Advice on buying with a 4000-4500 budget

SpaceTime

A friend of mine's been asking me for advice on buying a car and to be honest, I haven't looked at the market in ages so I'm not really sure where to point them.

Their budget is about €4,000 to €4,500 with a possible stretch a bit beyond that, however they're keen to keep the budget tight.

They're looking for something mid-sized with pretty OK fuel efficiency either diesel or petrol as they're unlikely to be buying anything new enough to be CO2 emission tax calculated.

So, any suggestions as to what kinds of makes/models are worth looking at and which are worth avoiding like the plague?

Also, it's got to do some urban and semi-rural driving, so something relatively comfortable and not a urban runabout.

Any tips/advice would be much appreciated.

bazz26

How much urban driving do they do? Modern diesels hate lots of stop/start trips and are not really overly economical if that is the majority of their driving as the engine never has time to warm up to it's optimal efficiency.

Also on their budget they will buy a lot more petrol car than diesel due to the popularity of diesel cars meaning they cost more.

SpaceTime

It's going to be a mix of mostly longer trips primarily with some urban.

I think petrol might be more of an option due to choice pre change To emissions based taxation

kingdom fan

I asked an old guy bout 8 years ago the same thing, he had forgotten more bout cars than ill ever learn, his answer
" if you buy a Renault your married to it"
I've been driving old 2.5 l petrol BMW since and never let me down
Not too easy on the juice though

d1234

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Opel/Astra/CLUB-1.4/201321215051207/advert?channel=CARS

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Nissan/Almera/1.5-SXE-/201329216058323/advert?channel=CARS

visual

Buy a diesel and dont be put off with questionable advice from those who heard from a friends friend of a cousin.

There is a resson most taxies and nearly every commerical vehicle is diesel.

Operating tempture myth busted
The tempture gauge rises on your dash from cold to operating temp just as fast as a petrol.

Dual mass flywheels yes they are fitted in petrol cars too. While they ware out quicker in diesels its not like they go every year with many lasting 100 to 150k miles some even longer and
Not Fitted in autos.

Diesel Particle Filters do give problems in only short stop start driving as they need the engine to be working a little harder to generate heat to burn off the trapped particles. But if needed there is lots of places that will clean or remove the DPF for a couple hundred euro.

While diesel is most efficient on long journeys and less effective in traffic its still more efficient than petrol counter part.

Yes you will pay more for a diesel but you'll also have less depredation when selling on.

There is very little demand for 1.6 or bigger petrols 8 years or older.

I was speaking to a car salesman who deals in lower end of the market and his words are small petrols or diesels sells everything else is hard work to shift.

Take what you want from that. Be it a big petrol can be had for a song or diesel are over priced.

I recently (~6 weeks ago) bought a 2004 Toyota Rav4, 1.8 petrol.

Before that I had a 2000 Ford Focus 1.4 petrol.

Petrol costs between the two aren't as much as I was warned about (was told the Rav would be swallowing it). It does cost more, but not as much as I'd have anticipated. Tax is a fair bit higher though (but the overall comfort and my love of it's appearance more than make up for it).

I do a lot of stop-start town driving, with the odd (weekly, perhaps) long (60 minute-ish) drive here and there.

dh0011

visual wrote: »

Buy a diesel and dont be put off with questionable advice from those who heard from a friends friend of a cousin.

There is a resson most taxies and nearly every commerical vehicle is diesel.

Operating tempture myth busted
The tempture gauge rises on your dash from cold to operating temp just as fast as a petrol.

Dual mass flywheels yes they are fitted in petrol cars too. While they ware out quicker in diesels its not like they go every year with many lasting 100 to 150k miles some even longer and
Not Fitted in autos.

Diesel Particle Filters do give problems in only short stop start driving as they need the engine to be working a little harder to generate heat to burn off the trapped particles. But if needed there is lots of places that will clean or remove the DPF for a couple hundred euro.

While diesel is most efficient on long journeys and less effective in traffic its still more efficient than petrol counter part.

Yes you will pay more for a diesel but you'll also have less depredation when selling on.

There is very little demand for 1.6 or bigger petrols 8 years or older.

I was speaking to a car salesman who deals in lower end of the market and his words are small petrols or diesels sells everything else is hard work to shift.

Take what you want from that. Be it a big petrol can be had for a song or diesel are over priced.

Do not mindlessly buying a diesel there are some other things to consider.

There are actually a few LPG/petrol taxis in cork. Also a few 2.0 petrol avensis going around the place.

There are a lot more diesel cars on the road with DMFs than petrol cars.

The DPF can cost a few hundred euro fairly regularly if you are doing mainly city driving. This is a little off putting from a cost savings point of view.

You wont have any trouble selling the likes of a 1.6 avensis or similar if you want.

visual

Hell of a lot more avensis diesel taxies than petrol.

