diesel estate dogsbody 2nd car

diesel estate dogsbody 2nd car

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courty

Original Poster:

402 posts

78 months

Sunday 26th March 2023
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A mate of mine bought a shed of the week 2009 Alfa 159 SW diesel about 4 years back for maybe £1200 iirc.
Anyway, the car is now on it's last legs, power steering pipe spewing oil. I told him not to bother, get £300 scrap or whatever.

They also have a BMW 520D euro6 late 2015, a nice car for family trips and his wife commutes in it 2 days pw up and down the A2. He needs another car for carting his stuff about (part -time/occasional) property maintenance, long stepladders, decorating stuff, slabs, bricks etc. but also use for taxiing 2 kids about when wife's at work. The 159 although not that big, did pretty well for this, but he did have to hire a van for carting heavier bigger stuff about on occasion

He is looking at cars about £6k-£7k 2017 Honda Civic 1.6 diesel estate, 2017 Mondeo Estate etc.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301173...


He asked for my advice and I told him to save £5k money and get another shed, like this V70...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125834681912?hash=item1...

as the Civic I think he will find to be small...and he'll end up either using and trashing the 5 series and making his wife take the Honda or having to hire vans occasionally.

They only need one ulez car as they live in Kent and only visit family in ULEZ.

Anyhow, am I putting him off the sensible route (Honda Civic, £0 tax, many mpg, £7k upfront...) to go down a false economy for something like the Volvo (2004, nearly 200K miles, not so many mpg...but he will get his concrete mixer in it and only pay £1500K with tax)?


Just asking for yays or nays, or maybe there isn't a right or wrong answer, but he did ask for my advice. I think he didn't expect such a curve ball back...which probably knocked him off his perch a little bit. At the end of the day, he has his own mind, and his own money, but I wanted to give him the best advice...hence putting up this thread for potential 2nd and 3rd opinions.
TIA

TRKid

38 posts

96 months

Sunday 26th March 2023
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The £7k Civic is a better buy. Even if it is hideous to look at.

georgeyboy12345

3,523 posts

36 months

Monday 27th March 2023
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Another vote for the Civic, the boots are cavernous, much larger than a 159 and even larger than something like an Insignia. Factor in they are reliable, capable of over 70 mpg, 0 road tax and are clean air zone compliant so should hold their value well.