Automatic for under £1000

M3G4UK

M3G4UK

M3G4UK

Associate
Joined
23 May 2005
Posts
672
Location
Essex
Hey guys,

I don't venture here very often but I was wondering if you'd be able to help out with my car conundrum. I've recently moved a little further out of London and realising life would be a little easier with a little runabout. Cash is a bit tight so not looking to spend more than £1k - ideally £750 or under. So I need a half-decent automatic (manual not an option due to health issues) that I can put a few thousand miles on the clock of without it falling to bits. Resale value or how "favourable" it is is not an issue, so please by all means recommend some random non "street cred" brand if it's a good cheap deal. It's going to be getting me to and from work, and occasionally to Glasgow and back.

Engine size isn't too much of an issue, ideally 2l or smaller to keep insurance from being ridiculous.

Any ideas? :)
 
Cheap automatic will be tough I'd have thought. Maybe look at some old volvos?
 
If the problem is with using the clutch then a semi-auto, e.g. a Smart Fortwo, might work for you - change gears by moving the shifter back/forward.

The top-spec ("Passion") models have a fully-auto mode but I wouldn't expect to find many of them <£1000.
 
Curve ball - Old 3 series with auto box :D
Can be had for sub £500 and if you don't mind about cosmetics/street cred/ shabby interior, should go on for a fair few miles.
Picked mine up (1995 318is) for £430, and changed a few key bits, and its still sub £500.
Over 5k miles since I picked it up now, and its doing well whilst I hold out for the new model A4 on our company car scheme!

I would be surprised if this goes over 1k!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1999-BMW-...-collectors-/131595836835?hash=item1ea3b91da3
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
Cheers guys, some interesting responses.

I'd been looking at Astra's and Mondeo's (as there seems to be an abundance of them), are they generally reliable also?
 
M3G4UK said:
Oddly I'd been told to avoid Renault because apparently their autoboxes were made of biscuit.
Click to expand...

It's a ****e gearbox. Not given me any issues yet though, and when it does I'll sell it and get something else cheap. Actually the whole car is a bit ****e. But it goes from A to B and it's comfy and has lots of bootspace.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Curve ball - Old 3 series with auto box :D
Can be had for sub £500 and if you don't mind about cosmetics/street cred/ shabby interior, should go on for a fair few miles.
Picked mine up (1995 318is) for £430, and changed a few key bits, and its still sub £500.
Over 5k miles since I picked it up now, and its doing well whilst I hold out for the new model A4 on our company car scheme!

I would be surprised if this goes over 1k!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1999-BMW-...-collectors-/131595836835?hash=item1ea3b91da3
Click to expand...

+1 I got a cheapo 3 series for under a grand and bar a few simple oil leaks that needed doing it seems really solid.
 
Old Merc is a good shout. My brother in law had a '95 C200 diesel thing (might have been a 220) and ran it on 50% veg oil from Costco (comes in a little under 70p per litre). Ran fine. He drove it for many thousands of miles here in the UK, then drove it to Lisbon, then to Bucharest, then back to Aberdeen. Over the space of a few months mind, but all on at least 50% veg oil. The only reason he doesn't have it now is because he was rear ended whilst at a set of traffic lights here in Scotland.

Cheap cheap motoring for your longer drives to Glasgow.

Or an old 5 or 7 series would be a nice comfortable cruiser. But at these ages, might not be so reliable. But then again, a lot of these older cruisers were over engineered anyway.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Curve ball - Old 3 series with auto box :D
Can be had for sub £500 and if you don't mind about cosmetics/street cred/ shabby interior, should go on for a fair few miles.
Picked mine up (1995 318is) for £430, and changed a few key bits, and its still sub £500.
Over 5k miles since I picked it up now, and its doing well whilst I hold out for the new model A4 on our company car scheme!

I would be surprised if this goes over 1k!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1999-BMW-...-collectors-/131595836835?hash=item1ea3b91da3
Click to expand...

This another +1

Got a 96 318ti auto for £300.

It is the nicest small car I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Now, I have had to spend some money on it making it nice (and there is a bit yet to go) but I regard this as a keeper so do not mind.

But, old cars like this are only really suitable for reasonably competent DIYers. Having to pay a Garage to sort them out rapidly hammerers the economics, especially with a high end marque like BMW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom