What cheap runaround - mazda 323?

[Chris71]

Hi,

I know this isn't strictly jap chat, but I'm looking for a runaround to use as a second car and it seems most of the cars which fit my requirments are Japanese!

Budget is £1500 or less. Must be an reliable, economical, relatively small car, but with a hatchback and decent carrying space (folding rear seats required) As a second thought, something that's OK to drive would be good too.

My immediate reaction is a Mazda 323 - about the size I'm looking for, said to handle quite nicely, tend to be well equiped with air con and so on. Not sure I could justify running the V6 as a runaround and the 4 cylidners all seem to be 1.5's? Only real complaint I've heard is poor rear visibility for parking....

Any thoughts?

[craggers]

I drive 323F at the moment - it is 1.5 version and very reliable !!! Cheap to run as well (low Tax band and it hardly drink fuel)

Having no problem with rear window personally. The boot is very big for the size.

[Chris71]

Sounds good.

What's the 1.5 like performance wise?

(I appreciate it's a 1.5 hatch not a sportscar, just curious as I need to cruise on motorways without wringing it's neck and stuff!)

Other stuff...... Honda civic hatch, Nissan Sunny, Almera

Edited by Chris71 on Monday 9th July 14:58

[craggers]

Chris71 said:

Sounds good.

What's the 1.5 like performance wise?

(I appreciate it's a 1.5 hatch not a sportscar, just curious as I need to cruise on motorways without wringing it's neck and stuff!)

Other stuff...... Honda civic hatch, Nissan Sunny, Almera

Edited by Chris71 on Monday 9th July 14:58

Quite nippy around town etc, ok and manage to keep up crusing on motorway.

[Chris71]

Hmmm, boot wise, whats biggest out of the Civic/Sunny/323 and any others? The idea is to use it for bad weather and mountain bike transport!

[craggers]

Chris71 said:

Hmmm, boot wise, whats biggest out of the Civic/Sunny/323 and any others? The idea is to use it for bad weather and mountain bike transport!

Well I put my large golf bag plus trolley in there with no problem. I don't know about Civic and Sunny !

323F got pretty deep boot.

[ALawson]

I had a 2.0 V6 323f and got 27 mpg out of it, ok drive as well.

[Chris71]

Biggest problem with anything slightly sporty is insurance. This is going to be run as a cheap second car, so the V6's might be out on those grounds. If it has a nice chasis, I guess I could live with the 1.5

Just had a look at Parkers - some of those VTEC Civics are actually quite rapid! Think that would rule it out on purchase price and insurance grounds. Looking at it, there are a lot of unexciting, but dependable cars going for well under a grand and with a kit car to play with at the weekends, I'm not sure I'll be that worried about performance whilst I'm stuck in traffic during the week. Or will I

[EDLT]

Chris71 said:

Hmmm, boot wise, whats biggest out of the Civic/Sunny/323 and any others? The idea is to use it for bad weather and mountain bike transport!

A mountain bike will fit in most hatchbacks, I got mine into my Suzuki Swift without having to take either of them appart.

[WeirdNeville]

I was considering a 323 as a cheap runaround. They certainly seem to be living on well, and the condition I see some of them in they seem to thrive on neglect too.

I don't reckon you'd go far wrong with one, but I reckon you can have a good one for about £800 (old style with pop up lights).

[R1 GTR]

We had a 323F but it wasn't a 1.5 or V6, but not sure what year £1500 gets you. This was a Y reg 2001 and it was a 1.8 SE. Great fun and would sit at *cough* 100 with great ease. Plenty of kit too.

[Chris71]

WeirdNeville said:

I don't reckon you'd go far wrong with one, but I reckon you can have a good one for about £800 (old style with pop up lights).

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I was looking for sub-£1k basic transport, but if possible with a little bit more driving enjoyment than the usual Fiesta etc. Purely intended as a second car, so don't want to spend much on it.

[cptsideways]

Got an Aerodeck Accord estate I just brought back from Scotland up for grabs, cruise, aircon, leather, gadgets etc, 77k miles long mot, some tax & that sort of budget if your interested. Just drove it 450miles back to Dorset from Edinburgh last night instead of driving my 500bhp noisy assed drift car back home as I'm going back up in two weeks. ooooh that road to Moffat is great & on cruise control the rest of way the way

Other than that most jap stuff is slightly high on the insurance side so the choice is huge for the same insurance prices. I love standard Jap cars they are so reliable its stupidly boring I spend all day testing the buttons trying to see if they'll stop working

Edited by cptsideways on Monday 16th July 12:38

[Chris71]

cptsideways said:

I love standard Jap cars they are so reliable its stupidly boring I spend all day testing the buttons trying to see if they'll stop working

That's the sort of thing I'm after!

Probably wouldn't go for an estate as I'd really like the smallest car I can chuck a couple of mountain bike frames in, for London parking (323 hatch should be more than big enough, even something like a micra would probably do it) Had thought about an old 1.5VTec Accord, but the insurance costs are silly like you say and I'm told they suffer badly if servicing has been neglected and that's probably quite likely at £1kish.

Actually one of the main reasons I'm looking at getting one is for trips down the A303 past you. Hoping to get a lotus seven clone in the near future and that might get a bit tiresome on the trips back to Devon! Until that point, I need something with a bit more carrying capacity than my Eunos and I don't really likie rigging up bike racks.