

I know cars are expensive, but that Aygo seems bonkers. Are cars really that pricey nowadays?! Eek!!

I’d be doing as suggested above & putting a budget & radius into Autotrader & seeing what it comes up with.

Used small cars are attracting a premium at present – it’s mad. You can get a luxo-barge for about the same, but totally un-insurable for a youngster.

You can get a luxo-barge for about the same

But the problem is that they have much more stuff to go wrong and when it does, it’s ££££s.

Edit – just had a look on Auto Trader…

Audi A6 Avant Black Edition

Used small cars are attracting a premium at present – it’s mad. You can get a luxo-barge for about the same, but totally un-insurable for a youngster.

The market seems all over the place at present – I cannot shift my Leon estate 1.4tsi (150bhp) automatic with full history, good condition etc – not a sniff. And yes, it is priced low and has been reduced by £1k since we started to sell it in December.

Worth noting the c1 and 108 can be had with a 1.2 engine.

It’s not fast by any stretch but it’s considerably happier if your regular journies requires joining a major road or has hills.

If it was me I’d get the best fiesta my money could stretch to, avoiding the 3 pot ecoboost engine which is a cluster****.

Unfortunately prices are holding up at the budget end because of the cost of living crisis, but higher up the market some model values are falling at auction. Again, cost of living crisis, people don’t want expensive to run cars

I was looking at C1/107/Aygo for my partner, and they were insanely priced and lots of them were rotting away at the sill next tot the rear wheel. Ended up with a £900 56 plate 1.4 petrol clio of many shades of red. It cost about that again to make “good/nice” – Needed some suspension bits for MoT, and a cambelt change, and the seals behind the belt were weeping so go those changed at the same time (fixed the minor oil leak with it woohoo), and 4 new tyres to replace the picknmix of near bald ditchfinders it had on it. But I figured getting something cheap with obvious issues and sorting it would be the same as buying some more expensive to begin with at worst.

This ought to be about £2500 by my reckoning but as others have mentioned, prices are terrible. Imagine what they’ll jump to when new Ice cars are banned.

Mercedes-Benz

1.5 A160 BlueEfficiency Classic SE 5dr

2012 (12 reg)

>£3,950

Mileage

53,000 miles

But I figured getting something cheap with obvious issues and sorting it would be the same as buying some more expensive to begin with at worst.

That’s how I bought my Berlingo, it was horrible inside, all the trim was smoke/nicotine stained, the outside was rough, the airbag light was on, the rear doors didn’t work, it had 3 days MOT.

But it had 4 good tyres, 30k to the next cambelt change, a full service history, and was £625 during the middle of covid when Berlingo’s were fetching £2k+.

Half a day on the driveway sorting the MOT critical bits, a pass, another day sorting the less critical bits and cleaning it thoroughly and it did another 30k miles with just an oil change, a door handle, and a spare set of front winter tyres I got free off a forum! Died when the clutch pedal cracked and was an engine out job to fix!

Friend of MrsRNP is soon to be selling her Peugeot version of a C1 and asked me to sell it for her.
It’s a 12plate, mature female owner who bought it from her mum who had it from new. Think it’s ~80k miles, regularly serviced, good condition, non smoker/no kids or pets.
I’ve done the occasional bulb change and recently put a battery on it for her so know of it’s history.

It will be market value priced but it has good known provenance/history.
Only selling as she’s buying her mum’s car again.
Only negative – it’s a sparkly purple colour!

PM if interested.

Sparkly purple just means that it can get a vinyl wrap in a normal colour to “protect the paint”. 

The Aygo is a good shout as servicing with Toyota every year keeps the warranty alive. Even if it’s lapsed it renews the next time it’s serviced and can do so out to 10 years/100K miles.

https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/toyota-warranty?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhKyXYlib_IlUsa1XYISwqjxaMh-RYNC46DZzjmE-QC3rSpMoRENUBEaAoJcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

My lad drives a 3 pot 1.2 Peugeot 108. £0 tax and pretty cheap to insure for the new driver. It goes a little bit better than the 1.0 C1/108/Aygo too and a touch cheaper.

Ended up going for Hyundai i10. Wife liked the colour, daughter liked the fact it has Apple Car Play and I like the fact it is a Hyundai as mine has been faultless.

Small cars are spendy now though. But, we are quite risk adverse so bangernomics no longer for us. It did us fine for 18months, hopefully now moving to lower risk, more reliable and generally easier car.

franksinatra

Is there a good reason to not buy this?

It’s on Cinch

It’s on Cinch

why is that a problem?

I’ve bought six cars over the years from Arnold Clark. Each one has been fault free and I’ve been very happy but if you look online you can only find horror stories. I’m sure it’s easy to find horror stories with Cinch but the people I know who have used them are all happy. I live a long way from big dealerships so Cinch is easy, convenient option for me. If the car turns out to be a dog I can return it.

I suppose like any dealer, you know it’s got at least two peoples margins added on since someone traded it in, and you’ve no idea who traded it in.

e.g. you would pay more for a 108 from Cinch and it have been thrashed neglected and then given half a can of showroom shine and a big markup. Or buy RustyNissanPrarie’s friends for a lot less less.

Dealer obviously gives a bit of comeback/warranty in the short term. But you pay more for that, and past 6-months you’re on your own anyway.

neighbour has a fiesta 2006 1.2litre,years mot,77k miles. £1100 if thats any use, in northants

Like buses…..I end up selling two bangernomics for friends.

In addition to the MrsRNP friends Peugeot C1 purple throbber mentioned above I also have the sister in law’s ex wife car to sell.
2011 Toyota IQ (tiny little Smart car equivalent). High miles @ 178k but has been reliable. Will be ~£1500

2011 Toyota IQ (tiny little Smart car equivalent). High miles @ 178k but has been reliable. Will be ~£1500

May not suitable for the OP and their future learner, as you’re not allowed to take a driving test in one of those!

From what car website…

Its true that you wont be able to sit the practical driving test in your Toyota, but not because of its dinky dimensions. Instead, its because it failed a risk assessment by the DSA (Driving Standard Agency) due to unsatisfactory a

£1500 of welding, WTF! I’d be looking for another garage, we were quoted £700 to fix an exhaust manifold mount on our S-Max, a tiny local garage did the same job for £40 in less than hour.

In addition to the MrsRNP friends Peugeot C1 purple throbber

Fun  fact – a purple 107 was my partners car of choice. Shame she’s got the clio of many reds.

we were quoted £700 to fix an exhaust manifold mount on our S-Max, a tiny local garage did the same job for £40 in less than hour.

Same here.
New exhaust on the Ibiza = £800
Local garage, a welder and a new section of flexi pipe = £60 and we are good still 5 years later.

I will be selling said Ibiza Estate next week. 2012 1.4 16v, 120k, manual, two owners, FSH, new front tyres and new wheel bearing. £2k.

Blatant stealth ad.
Suzie dropped her car off with me to sell on her behalf.

2012
57k miles.
Good condition.
Mature female owner (friend of MrsRNP), not smoked in, no kids/pets.
£2500