Who by and large spend their working life in cities or towns.

dh0011

visual wrote: »

Buy a diesel and dont be put off with questionable advice from those who heard from a friends friend of a cousin.

I was speaking to a car salesman who deals in lower end of the market and his words are small petrols or diesels sells everything else is hard work to shift.

I like these two lines.

visual wrote: »

Hell of a lot more avensis diesel taxies than petrol.

Who by and large spend their working life in cities or towns.

There are more diesel taxis than petrol, I agree but not all taxis are diesel. Also most people dont drive their cars in the same way as a taxi is.

visual

dh0011 wrote: »

I like these two lines.



There are more diesel taxis than petrol, I agree but not all taxis are diesel. Also most people dont drive their cars in the same way as a taxi is.

I think they are approximately what is in the market for 4k car. petrol over 1.6 that looks good today and can't be shifted on in a couple of years or a diesel that is more economical to run and retains some value when want to sell on in a couple of years with a extra 30 to 40k or more on the clock.

The reasons so many commerical and PSV are diesel is economics its also why some new car models are only offered in diesel.

If the OP was to buy a diesel avensis chances are even after 2 years and 30k extra on the clock that 2/3 of the purchase price could be recoup.
Typically could see in real world 40 mpg urban driving. Chances of DPF or DMF failing would be very low.
Compare to petrol 1.8 or even the underpowered 1.6 1/3 of return on investment in 2 years with typical real world 30 mpg.

Between 5 to 10c saving per liter at pump for diesel.

It doesn't take a genius to workout that the small extra in motor tax is easily off set by 25% savings in fuel costs.

The only draw back is having to buy slightly older in diesel than petrol.

dh0011

visual wrote: »

I think they are approximately what is in the market for 4k car. petrol over 1.6 that looks good today and can't be shifted on in a couple of years or a diesel that is more economical to run and retains some value when want to sell on in a couple of years with a extra 30 to 40k or more on the clock.

The reasons so many commerical and PSV are diesel is economics its also why some new car models are only offered in diesel.

If the OP was to buy a diesel avensis chances are even after 2 years and 30k extra on the clock that 2/3 of the purchase price could be recoup.
Typically could see in real world 40 mpg urban driving. Chances of DPF or DMF failing would be very low.
Compare to petrol 1.8 or even the underpowered 1.6 1/3 of return on investment in 2 years with typical real world 30 mpg.

Between 5 to 10c saving per liter at pump for diesel.

It doesn't take a genius to workout that the small extra in motor tax is easily off set by 25% savings in fuel costs.

The only draw back is having to buy slightly older in diesel than petrol.

You wouldnt have any trouble selling a decent petrol car and depreciation wouldnt be as bad as your making out. You seem to be plucking figures out of the air with no basis given for them.

You say the chances of the DMF or DPF failing are low - can you quantify how low?

Look up this forum and you will find a lot of people myself included get over 39mpg from the petrol avensis.

visual

dh0011 wrote: »

You wouldnt have any trouble selling a decent petrol car and depreciation wouldnt be as bad as your making out. You seem to be plucking figures out of the air with no basis given for them.

You say the chances of the DMF or DPF failing are low - can you quantify how low?

Look up this forum and you will find a lot of people myself included get over 39mpg from the petrol avensis.

Oh yes best case seninaro,
Diesel would be high 50s mpg some could claim 60mpg or better still say its a miser on diesel.

3 diesel cars in family none with DPF or DMF failure. Guess I could say very low was over estimating the risk.

colm_mcm

So anyone got any recommendations of €4000-4500 diesels that aren't a Pandora's box of potential trouble?

I'm thinking a passat b5.5 if there are any decent ones left.

darragh o meara

colm_mcm wrote: »

So anyone got any recommendations of €4000-4500 diesels that aren't a Pandora's box of potential trouble?

I'm thinking a passat b5.5 if there are any decent ones left.

A b5.5 would be got for that money and you'd probably be able to pick up a highline model for that kinda money too.

The passat is a relatively trouble free car even though some will disagree, but you'll always find someone who has had problems with any car. The last of the b5.5s seem to be the best. There are one or two things like DMFs etc to check.

But credit where credit is due, My last passat had 235k up on her when I sold it and it gave very little trouble I the 100k I put up on it. Mainly just serviceable parts had to be replaced ( shocks, brakes, suspension arms ) it had a new clutch a flywheel before I bought it. The. Biggest job I had to do the car was replace the turbo which to be fair I caught it in time before it done damage hence avoiding a massive repair bill for cleaning out the oil channels etc. incidentally that passat is still on the road as a taxi and has over 300k on it now and shes still going strong. The highline interior in it wearied very well and at 300k felt the same as 130k when I bought it