Cheap To Run, Practical & Most Reliable 7-12 year old Cars?
Discussion
When I say cheap to Run, I don't mean only fuel costs but also most importantly Maintenance/Repairs/Services/Upkeep etc. It doesn't have to be a budget car either, can be something nice as well.
I'm looking at probably around 7-10 year old cars with probably already around 100k miles -essentially where most of them already start to fall apart and become money pits
I Currently have a 2003 Honda Jazz that I have had for 15 years and 2012 Honda Jazz that I have had for 7 years, Looking to replace the older one with something else.
On both of them in all this time literary the only thing I have done is Change the Engine oil/Filters maybe once a year + brakes when they wear down - the older one has already 260k Miles on it and it still has plenty of life in it and still provides worry free motoring.
What I like about these:
-Petrol Engine with Chain instead of belt,which means no Diesel Problems, No DPF Problems, No expensive Timing belt replacements needed. Even tho it's petrol, it's still very efficient as well.
-Manual GearBox, simple, reliable no need for Expensive Automatic GearBox Oil Changes.
-Literary the Only Thing you need to do for a service is Change the Engine oil+ filters, takes me 10mins to do it myself and cost like £25 once a year for the Oil+filters.
-Just keeps going with no Faff and no real problems.
I kinda want something a bit more substantial and a bit more Posher than the Jazz. Driving it alone is ok, however when you have extra 3-4 people in it + driving on Motorway/over long distance it's not the most comfortable ride and it feels sluggish.
Budget isn't a problem & I'm OK Paying more initially for a better made car.
I'm looking at probably around 7-10 year old cars with probably already around 100k miles -essentially where most of them already start to fall apart and become money pits
I Currently have a 2003 Honda Jazz that I have had for 15 years and 2012 Honda Jazz that I have had for 7 years, Looking to replace the older one with something else.
On both of them in all this time literary the only thing I have done is Change the Engine oil/Filters maybe once a year + brakes when they wear down - the older one has already 260k Miles on it and it still has plenty of life in it and still provides worry free motoring.
What I like about these:
-Petrol Engine with Chain instead of belt,which means no Diesel Problems, No DPF Problems, No expensive Timing belt replacements needed. Even tho it's petrol, it's still very efficient as well.
-Manual GearBox, simple, reliable no need for Expensive Automatic GearBox Oil Changes.
-Literary the Only Thing you need to do for a service is Change the Engine oil+ filters, takes me 10mins to do it myself and cost like £25 once a year for the Oil+filters.
-Just keeps going with no Faff and no real problems.
I kinda want something a bit more substantial and a bit more Posher than the Jazz. Driving it alone is ok, however when you have extra 3-4 people in it + driving on Motorway/over long distance it's not the most comfortable ride and it feels sluggish.
Budget isn't a problem & I'm OK Paying more initially for a better made car.
Second-generation Mercedes A-Class is a good car, my son is on his second, I had one that I did 70000miles in, and it cost nothing except servicing and consumables. Very roomy and lots for sale that are up in the 150000-180000 miles range, I'm not that brave though. Don't get a 06 yr one as they rust.
An early (launched in 2019) Toyota Corolla hybrid estate (officially named the Touring Sports) will be practical, very reliable and straightforward to maintain with low running costs. The Hybrid synergy drive eCVT transmission is super durable and if you choose the 2 litre version it won't be sluggish.
From your description, Toyota Prius or Corolla.
No belts, no turbos, no clutch, no starter motor, no alternator, no DPF (obvs...), massive mileage potential, cheap servicing.
Mazdas rot after about 10 years ( I know this, I have an MX-5 which I am trying to keep), Mercs have corrosion problems and some have major engine issues.
Other than that, stick with another Honda perhaps?
No belts, no turbos, no clutch, no starter motor, no alternator, no DPF (obvs...), massive mileage potential, cheap servicing.
Mazdas rot after about 10 years ( I know this, I have an MX-5 which I am trying to keep), Mercs have corrosion problems and some have major engine issues.
Other than that, stick with another Honda perhaps?
Hustle_ said:
Mazda 3. Bit juicy, and look out for the road tax, but meets requirements whilst being more substantial and better looking than the Jazz and nice to drive.
