Got a £3.5k budget...

Soldato
Joined
14 May 2009
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Hampshire
Morning gents,

Some of you might remember, but i created a thread a while ago regarding getting myself a new car due to the C2 not being a great motorway car.

My GF is looking into getting a new car and has decided to buy my car off me for £3k which will allow me to get myself a better car.

Now, i'm not great with cars so i don't really know what would be best in regards to make, model, petrol, deisel etc...

So, i come to you OcUK motorheads to give me some advice and/or suggestions on what car would be best for me.

I spend 95% of my time on the motorway so need a car that will give me great MPG (the C2 at the moment gives me 30-35) so something similar/better would be great.

Petrol or diesel? Which one is better?

Thank you guys :)
 
Yep, I agree you are not great with cars seeing as you had previously chosen a C2 :p.

At this budget and your mpg requirements, look for petrol. Heck I was doing nearly 40k miles per annum in petrols up until recently and it still worked out cheaper in overall cost of ownership than a diesel.

Have a look at a ford focus or mondeo.

I currently have a MK4 1.8 Astra SRI which is fine for motorway work and comfy enough.
 
I have been looking at the Vectra Vectra 1.8l Petrol, and they do look like nice decent cars.

Well it would be an improvement on your C2 and you can get them and run them cheaply.

Not that great but not as bad as everyone makes out assuming it is the more recent version you are looking at.

At least get it in SRI/EXCLUSIVE spec not elegance or life ones.

Seriously though look at the mondeos if you want something that size. You could also pick up a nice low mileage, well looked after petrol Citroen C5 for that money and they are nice enough.
 
£3k will get you a Mk3 Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X - full leather, loads of toys etc etc which is great on the motorway and will still return into the 30s on a motorway run.
 
£3k will get you a Mk3 Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X - full leather, loads of toys etc etc which is great on the motorway and will still return into the 30s on a motorway run.

This man has just made your purchasing decision very easy...Really is no need to look at another option in this budget.
 
He has a car that returns 30's on a motorway run, he wants more.
I would imagine that comfort does come into it, but mpg is the primary mover here, is it not?
 
He has a car that returns 30's on a motorway run, he wants more.
I would imagine that comfort does come into it, but mpg is the primary mover here, is it not?

He said similar/better - the Mondeo will do that.

If I was buying a car to primarily sit on the motorway and had that cash myself, I would be a fool not to give the Mondeo some serious consideration.

It is the absolute very best car for this useage profile at this money.
 
I agree, just other than comfort it doesnt offer much more and comfort doesnt seem an issue :)
 
He has a car that returns 30's on a motorway run, he wants more.

I spend 95% of my time on the motorway so need a car that will give me great MPG (the C2 at the moment gives me 30-35) so something similar/better would be great.

No, he wants something similar or better, so the Mondeo would be similar, so is a very good suggestion.
 
You lot do like your Mondeo's!

I would like to get more MPG from my new car as it would save me money each month when it comes to petrol. At the moment it's costing me between £160-£200pm for petrol.

I know that the saving wouldn't be much, but more ££ in the pocket would be great.

I'll have a look on Autotrader and see what Mondeo's are on offer.
 
Make no mistake, the inbuilt Sattelite Navigation isn't the best when it comes to OEM NAV systems (which are generally merely "adequate" when compared to a TomTom etc) but it does tidy the dash up a fair bit.

The climate control is built into the Nav HU on these too, so you cant replace it if you dont like it :p
 
If you want a diesel at this budget, stay away from modern common rail systems: they all tend to suffer from the same kind of expensive faults, and at this budget you are only going to get a very well used one.

OTOH you should be able to pick up one of the VAG cars with the reliable (but unrefined) PD engine. e.g. Skoda Octavia, VW Passat, Bora, Seat Toledo etc. They aren't as good dynamically as the Mondeo IME, but they all make perfectly good Motorway cruisers.
 
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