Cheap car after lease and before mortgage

[CX53]

Hi all,

My lease goes back in a couple of months and it’s got me thinking about it’s replacement.

We will be applying for a mortgage in 6 months time or so, so ideally need to be without car finance to make the amount the banks are willing to lend as good as it can be.

This means I need a shed, at least until the mortgage has gone through, at which point I’ll likely finance something nicer.

I do around 35 miles each way to work, up to 6 days per week, and a probably another 100 miles over the weekend most of the time. This means I could potentially have an annual mileage of 24,000 approx.

Obviously this is diesel territory, but what diesels are likely to be good at the budget end of the market (if any), or would I be better of going for an unfashionable Toyota petrol or similar and taking the hit on petrol cost for reliability?

Any recommendations of what to look at would be most welcome, with a max spend at around £1000, preferably less.

So far I’ve been looking at petrol and diesel versions of the focus, and some older Merc diesels based on recommendation from a mate with an old C270 CDi.

Thanks!

[ToothbrushMan]

with the potential for huge bills on a tired diesel and potentially very big road fund licence depending on year I would go for something common like a 1.6 astra or focus. thousands out there so cheap. A to B stuff.

[Toed64]

I agree with Toothbrush, for only £1000, I'd buy a petrol Focus, they are good. A £1000 Merc diseasel is highly unlikely to be a wise buy.

If you want a diesel, up your budget to £1500 and you'll find lots of good VAG 1.9tdis that will clock starship mileages if looked after a bit.

[ZX10R NIN]

If you can stretch to around £1500 then you can land a very good sensible car that will last you a good few years & surprisingly it's the 147 they're robust reliable & if you want a reliable low mileage diesel then the 8V 1.9tdi is very reliable.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Diesel

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[kieranblenk]

I would be looking for a Rover 45 or preferably 75. Usually owned for years by old blokes so are looked after and can be picked up for a few coppers.

[ANJ91]

Go on gumtree, search radius (whatever distance you feel you won't be obliged to buy the car), sort by most recent first, set price to £1500 (you can haggle a bit), economy 40+ mpg. Ideally you also filter the search for private only but quite a lot of private ads are traders anyway.

Then start scrolling and find something that you like, once you do you can then search into whether that particulate car/engine is reliable. For 24k a year I would definitely go for something bit bigger, comfortable that won't rev it's nuts off at 70mph.

I found a 1999 Honda Civic 1.4 petrol with low mileage and good MOT history and good condition for £650 which just went through its MOT costing me £35 and it's good for my 10 miles commute down the back roads but I had to drive 65 miles each way couple days ago on the motorway and it was bit of a chore. No cruise control, engine revving 3.5 if not 4k at 70pmh, made it quite tiring.

[ajguk]

Saab of some description? Mine's a petrol admittedly but bought it cash in January and it's been a cracking car so far.

I had leases before, and bought this as a money saving exercise and it's worked well so far. Just picked up an E89 Z4 but keeping the Saab for commuting and dirty jobs!

55-plate Aero, cost me £1900 which I think I overpaid slightly but like I say, no regrets.

[GreatGranny]

ANJ91 said:

I found a 1999 Honda Civic 1.4 petrol with low mileage and good MOT history and good condition for £650 which just went through its MOT costing me £35 and it's good for my 10 miles commute down the back roads but I had to drive 65 miles each way couple days ago on the motorway and it was bit of a chore. No cruise control, engine revving 3.5 if not 4k at 70pmh, made it quite tiring.

This is my go to car when posters ask for budget suggestions.

They are great value and you see plenty on the road which is a good sign IMO.

Lots of choice and most are petrol and reasonable mileage.

[ToothbrushMan]

the civic does sound good. is this like the old Rover 400/45 shape? if so maybe thats also a goer. the rover 1.4 16v had 102ps so quite peppy. ive yet to see a scabby rover 45. the 75 is a bit of a barge but again ive not seen one with any rust. they seems to be very good at resisting the rot. as the guy earlier said they tend to be owned for donkeys years by old boys so in great condition.

[mikeyr]

I bought a reasonably well looked after 307 SW for £550 a while back for the same reason, just wanted a cheap runaround. It's the 2.0 HDi 90 which doesn't have any oomph at all BUT it's fine to drive, comfy enough and been reliable enough. Apparently the 90hp engine is very old school and doesn't have the antipollution fault of the 110 version.

So I guess what I'm saying is by doubling my budget you should be able to find a well mollycoddled Pug of some description with the same engine in. Might not be exciting but it's perfectly acceptable motoring (Quite the advertising slogan!).

[ANJ91]

ToothbrushMan said:

the civic does sound good. is this like the old Rover 400/45 shape? if so maybe thats also a goer. the rover 1.4 16v had 102ps so quite peppy. ive yet to see a scabby rover 45. the 75 is a bit of a barge but again ive not seen one with any rust. they seems to be very good at resisting the rot. as the guy earlier said they tend to be owned for donkeys years by old boys so in great condition.

Yeah, that's the one. It was actually made in the UK.

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/z/kcsAAOSw...

https://d1ix0byejyn2u7.cloudfront.net/drive/images...

If you go for a car before 2001 it's better to go for 1.5 or smaller engine as the tax is £155. Bigger engines are £255 so unless you go for a very powerful big engine it's not worth the £100 just to go for a 1.6.