Need something soul destroying for £7K

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Cuchulain

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2004
Posts
7,620
Location
Derry
Finally convinced the wife to ditch the Picasso, going to sell it and will hopefully make about 3K+, have 4K already to spend so I'm after something around the same size as a Picasso.

Only stipulations are:

Must be diesel (doing a lot of miles now one of my kids is at school and one with a child minder),
Must be reliable
Must not be a Citroen (as the local dealer network is f-awful)

Wanted an S-Max but can't find anything in my price bracket so was wondering about the C-Max, an 08 TDCI with low mileage is around the right price but I know nothing about them.

Any other suggestions?
 
As long as its a newish one (more than 05) then hopefully you wont get the dredded DMF issue which was quite common with the early TDCI engines.

However I think you should put your foot down and get the VXR :p
 
Paul. W said:
As long as its a newish one (more than 05) then hopefully you wont get the dredded DMF issue which was quite common with the early TDCI engines.

However I think you should put your foot down and get the VXR :p
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Surprisingly they're only 3k over budget for a reasonable used one, I could lie and tell her it's a diesel or something but I reckon she'd noticed the insurance premiums and VED renewals shooting up.
 
why get rid of the picrapso? if its running fine than whats the problem

my parents have one and despite it being ugly and french its a 2.0 HDI and its done 170k and hasnt needed anything too expensive doing to it
 
Cuchulain said:
Surprisingly they're only 3k over budget for a reasonable used one, I could lie and tell her it's a diesel or something but I reckon she'd noticed the insurance premiums and VED renewals shooting up.
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And the dreaded phone call you will get one day when she fills your beloved VXR full of diesel :p
 
MrMoonX said:
why get rid of the picrapso? if its running fine than whats the problem

my parents have one and despite it being ugly and french its a 2.0 HDI and its done 170k and hasnt needed anything too expensive doing to it
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Because she bought a petrol one and 25(ish) miles to the gallon is not satisfactory, we're putting 60 quid of petrol in every 5 days, had she opted for an HDI model I suspect this topic would never have arisen.

Unfortunately she now seems to be quite keen on either a Meriva or Megane Scenic but I've told her if she buys one, she can only use whatever money she makes from the sale/p-ex of her Picasso and I'm spending the 4 grand on an MX5.
 
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Cuchulain said:
Because she bought a petrol one and 25(ish) miles to the gallon is not satisfactory, we're putting 60 quid of petrol in every 5 days, had she opted for an HDI model I suspect this topic would never have arisen.
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That's outrageous :eek:

You should be able to get a 4 year old Seat Altea diesel for that money if you want another small mpv. There aren't many of them about though, so they can be quite hard to find. There's also the Golf Max but you might be looking at higher mileage at that price.
 
Jonny69 said:
That's outrageous :eek:

You should be able to get a 4 year old Seat Altea diesel for that money if you want another small mpv. There aren't many of them about though, so they can be quite hard to find. There's also the Golf Max but you might be looking at higher mileage at that price.
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Altea is the slightly smaller Alhambra right?
 
The Altea XL is a tough cookie as well - one of our engineers at work rolled one through a hedge and walked away.
 
Cuchulain said:
Because she bought a petrol one and 25(ish) miles to the gallon is not satisfactory, we're putting 60 quid of petrol in every 5 days, had she opted for an HDI model I suspect this topic would never have arisen.

Unfortunately she now seems to be quite keen on either a Meriva or Megane Scenic but I've told her if she buys one, she can only use whatever money she makes from the sale/p-ex of her Picasso and I'm spending the 4 grand on an MX5.
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Probably cheaper to just eat the fuel costs for a couple of years than spend an extra 4k on a more efficient car. If saving money is the concern, it would only really make sense to sell if you buy a more efficient car for around the same price.
 
Selling a Citroen and buying a Vauxhall or a Renault is hardly a step up in terms of build quality or reliability. S-Max can be had for your price range, just gotta look around. We sold one about a month ago for 7k, although to be honest I can't remember how old it was or the miles it had done, plus the S-Max is probably the best looking car in it's class (imo)
 
realscot said:
Selling a Citroen and buying a Vauxhall or a Renault is hardly a step up in terms of build quality or reliability. S-Max can be had for your price range, just gotta look around. We sold one about a month ago for 7k, although to be honest I can't remember how old it was or the miles it had done, plus the S-Max is probably the best looking car in it's class (imo)
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The only issue with the S-Max is it's massive, heavy, thirsty and slow in diesel trim.. I love the styling and interior myself..

The Zafira with the 1.9 150BHP Diesel is easily remapped to just under 200BHP, does 48MPG and the heavier diesel engine means they beef up the suspension, if you can get one with IDS+ it's even reasonably sharp to drive.. With 20K service intervals and good servicing costs it should be cheap to run..

But other then that, I like the C-Max in the smaller 5 seat only brigade, it's a bit dated, but it drives well, and looks nice in black, you'd get the facelift version easily for £7K..
 
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