car help.. please! :)

the alternative is to embrace the tau of bangernomics. i.e. buy a cheap car and an aa membership. service it once a year and run it 'till it explodes or becomes uneconomical to repair. have enought money in the bank to replace it as and when it does go kaput.

certainly if i was spending less than 2k on a car i'd not be that bothered about original parts or manufaturers service intervals. change the oil every 10k miles, the brakes when they squeal, the tyres when they are illegal and get a trusted independant grease monkey to give it a once over one a year before the mot. that'd be it.
cheers


julian
 
bottleneck said:
Ive been poring over auto-trader.

Its amazing what you can get for the money. There were even '98 Volvo S40's with about 70k on them. That sounds bargain to me. They look great too I think.
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worst Volvos for reliability since the 300 series apparently.


bottleneck said:
Mondeo diesels of about '96 vintage could be had for about 850 quid. Im spoiled for choice.
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I couldn't find a Mondy diesel with less than 120k. The mk2s are much better than the mk1s incidentally.

bottleneck said:
My hands turned inexorabily to 'sports and performance'.. A Fiat coupe is almost in price range... 5 series beamers with not-that-old shape for not too much cash and only 60-80k on the clock..
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Fiat Coupés are SO expensive to maintain. Beemers should be ok until you need to repair something

bottleneck said:
I guess my next two questions are -
1) How do you know what the servicing periods are on a car? - I mean like every 5k, 10k etc - is there a website or something that tells you?
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Parkers.co.uk in servicing and costs IIRC

bottleneck said:
2) If you buy something a bit more upmarket like a beamer.. and you take it for repair/maintenance to a local independant garage, are the parts REALLY that much more?
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Yes

Just get something simple. I've just bought a Focus Ghia estate but on my travels around have seen absolute minters of cars for less than £2k. Like a 1 owner 96/N Rover 214sei, that has been garaged and used by some old bloke for 10 years with 44k on the clock for £1k
:eek: .Yes its an old mans car (literally ;) ) but that'd keep on going for the next 5 years at least as ITS BEEN LOOKED AFTER!!! Other reliable (unfashionable???) gems are Toyota Camrys, Carinas, Nissan Primeras. Look for 1 owner cars, full service history (preferably dealer). The right cars are certainly out there mate. Good luck :)
 
Quick left-field thought: Citroen Xantia 1.9 turbodiesel. You should be able to find a good'un within the £2K budget.

These are great cars, ideal long-distance cruisers and a local friend has had one for 5 years and >160,000 miles added in the course of his job as the OP desired. Total reliability so far (coming up on 230K miles) averages 49-52MPG, with oil/filter change every 5K miles done at home - don't forget regular oil changes are critical for turbodiesel longevity.
 
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felix said:
Quick left-field thought: Citroen Xantia 1.9 turbodiesel. You should be able to find a good'un within the £2K budget.

These are great cars, ideal long-distance cruisers and a local friend has had one for 5 years and >160,000 miles added in the course of his job as the OP desired. Total reliability so far (coming up on 230K miles) averages 49-52MPG, with oil/filter change every 5K miles done at home - don't forget regular oil changes are critical for turbodiesel longevity.
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electrical problems according to garages i've asked- I was considering a Citroen Estate. LX models are better than SX and VSX models in this respect due to them having less electronics
 
I'd be wary of French immobilisers generally. Not the basic 'mechanical' types like my 405, but the sly stuff tied into engine management etc. I heard a horror story from a Megane owner once. This sort of stuff is just designed to stop 'the tau of bangernomics' that Julian so eloquently describes.
 

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