Cheap smallish car to run for 6 months
Discussion
Hi All,
I have haven't done the bangernomics route before, and need a bit of advice from PHers who are more experienced with these things.
I need to help the GF to find a car, to replace her Ibiza that a slipped timing chain looks more like a meeting of valves and pistons. It is a POS anyhow, but looks like it has had it's day after 155k miles.
What she is looking for is something is something to get her to summer, and get something nicer and what she wants, with a view to owning it for a few years. So we are looking for something reliable and not and cheap and nasty (unlike the dead Ibiza on the drive!!!), and shift easy enough once done.
She estimates she would do up to 10k miles during that time, and can't cost a fortune to run (or have a history of going bang!).
So to the masses for advice and sane suggestions - my thoughts (with her requirements), up to 2.5-3k to spend, but cheaper is better. Looking for a family owned car, rather than boy racer one :
Mk4 Golf - easy to sell right because people like Golfs right? Big enough for her, and her work stuff, seem good valve. Are there engines not to touch as they are dangerously gutless or unreliable?
E46 3 Series - My idea. Bigger than a Golf, but she is happy to explore one. Lots of petrol engine ones out there, going for good money. Petrol BMW engines in that series had been refined over the years and reliable (?), unlike the dervs of that age. A 320i going for 1.5k should be able to be sold for the same sort of money, and she has less cash tied up in a car.
Thoughts/advice?
Cheers.
I have haven't done the bangernomics route before, and need a bit of advice from PHers who are more experienced with these things.
I need to help the GF to find a car, to replace her Ibiza that a slipped timing chain looks more like a meeting of valves and pistons. It is a POS anyhow, but looks like it has had it's day after 155k miles.
What she is looking for is something is something to get her to summer, and get something nicer and what she wants, with a view to owning it for a few years. So we are looking for something reliable and not and cheap and nasty (unlike the dead Ibiza on the drive!!!), and shift easy enough once done.
She estimates she would do up to 10k miles during that time, and can't cost a fortune to run (or have a history of going bang!).
So to the masses for advice and sane suggestions - my thoughts (with her requirements), up to 2.5-3k to spend, but cheaper is better. Looking for a family owned car, rather than boy racer one :
Mk4 Golf - easy to sell right because people like Golfs right? Big enough for her, and her work stuff, seem good valve. Are there engines not to touch as they are dangerously gutless or unreliable?
E46 3 Series - My idea. Bigger than a Golf, but she is happy to explore one. Lots of petrol engine ones out there, going for good money. Petrol BMW engines in that series had been refined over the years and reliable (?), unlike the dervs of that age. A 320i going for 1.5k should be able to be sold for the same sort of money, and she has less cash tied up in a car.
Thoughts/advice?
Cheers.
Talking from experience (owned 3 E46 models!), you can't run an E46 on a budget and if you're buying from the lower end of the market it will likely need regular and expensive maintenance. They are great cars and can be reliable but then they can also be as fairly unreliable too.
Just buy something modern, Japanese and fun...erm like an MX-5?
Just buy something modern, Japanese and fun...erm like an MX-5?
Codswallop said:
MX5 
Cheap to run: check
Reliable: check
Easy to sell: check (especially in summer)
It did cross my mind! Just past it by her, and got "if it is cheap and reliable then let's look at one!". She said she can live with 2 seats and not much of a boot... So that is an option.Cheap to run: check
Reliable: check
Easy to sell: check (especially in summer)
5439cc said:
Talking from experience (owned 3 E46 models!), you can't run an E46 on a budget and if you're buying from the lower end of the market it will likely need regular and expensive maintenance. They are great cars and can be reliable but then they can also be as fairly unreliable too.
What in the way of unreliable? As a M5 owner I know about money eating cars!I plan to stay well away from anything that is abused or looks like it is going to need money spent on it (tyres/brakes etc.) the moment we drive it away. Well unless it is cheap and I can do it myself. Oh, and has plenty of MOT. Don't want to be landed with something that fails it's MOT a month down the line.
touching cloth said:
My wife runs around in a Citroen C2 VTS. 1.6 petrol but but she still gets 42mpg which I think is brilliant.. I borrowed it the other day and forgot how good fun a small hot hatch can be. Oh and despite being French it has been faultlessly reliable, over 2 years and 30k miles.
Hi TC, I think I saw it years ago when you must of just got it. Good looking cars.Too many friends and co-worker have bought Cilo's, 307's etc, and they keep on breaking down. And the RAC bloke who towed GF's broken down Seat said French cars keep the AA/RAC in business.
If is it Frog, I will pass (as much as I loved the 205Gti of my youth, and I do like the idea of a Cilo V6 as a toy).
Don't laugh but a Rover 45 diesel makes a great bangernomics shed. Old tech pre-CR engine will go on and on (not HGF prone), cheap as it gets to run. As for resale, if it cost 50p to buy how much can you lose? Send it through the auction to get rid, always a few buyers for a cheap oil burner.
smack said:
5439cc said:
Talking from experience (owned 3 E46 models!), you can't run an E46 on a budget and if you're buying from the lower end of the market it will likely need regular and expensive maintenance. They are great cars and can be reliable but then they can also be as fairly unreliable too.
What in the way of unreliable? As a M5 owner I know about money eating cars!I plan to stay well away from anything that is abused or looks like it is going to need money spent on it (tyres/brakes etc.) the moment we drive it away. Well unless it is cheap and I can do it myself. Oh, and has plenty of MOT. Don't want to be landed with something that fails it's MOT a month down the line.
Perhaps i was a bit unfair on the E46, as i do recommend them. It just seems to me, with your criteria it wouldn't be a good idea to run a BMW on a budget - simply as it never works! Well to me anyway...i could be wrong, by all means try one out, i just think because they're are so many of them a fair few previous owners try to run them on a shoestring and leave the next buyer with big bills to sort things out, all IMO.
LuS1fer said:
I'd suggest a Honda Civic - not a Type R obviously but possibly a Type S or even a 1.4. No turbos to break, no diesel sh*t to go wrong, just a palin naturally-aspirated reliable Honda that you can see out of.
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