Car suggestions, £3k-£5k, bit of poke

Saab 93 Aero. Loads of decent ones for your budget and can be taken from 210bhp to 250bhp with a sub £100 remap (Saabnoob on the Saab forums)

He did mine. Quick car now :D

Edit - OP bought a Multipla?! Ermmm ;) :D
 
Nice enough looking motor. Great spec with the RNS510 (assuming it is a genuine one), and the xenons. Low miles too. You can get Edition 30's for that coin (mine was significantly less), but it will have more miles on it for sure. Can't help but think I'd have tried to hold out for leather seats though, but if that's all that's missing, not too bad.
 
Saab 9-3 with the 2.0 Turbo or 3.2 V6?

The prices for what you get are an absolute bargain in the price range you're looking and they seem to fit your criteria well.
 
[TW]Fox;29972589 said:
His budget is 3-5k. Stretching to buy a life expired common rail BMW is not smart.

BMW diesels are a pointless liability once they get old.
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Here, I have to disagree.

You move in different circles it would appear, I move in circles that include an awful lot of eastern European folk who've come over here to work (in my case, drive HGV's) the one thing that seems to link them ? they all have old, high mileage BMW diesels.

An e39 525d with 325k on the clock, two e46 330d's - both remapped - with 600k between them, an e90 320d with 230k (remapped again) are the cars I know of and have discussed with said eastern types and they swear by them.

At this age and mileage, yes, you will be paying out to have this & that fixed / replaced as you would with any other marque of similar vintage and intergalactic miles but to regard such machines as a "pointless liability" I'm sorry, your wrong from what I see from the guys at the sharp end of such car ownership tell me.

Maybe eastern European's are more realistic in realising old leggy cars require maintenance, I don't know, but, these guys seem to pick these sorts of motors for a reason, perhaps its because at this bargain basement price level they actually still offer far more than more mundane marques and therefore are the choice of these types?
 
How many miles do they put on them?

If you are doing 50k a year then you need a lot of breakdowns before the diesel becomes uneconomical. But most people buying cheap BMW diesels are not doing 50k miles a year.

I bet they are really quite handy with spanners too - so the work that is done is done by themselves at zero labour cost. Again, not the same as most people in the market for a cheap BMW diesel.
 
Scania said:
Here, I have to disagree.

You move in different circles it would appear, I move in circles that include an awful lot of eastern European folk who've come over here to work (in my case, drive HGV's) the one thing that seems to link them ? they all have old, high mileage BMW diesels.

An e39 525d with 325k on the clock, two e46 330d's - both remapped - with 600k between them, an e90 320d with 230k (remapped again) are the cars I know of and have discussed with said eastern types and they swear by them.

At this age and mileage, yes, you will be paying out to have this & that fixed / replaced as you would with any other marque of similar vintage and intergalactic miles but to regard such machines as a "pointless liability" I'm sorry, your wrong from what I see from the guys at the sharp end of such car ownership tell me.

Maybe eastern European's are more realistic in realising old leggy cars require maintenance, I don't know, but, these guys seem to pick these sorts of motors for a reason, perhaps its because at this bargain basement price level they actually still offer far more than more mundane marques and therefore are the choice of these types?
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Yeah I've noticed this myself too, those east European folk certainly like their old German cars :)
 
Scania said:
Maybe eastern European's are more realistic in realising old leggy cars require maintenance, I don't know, but, these guys seem to pick these sorts of motors for a reason, perhaps its because at this bargain basement price level they actually still offer far more than more mundane marques and therefore are the choice of these types?
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[TW]Fox;30057322 said:
I bet they are really quite handy with spanners too - so the work that is done is done by themselves at zero labour cost. Again, not the same as most people in the market for a cheap BMW diesel.
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dacads said:
Yeah I've noticed this myself too, those east European folk certainly like their old German cars :)
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Having spoken to a few Polish drivers at work, the general impression given was that Cars are comparatively expensive in Poland, but parts/labour are relatively cheap. As one of them "goes home" several times a year, he gets it serviced over there, and any preventative work done cheaply, rather than waiting until it's absolutely necessary.
 
[TW]Fox;30058113 said:
So really then I stand by my opinion that an old £3k 320d is false economy.
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Not too sure about that. My old man has an old 320d, and has done well over 40k in it the last few years. Not had to spend a penny apart from servicing and tyres. Hardly a false economy. Granted, others may not be so lucky, but I'm quite sure many will be as lucky.

He certainly has no desire to part with it at the moment.
 
Armageus said:
Having spoken to a few Polish drivers at work, the general impression given was that Cars are comparatively expensive in Poland, but parts/labour are relatively cheap. As one of them "goes home" several times a year, he gets it serviced over there, and any preventative work done cheaply, rather than waiting until it's absolutely necessary.
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Second hand cars are a bit more expensive than the UK, generally. Especially when you compare the car price to salary - they're a very premium item in Poland.

Parts aren't really that much cheaper... in fact, when I had to replace the shocks, they were cheaper in the UK.

But labour... I've had rates between £50/100 per DAY over there... so for the last few years, my 320d has been serviced over there. We had quite a lot of work done last year.

[TW]Fox;30058113 said:
So really then I stand by my opinion that an old £3k 320d is false economy.
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Mine didn't cost much more than that when I bought it 4.5 years ago.

The only thing on top of usual service parts was a new rear license plate lightbulb holder as it had rusted to get it through the MOT... for 3 years.

Then one of the rear shocks started leaking, so we decided to replace all four and did all the bushings as the engine's still strong at 215k miles.

Total cost of BMW 320d ownership over 4.5 years is about £7k including the original purchase price for me.

I've seen newer Vauxhalls and Renaults that cost more than that to run.

It's possible I simply got lucky though, I know some parts can be quite expensive to replace.

When I first got it, I was doing about 24k/year... which is what sold me on it + it was a rather good deal from a reputable garage over the 545i I was originally going to look at. Craving switching back to petrol as I don't like diesel very much, but this car has been so reliable and good for a reasonable combination of power, fuel economy and handling... it's hard to replace until it dies.
 
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Well, indeed they do all go "home" quite frequently, Mariusz with the e39 has a Mrs & kids a few miles from the Russian border and he visits her every other weekend,by car!

He doesn't service it himself though - despite having the mechanical ability - would rather pay somebody else to do it than waste his downtime, he works 11 Days per fortnight, maxing his hours where he can as so many of his ilk do...


I asked him why the BMW? - and his reply?

"Because Volkswagens are ****" :D
 
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