What cheap shed?

[VS02]

Financial issues are leading me to give up the car I saved up for and my pride and joy - a BMW 330e. Sadly I only had this car for about 3 months. I’m a student, but the nature of my course means I need a car regularly. I am also registered disabled, but never claimed PIP (didn’t even know I was eligible for the Motability Scheme or PIP until DWP advised me). So the solution is to get a motability car as I need a car to get around at home - I now live in the Home counties . At university I am blessed with Manchester’s excellent public transport so would probably rarely use the car - even though I would need it sometimes. This is because central Manchester is effectively a car free zone


Anyway let’s get to the point.

From the sale of the BMW, I will save most of the cash for later for after uni; so only want to spend about 3.5-4K all in. So, budgeting about 1.5K-2K for insurance, that gives me about 2-2.5K for the car.

Insurance costs are ridiculous due to my claims and age (19, nearly 20. 2 yrs, 0NCB, low risk area now that I don’t live in London anymore (now in the Home counties))


I want a biggish car . Eg mid size family or estate car
Needs to not fall to pieces

I need it for minimum 6 months to a year

Cheapish on petrol
Cheap to insure (sub group 20)

So far ive thought about the Vauxhall insignia
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...


Don’t care about exterior condition but needs to be mechanically sound

Ideally an auto or 6 spd manual

Needs an armrest and comfy seats as I suffer from horrible back pain

Not a total shed or ancient - no classics please as I don’t have time to repair it and it needs to be run on a shoestring

Thanks

Edited by VS02 on Monday 31st October 19:41

[Brett748]

Insignia or Mondeo is probably a good shout.

[Ryyy]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[bearman68]

Insignia is a terrible shout in my view. Mondeo is not much better.

Petrol engine has to be Korean or Jap.
Diesel engine has to be French.

A few options up to about £2k.

[757]

Avensis petrol 1.8 or Insignia petrol 1.8, cheap to fix especially the Vauxhall.

All pretty simple engines, terribly unfashionable to some, but means you can get a pretty newish car with all the gear cheap especially the Insignia's (in budget).

Not much to really write home about, but for trundling along going A to B, jobs a goodn'

[WarnieV6GT]

I have a 2005 Merc c class estate in the top advantguard spec. It's a 200cdi that has been remapped for economy. This made it as quick as the C220cdi. It gets up to 55mpg on the motorway at 65mph..

Silver with black leather 108000 miles and almost full history.

I've done 45k in it over the last 15 months with no major issues. Yours for £2k

[ZX10R NIN]

The Insignia is a good pick, or take a look at the Hyundai Coupe:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210301...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210301...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210210...

Also take a look at the 1.4T Astra GTC 120, they normally come back with sensible insurance numbers:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210241...

[VS02]

ZX10R NIN said:

The Insignia is a good pick, or take a look at the Hyundai Coupe:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210301...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210301...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210210...

Also take a look at the 1.4T Astra GTC 120, they normally come back with sensible insurance numbers:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210241...

Unfortunately, I need 4/5 doors and a big boot. But your astra suggestion got me looking at the Sports tourer so thanks for that

[tooslow96]

Toyota Avensis Estate. Very well built and bullet proof. I drove an ex taxi one for a few days , had over 400k miles and ran sweet.

Make sure it has a Toyota engine as some years used BMW engines for some crazy reason.

[Throttlebody]

Nissan Juke or Primera. Cheap, reliable.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Hyundai i40 Touring.

Job done.

[bearman68]

tooslow96 said:

Toyota Avensis Estate. Very well built and bullet proof. I drove an ex taxi one for a few days , had over 400k miles and ran sweet.

Make sure it has a Toyota engine as some years used BMW engines for some crazy reason.

Never had much luck with Toyota diesel engines, and they certainly don't perform like the BMW unit. Would be nice if Toyota took the BMW unit and did their reliability thing with it.
But the Toyota petrol engines are simply fabulous. I disagree with the poster who says they are simple - they aren't. But they are really well made, and work fantastically well. I've never had a bad one.

