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UHT

UHT

UHT

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
412
Hi - just about to get rid of my company car and looking to buy something to drive around in.

Am 23, just about to turn 24 with 1 years NCB and 2 accidents in the last five years. Insurance is looking to be about £650 for group 8 and £850 for group 12 or so.
Looking to spend £4,000 or so all in (car and insurance) although the budget is somewhat flexible.

Want something that is reasonably low maintenace / cheapish to run, not too old, and decent looking. Sporty or executive style is fine with me.

Previously been driving a 307 HDi and an Astra 1.7 CDTi - the performance on both of those was fine for me.

Any suggestions?

edit: No Mondeos ;)
 
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Right.

The 307 is a liability - even the owners on here will agree with that. They go wrong frequently and are not well built. The 2.0 HDi engine is very good, however.

The Astra is... really quite dull in anything other than SRi form - the SRi is reasonably decent but the rest... meh. The older DTi engine is nothing special.

Other alternatives? Well, each one has a 'but' at this price point.

The Ford Focus is a very good car, very reliable indeed, handles well, fun to drive, the best car in its class. BUT - the diesel engine fitted to a £4k Focus is unfortunately not that good. It's noisy, unrefined, and not very quick. The petrol engines, however, are very good.

Another car to give serious consideration to is the Ford Mondeo. You have at this budget a choice of an absolutely immaculate, mint X registered top of the range Mk2 example with full leather, cruise, climate, computer, electric heated seats and Sports bodykit BUT again the diesel engine sucks so you'd need to get a 2.0 16v petrol. Alternatively, you could consider a low specification higher mileage Mk3 example on an X or a Y plate. Both are very reliable, Mk2 will be noticeably newer and higher spec than anything else for the same price, both handle well. Mk2 looks bland without the bodykit but looks very good with it.

(edit: Just seen your reply. Not really sure what being 23 has to do with it, I was 19 when I decided to get mine and mine looks far more sporty than anything else you've mentioned with sideskirts, sports bumpers, spoiler, etc. Your initial reaction is exactly WHY they are cheap - the 307 is cheap becuase it's crap, the Mondeo is cheap becuase people go OMG and look no further..)

Dead set on a diesel? What about a 406 HDi. Same great engine as the 307 but not so much of a liability reliability wise as the 307 - although it's still far from perfect and won't offer the trouble free ownership experience of the Focus or the Mondeo.
 
Ta for the replies - the 307 and Astra were company cars, so not really something I am looking at buying myself more just an inidication that I'm not looking for something high performance.

Diesel is not an essential either, drove a Petrol Focus for 6months or so and that was quite pleasant.
 
Morba said:
e36 325td coupe (did they do a coupe version?)
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No, they didn't. It's also not that great in Saloon form either - never really been a fan of the indirect engine 6 cylinder diesel BMW did. E36 is, IMHO, a poor choice - low equipment levels, rather dated, very expensive to fix when it breaks, suffers from an even worse image than the Mondeo.

If you absolutely must have a BMW - and I dont really think your budget stretches to one worth buying - I'd sooner take my chance on a cheap E39 5 Series than a horrible E36.
 
Best bet is to make 3 lists. One of everything you need, one of everything you'd like and one of everything you don't want/need.

Go to The Car People or someone like that and drive a load of cars. See which fits your budget, which you prefer the drive of, which meets your pre-decided criteria and go from there.
 
The more I look into it the more a Focus appeals, any advice on buying a focus in this sort of price range?
 
UHT said:
The more I look into it the more a Focus appeals, any advice on buying a focus in this sort of price range?
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Yea, buy a Mondeo instead becuase they literally cost HALF the price for a same age example, have more equipment and a bigger range of engines.

That out of the way...

Try and get the biggest engine Focus you can - the insurance is barely any more, and the 2.0 Ghia has more toys than the rest of the range. They are very reliable cars so if one seems dodgy, it probably is..

Be choosy, there are enough around for you to be fussy. Should get a T or a V W or X plate one for about £4k (and a T plate Mondeo is 1500 quid but hey).
 
[TW]Fox said:
No, they didn't. It's also not that great in Saloon form either - never really been a fan of the indirect engine 6 cylinder diesel BMW did. E36 is, IMHO, a poor choice - low equipment levels, rather dated, very expensive to fix when it breaks, suffers from an even worse image than the Mondeo.

If you absolutely must have a BMW - and I dont really think your budget stretches to one worth buying - I'd sooner take my chance on a cheap E39 5 Series than a horrible E36.
Click to expand...

wasnt the 325td engine regarded as one of the best diesels in many many years until very recently?
 
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