Decent car wanted for around £2K. Is it possible?

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

Nissan Micra

+1 for this suggestion. Micras are damn near indestructible, and if they ever do go wrong the parts are cheap as chips.

I had an M plate 1 litre Micra, and managed to drag two Suzuki TS50s I'd bought the 50 miles home with them in the boot in bits. I sold that car over two years ago for 300 quid and it's still going strong despite not having been serviced or maintained in any way since I let it go.

[L3nny]

I just bought a 2000 W reg VW Bora V5 for £1200.

Really nice car to drive.

Don't believe all the horror stories about Alfas, I only sank 2 grand into my 156 V6 over the course of 18 months and ended up selling it on ebay with no MOT for a quarter of what I paid for it. Was worth it though lol.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

+1 for this suggestion. Micras are damn near indestructible, and if they ever do go wrong the parts are cheap as chips.

I had an M plate 1 litre Micra, and managed to drag two Suzuki TS50s I'd bought the 50 miles home with them in the boot in bits. I sold that car over two years ago for 300 quid and it's still going strong despite not having been serviced or maintained in any way since I let it go.

Aye but you'd be mad to spend £2k on one.
No particular vices though don't intend on getting anywhere in a hurry.

My 1.5D 106 cost me 1.5k about 6 years ago. Does better mpg than the Bike. Moved house with it too - obviously getting on a bit now. Check out road tax rates before you buy.

[embee]

I've had a couple of Micras in the past, then got a Yaris in 2000. The Yaris is a way better car in practically every respect. You can get a very nice example for under 2k now.

Just had a look on Autotrader and surprisingly you can now get a Honda Jazz for 2k, high mileage but they have an enviable reliability and owner satisfaction reputation, ride a little harsh on earlier examples but it's all relative.

Generally I suggest to people that they should go for a recent design car, safety has improved dramatically. The old jelly mould Micra was basically a 1990 design or thereabouts, the first Yaris was 1999 (so a generation later). We are now into a generation further along. Put safety well up the list of wants, it may well save your life one day.

Honda has probably the best overall reliability of any marque, FWIW, Toyota nearly as good (there was a study done in the US where they came to the simplified conclusion that statistically a 5 year old Toyota had a similar reliability to a 1 year old VW). If you want European, Skoda is probably the way to go, avoid French, Italian, and most GM.