cars ...

[percival]

I'm in favour of getting a new car even if we are moving house soon, because a reliable car with enough space to house book boxes and small items from IKEA will be a real bonus.

However, we will be on a shoestring of a budget, so the question is, how much will we need to pay for a car that will last us 2-3 years and will be reliable enough not to break down too much during that time?

(To make matters more complicated, I will only buy from a dealer, because my husband is not car-savvy enough to buy from private.)

My personal favourites are post L-reg Micras, Volvos and Ford Mondeos (still need to find a good reg cutoff for those, but K should do fine, I guess)

so, what do you car owners think?

[Poll #214853]

Comments

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

I'm too chicken to commit myself to the sreevay...

In general, I s'pose, you get what you pay for. 2 - 3 years isn't that long to expect a car to last. I would shy away from anything less than a grand (although a £1000 car would last you a year (or should do), so you could buy them sequentially...)

YOu can buy cars for £3k plus, of course, but you should expect it to last more than two years, I'd have thought...

Tricky...

[perceval.livejournal.com]

you on Y!M just now?

[apel.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't take a gamble on anything that costs less than 3K£. I've got a P-reg Nissan Micra and I'm pretty happy with her. She cost nearly 5K back in -99. That was cash from a dealer.

I went to one of those "car supermarkets" with loads and loads of cars to choose from. The nice thing about that was that I could be pretty sure of finding something I wanted right away. None of that "we might get something next week" time wasting.

[cynthia-black.livejournal.com]

Given that you intend to buy from a dealer, I've put down £2,500 - £3,000 as the minimum to pay for something that would last 3 years. But even then there's no guarantees.

The trouble with older cars and dealers is firstly finding a reputable dealer who deals in cars of that age/price range (my hubbie tends to view many of the cheaper dealers - selling cars for under £2k - as dodgier than private sellers, because they know exactly what to bodge to make it look like there's no oil leaks, etc.) and secondly that you pay substantially more money for not a lot more assurance (you don't get nice long warranties on cars of that age). My Micra, for example, was a private sale and an excellent bargain. It cost £795, and the cheapest Micra we saw at a dealer was £1,300 for one with a smaller engine and more miles. But then my hubbie knows exactly what he's looking for.

If you lived nearer, I'd have offered my hubbie's services. Do you have any friends near you who know more about cars that you could call on?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

That's what I feared ... no, we don't have anybody we could ask living near us.

Looks like we'll have to make do with a rental car.

[-kaleidoscopic-.livejournal.com]

I don't know too much about cars, but I say that three grand would get you a decent second-hand car that'll last you for around six years. My parents usually buy in around that price range.