Recommendations for a dirt cheap very reliable 5 door car

Things change I've changed · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:21

(I know nothing about cars)

This thread is for my mum, she recently bought a 2003 1.6 petrol Fiat Stilo for £400, but it has a dodgy clutch and after reading around on the net it looks the old Stilo's have their fare share of problems so she wants to sell it on, hopefully for a profit.

Or should she?

To give a bit of history she has only ever owned one car previous to the Stilo which was a very old 1992 (around that year) Vauxhall cavalier 2.0i which she loved, she said that it had a lot of power and was fun to drive, she says that the 1.6 Stilo feels quite underpowered compared to the cavalier and the mpg seem about the same if not worse which I personally don't get being that it's only 1.6 and the cavalier was 2.0i, she only paid £500 for the cavalier and it never broke down once and never had any serious mechanical problems in the five years that she owned it but the bodywork got beyond repair so she had to scrap it which lead her to buy the Stilo.

What she wants to know is what 5 door cars that are dirt cheap (£500-£900) do you guys recommend that are very reliable?

Just want to give her a starting to point so she knows what cars to look out for.

Ricochet J · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:25

The internet will only tell you common problems with a car, which after selective reading can sound bad for a car.

For your mum's budget I'd be tempted to sell the Stilo, and buy a Mk2 Ghia X Mondeo, and pocket any change for repairs.

Jono8 · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:27

Ricochet J said:
The internet will only tell you common problems with a car, which after selective reading can sound bad for a car.

For your mum's budget I'd be tempted to sell the Stilo, and buy a Mk2 Ghia X Mondeo, and pocket any change for repairs.

pocket change from a £400 Stilo with a dodgy clutch

.

stulid · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:28

Something with a Honda badge, Civic or Accord.

Ricochet J · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:29

Jono8 said:
pocket change from a £400 Stilo with a dodgy clutch .

Sell the Stilo. Add to the original budget. Buy a Mondeo. Pocket any change.

mame · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:51

I'm not really 'into' cars these days but I'll give my input. When she bought a car for £500 and drove it for 5 years without any problems, I'd say that's very lucky and might be hard to repeat. When you say a car £500-900 that's reliable, well older cars are that price for a reason, they (usually) need money spent on them.

when you look at newer cars, it's a valid point to take note of what people are having to replace on the same car but when you start looking at older cars, it's just a case of what's next. You could argue that the Stilo didn't need the clutch replacing for 9 years so that's a good thing. If it had needed replacing after 5 years, you would say that's bad but it would have worked out better for you if that makes sense.

If I was buying a £500-900 car, the main thing I'd be looking for is receipts. Receipts for things like clutch, starter motor, alternator, battery. Even tyres and exhaust although you would get a better idea from looking at those. Spending £500 on a car that's going to need £200 worth of tyres in 6 months isn't a good thing unless it's well worth the total £700. There's LOADS of people who have the strange mentality that because they have just had to spend £600 on their car, that they now need to sell it. I'd be after one of those.