tough time finding a second hand car

[JonT]

I am having a really tough time trying to find a second hand car and its starting to wear me down.

I've been to see a few cars so far and all of them are things you wouldn't want to go anywhere near, like a car thats only done "57k" thats clearly done a hell of a lot more and a car with poorly fitting aftermarket headlamps with condensation.

I also have a fear of mileage which cuts my choices down a lot too.

All I am really after is a car for £1000 thats roughly escort sized (one up from saxo/fiesta size), and that has reasonable mileage. Looks do heavily sway me but I would much rather have something more reliable and ugly then pretty and in the garage all the time.

So far i've looked at rover 200/25, fiat brava, ford escort, VW polo, 306 and although any of those would do the ones you can pickup for £1000 (even stretching to £1200) are really sorry affairs.

Should I put a grand on the national lottery tomorrow and hope for the best?

I pray that jamie stokes misses this thread

[Phil_G]

Why be scared of mileage on a cheap car?


10) Buy one

20) Use it till it breaks

30) If fucked goto 40 else repair and goto 20

40) Throw away

50) Goto 10


You lot will be sick of hearing about my peugeot (it gets mentioned by me that many times) but its a 106 diesel with 164K on the clocks and still going strong. If it breaks I will likely fix it (to the extent of re-engineing the shell), as the body is tidy and straight enough, and on a low budget you will likely get a better engine than you will whole car.



Phil

PS: you are presumably aware of the headgasket issues that tend to afflict the Rover K series motors as found in the 200/25
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[yambabe]

Go see Jim at Cantilever Car Center (you're not far from here according to your profile) as he had some nice clean part-ex's in last time I was there including a very tidy escort on an M reg for £600........ I think you're just not looking in the right places to be honest!
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[JonT]

Aye I had been informed about that on the rovers, however at the time the cheap prices offsetted by concerns.

In the past i didn't mind running a car into the ground and starting over, but this time I fancy something a little more reliable (I have fears of my vehicle breaking down on the way to an exam).

I also have the added concern of having to transport my sister + baby quite often, so safety and reliability are higher on the agenda then they used to be.

Thanks for your response though!

[JonT]

[Phil_G]

[LustyLew]

74k on a (nearly) 10 year old car is below average mileage.
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Like a Yorkie - I'm not for the girls

[mrchips]

Average milage is 12k a year, 74k is perfectly fine. Milage doesn't mean an awful lot, I've seen some ropey cars with 50k and some very clean/tight cars with 3 times that. I know someone who had a Passat with 260k on it, you'd have thought it had 100k on it. Its all about how they're looked after.
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Northern Irish? www.nibikers.com

[Nb]

[ken]

Might be a bit old for you but I have a fiesta coming in as part exchange, it’s m reg however it’s the ghia model in metallic green with 26k miles from one owner with full main dealer service history, condition is very good for year but with slight signs of corrosion on the n/s/r wheel arch, oh yeah it’s the 1.6 zetec engine just pm me if you have any interest in the car I will send some pics when it arrives

Regards ken
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latest bike 03 R1 in zee red and black

[Icey]

Have you looked at Civics?
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Mutley - 1988 Austin Mini City - Blog
Suetonius - 1966 Series Land Rover - Blog
Uma J - 1981 Honda 'Naked' Goldwing GL1100 - Blog

[nrml76]

Search on auto trader for mitsubishi carisma's. There are a fair few low milage cars for well within your budget. They are very reliable, economic to drive and maintain, will easily do 100K plus without any problems, and have all the creature comforts thrown in too. Ironically, the only thing they lack is carisma.
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Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies has lived. We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping us.

[jay_666]

Considered a Golf? I wouldn't be put off by a high mileage VW, They're solid cars.
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CBT - Done | Theory - Passed | Test - 4th Oct [PASSED!]
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[Phil_G]

[Bendy]

I found plenty of Escorts for around the £1k mark last year, in the end I picked up an R plate 'Finesse' with 58k on the clock that had just had a big service inc. cambelt.

They're out there, just keep looking.

[Stelmer]

Japanese cars are fantastic.

I have a 13 year old Toyota Carina 1.6 petrol with 87000 on the clock. It still does near 40mpg.

Toyotas are near bullet proof. I've seen Carina's and Avensis' with over 200000 miles on them and they're still going strong.

They use the 4AFE engine which is very reliable and easy to maintain.

Also the Corolla, despite it's dull appearance is very reliable.

[JonT]

Well folks I caved in during my dispair and..

Re-insured my bike!!

I shopped arround and got my quote down from the renewal quote of £470 down to £250

This on a SV650 with 2 years no claims, passed test 1 year ago, rider 21yrs old, kept in the garage in a F bracket area.

It would of been really nice to have a car instead for a while but hey.. its sunny now! I will wait til I have a job to get a car, and maybe get a new one on finance.

With the money i've saved by sticking with the bike I can afford to

Buy a new shed to put the bike in
Give it a good decent service
Put two new tires on it
Get a Tailswinger so I don't keep destroying the back garden turning it arround.
Buy some new summer gloves

With cash to spare :p

Thankyou all for your posts, i'll hand out some more karma once its available