Small Inexpensive Car Recommendations

1 litre Micra. My daily driver is a '03 Micra E 1.0. 50mpg urban, and at a constant 65, returns almost 70mpg. Surprisingly roomy inside, and with the seat down can fit an equally surprising amount of crap.

Firm, yet supple ride, quiet. (although the gearboxes are a little whiny in 1st and 2nd on the overrun - normal.. my Mum's is just the same). Comfortable. Safe. Reasonable sound system.

It's extremely reliable (as any modern car will be if serviced correctly). Parts are cheap. It's very easy to maintain yourself. Very low insurance group.

It's only downsides are:

Very boring
Very slow
"Old person's car" image


Apart from that I think it's wonderful for a cheap used car.
 
Digitalize said:
They aren't. A Puma is a Fiesta with a different body, a KA shares very little. They're decent just watch out for rust.
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The "old" KA is based on the Fiesta as is the Puma, dash may be different but base mechanicals etc are the same. If it shared very little, Ford wouldn't have bothered producing it.
 
if you want to keep it low on tax you need to find something in bands A, B or C, all of which are £30 or less per year. on autotrader you can look at the spec and it will tell you what band the car you're looking at is in
 
Pookeyhead said:
1 litre Micra. My daily driver is a '03 Micra E 1.0. 50mpg urban, and at a constant 65, returns almost 70mpg. Surprisingly roomy inside, and with the seat down can fit an equally surprising amount of crap.

Firm, yet supple ride, quiet. (although the gearboxes are a little whiny in 1st and 2nd on the overrun - normal.. my Mum's is just the same). Comfortable. Safe. Reasonable sound system.

It's extremely reliable (as any modern car will be if serviced correctly). Parts are cheap. It's very easy to maintain yourself. Very low insurance group.

It's only downsides are:

Very boring
Very slow
"Old person's car" image


Apart from that I think it's wonderful for a cheap used car.
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^^^^this is spot on.

If you want it to be cheap to buy then you need something that people really don't want to own and old/slow.

All this talk of Fiestas etc is crap, the chavs want them, so the demand pushes up the prices.

Only downside to the Micra is that driving one makes other people think you are a slow old duffer and they have to overtake you even if you are doing the speed limit.... gets a bit annoying after a while!
 
rjbell said:
Micra,Yaris and jazz are great cars but they're a lot more expensive than a fiesta and a lot more to repair when things go wrong, however my sister has a 52 plate yaris from new and its never needed any work to pass the MOT in 10yrs other than bulbs and wipers etc.. Its a 40-50 mile round trip commute to work so she is clocking up the miles too.
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aye, out of all of them ive not ruled out the micra, easily in budget and gets a good review. The yaris does too but they're out of budget or they'd be tempting.

Your point about the fiesta is valid too, due to their availaibility etc parts wont be a problem if it goes wrong.
 
chris954 said:
I just bought my Mrs a 52 plate micra to replace her 1995 micra that failed its test on the common fault with micras front crossmember corroded. She had the old car for 8 years and it never missed a beat. Up till this mot fail the only other thing it failed on in previous years were things like tyres cv boots etc and the only thing I ever had to do to it was change a cv joint due to the boot splitting. The joint cost me £25 and took 2 hours to fit. This new micra is her third and for the money I paid (£995) from a dealer with 44,000 miles and a full service history I think I got a good deal. I would wholeheartedly recommend a micra but you must check for corrosion on the front crossmember and also around the rear jacking points in front of the rear wheels. Other than that they are totally reliable, cheap and good to drive.
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Cheers for that, I've noted those things to watch out for :thumbs:
 
desantnik said:
^^^^this is spot on.

If you want it to be cheap to buy then you need something that people really don't want to own and old/slow.

All this talk of Fiestas etc is crap, the chavs want them, so the demand pushes up the prices.

Only downside to the Micra is that driving one makes other people think you are a slow old duffer and they have to overtake you even if you are doing the speed limit.... gets a bit annoying after a while!
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The OP said he didn't want French and that's what the electrics are on this Micra. Even HonestJohn says "Avoid buying this model". In Caps!!
 
andy700 said:
This is a 5 star review from Parkers

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/revie...a/fabia/hatchback-2000/review/20120614032820/

A 1.9 in that body should not be slow. Granted it won't be an M3 or Scooby, but you want the best for your £1K:shrug:
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True but here's a 3 star with very worrying problems such as very bad condensation in the winter etc.

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/revie...da/fabia/hatchback-2000/archive-review/22875/

this is why I don't check the owner reviews, just the actual proper parker reviews as owner ones are extremely variable. :|
 
Have my Civic coupe, reliable as they get but it's hardly a pristine looking example I'm afraid!
 
desantnik said:
.

Only downside to the Micra is that driving one makes other people think you are a slow old duffer and they have to overtake you even if you are doing the speed limit.... gets a bit annoying after a while!
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Reason people want to overtake them is because they are very rarely driven anywhere near the speed limit and take an age to get there anyway.;)
I swear my car could out drag a Micra, just by hitting the reset button on the cruise control.:lol:
 
Nissan and Renault thing only relates to the third and fourth generation Micras.

I'm talking about the second generation model (1992-2003).

As for talking about performance.... nothing in this thread is a performance car. Forget about performance, they are all a POS.

I've had four of the MkII Micras in my family, all bomb proof, all really cheap motoring - really revolutionary in terms of cheap reliable motoring - just not performance and not stylish.
 
nilagin said:
The "old" KA is based on the Fiesta as is the Puma, dash may be different but base mechanicals etc are the same. If it shared very little, Ford wouldn't have bothered producing it.
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Thank you.
 
ALL French cars have a bad reputation for electrical problems as do most Italian cars, but the thing is, that many people own them and love them and never have problems.
I have had Alfas (four of them), and they have never let me down on the road - lots of minor electrical glitches with dials, windows and sunroof though.

Our last car was one which is constantly rated very highly by the media and motoring press - the Mazda 3 - it was the worst car we have ever had.
 
desantnik said:
Nissan and Renault thing only relates to the third and fourth generation Micras.

I'm talking about the second generation model (1992-2003).

As for talking about performance.... nothing in this thread is a performance car. Forget about performance, they are all a POS.

I've had four of the MkII Micras in my family, all bomb proof, all really cheap motoring - really revolutionary in terms of cheap reliable motoring - just not performance and not stylish.
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Ah, ok, MK2 micra back on the list :-)
 
Donnie said:
Ah, ok, MK2 micra back on the list :-)
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What mark fiesta are you looking at? If you can't get a mk5 within budget i would go mirca too. However i spotted a nice black mk5 black fiesta 1.4 tdci for £1000 50mpg £30 road tax bobs your uncle.
 
Thought I'd just fill ye all in and a big thanks to all that contributed to this thread but in the end matters were taken out of my hands in the end by the Father in Law!


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