Cheap Estate - Focus or Fabia?

[ean21]

I need a car that fits these criteria -
1) £1,000 budget
2) has room for lots of diving gear
3) less than insurance group 11 as my son will learn to drive in it when he turns 17.
4) I prefer European cars.

I'm thinking of either a Focus Estate TDI 1.8 or a Fabia Estate TDI 1.9. I've no experience of either but they seem to fit the bill. Plenty of Focuses on Autotrader!

Any thoughts on which? Or maybe a different suggestion?

Many thanks.

[anonymous-user]

Last year my nephew bought a Focus estate as his first car, petrol 1.8 Ghia with FFSH at an auction for £650, 100k-ish miles but average for a 10yr old car.

Bodywork was a bit rough (read every panel scratched or dinged) which is why it probably went to auction but has been faultless and was cheap to insure for him as a new driver.

Reliable yet cheap to fix if they do go wrong.

[Rickyy]

I'd go with the Focus, biased opinion as I've had 2, but both had over 100k and neither gave me huge problems.

Astras seem to be cheap and plentiful, don't drive as well as a Focus, but seem to stand up well to abuse.

[firman]

What about an Octavia estate? Even more space and plenty around sub £1k may even pick up a AWD one for that

[GoodDoc]

Well, prepare for stories about how dreadful/wonderful the VAG 1.9TDi is.

First thing to confirm, these are different classes of cars. The Fabia is in the same class as a Fiesta (even though Ford don't do a Fiesta estate), and the Focus is closer in size to the Octavia.

We have a couple of petrol Fabias and diesel Octavias in my family which have never gone wrong, and we've never owned a Ford. So, far from a balanced opinion but my money would be on the Skoda. The 1.9TDi is wonderful!

[Taffer]

firman said:

What about an Octavia estate? Even more space and plenty around sub £1k may even pick up a AWD one for that

Doesn't need to be an estate - the hatch also has a massive boot. Good luck finding one that hasn't been a taxi though!

[vit4]

You won't get a 1.9tdi Fabia for under a grand; SDI you may get but it will make you want to hurt things. Having said that it is a brilliant car. My dad's got an '05 model which has been faultless. Boot is narrow but reasonably long, although with the seats up I can get more in my Astra mk2 hatch. Focus is a lot bigger and IME cheaper to insure - the 1.9 for me to insure was extortionate, something like £4.5k with 2 years NCB (Focus 1.8 tddi estate by comparison is around £3.2k).

[martin mrt]

I'd say Focus, as you will get a better car for the money, just so happens I'm going to be selling my mates Focus TDi Estate next week

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 1st August 23:41

[firman]

Taffer said:

firman said:

What about an Octavia estate? Even more space and plenty around sub £1k may even pick up a AWD one for that

Doesn't need to be an estate - the hatch also has a massive boot. Good luck finding one that hasn't been a taxi though!

For £1000 they are always going to be leggy but this kind of thing cant be bad for the money http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

Leaves a bit of money aside for some repairs or maintanance too

[ean21]

This would be floating my boat, but it's private.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

I'm not going to be able to view beforehand, so calling up a trader and paying by card before collection is pretty much my only option. I don't want to travel to a car and find that Fred has sold it while I was on the way.

Hadn't really thought of the Octavia. Not too big, and insurable too.

I could still get swung by a well-specced Focus though. there's not much in it really.

[icepop]

vit4 said:

You won't get a 1.9tdi Fabia for under a grand; SDI you may get but it will make you want to hurt things. Having said that it is a brilliant car. My dad's got an '05 model which has been faultless. Boot is narrow but reasonably long, although with the seats up I can get more in my Astra mk2 hatch. Focus is a lot bigger and IME cheaper to insure - the 1.9 for me to insure was extortionate, something like £4.5k with 2 years NCB (Focus 1.8 tddi estate by comparison is around £3.2k).

That's got to be a joke, right ?

£3.2k insurance for a 05 Focus, surely just dont drive for another 2-3 years.

[ean21]

martin mrt said:

I'd say Focus, as you will get a better car for the money, just so happens I'm going to be selling my mates Focus TDi Estate next week

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 1st August 23:41

Send me a link to the advert when you put it up for sale.
Cheers.

[ean21]

Taffer said:

Doesn't need to be an estate - the hatch also has a massive boot. Good luck finding one that hasn't been a taxi though!

I See what you mean. I was in an Octavia just now. It was a Taxi as well! And he said his turbo failed at 80k!

[djfaulkner]

I'd go with the Focus myself -

[toon10]

I've driven both cars but only in petrol guise. My father had the Skoda and it was perfectly acceptable, better than the Astra estate he replaced it with. The Focus chassis is better and more enjoyable to drive.

They both do the practical stuff well and are comfortable enough but I'd go with the Ford.

[FoundOnRoadside]

Mk4 Astra, as someone else said, aren't as good to drive, but are much, much less likely to need expensive suspension work compared to the Focus. The Astra has the old twist beam rear axle, so no bushes or complicated multilink stuff to go wrong. With one socket you can change both springs and rear shocks on an Astra in less than 30 mins.

I'm on my 5th Astra, and none of them have given any real bother. I spent less in repairs over all 5 Astras across 8 years than I did in 2 years of owning a single Ford. The Ford was a far better car to drive, but it was constantly broken. Suspension, clutch, suspension again, more suspension bushes, rear subframe, electrical gremlins, more suspension....

[bakerstreet]

ean21 said:

I need a car that fits these criteria -
1) £1,000 budget
2) has room for lots of diving gear
3) less than insurance group 11 as my son will learn to drive in it when he turns 17.
4) I prefer European cars.

I'm thinking of either a Focus Estate TDI 1.8 or a Fabia Estate TDI 1.9. I've no experience of either but they seem to fit the bill. Plenty of Focuses on Autotrader!

Any thoughts on which? Or maybe a different suggestion?

Many thanks.

Astra Mk4 Estate is worth a look too. 1.7DTI engine is very tough and several of my diving chums have had them and they can even pull a 1T dive boat too complete with dive gear in the boot!

[Geekman]

MK4 astras also seem to be extremely cheap to insure as well, several of my friends have them. Not very nice to drive, but apparently very reliable and cheap to run.

[SuperVM]

I had a Focus estate for 18 months. The only thing that went wrong was the heater fan switch, which was all of £5 on eBay. It went through two MOTs in that time only needing an ARB drop link. Despite being a 1999 with 140k on the clock, everything still worked, including the AC. We paid £900 for it and sold it for £600 when we gave up on my wife passing her test in a manual, so bought an auto. I'd definitely have one as a cheap load lugger again and it wasn't even absolutely horrific to drive either.

[ean21]

Thanks Guys, all very helpful and useful comments.

Now I'll be throwing a slightly more informed dart at AutoTrader on payday!