What Snotter - under 1K

[kieranjholland]

I'm looking at adding a 2nd motor to the KJH household. The missus is doing her driving lessons at the moment and will need a little snotter which will become the KJH household shopping/commuting/little trips car and leave my 5 series estate for the bigger trips and driving holidays.

I had her set on an MX-5 but other, more sensible options have been communicated to her which I'm a little disapointed about

What's important:

- a safe motor
- reliable and cheap/easy to fix
- relatively cheap to insure a new driver on
- a motor that is only breaking in at 80K - 100K miles

Whats she has been looking at:

- Ford Puma
- Ford Fiesta
- Ford Ka
- Vauxhall Tigra
- Mazda MX-5

There really are so many options out there when you search PH/AT/Ebay for <£1,000 motors and yes, heaps will be duds but there are some good motors in amongst the crap.

So... where should I be focusing her attention?

[Baryonyx]

Ford Puma if you need back seats, a tatty MX5 if you don't.

[kieranjholland]

MX-5 it is... just need to re-convince her!

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

The three Ford options = rust IMHO.

I'd go Jap or German if poss at this price bracket.

[poing]

One thing to note from your car selection. Every single one of them is a rust magnet so you will be spending a lot of time fighting that. Mechanically though most of them are pretty good.

Not that anything logical will matter here, she will go for the "cutest" car in the "pretty" colour or some other random thing like the reg plate meaning something to her. If you pick it and it goes wrong, it will be your fault because you picked it. If she picks it and it goes wrong, it will be your fault for letting her pick that one.

[kieranjholland]

very good point poing... I'll need to at least make her think she's picked it

[Zad]

Every car is a potential rust bucket in this price bracket, but there are enough Pumas / Fiestas / Kas around that you can be choosy.

Get the Puma and you'll end up driving it instead of the BMW.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Zad said:

Every car is a potential rust bucket in this price bracket, but there are enough Pumas / Fiestas / Kas around that you can be choosy.

Get the Puma and you'll end up driving it instead of the BMW.

True, but I do remember reading a lot on here that out of all the above Ford choices, the Ka is particularly bad, so maybe steer clear of those at least...

[CDP]

You'll get a good MG ZR for a grand and they're good fun to drive.

Alternatively Ford and Vauxhall seem to build stuff that's cheap to run. Our Astra, Cavalier and Vectra were all completely reliable and cost peanuts to run.

Not sure why people rate the Japanese and German stuff so highly. Our VWs broke down continuously and expensively. Four cylinder heads replaced on my camper; I got quite used to clouds of steam.

[carmadgaz]

At this price range don't be too worried about what the car is, go on condition. (this however ended me up in a 1997 1.3 Escort Estate once so be wary)

[morgrp]

Old shape Volvo s40 ticks all your boxes - there is also the naughty t4 version if speed needs to be added into the equation - but try convincing a woman to drive a Volvo!

[CDP]

carmadgaz said:

At this price range don't be too worried about what the car is, go on condition. (this however ended me up in a 1997 1.3 Escort Estate once so be wary)

Exactly.

Thought I'd draw a line at a FWD Escort.

[TDutchy]

morgrp said:

Old shape Volvo s40 ticks all your boxes - there is also the naughty t4 version if speed needs to be added into the equation - but try convincing a woman to drive a Volvo!

Look at his garage history...

[uncinquesei]

http://smva.co.uk/StockDetail.aspx?lot=143&sal...

Looks tidy enough and guide price less than a grand...

[ian_touring]

Pug 306 diesel turbo S.
Pretty much rust free.

[TNTom]

primera gt!

[mjhayter]

^
^
^


What he said.

[Somnophore]

Yup primera GT was going to be my vote.

[kieranjholland]

TDutchy said:

morgrp said:

Old shape Volvo s40 ticks all your boxes - there is also the naughty t4 version if speed needs to be added into the equation - but try convincing a woman to drive a Volvo!

Look at his garage history...

Yep - I used to own an S40 t4

Great fun, but she won't go down the Volvo route...

Some really interesting ideas here. My head says Puma whilst my heart screams MX-5

[Somnophore]

Pumas are excellent, and as far as I've seen cheap to run and reliable, watch for rust on rear arches as most at this price will be rusty.