small car, nothing cheep ?

fatboypee

Hi,

Mrs FBP is off to college in September and thus we wish to scrap her 1.8 ve-hick-le and go for something around the 1.0 - 1.4 (at a push) engine size (college is some 25kms each way and she already does a ton of driving (kids etc)). Now, here's the challenge, going to college and the soon to be introduction of fees and loss of her income, we don't really have a bean, yet, I see no point in changing a car unless the replacement is of some quality. By quality, I mean sub 60k, dont care too much on year but +98 at least.

I usually source all my mota's from the UK but my budget is 1200 Euro and I can find nothing here, or there for that money (by nothing I am excluding Fiat and Daewoooooos etc), given that imho the government seem to have upped the omsp on most cars to dissuade ppl from importing (maybe just me). So, my question is, anyone got suggestions I may not have thought of ? and maybe where ? Positively detest carzone and donedeal is a pain in the bolls to troll?

thanks for reading.

FBP

robtri

fatboypee wrote: »

Hi,

Mrs FBP is off to college in September and thus we wish to scrap her 1.8 ve-hick-le and go for something around the 1.0 - 1.4 (at a push) engine size (college is some 25kms each way and she already does a ton of driving (kids etc)). Now, here's the challenge, going to college and the soon to be introduction of fees and loss of her income, we don't really have a bean, yet, I see no point in changing a car unless the replacement is of some quality. By quality, I mean sub 60k, dont care too much on year but +98 at least.

I usually source all my mota's from the UK but my budget is 1200 Euro and I can find nothing here, or there for that money (by nothing I am excluding Fiat and Daewoooooos etc), given that imho the government seem to have upped the omsp on most cars to dissuade ppl from importing (maybe just me). So, my question is, anyone got suggestions I may not have thought of ? and maybe where ? Positively detest carzone and donedeal is a pain in the bolls to troll?

thanks for reading.

FBP

Plenty of cars meeting your criteria... quick look at carzone a a couple of hundred cars matching them requirements...

Polo's, corsa's, Arosa's....

my money I would take a 1.25 zetec fiesta...
like this one for less than a grand...
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Ford/Fiesta/1.25--ZE/200927194509516/advert?channel=CARS

unkel

robtri wrote: »

my money I would take a 1.25 zetec fiesta...
like this one for less than a grand...
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Ford/Fiesta/1.25--ZE/200927194509516/advert?channel=CARS

"Trade sale only no warranty"

There could be something major wrong with that one...

fatboypee

thanks for replying, are Fiestas reliable ? I had a late 96 1.6 ghia (classic), engine perfect, rest of it, utterly, utterly crap, quite literally fell apart on me.....

bazz26

unkel wrote: »

"Trade sale only no warranty"

There could be something major wrong with that one...

Which gives you the same risks as buying privately, so why bother buying from a dealer in the first place.

Fiestas are generally very reliable, parts are cheap, plentiful and servicing is reasonable on them.

OP I'm not sure I believe in your idea that something with 60k miles or less will be a more "quality" purchase than say something with higher mileage. Mileage is not an accurate indication of wear and tear. A 10 year old car with only 20k miles might have been owned by a sweet old granny but ground the crap out of the clutch and gearbox to the shop down the road every day and only got it serviced twice in 10 years.

no1beemerfan

I'd go for a 1998 on micra.....brilliant engines and chain driven and pretty good build quality. Plenty about and if you have any idea on cars or know someone who does you should be able to weed out any lemons.

Just make sure its not overheating. The waterpump leaking or theromstat sticking are probably the biggest problems.

Gurgle

bazz26 wrote: »

Which gives you the same risks as buying privately, so why bother buying from a dealer in the first place.

Not really, a dealer sale with no guarantee means he knows its all going to go wrong in a matter of weeks.

With a private sale you can have a certain amout of faith in the sellers inability to hide major faults.

unkel

Gurgle wrote: »

Not really, a dealer sale with no guarantee means he knows its all going to go wrong in a matter of weeks.

With a private sale you can have a certain amout of faith in the sellers inability to hide major faults.

+1

A "trade only" from a dealer would make me run a mile.

smcgiff

unkel wrote: »

+1

A "trade only" from a dealer would make me run a mile.

On a car < €1k? Surely the risk of giving a warranty on even a car you have no reason to suspect is too great a risk.

Besides main dealers usually sell older cars to second tier garages under the same arrangement.

With that said the OP could get the car independently checked and still have money left over from his €1.2k.

unkel

smcgiff wrote: »

On a car < €1k? Surely the risk of giving a warranty on even a car you have no reason to suspect is too great a risk.

