£1k car that will last a year?

[Hoofy]

Yes, done it several times but also lost out several times. Really depends on what goes wrong and how much is significant. My rule of thumb is a fix that costs >50% of the purchase cost means it's time for the scrap heap.

I should put together a history of my sheds just to give people an idea of what is possible.

[aka_kerrly]

If you don't mind the fuel costs a Lexus IS200 is an astonishing amount of car and a decent drive for £1k. Both of the ones I've had were remarkably reliable and minimal hassle.

[M.F.D]

Late 90's Toyota. Corolla/Yaris etc would be my shout. However, as stated, just about anything looked after with a years MOT.

[Walter Sobchak]

aka_kerrly said:

If you don't mind the fuel costs a Lexus IS200 is an astonishing amount of car and a decent drive for £1k. Both of the ones I've had were remarkably reliable and minimal hassle.

They’ve started to creep up in value now as they’re rear wheel drive and seem popular with youngsters for drifting, good solid cars though!.

[bearman68]

YorkshireWhisky said:

I got an 08 Megane 1.5dci about 5 years ago because I was driving from York to Newcastle every day for six months and didn't want to trash the Alfa or Scooby. Paid £1000 to a dealer in Leeds, had about 90K on it. I said at the time that when it goes wrong it will go in the bin. It just keeps going, £30 a year tax, sod all to insure, >50mpg and it will sit at 85mph all day long up and down the country. This week it went for an MOT and failed on a headlight bulb, £12 later it passed another MOT. I am convinced it is a cockroach, it just won't die. French cars are fantastic and if I had £1K to spend that is where I would be going.

Bet the windows don't work, and the A/C is shot. (From a man who has 7 or 8 of them)

[Wackywoo105]

Given that it's the reason I asked the question:

Any idea of the cost to fix this and is it worth it, or just get rid?

This isn't my car btw. I will add the stop lamps appears an intermittent issue and affect them all so likely an electrical fault.

[Luke5305]

If I was looking at repairing that Hyundai, my rough quess would be as follows , based on Diy and hoping things would be an easy fix and maybe finding one locally at a breakers, prices very much ball park !

The first thing I'd do is find the earth lead/strap, dismantle and clean in the hope its a magic bullet that cures the electrical issues ! Free

Stop lamps- maybe brake light switch £10ish, or bad connection , i've got rear lamps working in the past by moving the wires around, even removing/refitting the bulbs , maybe a neglectful owner hasn't bothered when the bulbs have blown.

Brake pads, usually £20 or so,

Windscreen washers - lack of fluid, blown fuse , pump or pipework broken, washer bottle freezing and splitting, if it's just a top up, happy days, think someone has now made a generic pump and pipe kit , a bottle would be quite cheap, I'd say around £30,

The door mirror , might tighten up, nuts behind the door trim, might have been knocked by a passing lorry thou or kicked off so might need replacement, £20 ?

Number plate lamp, bulb ? Broken wire ?

CV joint boot -universal split boots of eBay , no dismantling , do them both for £30, not ideal but gets a pass,

Exhaust, replace with new , fast fit exhaust places aren't that expensive , £200 ?

Ball joint, dust cover, if the joint is sound, new rubber dust cover, get an assortment for £10 or so,

If the car was sound and I came across it though a friend or relative and it felt right I'd give it a go, however it does scream neglect, the door mirror and washers etc, might be better waiting for something you can just get in and start using.

[oldmanbm]

I bought a 2005 Ford focus 2.0Tdci Ghia for £150 with a few blemishes and a rusty wing. £100 later with second hand wing and some tightening up it still going great after nearly three years. Does 50 mpg and has six speed gearbox. With 126,000 miles it uses no oil and cruises at a little over 2000 rpms at 70 mph. Get a good one and £1000 should get you a good one - local dealer has a very clean 1.6 Tdci 2010 for £1195 - £1000 waved in front of him should do it!

[Longy00000]

Watch ebay listing for decent but undesirable cars with good mot left.
When they don't sell reach out to them with a low ball offer.
Job done, bargain had and at least a years worth of motoring.

I last did this on am 04 laguna scratched to hell and cat d right off. Lasted 3 years and 42000 miles as a workhorse for lugging goods from the wholesalers to my business.
Never serviced it or dud anything with it. The stupid plastic card key started giving up so I just left it in the ignition slot unlocked permanently for a year an a half. Nobody wanted to nick it !!

[anonymous-user]

bearman68 said:

YorkshireWhisky said:

I got an 08 Megane 1.5dci about 5 years ago because I was driving from York to Newcastle every day for six months and didn't want to trash the Alfa or Scooby. Paid £1000 to a dealer in Leeds, had about 90K on it. I said at the time that when it goes wrong it will go in the bin. It just keeps going, £30 a year tax, sod all to insure, >50mpg and it will sit at 85mph all day long up and down the country. This week it went for an MOT and failed on a headlight bulb, £12 later it passed another MOT. I am convinced it is a cockroach, it just won't die. French cars are fantastic and if I had £1K to spend that is where I would be going.

Bet the windows don't work, and the A/C is shot. (From a man who has 7 or 8 of them)

;-) The AC has never worked. The windows do work but sometimes down is up and up is down, I think it's the French way!

[anonymous-user]

YorkshireWhisky said:

bearman68 said:

YorkshireWhisky said:

I got an 08 Megane 1.5dci about 5 years ago because I was driving from York to Newcastle every day for six months and didn't want to trash the Alfa or Scooby. Paid £1000 to a dealer in Leeds, had about 90K on it. I said at the time that when it goes wrong it will go in the bin. It just keeps going, £30 a year tax, sod all to insure, >50mpg and it will sit at 85mph all day long up and down the country. This week it went for an MOT and failed on a headlight bulb, £12 later it passed another MOT. I am convinced it is a cockroach, it just won't die. French cars are fantastic and if I had £1K to spend that is where I would be going.

