car help needed for commuting

[pencil shavings]

I dont really know the first thing about cars, but I need to get somthing to get to work in. Any helpful ideas considered!

Criteria:

second hand, cheep as viable (ie, not going to drink oil/petrol or fall apart)
good on fuel, I dont know what is good or bad, but over 50mpg
not fussed about how 'cool' it is, I have a bike to look cool on ;)

Im 24 and have 0 car no claims (but 3 on the bike, can I use them?) so I dont want the car to bancrupt me with insurance costs.

any ideas guys?

thanks :p

[Dave20046]

Price?

[pencil shavings]

Price?

I didnt put a price down as Im not really sure what I can expect for my £.
As cheap as I can get really without it being carp really. Thinking between £1000 and £2000 :scratch:

[Dave20046]

I didnt put a price down as Im not really sure what I can expect for my £.
As cheap as I can get really without it being carp really. Thinking between £1000 and £2000 :scratch:
Probably about right, diesel 307/106? Old polo or golf/vw? Japanese cars are supposedley reliable.

[pencil shavings]

heard the same noises about jap cars.

anyone got any ideas as to why rovers 45/75 are so cheep? no spares?

[Sean_C]

Because they're discontinued.

I'd go for a skoda or vw personally. I bought a 206 in the end- a 2 litre turbo diesel which is less powerful, less efficient and more expensive to tax than my dad's 1.9 turbo diesel octavia. Not that thepug is a bad car. Im not sure what youd get for under two grand though, especially if you're in a rush.

[hovis]

corsa

[pencil shavings]

as for mileage, what is alot, as in bike terms I wouldnt touch these second hand cars. Alot/most of them are up around 100k miles

[Wideboy]

old straight diesel peugeot engines are good on fuel, had 2. pain in the **** to work on mind and not the fastest thing

[TazDaz]

anyone got any ideas as to why rovers 45/75 are so cheep? no spares?

I've got a Rover and never had any trouble with getting spares. Still loads of companies with large stocks (Rimmer Bros.) plus eBay will never run out of Rover parts!

[L3nny]

Rovers are cheap as they are very uncool, (no offence Taz) they are not great cars and the build quality of them is not up to the same standard as ford or the german manufacturers but for a cheap winter runabout they should be fine.

I just got a Mazda Xedos 6 as a cheap winter runabout its got a V6 so will struggle to do half the MPG you are looking for but it's pretty quick and very comfy and was really cheap

Jap cars and Rovers seem to cost more to insure for some reason, French cars are cheaper. Dont think you'd be able to carry your bike ncd over, noone would do it for me the other way around.

[BanditPat]

Rovers are cheap as they are very uncool, (no offence Taz) they are not great cars and the build quality of them is not up to the same standard as ford or the german manufacturers but for a cheap winter runabout they should be fine.




Opinions there ;) I have a rover and I think its 'cool' the build quality might not be as good as ford etc but i've found that it feels better to drive than the ford fiesta and Seat Ibiza and a hell of a lot more comfortable in both the fiesta and Ibiza the seats destroy my back after about 30 minutes which i've found with any ford I've been in but my rover well so far so good and its not to bad on petrol either I have the 1.6ltr 16V 200 coupe and it gets around 45-50mpg and I only paid £500 for it as well as that there cheap on insurance as well Only problem I've had with it was the thermostat housing breaking, got a new one from the ex rover dealer nexxt day so no problem getting parts for them either. IIRC there's still at least 1 company making new parts for them.

[Wideboy]

parts wouldn't be a problem, you will find most parts distributors will stock a vast selection of pattern parts

[jamesterror]

1.1 saxo

[Biker Biggles]

How many miles will you do?Do you care if it looks like a shed?BB junior uses a Nissan Micra with a few bodywork mods(dents)and special paint job(different colours).Very reliable,good on fuel and no self respecting thief would dream of nicking it.About £200 buys one.

[Thingus]

Micra. Nippy 1 litre 3 door.
Or a diesel golf? Older one mind. Mate picked up one for 800 quid, did a lil bit of work to it which involved a 15 quid panel from a scrapyard and hey presto.

[Dave20046]

Skoda (recentish) is a good call they're just unfashionable VW's, might save a few coins. Could also consider Seats my neighbour has a seat ibiza 2005ish and the engine sounds absolutely identical to my old polo, convinced they're the same car underneath (which wouldn't be suprising as vw own them now obviously).
Corsa's are nippy for what they are but most have been screwed by ****wit chavs. An old family owned vauxhall astra or something might see you right.


I was in the same position a bit ago (although I was required to actually use the car for work aswell as commuting so needed to bne smart) I went for comfort & reliability in the end compromised on speed which I don't regret at all but also compromised on fuel economy a bit :( Went for a mk4 golf, crap on insurance and not too great on fuel but comfiest car I've ever driven after the audi a3. I did a thread on it a while ago and got some helpful replies from the org.

[Drew Carey]

For the price you are talking about you could get a decent conditioned Skoda Fabia 1.4. Its economical, cheap on parts and basically a Polo in disguise. We have one at the moment and one other benefit is that it has a chain timing belt. So providing you keep the oil chnages to the correct intervals they have very few problems. The only issues is that the Temp Coolant sensor has a habit of going, but it takes 5 minutes to fix and cost £12. Other than that, had no problems.....just don't be tempted by a VRS!!!! As they are belt timed, not chain and are also not so economical.

