€7 - €8.5 to spend - what to buy ?

Silvera

Ok guys,

As a long time contributor to this forum, I'm now looking for suggestions/feedback/advice on what car I should buy.

I have sold my Civic and am now looking to spend between €7000 to €8,500 on a .......

- 4-door car
- Well-built (e.g. German car?)
- Between 1.4 - 1.8
- Average running costs
- Incl extras like sunroof, elec windows, etc.

Current options include -

VW Bora
Opel Astra
Volvo S40
Ford Focus

Advice/Suggestions required!

Cheers,
Silvera.

unkel

Silvera wrote:

Well-built (e.g. German car?)

And there's me thinking you were into Jap cars?

Give us a bit more, like what's your mileage, what do you use the car for, what's your age / insurance record. What's your budget for annual depreciation / tax / insurance / maintenance / fuel? Must you spend (and have you the cash to spend) €7.0 - €8.5 or would you be willing to spend more or less depending on the car?

Which bells and whistles are essential and which would you like, in order of preference

What age range would you consider?

What are you looking for in a car? Nice comfy wobbly ride over putholed roads, or an engaging drivers' car?

Please feed us some more!

Edit: have you drink taken? Your post seems a bit impulsive

Curran

I have a Ford Focus Hatch (3dr)
Got it second hand
Havent had a single problem with it......only had to service it and change wiper blades (i change mine all the time....dont know how people drive without good ones!!!)

Its a solid car....Well IMO
I have a 1.4 Zetec.....which IMO is very slow (but all Ford's are)!!!....but handles very very well!

......so IMO get the 1.6 5 Dr Hatch!!......if you are going down the Ford Street!

Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

Curran

unkel wrote:

Please feed us some more!

What have you got.......a lil car generator?

Feed the machine all the info and a lil print out comes out the back of it......telling us what car to buy!

Cyrus

none of the cars mentioned compare to an alfa 156

Silvera

unkel wrote:

And there's me thinking you were into Jap cars?

Give us a bit more, like what's your mileage, what do you use the car for, what's your age / insurance record. What's your budget for annual depreciation / tax / insurance / maintenance / fuel? Must you spend (and have you the cash to spend) €7.0 - €8.5 or would you be willing to spend more or less depending on the car?

Which bells and whistles are essential and which would you like, in order of preference

What age range would you consider?

What are you looking for in a car? Nice comfy wobbly ride over putholed roads, or an engaging drivers' car?

Please feed us some more!

Edit: have you drink taken? Your post seems a bit impulsive

Annual mileage - low (5-8k)
Use - leisure and travel to work
Insurance - currently €450 Full Comp (on 1.4 Civic)
Annual depreciation, etc. - Average to low
Must I spend/Have I the cash - No and, Yes.
Max Budget - €8,500.
Bell and whistles - Sunroof, Elec windows ....all else a bonus.
Age range - 98 up (ideally c.2000 reg)
Balance between comfy and sporty (well, more on comfy side to be honest! )

Drink taken?
Me ?!

Well, yes

Curran

Cyrus wrote:

none of the cars mentioned compare to an alfa 156

None of the above cars would let you down! Is that what you mean by the Alfa does compare?

ALL ALFA DRIVES.........THAT WAS (an attempt at) HUMOUR.........so relax! :rolleyes:

Cyrus

ha ha :cool:

Seriousl its the only car that will that criteria specially if he wants 00 +

Curran

Cyrus wrote:

ha ha :cool:

Seriousl its the only car that will that criteria specially if he wants 00 +

That he'll get for €8k...you mean.........wonder why??

Silvera

I do like the look of the 156 (and the 155!) and did consider buying one, but after all the horror stories I have read about them - thanks but no thanks.

Cyrus

i drive a 1.8 alfa, u have a 1.4 focus wanna race :cool:

id have to finish of course

seriously tho this alfa unreliability is an old joke

Curran

Cyrus wrote:

i drive a 1.8 alfa, u have a 1.4 focus wanna race :cool:

Can ya wait a few months til i get my 318Ci......race ya then!
Only reason im drivin a 1.4 is cos it was my first car, my own policy, used to drive on my da's open drive(so i hadnt any NCB built up) and i got it for a good price (such a good price i'll probably sell it for what i bought it for or close to it!)

ANYWAYS back to the point here!