Fair point, and maybe I'm a bit too cynical in thinking the dealer knows there's something wrong with the car. But in todays market, you can get that car for the same price or less in a private sale.

robtri

Lads I was only using that one as an example of whats out there....

but I won't except warranty on a sub €1k car....

Plenty of other ones out there... and many others for that money.....

samsemtex

These were basically a Honda Civic so i dont think there should be many reliability problems despite it being a Rover. No NCT or Tax though so you should try to get them first.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Rover/400/200922192956418/advert?channel=CARS

Mazda Demio - again a horrible car but everything in that price range is and it should have good reliability being a Mazda. It's been NCT'd as well so thats handy.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Mazda/Demio/(NCT-06-/200924193089242/advert?channel=CARS

Then there is this which is a little better in the looks department and two of my dads employees have one and they havent had a thing go wrong with it yet so i would think this would be suitable. Its NCT'd and looks very clean.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Volkswagen/Polo/1.4-(NCT/200920192796046/advert?channel=CARS

ianobrien

Have you done the sums on this?

What's the difference in Road Tax, insurnace, fuel consumption (based on average mileage).

How long will it take for the new car to pay for itself, against the cost of keeping the current one.

I'm assuming that there is not too much wrong with the current car. If it needs money spent, you may have to spend it anyway on the new one after a while....

fatboypee

samsemtex wrote: »

These were basically a Honda Civic so i dont think there should be many reliability problems despite it being a Rover. No NCT or Tax though so you should try to get them first.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Rover/400/200922192956418/advert?channel=CARS

Mazda Demio - again a horrible car but everything in that price range is and it should have good reliability being a Mazda. It's been NCT'd as well so thats handy.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Mazda/Demio/(NCT-06-/200924193089242/advert?channel=CARS

Then there is this which is a little better in the looks department and two of my dads employees have one and they havent had a thing go wrong with it yet so i would think this would be suitable. Its NCT'd and looks very clean.
http://www.carzone.ie/search/Volkswagen/Polo/1.4-(NCT/200920192796046/advert?channel=CARS

Thanks for all the posts.

In general reply, in my experience, a car with 60k may well have had its gearbox trashed, what is for sure however, especially on irish roads, is that a car with 60k will have had less general wear and tear than the same vehicle clocking 100k, again its my preference as I usually carefully source my cars from the UK that lower milage cars, irrespective of year, give better service than higher milage examples. Case in point, my neighbour bought a BMW 530d with 120k on it. delighted he was, for a year, until this car developed crank seal, gearbox and suspension issues.... he sold it at a big loss. In contrast, at the same time, I bought my 94 Vauxhall cavalier that had 13k (genuine miles) on it, and mine is still running without any major issues. Yes, comparing fish & houses, but generally, I try to spend pennies and save pounds...(euros) and not been wrong so far...

I realise I won't get a whole pile for my money, just interested in what you guys recommend as a good buy and from where (as VRT seems to make a UK trip a little pointless at the present time)....

Thanks for the replies...

FBP.

Barr

For that kinda budget check your local paper - I find it far better for the lower end of the market.

colm_mcm

I can't believe someone suggested a Rover 400

rotinaj

unkel wrote: »

"Trade sale only no warranty"

There could be something major wrong with that one...

I think all cars they sell under €3000 are listed as "trade sale no warranty". My brother bought a 00 corsa down there last year and it said they same on that add. One year and 12k miles later car is still fine.

unkel

colm_mcm wrote: »

I can't believe someone suggested a Rover 400

+1

The most horrible handling car I've driven in a long time...

Ancient POS. No redeeming features what so ever and not particularly likely to be reliable either.

unkel

d3mon24 wrote: »

I think all cars they sell under €3000 are listed as "trade sale no warranty".

Yeah it could well be their policy. It is dodgy though imho. Trade sales should be made to the trade only. From a gargage point of view, selling trade cars without warranty to the general public is asking for trouble. People will come back if there are issues, or even sue / whatever pretending they didn't understand the car didn't come with a warranty while quoting the sale of goods act.

samsemtex

unkel wrote: »

+1

The most horrible handling car I've driven in a long time...

Ancient POS. No redeeming features what so ever and not particularly likely to be reliable either.

Are they not just a Honda Civic rebadged?

fatboypee

Found something of interest, a wee bit over budget but......

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320392943539&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123

3 previous owners and still only 25k on it = RINGER????

Looks fine......???


FBP....