Mrs BB wants a new(er) car.

Borats Baby

Borats Baby

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Rikki
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I knew this day would come.

She's fed up of driving an old car. Also reckons its too big as she has to spend a lot of time parallel parking. Its just passed it mot (with a little work) and has 12 months tax on it, so I guess now would be the time to sell it and look for something newer.

Theres a Chevrolet Lacetti down the road from me for £2600. '05' reg 50 odd thousand miles on it. Looked on Autotrader and they seem to be asking over £3k for them, could this be a potential bargain ? Its had the sticker in the window for over 2 months, ( accept £2k ?)

I've always driven older cars and I'm completely out of date with the prices of newer ones. We'd be looking at borrowing the money from the bank and paying off a credit card, current loan, and purchase of new(er) car c.£3K

Whatchooreckon ?
 
Until now I've always bought 5-6 year old cars, run them for 3-4 years and sold them on.
The Cougar I bought 4 years ago cost me £5k and is now worth something like £1.5k with 72,000 miles on it - this is a car that cost £22K new in 2000...still runs fine and looks like doing so for the forseeable future...

I'd stick to domestic/european cars for the family runaround/'er indoors... A good 18-month old Ford/Vauxhall or even a Renault with under 15-20K on the clock (not a lot if it's a company car) will cost peanuts to buy, even less to insure and you have a huge network of servicing options...
Chevy? Not a chance... It'd be like buying a Rover 3 years ago... another year and who's going to be doing warranties and servicing on them?
 
Hadn't given warranty or servicing a thought really as I've always repaired/serviced my cars myself.

I think any 3 or 4 year old car available now will be out of warranty anyway. ?

Forgot to mention, I WILL NOT buy from a dealer. Not a chance.
 
Sorry...was thinking of Warranty if you were buying new or newer car from a dealer - most new cars come with 3-year/36,000 mile warranties nowadays...
At least some of which will be transferrable to a new owner...drivetrain/suspension etc.

If you don't buy from a dealer you'll get nothing.
 
Borats Baby said:
Its had the sticker in the window for over 2 months, ( accept £2k ?)
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That should raise the red flag right away, no-one wants old Daewoos (as the Lacetti was before GM rebranded it). Two grand will get you something decent and European or Japanese if you hunt around, but avoid old Renaults if you can.....

There were some 54 plate (2005) Fiesta diesels in our local car auction last week going for between £2300-2800 (plus £200 or so fees), a bit more than you were budgeting but the highest mileage one was 13k and the £2800 one only had 5000 miles on it. Something like that would make far more sense in the long run.
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
That should raise the red flag right away, no-one wants old Daewoos (as the Lacetti was before GM rebranded it). Two grand will get you something decent and European or Japanese if you hunt around, but avoid old Renaults if you can.....
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I get your point, but the car in question is parked near the end of a cul-de-sac and prolly see's very little in the way of passing traffic. :lol:

I'm not that mad on the idea of a Chevrolet myself really, but it seems a fair amount of newish car for the money.

We've got 2 kids aswell, so the fiesta may be a little on the small side, fine for just transporting the kids, but a bit of a pain if we have any luggage for holidays etc.
 
Left field....

mx5? Or rather the eunos import version. As long as the sills are OK then reliable, easy to work on, good fun, hold their value....

Oh... kids....shucks.
 
Just took some pics on my phone !

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Looks smart enough. I wouldn't have thought you could go far wrong at that money, being Korean I doubt that that it will give much trouble. Probably not going to solve the parallel parking problem though, it looks fairly long?
 
it'd have to be cheap and £2,600 isn't particularly cheap, I just looked on autotrader and found 5 under 3k from dealers with warranty and all with lower mileage one a 2007 07 with 20k and a dodgy engine which sounds a bit worrying.

One previous owner would make me ask if the car is registered in his name,if not he's a trader.

search on autotrader for any car up to your budget and see what comes up , last august i did that and found a one owner 55 plate subaru legacy for £3,995.

It was a dealer who sells ex company cars from home in Birmingham, he buys direct, sticks a few £ on and has a quick turnover,it's a 20k car I got it for £3,600 and in the 9 months i've had it I haven't spent a penny on it.
 
Dude, not sure about a Chevrolet Lacetti?

why don't you look around for a mk1 ford focus or similar, you can pick up a decent focus for less than a grand and you'll be able to sell it on in a few years time for virtually as much as you paid for it - with little depreciation.

Plus the focus is a good car, easy to drive and much bigger than they look inside + spares are cheap and easy to come-by.

gets my vote :shrug:
 
Focus is looking promising.

Maybe for £3K though, I could get a fairly new one ? I'll have a look and see whats about.
 