What car do we recommend for this confused man!
I love spending other peoples money!

unkel

Silvera wrote:

Annual mileage - low (5-8k)

Silvera wrote:

Insurance - currently €450 Full Comp (on 1.4 Civic)

Ha! This is getting good. Your mileage is so low that fuel consumption is not an issue. Also your insurance status obviously is excellent. You're around the 30 mark or on the wrong side of it?

If above holds, you'd be a prime candidate with a choice to drive something else but a boring VW Bora, Opel Astra, Volvo S40, Ford Focus. Most people here are stuck with those kinds of cars because they have caused accidents or are without much NCB and / or in the age group that typically cause accidents so they are stuck to common denominator boring pieces of car sh!t

Have your pick of car. What do you fancy? Exploit your benificial position. Big engined German cars would be my first port of call

Curran

unkel wrote:

Big engined German cars would be my first port of call

Hmmm...eh...BMW by any chance??

.....make sure it has all the extra's...leather, inticators, E/W, alloys, rearview mirror, alarm and immobliser etc etc!
:cool:

unkel

Curran wrote:

Hmmm...eh...BMW by any chance??

You said it, not me

Depends on what Silvera is keen on. E.g. if he'd like a wobbling colossus with a great sound system and total reliability, surely he'll pick a Toyota LS400

ando

get a small loan and buy one of those new M5's

BrianD3

It's funny how thread like this usually follow the same pattern. Someone posts a message asking about whether to get a 1.4 Golf or Focus. Someone then says why not get an Alfa instead. A big argument then ensues about the reliability of Alfas. Then someone suggests that instead of getting a Focus, you should get a BMW 750i, a Merc S600 or a 6.75 litre Rolls Royce

However, unkel may have a point Given your low mileage and insurance, running an exec motor might make sense. I wonder if you'd get a previous model Audi A6 1.8T for your budget. It would be an early model but still. A very good looking car IMO with plenty of space.

Cyrus

Curran wrote:

Can ya wait a few months til i get my 318Ci......race ya then!
Only reason im drivin a 1.4 is cos it was my first car, my own policy, used to drive on my da's open drive(so i hadnt any NCB built up) and i got it for a good price (such a good price i'll probably sell it for what i bought it for or close to it!)

ANYWAYS back to the point here!

What car do we recommend for this confused man!
I love spending other peoples money!

Id still cane ya, get a real bimmer like the 323

Anywho back to the topic, the a6 suggestion is a good un lovely cars in the 1.8t sport trim!

528i

you could get a previous generation impreza wrx look-a-like for that money, complete with imitation pro-drive alloys, loud exhaust, tinted windows and chicks everywhere would think it was a hoor of a yoke to go

Cyrus

528i wrote:

you could get a previous generation impreza wrx look-a-like for that money, complete with imitation pro-drive alloys, loud exhaust, tinted windows and chicks everywhere would think it was a hoor of a yoke to go

imagine how sad you'd look tho

Silvera

BrianD3 wrote:

It's funny how thread like this usually follow the same pattern. Someone posts a message asking about whether to get a 1.4 Golf or Focus. Someone then says why not get an Alfa instead. A big argument then ensues about the reliability of Alfas. Then someone suggests that instead of getting a Focus, you should get a BMW 750i, a Merc S600 or a 6.75 litre Rolls Royce

However, unkel may have a point Given your low mileage and insurance, running an exec motor might make sense. I wonder if you'd get a previous model Audi A6 1.8T for your budget. It would be an early model but still. A very good looking car IMO with plenty of space.

A voice of reason at last!

Which A6 model are you thinking of BrianD3?

I'm not sure about getting a high performance car as most in my price range will have high mileage and/or have the 'proverbial' driven out of them

Silvera

.......i.e. I don't want to go from having a mint '97 (42k miles) car, to a high-mileage 98/99/00 POS.

lomb

hmm u may be able to pick up a recent ls400 for that. cheap and reliable car if u can run it.....

BrianD3

Just checked on carzone.ie and 98/99 A6s with smallish mileage are being sold for around 9 - 11k. So that's a bit above your budget. The smallest engined A6 is a 1.8. The same engine is available in the Passat, would you consider one of those.

IMO the money being looked for for 99-00 Golfs and Boras is just stupid. They are way overpriced for what they are.

Curran

A few possibilities???

