2.5 - 3.5k Efficient Car - What to Buy

[Jacob29]

Hey,

I've been looking into getting a replacement for my 2004 Golf that has got me a nice 160k miles but is on it's way out due to repair costs each year.

So I've been looking into options such as;

Toyota Auris
Honda Civic
Ford Fiesta mk7 for cheap
Mazda6

Wanted to know if there were specific things I needed to look out for with these cars?

My GF parents are big against the Ford and said to stick to Japanese/German but from what I've been seeing you can get a much more recent Ford for cheaper than the Japanese cars for only slightly less reliability.

I do not travel far at all so I am sticking to Petrol, it's only a short trip to work and back and the once a month longer trip. I am not too big on tiny cars as you can see from my selection.

So really I just want a reliable, safe, efficient car.

Thanks

[300bhp/ton]

Efficient at what?


If you don't need to travel far, why not buy something interesting rather than dull? And if you are paying for it yourself, don't worry what others say.

Plenty of fun and interesting cars for £3.5k.

[Jacob29]

300bhp/ton said:

Efficient at what?


If you don't need to travel far, why not buy something interesting rather than dull? And if you are paying for it yourself, don't worry what others say.

Plenty of fun and interesting cars for £3.5k.

Efficient at running.

Reliable - not expensive to repair due to low quantity parts.

My only problem with fun and interesting cars is I have pretty low knowledge of the parts behind said cars.

So for all I know I could pick a real nightmare car which is prone to failing every MOT

[Lukas239]

I've run a MK6 fiesta zetec s 1.6TDCI for 4 years and 60k. Needed one injector seal in that time and the rest breaks down as;

- Service £120 (or Oil & Filter yourself £40-£50)
- Tyres £50 a corner for a year
- tax £30
- Fuel - genuinely haven't had a single tank below 55mpg (mostly A & B roads)

Also driven the MK7 version which is much nicer and has better quoted MPG figures. Bottom line, wouldn't fear the ford.

[ninjag]

Jap is a good call for reliability but how about Swedish?

There's a couple of SAAB 9-3 2.0T on AutoTrader around the 08 and 09 plates. Reasonable mileage, one has only 48k miles on it. Decent performance and will still return mid to high 30's combined.

Also there's some Volvo S40's and a V50 in budget which are newer than your golf and reasonably low mileage.

Back to Japanese cars....

There's a 2007 Honda Accord 2.0 with 77k on the clock which will return almost 40mpg but still has decent enough performance or if you don't mind going a little over 100k miles then you can get the EX which is the top spec. Can't really beat an Accord petrol engine for reliability.

But something which caught my eye was a 2006 Lexus GS 450h 3.5 SE. It's got 143k miles but that wouldn't bother me with a Lexus if it's been looked after. It will certainly make your short commute and the odd long journeys very enjoyable, returns mid 30's in economy but can do 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, so plenty of fun as well. Only problem is that it's in N.Ireland but it looks stunning compared to others I've seen.