looking for a car for the wife

120_Minutes

i'm looking for a car for my wife, it'll be her first irish car (she's american) and first time she'll be driving a RHD on the left side of the road. she's been driving for 12 years and drove a honda crv (jeep type thing??) in the states. basically she wants something small and cheap, and easy to adap to, probably corsa sized (but not a corsa as i hate them)

she likes jap cars, as do i (currently drive a 97 corolla)

budget of bout a grand max i suppose.

DublinDilbert

if she is from the US does it have to be an Automatic?? I think i saw an automatic micra over on adverts.ie...

cantdecide

There was a recent thread about a car for agrand also- he is waithing on a new car untik July I think.

I posted something along the lines of...

Small cars for a grand represent the poorest value for money you can get as far as I'm concerned. She could get a fantastic automatic saloon like a 98/99-ish Mazda 626 for her budget and it would be a suitable car for someone who is used to beefier cars especially where you need them on our roads. A lot of these are diesel too.

Little old ill-maintained 1.0 cars are compromise after compromise IMO when you can have a proper newer car for vrtually the same purchase price and a modest rise in running costs and if you're THAT hard up (not trying to be insulting- I'm sure you're not hard up at all), maybe you should consider a bus pass.

cantdecide

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=849171 Almost in budget with a bit of haggling...

Cionád

cantdecide wrote: »

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=849171 Almost in budget with a bit of haggling...

Thats hardly small or cheap to tax/run.

cantdecide

Cionád wrote: »

Thats hardly small or cheap to tax/run.

OP never said it had to be cheap to tax or run (it's only a wee 2.0 anyway). You added that yourself

"It must be easy to adapt to". I think it would be a very easy car to adapt to after driving a CRV. Auto box, all mod cons and if she bins it before she gets used to a RHD, it's a good safe car.

I'm only suggesting to the OP that fo his budget small does not equal cheap (and it DEFINITELY doesn't equal value)

120_Minutes

thanks for the replies, i should have mentioned that it must be cheap to tax/run too! I love my corolla, so something like that or a starlet for around my budget would be great, that volvo would be too big, and she can drive stick so it wouldnt have to be automatic (but she'd prob prefer it!)

cantdecide

Don't mean to go on about it but you will find it hard to get a GOOD 1.0 for a grand.

A Polish workmate was easily convinced about getting a '€1000 93 1.6 Carina with 96k on the clock owned by the service manager in Bus Eireann by showing him the next car listed was a '92 starlet with 120k on the clock and no NCT for €1200. He rang for a quote and found teh insurance wast the same.

Old hatches with carburettors (I'm not sure about starlets) aren't that light on fuel either and a 1.6 is basically only a marginally higher commitment in actuality.

Keep it in mind when you're searching cos you might end up paying a premium price for a budget car.