Toyota Levin Twin Cam (97)

Mitsubishi Mirage MIVEC COUPE (95) - 175bhp!!! - done up - if your into that

SEAT Cordoba 1.6 SPORT (2001) - The practical car!


And finally - dont let the looks fool ya! :rolleyes:
Just to keep the Alfa boys happy! DONT DO IT!!!

Silvera

I suppose for space reasons, I will probably keep to a Bora/Focus/Astra-sized car, although I would seriously consider an A4 or A6 if the right car came up!

Tho, is it only me, or does the rear of the A6 (last generation) have a strange/odd look to it?

(N.B. I'm not interested in a large BMW, LS400 etc. Thanks but No Thanks)

Silvera

I'm currently looking up the history/breakdown/faults records of a few different cars (see www.honestjohn.co.uk), and the list of regular faults on German cars (and Focus') is surprising to say the least!

Golf/Bora gearboxes going at c.40-50k !! WTF ?!
Focus wheel bearings problems
A6 fuel pump, fuel tank (?!), wishbone, etc faults......

Makes me wonder about buying a Ford or German-built car??

I want the reliability of a jap car but with the strength of a German-built car - Am I asking too much ?

(I believe some of the 98-01 Volvo S40's have Mitsubishi engines? If I only knew which model(s) that is?!)

Cyrus

that 156 linked is sexy, mileage too high tho!

BrianD3

Silvera wrote:

I'm currently looking up the history/breakdown/faults records of a few different cars (see www.honestjohn.co.uk), and the list of regular faults on German cars (and Focus') is surprising to say the least!

Golf/Bora gearboxes going at c.40-50k !! WTF ?!
Focus wheel bearings problems
A6 fuel pump, fuel tank (?!), wishbone, etc faults......

Makes me wonder about buying a Ford or German-built car??

Well I think Honestjohn is a bit pessimistic about the faults TBH. There may be some reports of gearboxes failing at 50k but it's probably only a small number of cars. Still, I reckon there are definitely less faults with Hondas and Toyotas than there are with *any* European cars. It's been my opinion for a while now that the euro manufacturers are all much of a muchness when it comes to relaibility.

I want the reliability of a jap car but with the strength of a German-built car - Am I asking too much ?

Not sure what you mean by strength. The build quality of german cars is really no better that that of jap cars. The german cars just feel better built. Clever choice of interior plastics by the likes of VW gives the impression that the car is made of granite. This strategy also makes the German cars feel safer - which they aren't - EuroNCAP proves that.

30-6shooter

Audi has lost its reliability big time.
I know a lad with an 1999 A3 from new, and its been nothing but trouble. Has been bk in the garage more than on the road. And he cant get rid of it.

The old audis were reliable, but the new ones are nothing compared to their ancestors.

The A4 is overrated too for what it is. I`d rank it in the leauge of golfs/boras that are also over-trated for what they are, as some1 else already pointed out.

My cousin has a 1999 1.4 golg, with like 30,000miles, and gearbox went,, got a new one and that has now gone too.

I also know a lad who bought a brand new Audi A4, and found it horribly slow and wanted to change it for a Bmw 3 months later. The audi dealer didnt want to know, even they didnt want it back, even though ur man was gonna order the bmw thru them.

IMO,,, the honda you have is 10times better than them barges so far mentioned. I reccommed a Hdi turbo diesel Peugeot 406. Bulletproof engines in diesel form, and plenty of power (110HP base) and all the specs you want, most with air con as standard.

Silvera

BrianD3 wrote:

Well I think Honestjohn is a bit pessimistic about the faults TBH. There may be some reports of gearboxes failing at 50k but it's probably only a small number of cars. Still, I reckon there are definitely less faults with Hondas and Toyotas than there are with *any* European cars. It's been my opinion for a while now that the euro manufacturers are all much of a muchness when it comes to relaibility.

Not sure what you mean by strength. The build quality of german cars is really no better that that of jap cars. The german cars just feel better built. Clever choice of interior plastics by the likes of VW gives the impression that the car is made of granite. This strategy also makes the German cars feel safer - which they aren't - EuroNCAP proves that.

Yeah, gearbox problems are probably in the minority - still it's a component that should do c.200k not 50k.

Re 'Strength' -
From my experience (6 years as a panel beater) German cars are far superior in the quality and strength of their bodywork than japanese built cars.
The EuroNcap results must relate to better crumple zones etc. not actual strength of bodywork.