Is the Avensis a comfortable car though? I've never had one, so I don't know.

[ZX10R NIN]

VS02 said:

Unfortunately, I need 4/5 doors and a big boot. But your astra suggestion got me looking at the Sports tourer so thanks for that

In which case the 1.8 Insignia in SRI form would be my pick:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211011...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210130...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...

[VS02]

ZX10R NIN said:

In which case the 1.8 Insignia in SRI form would be my pick:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211011...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210130...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...

Thanks for this, I was interested in the Insignia first,

I test drove a 1.8 SRi earlier this evening, and I was pleasantly surprised. The car was very quiet, the ride very comfortable, decent seats.
Performance could only really be described as “leisurely” but it got to speed and was quite happy to sit quietly at 60 and 70. 6 speed manual. I was expecting to be quite noisy (my old Polo felt rough as old boots at anything over 2.5k, but it was really not very grumbly at all. 1.8 SRi also meant no diesel rattle / van sounds. It has been a while since I have driven a manual, but the clutch was fairly light. The whole car seemed very wallowy/bargey but I didn’t expect it to be a sports car and I don’t really care.

It is a big old bus though isn’t it! I was surprised at the size compared to my BMW 3 series , the thing feels HUGE. As big as my old Transit custom ! It felt like commandeering a tank around the back roads of Berkshire but I liked that feeling. The boot was hugely spacious and all round I don’t think you can really get something as modern feeling/with as much kit for cheaper. I think I would be very happy with an Insignia but I will still test drive the Korean estate twins (Kia Ceed SW/ Hyundai i30 Touring).

[Jag_NE]

I always have the same advice on this. Unless you are prepared to trawl the country buy the best condition, best service history car you can, ideally from a private owner who has owned it for a good few years. Don’t yet set on a make model or engine. If your budget is low the main thing is reducing the risk of big bills and 2k cars on dealer forecourts is a dodgy part of the market unless you really know what you are looking for. You do get wealthy ish people getting shot of old cars that are perfect sellers for your situation.

[Auslander]

Just something worth noting - you say you're a student in Manchester and 'live' in the Home Counties.

For insurance purposes, I suspect you 'live' in Manchester, not the Home Counties. So be very careful with the insurance. The student areas of Manchester will not be cheap for insurance - for a very good reason!

[Jag_NE]

I always have the same advice on this. Unless you are prepared to trawl the country buy the best condition, best service history car you can, ideally from a private owner who has owned it for a good few years. Don’t yet set on a make model or engine. If your budget is low the main thing is reducing the risk of big bills and 2k cars on dealer forecourts is a dodgy part of the market unless you really know what you are looking for. You do get wealthy ish people getting shot of old cars that are perfect sellers for your situation.

[VS02]

Auslander said:

Just something worth noting - you say you're a student in Manchester and 'live' in the Home Counties.

For insurance purposes, I suspect you 'live' in Manchester, not the Home Counties. So be very careful with the insurance. The student areas of Manchester will not be cheap for insurance - for a very good reason!

I barely spend any time of the year in Manchester, my course is mostly online, or travelling. Besides, the car stays at home.

mid September - mid-late November (visit home in between)

mid Feb - late April (again with a break in March)

That’s all the time I spend there, at the most, and I would rarely use the car.

Edited by VS02 on Wednesday 2nd November 00:25

[tooslow96]

bearman68 said:

Never had much luck with Toyota diesel engines, and they certainly don't perform like the BMW unit. Would be nice if Toyota took the BMW unit and did their reliability thing with it.
But the Toyota petrol engines are simply fabulous. I disagree with the poster who says they are simple - they aren't. But they are really well made, and work fantastically well. I've never had a bad one.

Is the Avensis a comfortable car though? I've never had one, so I don't know.

Yeah i can attest to the Petrol Toyota Avensis engines, they are literally bomb proof. Local taxi company ran hundreds of them on LPG for years, all of them had telephone length mileages when they became too old to license for taxi use.

[pistonheader10101]

honda jazz