Another what car thread,commuting car upto £4k

[kendun]

Hi folks,

I am a newbie to Pistonheads and would welcome your advice/suggestions regarding buying a car mainly for commuting, upto £4k maximum. I was used to driving a Nissan Almera since 2006 till Jan 2015, nearly 8 + years in the same vehicle. I am looking to buy a car of similar specs/size and reasonably reliable like the almera. Searching for new cars seems to be a minefield and I am starting to get a bit clueless and would like your help.

The commute is about 12/13 miles each way and theoretically about 8 miles or so is motorway driving, but due to roadworks on the M60/speed restrictions and driving during peak hours, it tends to be a start stop commute and not exceeding 50 miles/hour on a good day.

I was looking at getting a nissan almera as they are quite cheap, the only thing I was hesitant about was the rust issues with the crossmember (I think, I'm clueless with cars). I thought of spending upto £700 on an almera and maybe set aside £500 for repairs if required, with a view to have a year's motoring and if it's ok after a year, budget more for repairs but basically run it to the ground. This is option 1

Option 2 is to get a Kia Ceed or Hyundai I30 upto £4k or so as they will be reasonably new compared to te almera and hopefully reliable for a few years fingers crossed.

As this is primarily for commuting, all that I need is a reasonably reliable car with decent fuel efficiency.I am totally clueless with cars and rely on a garage for routine work etc and aim to learn a bit about the basics from now...
Any thoughts/suggestions/advice re cars top consider is welcome.

[eltax91]

My mother in laws almera just died after around 7 or 8 years of ownership. She had the 1.5 petrol and she suffered the other big issue a couple of years ago, the timing chain stretched. It's a Renault derived chain and is known to stretch, mainly on examples with poor history.

We've just gone out and replaced it with a Toyota Corolla. A mint 55 plate, 1 owner, full history 1.4vvti. It's was £3k.

They are also chain driven, so no cam belts to change. There's a known issue with oil sludging and blocking the oil pick up, potentially causing big damage to the engine. However, like the almera these tend to be ok if they have full history. At the next service I will get the sump dropped to check, a quick and easy job.

The Corolla is the perfect replacement for the almera. Don't forgot nissan stopped making it in favour of the qashqai. So new ish ones are hard to find.

Other cars we considered:-

Honda Civic
Ford Focus
Another almera
Fiesta
Honda Jazz

[Bonefish Blues]

Something hybrid like this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Don't get a (modern DPF-equipped)) diesel, given your shortish, stop-start commute.

[kendun]

eltax91 said:

We've just gone out and replaced it with a Toyota Corolla. A mint 55 plate, 1 owner, full history 1.4vvti. It's was £3k.


Other cars we considered:-

Honda Civic
Ford Focus
Another almera
Fiesta
Honda Jazz

Thank you Eltax91, it is good to hear from someone with an experience of almera cars , I had incorrectly assumed that having a timing chain made it indestructable...
I did try to get info re a potential almera replacement and asked for a FSH + advisories from the previous MOT etc, but the seller has not acknowledged these questions and chose to reply that some repairs had been done reecently. I may teer away from that almera. I will look at corollas and possibly a focus, I think the civi and jazz may be a bit expensive compared to the other cars.

[kendun]

Bonefish Blues said:

Something hybrid like this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Don't get a (modern DPF-equipped)) diesel, given your shortish, stop-start commute.

Thank you Bonefish Blues, these cars seem quite good from a tax and fuel efficiency perspective, will have a trawl through autotrader

[Bonefish Blues]

I've run a couple of next-gen ones and they are really well suited for your stated purpose. They also tend to have main dealer service records, and will go on pretty much forever, based on the US experience.

Definitely worth a drive to see if you get on with them.

[kendun]

Bonefish Blues said:

I've run a couple of next-gen ones and they are really well suited for your stated purpose. They also tend to have main dealer service records, and will go on pretty much forever, based on the US experience.

Definitely worth a drive to see if you get on with them.

Thank you BB, a brief trawl through shows only a few cars near me i.e 40 miles radius search and they are all automatics. Will try to get a test drive next weekend as I haven't driven automatics before .

[Bonefish Blues]

They are all autos - it's part of the hybrid "package" as it were. It's clever stuff indeed.

[eltax91]

I have to say the prius is proving itself as solidly reliable with decent longevity. A few 200k mile plus cars for sale and loads in excess of the magic 100k.

The only reason we didn't consider them is we had a strict 3k budget and they don't seem to have dropped this far for a good one yet.

[kendun]

eltax91 said:

I have to say the prius is proving itself as solidly reliable with decent longevity. A few 200k mile plus cars for sale and loads in excess of the magic 100k.

The only reason we didn't consider them is we had a strict 3k budget and they don't seem to have dropped this far for a good one yet.

Yep, I have just realised after a good search that they are north of my planned £4k budget, if they are in good nick..

Need to do some calculations re costs like road tax etc to see if the prius can be a viable option. I do intend/plan to keep the new car for a while unless it's written off or beyond economical repair, so some more calculations now..

[eltax91]

kendun said:

Yep, I have just realised after a good search that they are north of my planned £4k budget, if they are in good nick..

Need to do some calculations re costs like road tax etc to see if the prius can be a viable option. I do intend/plan to keep the new car for a while unless it's written off or beyond economical repair, so some more calculations now..

My golden rule when buying functional cars. NEVER break the top of the budget. If you justify it to yourself, then it's easy to spend a bit more. Then you find the right at, and it happens to be a bit more than your new budget. Where does it stop?

I'm of the opinion that i will get something within budget, and if something I like has not dropped into budget yet, well, it will have in 5-8 years when I'm in the market again.

Goes out the window with fun cars mind.

[kendun]

eltax91 said:

My golden rule when buying functional cars. NEVER break the top of the budget. If you justify it to yourself, then it's easy to spend a bit more. Then you find the right at, and it happens to be a bit more than your new budget. Where does it stop?

I'm of the opinion that i will get something within budget, and if something I like has not dropped into budget yet, well, it will have in 5-8 years when I'm in the market again.

Goes out the window with fun cars mind.

Cheers @eltax91 , breaking the budget was interesting for a day's search, but as you mentioned, the more I look at these cars the more I'm tryingto increase the amount I want to spend /justify why etc..

So back to square one, looking at cars like corollas, just missed a good one at work it was a single owner 60000 miles 2005 reg for £2600 , well will keep searching..
Would you consider a Mazda 3 as a commuter car, it's 57 plate, been advertised at work today, I don't know the full details yet, it's within my budget at £3300