[pencil shavings]

thanks guys, not exactly sure on the miles I will be doing as place of work moves! but it could easily be over 10k.
I dont care if its abit bent or a poor colour etc
and as for micras - no way, drive one at the moment (named driver) and I hate it. I would think I would need at least a 1.4 to make motorways comfy

the skoda and seats also sound like a good idea :)

[blue curvy jester]

rovers parts bussiness was sold to caterpillar before rover went under so no issues with parts

[custard]

couple of years back i had a honda civic, it had done 110k bought it for £400 ran it daily with no problems. it did have a full honda service history though...

[SuzukiNess]

mmh.. i have a 1.4 16v 99 Polo i'm thinking of selling at the moment. 89k miles. (lowish mileage for its age :) ) seats etc all good condition. body in good nick. its silver. brakes need doing (not sure whats to be done to them but easily sorted before sale) if you interested let know

[metalangel]

Skoda Fabia (should find the nicer looking older shape one for peanuts) or maybe a Seat Ibiza? Both are secretly VWs and built to last.

[Luckypants]

anyone got any ideas as to why rovers 45/75 are so cheep? no spares?

Main reason they are cheap is that they eat head gaskets. If you get a K-series (petrol) it may well be on it's second or third head gasket. Once they gone, the head needs skimming and they still not brilliantly sealed. There are good ones, don't get me wrong, but they have a reputation for it. 2-litre diesels are the same on the 200/25 and 400/45, head gaskets go.

My kids had Rovers cos they cheap but both needed head gaskets and my daughter's also burned out an exhaust valve at 120K miles. I taxied a Rover 400 diesel and went through 2 head gaskets in 60K miles.

Avoid if you need a reliable motor.

If you can run to a 75 diesel then they are pretty good, loved by taxi drivers for being cheap to buy, spacious and reliable. They have a BMW 2-litre diesel (the one before the chocolate turbo) so reliable and spares no issue.

[FlyinCustard]

go diesel for power and economy, get an old german something or other

[blue curvy jester]

[QUOTE=

If you can run to a 75 diesel then they are pretty good, loved by taxi drivers for being cheap to buy, spacious and reliable. They have a BMW 2-litre diesel (the one before the chocolate turbo) so reliable and spares no issue.[/QUOTE]

the engine thats in the 216/416 is the honda engine agin v reliable

[Viney]

Unless you sell your bike, you can not use the NCB from that. However, it counts as road miles so worht mentioning it, you may get a discount of some sorts.

As for car. If you want a cheap as chips runaround, ANY of the small hatchbacks will be good. Fiesta, Corsa, Saxo, Ibiza, Polo etc. They all have good and bad points, but in the long run all will do the job. No need for Diesel at that level of car. The petorl ones will be cheaper to repair if needed, as cheap to run on fuel, cheaper to buy etc etc. Failing that, the next step, a Focus, Astra, Leon, Golf. Going a bit out of your price range.

Usual things, cheack history (Hepefully backed up by reciepts) and dont buy the first one you see, and if its too good to be true, it probably is!

[pencil shavings]

rovers parts bussiness was sold to caterpillar before rover went under so no issues with parts

nice one mate :)

[pencil shavings]

lots of good ideas guys, just one main question still in my head, what is high mileage?

[zsv650]

find yourself a nice little polo cheap as chip's well built uses sod all fuel job's a good un.

[BanditPat]

the engine thats in the 216/416 is the honda engine agin v reliable


Not necessarily the later models were rover K series engines some where around 96 onwards I think. The uprated multi-layered head gaskets make the problem less frequent as well remember not a bad car really.

[Dave20046]

lots of good ideas guys, just one main question still in my head, what is high mileage?
IMO (for what it's worth) I'd start getting slighlty concerned doing longer trips on a decent car 130k + . My dad's J reg passat got to 190k before he didn't dare do his 3 hour daily commute in it anymore. Think it depends on the car really I wouldn't have any problems buying a car for reasonable money 60k-90k. I expected to be doing far more miles in my golf then it's turned out I have (due to change in job description) but I bought with 40k on the clock, I wouldn't have been worried buying a higher mileage golf but it was for the sake of retaining some value when I'm done with the car.

[pencil shavings]

thanks for that reply dave numbers

[pencil shavings]

I now own a 1999 pug 106 with 74,000 miles on her :)

thanks for all your help guys

[DANINPLYMOUTH]

I recently purchased an astra estate 1.7CDTI.
Hmm what can i say around town it gives me 50odd to the gallon on dual carrageway runs 60 to mid 60s. Bloody thing i end up spending more time in that now than on the SV, in the last 6months its virtually paid for itself in the fuel savings and its 120 to tax for a year which is pretty good.
Would definatley recommend 1 to anyone, i would guess the normal hatch would be more economical than the estate too

[Sosha]

I now own a 1999 pug 106 with 74,000 miles on her :)

thanks for all your help guys


Nice one - got a Treg 1.5 diesel 106. Never been any bother.




Edit: Now all you need is a tow bar and trailer.....

[Dave20046]

Weldone pencil goo luck with everything

[pencil shavings]

Nice one - got a Treg 1.5 diesel 106. Never been any bother.




Edit: Now all you need is a tow bar and trailer.....


and a track bike :smt025