For example,
Compare the strength of a roof or door panel on a 2000 Civic in comparison to a 00 Golf - the metal panels in the Civic will deflect and damage easier than the Golf. Just push it in the middle of the panel with one finger - a good strength test

Silvera

30-6shooter wrote:

IMO,,, the honda you have is 10times better than them barges so far mentioned. I reccommed a Hdi turbo diesel Peugeot 406. Bulletproof engines in diesel form, and plenty of power (110HP base) and all the specs you want, most with air con as standard.

The Honda I HAD (Sold it yesterday!)

I just was never happy with the strength of the Civic (or any jap car).
I previously had 2 Escorts and an Orion, and while the Civic was much more reliable, I never felt satisfied with the 'feel' of it.
(Especially after I took a test drive in a mint 1990 BMW 320i. It was 7 years older but was 'solid as a rock' in comparison to the Civic!)

30-6shooter

I see! So your oin for the 406turbo diesel, yeah?? A good choice!

unkel

Silvera wrote:

From my experience (6 years as a panel beater) German cars are far superior in the quality and strength of their bodywork than japanese built cars

Very interesting to hear that from your expertise! That's new to me

BrianD3 wrote:

Given your low mileage and insurance, running an exec motor might make sense. I wonder if you'd get a previous model Audi A6 1.8T for your budget

Yes, or any of its competitors and maybe with an engine slightly more powerful than a lawnmower's. Indulge yourself and exploit your advantage to the full. You can afford to own a car that most other people couldn't afford the running costs of. Those cars are relatively cheap to buy second hand. How about a Lexus GS300, Audi A6 2.8, Mercedes E320, BMW 528i?

Amazingly they are all within your budget, they should all prove to be reliable cars, provided you buy well and have the car thoroughly examined

Padraig Mor

Have a 00 4 door 1.6 Focus, which should be around your price range. Lacks a bit of acceleration but I find it a great car to drive.

Silvera

unkel wrote:

Very interesting to hear that from your expertise! That's new to me

Sarcasm will get you nowhere! :rolleyes:

unkel wrote:

Yes, or any of its competitors and maybe with an engine slightly more powerful than a lawnmower's. Indulge yourself and exploit your advantage to the full. You can afford to own a car that most other people couldn't afford the running costs of. Those cars are relatively cheap to buy second hand. How about a Lexus GS300, Audi A6 2.8, Mercedes E320, BMW 528i?

Amazingly they are all within your budget, they should all prove to be reliable cars, provided you buy well and have the car thoroughly examined

I just wouldn't go for such a car unless I had a bigger income (i.e. to cover unexpected breakdowns/parts).

Cyrus

Silvera wrote:

Sarcasm will get you nowhere! :rolleyes:





I just wouldn't go for such a car unless I had a bigger income (i.e. to cover unexpected breakdowns/parts).

to be fair to unkel i really dont think that was sarcasm just genuine surprise,

parts a for a 2.8 a6 arent likely to cost any more than for a 1.8, also a 2.8 is far more likely to be fully specced etc

peasant

And now for something completely different:

Saab 93 http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=243702

or
Citroen C5 http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=225797

or
Subaru Legacy http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=249933

or (for only 5k)
Opel Omega http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=198528

all slightly higher mileage, but worth a thought

bazz26

Did you look at something like these:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=221836

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=136875

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=244405

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=227197

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=211969

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=253426

You can rule most VW Boras/Golfs out here as they didn't even have electric front windows a couple of years ago as standard not to mind cd player or sunroof. These were only available as optional extras or on more expensive models that are as rare as hen's teeth. The Passat is better equipped, roomier car and can be had for almost the same money as a Bora/Golf. I would avoid the 1.6 though if you can as with most VW entry level petrol engines it struggles in the heavy body.

Silvera

Some interesting choices there bazz26.

However, the only one that grabs my attention is the last one - the '98 Passat.
It looks like a 'whole lot of car' for €6,950.
Having said that, I'm hoping to get a car with lower mileage and as high up in years as possible.

The feedback is appreciated guys!

Cheers,
Silvera.

bazz26

Here are a couple of low mileage A4s within your price range:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=252547

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=232455

30-6shooter

We already established that Audi are over-rated unreliable slow ****e.