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Good all rounder for £7k?

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BurnyF1

Original Poster

2 posts

92 months

[report]

[news]

Tuesday 17th June

Hi all, long time lurker and in lieu of having a group of petrolhead mates to discuss this with in the pub I thought now was a good time to become a poster, as I'm feeling a bit stuck with what my next car should be! Essentially, I'm working from home a lot more now and no longer enjoy paying £300 a month for a financed, 5 year old hot hatch to mostly sit on the drive and fancy experiencing a bit of financial freedom again with my motoring.

I've done a lot of research and Auto Trader searching within my criteria and come up with many cars I like the look of including things like the 208 GTI, Golf GTD, Citroen DS3 Performance, Audi TT etc. however subsequent Google and forum searching reveals lots of "for the love of God don't buy this car, ticking time bomb, timing chain will shatter and explode the engine, DMF will fail, budget thousands for running this car" for everything from a 208 GTI to a Golf GTD, and it's put me in a state of decision paralysis and I'd like an outside perspective to help give me a little clarity.

I'm sure about 10/15 years ago it was much easier to find a good car for between 5-7k and not have to worry about it - is this just the result of online discussions only ever being about problems, or are cars these days a lot worse? Alternatively, am I looking at the wrong sorts of cars and the collective knowledge of PH can offer some better suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Edited by BurnyF1 on Tuesday 17th June 14:10

Chicken Chaser

8,458 posts

238 months

[report]

[news]

Tuesday 17th June

If space isn't a consideration, I wholeheartedly recommend a Cooper S. Had mine 2 years, paid £10k for a 2016 with 48k on it at the time. Probably into your budget now. Take it to a local specialist every 10k for servicing and other than that and a couple of tyres it's been good for over 20k miles. Fun to drive, I use it mainly for the 80+mile round trip commute. Never let me down.

ARHarh

4,704 posts

121 months

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[news]

Tuesday 17th June

First thing to consider is how many cars do you see stranded at the side of the road waiting for recovery?
The next thing is you only hear about the cars that break, the ones that go on for ever never get a mention on the interweb.
The issue today with a £7k car is it is likely to be 10 years old (ish) and spent the last few years being run on a budget. If you go in with your eyes open and expect to have to pay a few £100 to sort out some issues you should be fine with just about anything. Keep it well serviced and you will have very few issues with most cars. But you do have to bear in mind that 10 year old cars are going to need more work to keep them running well than a 2 years old car.

eth2190

190 posts

15 months

[report]

[news]

Tuesday 17th June

There are plenty of good cars in that bracket. Some diligence is definitely needed though.

Be patient or at least prepared to travel for the right car, and be prepared to walk away if anything seems iffy. Keep some cash aside to bring maintenance up to date if needed.

As a side note, if you're looking at petrolhead type stuff Facebook owners groups can be a good source of enthusiast owned examples.

Belle427

10,498 posts

247 months

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[news]

Tuesday 17th June

Golf Gti Mk 5 if you can find a nice one, not too bad money wise to run.

Rotary Potato

481 posts

110 months

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[news]

Tuesday 17th June

Reliability problems are massively blown out of all proportion.

When you look at historically poor reliability issues (say Porsche 996/986 IMS) and look at the actual stats, a catastrophic failure rate is in the ballpark of 10%. That means that 9 in every 10 cars with this allegedly widespread problem will be fine. Of the remaining 1 in 10, a number will have already failed and either be off the road, or fixed, and another number will have had proactive maintenance to mitigate the problem.

It can still sound bad when you see 5-10 horror stories on an owners forum, but you have to keep in mind the (literal) thousands of cars which are running around just fine. Try to get hold of actual data, rather than just a collection of individual anecdotes.

Whether this is acceptable to you comes down to your own personal appetite for risk. Some people (like me) think the odds are massively in my favour and take a gamble on something that conventional wisdom says to leave alone. Other people will be kept up at night fretting about potential "what if" scenarios. Most people will be somewhere between those two extremes.

ZX10R NIN

29,126 posts

139 months

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[news]

Tuesday 17th June

Derek182

182 posts

94 months

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[news]

Tuesday 17th June

i would be looking at a Fiesta ST, you should get a decent mk7 for that budget.
They are great fun to drive, cheap to run and reliable, even if something does go wrong it will be a cheap fix.

BurnyF1

Original Poster

2 posts

92 months

[report]

[news]

Tuesday 17th June

Thanks for the inputs all, some wise words for sure. I think I've been slightly spoilt by years of new/nearly new financed cars and I've got out of that mindset you need to have when it comes to 'older' cars.

I also take the point mentioned by eth2190, I think I'll have to compile a list of cars I like the look of (much like ZX10's!), go and see some and ultimately go for the first good car I find rather than being too fussy over one in particular.

ZX10R NIN said:

This is a very interesting list, thank you for your efforts. As I say, I've seen cars like the 208 Prestige or DS3 (2018 model) previously and been put off by the scare stories, so it's reassuring to see them in a list of reliable and entertaining cars. As I say, I think I'll have to do some searching and just go for the first car that gives me a good feeling. As for other examples mentioned in this thread, I have previously owned/driven both a MINI and a Fiesta ST so hadn't really considered experiencing them again, but they were great so why write them off I guess!

CG2020UK

2,578 posts

54 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 18th June

If it helps I’ve had 2x 208 GTI’s and both cars had over 60k on them.

Both of them were incredibly reliable. Neighbour had a white one that was remapped and guy in the gym had a very early model with well over 120k all reliable. And the same time my brother in law and my old neighbour’s Fiesta ST’s went boom.

The 208 GTI has 208hp and sub 1200kg with climate control, sat nav, heated seats, cruise control, auto lights and wipers, real spare alloy wheel, panoramic roof and could get 40mpg no issue. Interior a lot more modern than its rivals. Also not as stiff and far easier to live with than an ST, Clio RS or Mini not mention actually faster. ST feels nicer steering wise and gear change but.

Recommend a test drive. Just remember to look at the dials over the top of the steering wheel and not through it. Basically just set the bottom of the Peugeot steering wheel to the same position as a normal wheel. Amazing how people still can’t figure it out after all this time!

ZX10R NIN

29,126 posts

139 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 18th June

I'll also add it's okay to focus on one or two particular cars, as they're not scarce you can afford to go for the car that ticks your boxes the most.

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