£1000 car needed for the coming winter

[jontymo]

After getting my Cayman R a few months ago i have already put over 6k on it meaning the total mileage is over 12k on a 9 month old car!!!!!!

So i'm thinking of getting something around about the £1 - £1.5k mark that will see me through winter and means i can keep the porker in the garage over this period of time. I'm thinking of something small ie fiesta/fabia but it needs to be good enough to cover my daily round trip of 40miles.

Has anyone got any suggestions on anything else for this money please.

Jontymo

[Scootersp]

If you don't mind going a bit bigger in size and engine then for the money (obviously with slightly increased running costs) you can get a far more substantial/civilised car, something like a IS200?

I do a similar thing but I have a far less valuable/new fun car and a complete shed to keep the costs down more than save the fun car from increased mileage.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

If it's a dependable, reliable, solid Winter car you need - that will cope with adverse weather too - may I suggest a Volvo of some description - maybe an 850 or V70...and depending on how adverse the weather you expect is, maybe a 4 wheel drive variant?

[poing]

£950 can be ran on peanuts.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3999372.htm

[Vince70]

How about an old b5 Audi a4 Quattro the 4 wheel drive will come in handy over the winter months, if you go for a 1.8 petrol you should easily get a good early one for under a bag of sand.
Plus you don't have to worry about road salt or the rust bug as the cars are zinc plated.
The perfect winter shed.

[Scootersp]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

If it's a dependable, reliable, solid Winter car you need - that will cope with adverse weather too -

good point rwd and no snow tyres could give you problems!

[PaulGT3]

406 hdi

[LongLiveTazio]

Volvo S40

[Lizardking]

There's a few subarus on auto trader, slightly bigger than what you want but should be able to cope with any adverse weather

[Tyrewrecker]

Cherokee

[JayTee94]

Subaru Forester?

Also, could we see pictures of the Cayman please? It is one Porsche that has grown on me over the past couple of months.

[jontymo]

Some good suggestions all, please keep em coming.

Picture taken in Norway on tour hence the high mileage at the mo!!

[JayTee94]

Love that colour.

[Deva Link]

Possibly apart from the Micra, just how lucky would you need to be to buy one of the above cars for a grand, do 40 miles a day in it through winter, and not have to deal with one thing after another going wrong with it?

[NadiR]

An old Saab 900? Literally bombproof, and there really good cars in our terrible winter weather.

Edited by NadiR on Tuesday 17th July 22:37

[McHaggis]

IS200s aren't great in winter, especially snow without winter tyres.

I'd suggest a winter barge + winter tyres:

Saab 93
Saab 900/9000
Volvo V40
Golf tdi

To be honest most FWD things are a good thing as a winter car if you add winter tyres. They may not be fun...

[Liquid Knight]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1983-LAND-ROVER-SWB-88-4...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Range-Rover-Classic-200T...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LAND-ROVER-DISCOVERY-OFF...

Or if you're really worried about the weather and want to do some serious off roading where Land Rovers get stuck...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-PANDA-4X4-89-LONG-M...

[Fantuzzi]

Wierd one but Hyundai coupe, never really get much time in these places, as most will go for a mx5 and rightly so due to FWD. But reviews never said a bad thing about the handling, the 6 was worth avoiding, nor was it quick, and the interior was pretty cheap. BUT was meant to be fun and an alternative to superminis in 1.6 form.

Oh and looks good.

[McHaggis]

Fantuzzi said:

Wierd one but Hyundai coupe, never really get much time in these places, as most will go for a mx5 and rightly so due to FWD. But reviews never said a bad thing about the handling, the 6 was worth avoiding, nor was it quick, and the interior was pretty cheap. BUT was meant to be fun and an alternative to superminis in 1.6 form.

Oh and looks good.

True. But this is a true winter car - so I'm guessing that it's for the November - March, heavily salted, dark days of winter. No fun possible.

Longer queues, wet / salted surfaces, frost, black ice. And that's just in the South.

You need FWD, winter tyres, reliability, a fast heater and a good stereo to keep you from going mad.

[mollytherocker]

I did this a few years ago. Bought a Fiesta Zetec for £700 and sold it in the Spring for £600. It was a bit rough, but it was actually a nippy fun little thing.

Worked a treat.

MTR