They look nice and are also fairly cheap to buy, but from what I have seen Mazdas are like the worst when it comes to Rust? Every Mazda I have seen has been a total rustbucket , even few year old models I have seen have had massive issues.
For me you are right in the danger zone of cars at the age you want, cars hit a few peaks IMO ignoring styling obviously, there was a magical point though where everything sort of coincided to create spectacularly good cars, and that peak was about 2000ish, new enough to feel like a modern car rather than a classic, less complicated bits to go wrong on the engines (excessive emissions controls, dual mass flywheels just becoming mainstream, silly fuel injectors not here yet, little was coded in to the car making working on them yourself fairly easy), meaning good solid reliable cars that drove well, they were also the last generation of cars that had some individual style rather than all looking like the same pedestrian friendly blob with a different badge, plus inside you got fairly decent interiors, plenty of glass for light, some safety equipment but not over the top and most importantly the in car entertainment was generally easy to upgrade to a modern double din car play unit to replace the standard stereo. Something that can be harder to do on more modern cars with integrated screens that looked nice when new but now are out of date, slow or just don't work.
Unfortunately past this point, styling nose dives, faster and faster till you get to where we are now, cars basically become more disposable, rust starts to set in to brands you just don't expect to rust badly (looking at you vag), dual mass flywheels become standard fitment and a regular replacement item, in the push for emissions engines get more and more stressed as they become strangled, injectors get more complex and expensive and need coding in to the ECU, batteries need coding in, cars seem to wear worse too. About the only thing that does improve in my opinion is there was a sweet spot for car tax where you could have a decent car that was slow but road tax is £20ish a year. Personally I'd rather pay more and have something less slow. Wet belts become a thing, probably the worst case of forced car death we've ever come up with, they fail regularly and expensively, it's a flawed design, failing when newish it's worth the repair bill, at ten years old the cars going to scrap. Timing chains seem to stretch these days too, on older cars they were generally fit for life, now you find timing chain engines are getting rarer, but when you do find one it's not the silver bullet you want, often stretching and bizarrely often now fitted at the back of engines for no discernible benefit other than making a chain job engine out (thanks again vag).
If mpg matters then VW pretty much sewed it up with TDI engines, granted diesels. The spaceship shape honda civics are not bad cars, pretty reliable, diesels do great mpg.
But yeah generally I find post 2000 expect running costs to increase not decrease. The holy grail for me (and I am looking for this if anyone has one as our old one is worn out) is a circa 1998 b5 Passat 1.9tdi estate. 250k plus capable workhorse that will cost little to maintain beyond door locks and window regs.
Unfortunately past this point, styling nose dives, faster and faster till you get to where we are now, cars basically become more disposable, rust starts to set in to brands you just don't expect to rust badly (looking at you vag), dual mass flywheels become standard fitment and a regular replacement item, in the push for emissions engines get more and more stressed as they become strangled, injectors get more complex and expensive and need coding in to the ECU, batteries need coding in, cars seem to wear worse too. About the only thing that does improve in my opinion is there was a sweet spot for car tax where you could have a decent car that was slow but road tax is £20ish a year. Personally I'd rather pay more and have something less slow. Wet belts become a thing, probably the worst case of forced car death we've ever come up with, they fail regularly and expensively, it's a flawed design, failing when newish it's worth the repair bill, at ten years old the cars going to scrap. Timing chains seem to stretch these days too, on older cars they were generally fit for life, now you find timing chain engines are getting rarer, but when you do find one it's not the silver bullet you want, often stretching and bizarrely often now fitted at the back of engines for no discernible benefit other than making a chain job engine out (thanks again vag).
If mpg matters then VW pretty much sewed it up with TDI engines, granted diesels. The spaceship shape honda civics are not bad cars, pretty reliable, diesels do great mpg.
But yeah generally I find post 2000 expect running costs to increase not decrease. The holy grail for me (and I am looking for this if anyone has one as our old one is worn out) is a circa 1998 b5 Passat 1.9tdi estate. 250k plus capable workhorse that will cost little to maintain beyond door locks and window regs.
The answer here is the 107 / Aygo / C1.
Had mine 18 months and not had to spend much on it at all. A full service is about £40.
Tyres, £30 odd each. Full tank of Tesco £99 is £50 and you will get 400 miles out of that.
Cheap to buy, cheap to insure, you can fit a cheap chinese android auto unit in there, quite a nice steer too but chain driven engine too.
Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but if speed isn't your main priority, they fit the brief well
Had mine 18 months and not had to spend much on it at all. A full service is about £40.
Tyres, £30 odd each. Full tank of Tesco £99 is £50 and you will get 400 miles out of that.
Cheap to buy, cheap to insure, you can fit a cheap chinese android auto unit in there, quite a nice steer too but chain driven engine too.
Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but if speed isn't your main priority, they fit the brief well
James_N said:
The answer here is the 107 / Aygo / C1.
Had mine 18 months and not had to spend much on it at all. A full service is about £40.
Tyres, £30 odd each. Full tank of Tesco £99 is £50 and you will get 400 miles out of that.
Cheap to buy, cheap to insure, you can fit a cheap chinese android auto unit in there, quite a nice steer too but chain driven engine too.
Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but if speed isn't your main priority, they fit the brief well
I have used one for a week, nah, Jazz is Better in every Single way than it, like it's not even close...Had mine 18 months and not had to spend much on it at all. A full service is about £40.
Tyres, £30 odd each. Full tank of Tesco £99 is £50 and you will get 400 miles out of that.
Cheap to buy, cheap to insure, you can fit a cheap chinese android auto unit in there, quite a nice steer too but chain driven engine too.
Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but if speed isn't your main priority, they fit the brief well
Costs about the same to run as well.
It might be Cheap to run and Reliable - but It's just too cheaply made and too Tiny.
itaa said:
When I say cheap to Run, I don't mean only fuel costs but also most importantly Maintenance/Repairs/Services/Upkeep etc. It doesn't have to be a budget car either, can be something nice as well.
I'm looking at probably around 7-10 year old cars with probably already around 100k miles -essentially where most of them already start to fall apart and become money pits
I Currently have a 2003 Honda Jazz that I have had for 15 years and 2012 Honda Jazz that I have had for 7 years, Looking to replace the older one with something else.
On both of them in all this time literary the only thing I have done is Change the Engine oil/Filters maybe once a year + brakes when they wear down - the older one has already 260k Miles on it and it still has plenty of life in it and still provides worry free motoring.
What I like about these:
-Petrol Engine with Chain instead of belt,which means no Diesel Problems, No DPF Problems, No expensive Timing belt replacements needed. Even tho it's petrol, it's still very efficient as well.
-Manual GearBox, simple, reliable no need for Expensive Automatic GearBox Oil Changes.
-Literary the Only Thing you need to do for a service is Change the Engine oil+ filters, takes me 10mins to do it myself and cost like £25 once a year for the Oil+filters.
-Just keeps going with no Faff and no real problems.
I kinda want something a bit more substantial and a bit more Posher than the Jazz. Driving it alone is ok, however when you have extra 3-4 people in it + driving on Motorway/over long distance it's not the most comfortable ride and it feels sluggish.
Budget isn't a problem & I'm OK Paying more initially for a better made car.
Your requirements scream Tesla. No matter what you think about Musk, a used Tesla Model S (or Y) will fulfill all your needs;I'm looking at probably around 7-10 year old cars with probably already around 100k miles -essentially where most of them already start to fall apart and become money pits
I Currently have a 2003 Honda Jazz that I have had for 15 years and 2012 Honda Jazz that I have had for 7 years, Looking to replace the older one with something else.
On both of them in all this time literary the only thing I have done is Change the Engine oil/Filters maybe once a year + brakes when they wear down - the older one has already 260k Miles on it and it still has plenty of life in it and still provides worry free motoring.
What I like about these:
-Petrol Engine with Chain instead of belt,which means no Diesel Problems, No DPF Problems, No expensive Timing belt replacements needed. Even tho it's petrol, it's still very efficient as well.
-Manual GearBox, simple, reliable no need for Expensive Automatic GearBox Oil Changes.
-Literary the Only Thing you need to do for a service is Change the Engine oil+ filters, takes me 10mins to do it myself and cost like £25 once a year for the Oil+filters.
-Just keeps going with no Faff and no real problems.
I kinda want something a bit more substantial and a bit more Posher than the Jazz. Driving it alone is ok, however when you have extra 3-4 people in it + driving on Motorway/over long distance it's not the most comfortable ride and it feels sluggish.
Budget isn't a problem & I'm OK Paying more initially for a better made car.
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