Bet the windows don't work, and the A/C is shot. (From a man who has 7 or 8 of them)

;-) The AC has never worked. The windows do work but sometimes down is up and up is down, I think it's the French way!

I too bought an 07 Megane 1.5Dci four and a half years ago as I was driving around 2500 miles a month. I paid £1200, but it only had 61K miles on the clock. My experience is exactly the same as yours, other than brakes, oil changes and tyres the only money I have spent is £25 for a set of glow plugs and £60 to replace the 14 year old battery that was getting tired.

My A/C did work when I first owned the car but doesn't now and the windows have always worked perfectly.

The beauty of Renaults in my experience is they just don't rust. The front wings are all plastic and they clearly galvanise them so well at the factory that even at 15 years old mine is absolutely spotless. Even underneath it is still on the original exhaust and the brake pipes still have the original coating on them. I had to change the rear brake pads recently (£9.50 delivered) and every single bolt undid without a single issue. If you have owned a Japanese shed in the past you will know the underside will look like it has been parked in the sea and every bolt will snap.

I concur, I would go for a Renault after around 2005 which is when they sorted out most of the electrical issues. The other benefit is they are utterly undesirable and still have the "French crap" stigma so nobody wants them.

If you get a 1.5 DCi, go for the 106BHP version as this has the 6 speed gearbox and the Siemens fuel injection which is far more robust than the Delphi system fitted to the 86BHP versions.

The only thing I would be wary of is check the underfloor storage bins for water, if they are full of water walk away. There are drain holes under the scuttle that block with leaves and mud and cause water to come into the cabin. You need to remove the front wipers, take off the plastic scuttle and rod them with a net curtain rod. If you do this every couple of years you will never have an issue.

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 17th January 10:05

[avenger286]

YorkshireWhisky said:

I got an 08 Megane 1.5dci about 5 years ago because I was driving from York to Newcastle every day for six months and didn't want to trash the Alfa or Scooby. Paid £1000 to a dealer in Leeds, had about 90K on it. I said at the time that when it goes wrong it will go in the bin. It just keeps going, £30 a year tax, sod all to insure, >50mpg and it will sit at 85mph all day long up and down the country. This week it went for an MOT and failed on a headlight bulb, £12 later it passed another MOT. I am convinced it is a cockroach, it just won't die. French cars are fantastic and if I had £1K to spend that is where I would be going.

Purchased something similar, a 2010 mk3 Megane Tomtom dynamic for £550. Full service history, satnav, cruise, ac ect. It only needed a Headlight. Sofar its done 8k since September and only spent £25 on a replacement Headlight. 52mpg and £30 tax for the year. Nothing wrong with renault it's all bs about the electrics.

[Longy00000]

Renault are a good start fir a cheap run about that can be abused until it gives up.
Main issues are
Air con not always working
Windows sometimes work
Silly key cards which bend and snap connections internally
Top dead centre sensor which can affect starting
Some have issues with their coils

Top 2 are irrelevant
Bottom 3 are easy to check, the card either works the ignition or not
Tdc, it either starts readily or won't
It either runs smoothly after starting or doesn't
Plastic body parts means no rust so usually look better than firds or vauxhalss of same age etc

[ArmaghMan]

ooid said:

I also paid £750 for a 1.6 VW Golf mk4, 1.6 Petrol (Auto) two years ago. Annual service + MOT, still going.

Paid £1700 2 and a1/2 years ago for a mk4 1.4 match for my then 17 Yr old son.
40000 (at a guess extremely hard) miles later still going strong.
Could use a new exhaust, door locks have a mind of their own but starts first time evey time.
Not cool, not trendy but just keeps on plodding along.

[Jamescrs]

I did it with an R53 Mini Cooper S recently which lasted 18 months before the MOT failures killed it. I paid £850 for it. I dont recommend you try the same though, I think I got lucky with that one.

I'd go Mk2 Focus petrol as a starting point.

[magpie215]

ChrisH72 said:

What do you do with the car after 12 months?

Im guessing you don’t go through the expense of a service and MOT so do you just scrap it? Or maybe you do MOT it and sell it on if that’s viable. Or perhaps you just keep running it until it dies?

Throw it in for test if OK rinse and repeat.

Zero servicing just fix things as they crop up.

Worked for 5 years on my last shed.

[MrGTI6]

I've had my Peugeot 306 for five years now. Bought for £700 at 128k, it's now on 176k. Outside of routine servicing, all it's needed is an exhaust mount and a throttle cable.

It's 24 years old now but still gets used every day, and there's no rust whatsoever.

[Bobupndown]

Sister in law bought a Nissa Almera Tino for £500, into her 3rd year with it now. Naturally servicing isn't a concept she is too familiar with.

[Hoofy]

Bobupndown said:

Sister in law bought a Nissa Almera Tino for £500, into her 3rd year with it now. Naturally servicing isn't a concept she is too familiar with.

No point. I haven't had my Merc shed serviced in 18+ months. When it dies or fails an MOT big time, I'll scrap it and buy another.

[Longy00000]

These cars are always driven by their mot status.
At some point it will fail Nd will be too expensive to fix but when your buying cars fir a few hundred pounds and you can scrap it (after a failed mot) for £150 that's not bad cheap motoring.
Happy days