First car buyer advice

[Asaxena3]

Hi All.

I happen to be new here, and am looking to buy a low cost car for my weekend trips to the countryside with the mrs. Therefore expect plenty of motorway driving and little or no movement inside London.

The cars I've zeroed down on are Audi A4 1.9tdi, and bmw 320d se. A number of them from around year 2000 are available for £1200 or so. Can anyone tell me if Buying one of these is a good idea vs buying a 2005 model of the same cars for around £5000? Will the older cars be reliable enough for long drives around UK?

Thanks

Abhi.

[anonymous-user]

My main car is a 1996N Mondeo V6, it's never broken down or left me stranded anywhere. Paying more does not = reliability!!!

[mcflurry]

For the odd weekend it'll probably work out cheaper to hire.
(No insurance, tax, MOT etc)
Most hire cars are either new enough not to break down too often, and/or come with Breakdown cover

[Asaxena3]

Thanks people! That was useful advice. Calms my nerves a bit about getting a low cost car.

Cheers and thanks again!

A.

[varsas]

I was looking a few weeks back and couldn't find a decent 320d for that money, more like £2k+. Since you asked, I go for lower mileage rather then worrying about age.

Similar to the guy above, my last two daily drivers where old when I bought them, vectra was 7 years old, BMW was 12. I kept my Vectra for 6 years, and have had my BMW for 4 now. Neither ever broke down, but they where both 60k miles, 1 owner examples with full service history when I bought them. They both cost £2k, which I think is a reasonable budget.

ETA: Just had a quick look on autotrader and the cheapest 320d I would consider buying I could find was this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Mileage is a bit high and no mention of service history or the number of owners and still way over budget.

Edited by varsas on Friday 23 December 08:44