Cheap, reliable runaround for £1000 or less

Styles

Styles

Styles

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2005
Posts
2,889
Location
UK
Hi,

My partner is looking for a cheap town car with the aim of spending at most £1000.

The car would need to be:

- Reliable
- Good on Fuel (a 1 litre petrol would be fine)
- Overall cheap to run

It doesn't matter what the car looks like in terms of styling, but hopefully not banged up all over. A few small dents doesn't matter. She would be taking our baby boy out and about.

I've been looking around and have come up with the following:

- Nissan Micra
- Nissan Almera
- Mitsubishi Carisma

Something like that would do, as long as it fits the cheap to run and reliable side of things.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
You've listed 3 different class of cars there - small hatch, medium hatch and large hatch/saloon

The micra is her best bet from that list
 
Should have said, the size of the car doesn't really matter other than that it would ideally be no bigger than the Carisma.
 
What about circa w plate escorts or 206' for around this price? Been offered a W plate Escort for £500, anything to watch for?

Thanks
 
Styles said:
What about circa w plate escorts or 206' for around this price? Been offered a W plate Escort for £500, anything to watch for?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Biggest problems on the Escort is the battery tray and bulkhead can rust up something chronic - causing the passenger footwell to get soaking wet, that's around £150-£200 to fix. The wheel arches can get quite rusty as well.

After some ****** ran into the side of my Escort and screwed up the rear subframe and the bulkhead/battery tray problem, I had to scrap it :(
 
Styles said:
a W plate Escort for £500
Click to expand...

Thought these would have all died by now... i was very surprised when i saw an escort a few weeks ago!

Used to be driven around in them a bit when i was a kid, i knew they were pretty miserable even back then.

I'd probably take one over a 206, but i think you can do better at £500
 
nanospider said:
Thought these would have all died by now... i was very surprised when i saw an escort a few weeks ago!

Used to be driven around in them a bit when i was a kid, i knew they were pretty miserable even back then.

I'd probably take one over a 206, but i think you can do better at £500
Click to expand...

What would you suggest?
 
Depends whats on the market really, can get some fairly interesting things on pistonheads classifieds. Depends on how mechanically minded you are as well.

I used to run around in a 306 DTurbo which was okay, didn't feel like i was spending tons on fuel, was able to get replacement parts quite cheap (£35 for an exhaust section and fitted myself, MOT place asked for about £450 mind)

But, there might not be any decent 306 DTurbos on the market where you are?

Just buy on condition at this price point, if the escort is in good condition it could see you through, just looking through my area i'm seeing mk2 mondeos, polos, fiestas, random volvos... a few that would be worth going to look at anyway. I'm not really looking too hard at what car it is, just if its a rusty nail or not :D
 
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