Small Inexpensive Car Recommendations

Donnie

Donnie

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Right, as of (hopefully) September I'll be commuting 40 miles a day, 3 days a week and will be looking for a small 4/5 door reliable, economical car with a budget of up to £1000.

I do not want new or nearly new, I do not want a Vauxhall, I do not want anything French.

So, anyone on here driving an older "budget" runaround with any recommendations?
 
For that price I would stick with Japanese. Nissan etc and I would get it looked at by the rac or a competent mechanic.
 
Fiesta. Ford came third in which survey of most reliable cars after VW and skoda. They also came top on one of the big fleet magazine review of reliability from feedback from all the large leasing companies in the UK, yet there probably half the price on the used market because there are so many of them.
 
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'Nother vote here for Fiesta, but why you're ruling out a Corsa is beyond me.
 
Fiesta. Plenty to choose from and plenty of spares readily available.
 
Thanks all for the replies so far, Fiesta's seem to be the forerunner and its certainly true about the whole fleet thing driving second hand prices down.

Certainly not gonna be a Datsun LOL

the reason Im ruling out all vauxhalls is that I've always always hated them, simple as that Im afraid, just one of those things :-/
 
Not just fleet ford a very popular with mobility also. I got 3yr old ex mobility Ford Cmax from a dealer with just 11k on the clock it was like a brand new car for £6500
 
your criteria are very similar to mine atm, i also needed cheap insurance. my choices have been narrowed down to-
Suzuki alto 1.1 (02 onwards) with tax being £30pa, great fuel economy and cheap insurance
Peugoet 206 1.4 HDI with £30pa tax and cheap insurance again.
French really isnt that bad as long as you buy the right one, 406's and some 306's were made from galv so never rust, and having had both of those mentioned we have never had issues with electrics, unlike in many renaults
 
The corsa C 53 onwards before they made it all big and heavy was a pretty good car, the 1.2 is miles better than the 1.0 but I don't know if I would want to be driving a small car for 120 miles per week.
The 206 1.4 HDi is a great sugestion I had the 1.9 206 and it was fantastic and great fun to drive and I covered lots of miles 1000 mile per week was an often occurance.
 
Think I'd be tempted by a Fiesta then if you don't want french or a Vauxhall.

One thing I would double check is car tax, a lady at work has a little Ka and it falls in an expensive tax group !!!

I had an Uno years ago and was a great car, had it for many years with very little trouble - not sure what the Punto is like nowadays...
 
viv1969 said:
'Nother vote here for Fiesta, but why you're ruling out a Corsa is beyond me.
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too many barrys driving them with unsafe mods and crashing them into crap - puts the insurance up (the same is true for saxos, an 205/106s - and to a lesser extent siecento and punto)

I think somewhere there must be an enormous reef of old corsa 1.2 engines posing a hazard to navigation - every second halfwit with a corsa seems to have swapped the engine for a redtop out of the astra GSi - undeclared naturally

I drove such a conversion once (my mates boyfriend had one), he'd successfully turned an inoffensive shopping trolley into a lethally understeery heap of fail
 
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Quite true that, BSM.

As for car tax definitely planning to keep an eye on that! cant see why a KA would be high, unless of course it's a sporty one in which case I can see why.

Hillman Imp, you've not read the criteria have you? I haven't seen many imps for sub £1000 :shake:
 
Some older KA's had some rust problems apparently so you might want to give it a good look over or do a bit of research on them.

Get a 10yo bland Japanese petrol over the drastic plastic from Euroland. Might cost more in tax and fuel but will be offset by how little time it spends at the mechanics ;-)
 
Dave1 said:
Not sure how you got that idea, but the Corsa is in groups 2-7 on the new 50 group system.

As a comparison the smaller Fiestas are groups 5-10.

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/insurance/car-insurance-groups/
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my insurer does individual risk assessments- and that's what they say , they'll quote lower on a fiesta than a corsa for young men under 25 because they are less at risk of being driven like a bell end (they didn't use those exact words)

of course with old farts like me it doesn't really matter - I only pay a couple of hundred notes a year for a focus fully comp
 
big soft moose said:
my insurer does individual risk assessments- and that's what they say , they'll quote lower on a fiesta than a corsa for young men under 25 because they are less at risk of being driven like a bell end (they didn't use those exact words)

of course with old farts like me it doesn't really matter - I only pay a couple of hundred notes a year for a focus fully comp
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Would probably be better for you to say you meant only for you personally. The average Corsa will be cheaper to insure than the average Fiesta for the average driver, that's the way the insurance groups system works.

And that would include the average under 25 as well, that's why so many of them drive a Corsa ;).
 
AndyB1976 said:
Some older KA's had some rust problems apparently so you might want to give it a good look over or do a bit of research on them.

Get a 10yo bland Japanese petrol over the drastic plastic from Euroland. Might cost more in tax and fuel but will be offset by how little time it spends at the mechanics ;-)
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I've no intention of getting a Ka believe me LOL.

