what is the best car for me?

LuciferGary

hi guys, i need some advices.
i am going to change my car with 10000euro fund.
and it's must be newer than year 2000 and engine is smaller than 2.0 or 1.9Diesel.

when i look at carzone, there are hundreds of cars up there, i could not make up my mind.

but what cars i have in mind basically are as follow:
BMW 3series
Audi A4
Lexus IS200
VW Passat

please give some help with it.

Thanks!

Wossack

the toyota imo

CarLover

LuciferGary wrote:

hi guys, i need some advices.
i am going to change my car with 10000euro fund.
and it's must be newer than year 2000 and engine is smaller than 2.0 or 1.9Diesel.

when i look at carzone, there are hundreds of cars up there, i could not make up my mind.

but what cars i have in mind basically are as follow:
BMW 3series
Audi A4
Lexus IS200
VW Passat

please give some help with it.

Thanks!

A lot depends on what model you'd intend on going for?
As IS200 is in the mix I'm presuming that you're looking at petrol.
As the IS200 is a 6 cylinder I'm presuming you'd be willing to punt for a 6 pot Beamer as well.
So...if that's the case your choice is clear. BMW 320Ci (e46 model) should be the entry 3 series you look at. It's a more refined and better drive to the Lexus. A4...I wouldn't personally. 1.8T is ok...in an ok inda way. VW Passat...130BHP TDI is the only one I would even glance at...but seriously...all three other options are better than the VW in every possible way.

Lexus has strong reliability but 3 series 6 cylinder coupe is the way to go.

Wossack

unfort the 320Ci might be over budget and engine cc

CarLover

Wossack wrote:

unfort the 320Ci might be over budget and engine cc

Yes you're right...totally missed that from the original post

LuciferGary

CarLover wrote:

A lot depends on what model you'd intend on going for?
As IS200 is in the mix I'm presuming that you're looking at petrol.
As the IS200 is a 6 cylinder I'm presuming you'd be willing to punt for a 6 pot Beamer as well.
So...if that's the case your choice is clear. BMW 320Ci (e46 model) should be the entry 3 series you look at. It's a more refined and better drive to the Lexus. A4...I wouldn't personally. 1.8T is ok...in an ok inda way. VW Passat...130BHP TDI is the only one I would even glance at...but seriously...all three other options are better than the VW in every possible way.

Lexus has strong reliability but 3 series 6 cylinder coupe is the way to go.

CarLover, thanks for reply!
3 series 6 cylinder coupe might be out of budget. the reason i looked at IS200 was its Duo VVTi, what i heard was it's economicl (not very) than same size of Beamer, and Lexus has higher stander spec if i am right. what about a vw GOLF GT TDI? never drive GOLF before.so i might go for 00 BMW 318 or 320 but not da COUPE, saloon will do me well,haha.


my friend got year2000 IS2000 for 8200euro,and i looked at carzone, i could not find a good deal like that. i think may be i should wait for couple of weeks and see if any better deal come up.

thanks!

cantdecide

OP, your budget might be a little constrictive to find fresh, decent examples of a lot of those cars as a matter of course. To get a fresh, good value, good brand car like that, you'll find a lot of the diesels for that price will be high mileage and a year or 2 older. IS200 or 318i would be the most likely to show up first but that's not to say you won't get a decent diesel if you're patient.

Buying a relatively high mileage car is ok if it's a good price and you won't crucify it with more mileage in a short space of time. If you're doing lots of miles, you'll have to think carefully about your choice and also how long you'd like to keep it.

You could also go to the UK, they love those cars like these and they love to mind them more carefully than the general motorist here. There is often a good saving for better minded, higher specced cars with FSH and a lot of people on here have gone down this route. you could check on autotrader.co.uk and as a general rule, doubling the sterling figure will give you the approximate euro figure including VRT.

LuciferGary

cantdecide wrote:

OP, your budget might be a little constrictive to find fresh, decent examples of a lot of those cars as a matter of course. To get a fresh, good value, good brand car like that, you'll find a lot of the diesels for that price will be high mileage and a year or 2 older. IS200 or 318i would be the most likely to show up first but that's not to say you won't get a decent diesel if you're patient.

Buying a relatively high mileage car is ok if it's a good price and you won't crucify it with more mileage in a short space of time. If you're doing lots of miles, you'll have to think carefully about your choice and also how long you'd like to keep it.

You could also go to the UK, they love those cars like these and they love to mind them more carefully than the general motorist here. There is often a good saving for better minded, higher specced cars with FSH and a lot of people on here have gone down this route. you could check on autotrader.co.uk and as a general rule, doubling the sterling figure will give you the approximate euro figure including VRT.

thanks mate!
i have to be patient for saving some money,heh.
it's not possile for me to go to UK, got new job 2months ago and got promotion 2weeks ago. have to stay here and work hard.
but is it easy to import a car from UK?

cantdecide

Very,

I've done it twice. If you saw something over there, there's no reason why you couldn't be over and back in day or overnight on a weekend.

You can ring and if you think you can trust yer man, you can then get an AA inspection and a HPI report (to prove the car has no outstanding credit or a shady past/ stolen/ write off etc.). AA reort should tell all. I think you may be able to get the AA to do the HPI report together but you have to be sure the car might be a goer cos it'll cost a few hundred for the service and it'll be a few hundred wasted if seller was being not 100% truthful.

The rest will be along shortly with more suggestions but these are the basics.

All the usual rules apply (recent servicing etc)

Ask also what kind of service history is with the car to determine how easy it would be to forge. Folders of receipts and old MoTs are good signs.

Book the usual flight and ferry online, arrange to be collected at the airport- most are happy to oblige, fill tank, blast home.

You will need a couple of hours off to get the car to the VRT office but as long as you have the V5 document, and the correct amount of money (no more cash AFAIK), it should be fairly quick. If you buy something with a lot of aftermarket extras (eg, chrome wheels, bodykits flash stereos etc,) they'll want extra for those too

You can find out how much the VRT is here https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showCarCalculator

chris85

Dont go for the BMW, they got a bit unreliable between 96 and 03/04, but they are good now. They tried to save costs back in 96 and started cutting costs so they became less reliable but they sorted it out a few years back.

I know few people with the 3 series and they have been shocking, engine was fine, but the electrics were terrible, such as locking the car at all, yes couldnt lock the car cos the key wouldnt open it again (brand new key got from BMW the month before).

I would opt for the A4

cantdecide

I thinks that a bit black and white. There's no such thing as a car that's 100% a bad idea and there are piles of people here who love their E46s. It wouldn't be my #1 choice but i wouldn't rule it out.

S.I.R

audi would be a good choice but for 10 k id be looking at a c class merc or a e30
m3
(everything after e30 was a waste of time and money )

only passat isnt a bad choice either... but its more of a family car then anything else