Chevrolets are hateful little cars. My ex had a skoda but dinged it and got a Lacetti while it was being fixed, she absolutely hated it, really cheap and nasty, even compared to a cheap as chips skoda.
 
Borats Baby said:
Focus is looking promising.

Maybe for £3K though, I could get a fairly new one ? I'll have a look and see whats about.
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If you're happy to take a 4-door, booted Focus then you can pick up a real bargain as they're not as popular as the hatchback, especially in petrol form. You can also get good deals in the C-Max psuedo mpv version, if you're happy with something like a 1.8 petrol version.


You could also get a new shape Astra within your budget, perhaps even a nice diesel if you don't mind highish miles.
 
I'm not too fussed about an estate Flash, unless its got "T5" on the tailgate :D

Thats not gonna happen for a little while so I'll have to go with what the missus wants.

I've seen some promising Hatch's in Ghia spec with full leather and fully loaded for around £2K. 1.6 and 1.8 petrol versions.

May be better with a petrol as I see fuel prices are on the increase again :(
 
wack61 said:
I'd be more surprised if it ever existed, these scams are on every car site, surprised they're on auotrader as they don't usually pay to advertise, have a look on pistonheads, there's loads, BMW X5s for 4K audis for 5k.

If it's too cheap etc etc
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depends on the mileage, but for a good reliable family car you cant beat a diesel vag. I have an 06 vw touran with nearly 90k on the clock and apart from 2 bulbs and about 6 tyres it only needed a new timing belt (was done 3 weeks ago) and it still runs as good as when i first got it.
 
Sorry mike, wont touch VAG motors with a dirty bargepole.

They're living off an old reputation, certainly as far as VW is concerned anyway.

You've clearly got a good one, but I've known too many horrors.
 
Shame about the kids - I too was going to suggest an mx-5. I bought the missus one and she loves it. We've had ours for years. very reliable, 35mpg etc.
 
Borats Baby said:
Focus is looking promising.

Maybe for £3K though, I could get a fairly new one ? I'll have a look and see whats about.
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The Focus is a nice car, drives very well, i loved the handling of mine. There quite big inside for passengers but check the boot out properly for load space bearing mind you said about having kids. I havent got any kids but i struggled with getting my camping gear in the boot or even given lifts to my perents the the airport when they went away on holidays, as the load space is pretty small.

The 1.8 petrol is quite punchy and effecient nice for the town driving, better then the derv, but i always fealt the derv was better on long runs, still very punchy on the twistys but far more gear changes.

I swapped mine for a mk3 Mondeo TDCi, on my third one, only things spent on any of them has been tyres and brakes, but the petrol version's are very sluggish compared to the derv as they lack torque, although for mainly town driving now i'd be tempted by the v6 version, but as the majority of my milage is on the motorway i'll stick to my derv at around 60mph, can get alot of car for around £4,000 from a garrage. Seen the latest version the mk4 in one close by for that price, go over the 3 years mark and you should find some nice example under £3,000. Although expect to see highish mileages on some due to them being fav for long haul drives.
 
I've noticed a lot of them are pretty high mileage :(

I know the focus pretty well as I used to be a valeter at a Ford main dealer, I would miss the boot space of the estate, but could always get a roof box for when we need the extra space.

Yes, a Focus it is I think, just need to find the money now :lol:
 
ive got a 54 plate focus 1.8 (last of the old shape) and im quite pleased with it, its quite comfy to drive etc i think its a bit thirsty but i should have gone for a diesel instead.

i think my next car will be a similar ages mondeo estate oil burner, simply because it;ll be economical, cheap and more suited to what id need it for (lugging bikes around on the roof)
 
Good luck with the Focus hunt, there great fun on the back roads.

whitewash said:
ive got a 54 plate focus 1.8 (last of the old shape) and im quite pleased with it, its quite comfy to drive etc i think its a bit thirsty but i should have gone for a diesel instead.

i think my next car will be a similar ages mondeo estate oil burner, simply because it;ll be economical, cheap and more suited to what id need it for (lugging bikes around on the roof)
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Would have depended on what derv you got in the Focus the 2.0lt TDCi engine was pretty good and would have been my choice if i could have upgraded the Focus, the 1.8tdci was boarderline compared to the Petrol (had both when mine went in for servicing) but there was a 1.8TDDi which was pants.

Up till 2003 from memory they where fitting 2.0TDDi derv units in the Mondeo so if buying one around that year check what engine is fitted TDDi 95bhp (iirc) 115bhp TDCi, and a 130bhp TDCi, oh i used to fit 2 bikes and camping gear for 2 in the boot of my Estate.
 
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