Digitalize said:
306 Diesel.
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Ummmmmmm, but it's french???
 
Dave1 said:
Would probably be better for you to say you meant only for you personally. The average Corsa will be cheaper to insure than the average Fiesta for the average driver, that's the way the insurance groups system works.

And that would include the average under 25 as well, that's why so many of them drive a Corsa ;).
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nope not for me personally - for my 22 year old colleague who as enquiring ( in my case a full no claims, advanced drivers cert and over 40 makes my insurance on anything normal very cheap)

point is that groups work on averages - but no single driver is average - and if a particular company has had a whole load of corsas and saxos crashed by drivers under 25 they will charge correspondingly more for them to young drivers
 
course corsas do give you some options not usually available for fiestas :lol:

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Bangernomics is a lot harder to do these days as most modern cars are full of electronic gizmos which will put them beyond economic repair as soon as they go wrong. £1000 isn't really quite enough to get anything half decent and could be money down the drain if you aren't lucky. The MOT has also been tightened so many more items are now tested and have to work.

I'd look into leasing as the saving in fuel and repair costs could easily make it cheaper in the long run. I know it is exactly what you didn't want but sometimes if you have a limited budget buying something cheap out right can just be the most costly way of doing things.
 
Just to ensure I wasn't just being anti vauxhall for the sake of it Ive had a look on parkers etc but they still dont match up to the fiesta at all it has to be said :( its only advantage is the insurance thing which may not even be an issue depending on my insurer anyway.

Made me look at the toyota yaris too, but they're more expensive :(
 
srichards said:
Bangernomics is a lot harder to do these days as most modern cars are full of electronic gizmos which will put them beyond economic repair as soon as they go wrong. £1000 isn't really quite enough to get anything half decent and could be money down the drain if you aren't lucky. The MOT has also been tightened so many more items are now tested and have to work.

I'd look into leasing as the saving in fuel and repair costs could easily make it cheaper in the long run. I know it is exactly what you didn't want but sometimes if you have a limited budget buying something cheap out right can just be the most costly way of doing things.
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I can't lease, got a crap old credit history so that's out.

I have no problems with bangernomics, do all my own work anyway, hell Ive been keeping a Lemon Renault on the road for 4 years :bang: but it's getting to a point where I can't be doing with the hassle any longer. this is why I want an older car, something with less electronics would be ideal!

Frankly I'd happily have a 70's Mini with proper distributer caps, cables, carb etc but its out of budget :-/
 
Donnie said:
I can't lease, got a crap old credit history so that's out.

I have no problems with bangernomics, do all my own work anyway, hell Ive been keeping a Lemon Renault on the road for 4 years :bang: but it's getting to a point where I can't be doing with the hassle any longer. this is why I want an older car, something with less electronics would be ideal!

Frankly I'd happily have a 70's Mini with proper distributer caps, cables, carb etc but its out of budget :-/
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A friends lad ran a 70s mini as an every day car. He ditched it as it as always breaking down and leaving him to cycle to work. He leased an Up instead. That's been back to the garage a few times but it does twice as many miles to the gallon and doesn't break down completely. A 70s mini isn't a good answer :)

Mazda 3(23) or Toyota corolla would be my choice of banger. If you can find a good one you're laughing.
 
Id go with a Toyota or Nissan myself i have had plenty of Toyotas and a Lexus and apart from wear and tear items such as brake pads or even a clutch they just in my experience run forever.. had 6 in total over the years even with 160,000 mileage on 2 in there time still started and ran fine :D
 
Donnie said:
Ummmmmmm, but it's french???
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So? They're good looking, reliable, comfy, cheap and easy to work on, and the diesel is good on fuel. Low insurance too as they're not a typical first car type car like most the suggestions are.

Insurance groups are meaningless btw, they give a general idea but don't really help in the long run. Obviously a 2 will be cheaper than a 50, but some 2s will be considerably more than other 2s, there's not like a price band and then your personal risk is a multiplier.
 
So Im not interested in french cars or vauxhalls as in the original post :bonk::bonk:

Plus Parkers reviews certainly don't inspire any confidence in the 306 just reaffirming my antifrenchcar position :|
 
got my lad a nice clean fiesta freestyle has all mod cons and nice to drive for a grand
1.25 engine so pretty good on fuel
 
yeah good call - slightly larger desiels are often cheaper to insure because they aren't thrown around

I know a 23 yo who has an old bmw 3 series - £500 tp&t
 
Donnie said:
Hillman Imp, you've not read the criteria have you? I haven't seen many imps for sub £1000 :shake:
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Guess not, the last one I bought (five years ago) was £600 in good overall condition with a year's MOT, but they seem to have gone up quite a lot recently :(
 
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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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.
 
I have owned a KA for the past 8 years, totally reliable & cheap to run as well.

Very much a Fiesta with a different body.
 
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