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Having not owned a car since I left Luxembourg in 2016 ish and now as part of project 'leaving London and moving out to somewhere a bit more rural' we will be looking to buy a car. I know there are a few car buffs on here so wanted to get some ideas. The 'wishlist is'

* Nothing fancy - Will be being used for a runaround so don't mind a few dents and scrapes
* Cheap to run and insure
* Probably something mid-size would be useful, in case of needing to shift some items from London to wherever we are looking to move to
* Budget I guess between £1,500-£4,000 max.
* Eventually we hope to have a car each and so this would be the cheap and cheerful runabout to use to go to the shops and park at the train station.

Any suggestions appreciated.   :sherlock:

No suggestions on cars. Someone who sniffs petrol will better advise.

But what you may not know is that you can find the MOT history online these days, which may help when you narrow down some makes/models.

see https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Honda Civic 1.8 petrol, comfy, good size and very reliable. You can get a 2010/11 plate for £2.5k

Can you? Where from? Looking around Swindon for that age (which bear in mind is now 10 years old) you'd looking at top end of BO's budget.

The best Civic 1.8 petrol i can find withing 60miles of Swindon is a 56/07 plate with 100k+ miles.

Nissan Micra.  Mine is fifteen years old and has been extremely reliable as a cheap runaround with good boot space and folding back seats. I am the antithesis of a "car buff" so take no notice.

Not exactly exciting cars but you could do a lot worse that a ford focus. I've had a 1.6 Zetec S in the past and never had any issues. Comfortable, decent size boot.

There's a 61 plate in Greenwich on gumtree for £2,699

This might seem like a silly question but now does No Claims Discount work?

So I used to drive a fair amount in Edinburgh after I passed my driving test (around 97/98 ish) and also had a car in Luxembourg and have never had an Insurance claim. I haven't driven since 2016

What would I enter in that question as my NCD? Would it be 17/18 years or 20 years+, or something different. I have no paperwork historically but assume i'm on some records somewhere if insurers require confirmation?

I learned to drive in a Nissan Micra! Thanks for the recommendation, as I stated, it doesn't have to be fancy and I'm not going to be a car snob for these purposes so happy to drive whatever it looks like! :)


I had a Focus ST170 in Edinburgh. Nice car. Certainly more than happy to go sensible and a Focus probably would fit the bill!


I've been looking in London, where I guess the cars (as with everything in the bloody city) are more expensive. