Cheap Reliable car for oncall firefighter

[prwilmo]

Hey guys looking for a cheap car under £1k to get me to the fire station quickly when on call.
As with any car your meant to warm it up before abit of spirited driving but it won't be an option for me, so I'm already cancelling out turbos, vtec, vvti, diesel etc that require abit more care.

Manual if poss. But most important is reliability!! Small cars would be welcomed as I would have more chance parking near my house (on street parking), AND with abit of street cred as I don't want any unwanted heckling down the station lol😂

Thanks in advance
🤘🏼🤘🏼

[BrewsterBear]

Get a 106 diesel. It's not quick, but for £500 you can rag it from cold, park it anywhere and they're so light and simple that there's little to go wrong and when it does it's costs pennies to put right.

[sebhaque]

I'm not sure you can really get anything desireable without taking care of it lol.

Go for a Nissan Micra or a Toyota Avensis. The cockroaches of the car world. Buy yourself an E46 M3 for the weekends that you can look after. There's no point in having something nice that you'll just end up either running into an early grave or (and by your post I assume you won't) spending lots of money on upkeep.

Buy the cheapest POS you can to drive to work and back and save the nice cars for the weekend. The benefit of a sheddy car is that you can donate it to the team for car extraction training and earn brownie points with the chief.

ETA: heckling is part of the fun. I assume you're one of the juniors in the team, so the other guys are turning up in 320ds/Mondeos/typical TT. I work on call (aerospace) and I get enough stick turning up in my MX-5 even though it's my use-and-abuse car. Even if you turn up in a Veyron someone will find a way to lambast you for it. Image is secondary to actual work reputation.

Edited by sebhaque on Thursday 8th December 00:09

[Atmospheric]

Something Japanese, four cylinder petrol and 2000s.

[anonymous-user]

octavia tdi 130, the engine goes straight from cold, just oil changes on the button to keep it going.

[caelite]

Suzuki Ignis 4Grip, little reliable 1.5, with a good set of tyres and a snorkel it will get you their through through any weather (it will struggle on real mud but the VC AWD system is plenty good in snow and floods)

[T16OLE]

Probably won't be able to fault a petrol / manual fiesta or focus.

Should be tough enough to handle most abuse.

[Hitch]

The best Honda Civic you can get for £1k

[RedAndy]

Hilux or SUrf truck

[ReaperCushions]

Lexus LS or GS.

Reliable and street cred

[S10GTA]

RedAndy said:

Hilux or SUrf truck

Did you read the OP?

Question for the OP, how much ragging from cold do you expect to do? I assume you don't live that far from the station and you'll just be driving as per traffic allows. Any modern car will be fine if you just get in and drive. You're not going to be doing red line changes all the way there.

[ANJ91]

Set the following parameters on ebay, autotrader, gumtree etc.

max budget - 1k
fuel type - petrol
max distance from you - 10 miles? (make it close so you don't have to waste your time and money travelling far and that way you can view several cars and pick the one in best condition)

ideally get something with long MOT

see if you can find something interesting but it's best to go for whatever is in best condition

Whether the car is japanese or ford/vauxhall etc. doesn't matter too much I would say as they all should be reliable but if not cheap to service/fix but do not get a cheap premium brand car like merc/bmw because it will be more expensive to keep running.

Edited by ANJ91 on Thursday 8th December 12:55

[Grunt Futtock]

[33q]

Take your pick from here. Then work from home.....
http://fireengines4sale.co.uk/

[ZX10R NIN]

Mondeo ST-24 48k FSH
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Nissan Primera 76k
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Almera 44k FSH
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Lexus IS200
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Honda Accord
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Mondeo Ghia 41k
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Vectra SRI
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

[Yipper]

Gotta be Japanese for reliability. Something from Mitsubishi, Toyota or Honda should cover it:

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/top-100

[Deisel Weisel]

Was going to suggest Yaris 1.3, but with street cred required, hows about a Puma 1.7?

[prwilmo]

Great suggestions guys!! Thanks for taking the time, but looks like I'm just going to buy my own Fire Engine haha

Found a great Astra coupe 1.8 very clean but sold just before i got the time to view.

Lexus is200 keeps popping up? Any experience with one of those?

[RedAndy]

S10GTA said:

RedAndy said:

Hilux or SUrf truck

Did you read the OP?

Surf's are available under £1k from auction. They have an unburstable non turbo engine that is oldskool so no VVTi nonsense to go wrong or get sniffy about ragging from cold. They do come in manual, and have incredible reliability record beyond most cars. It's called surf and is a respected offroader thingy (if that floats your boat) so has some cred. It fits in a standard parking space so parking on street is no problem.

did YOU read the OP S10GTA?

[kiethton]

RedAndy said:

It's called surf and is a respected offroader thingy (if that floats your boat) so has some cred.

Has cred only if you sell dogs for a living (and haven't rebuilt enough walls to get a X6/RRS/Q7) and need something to tow the family home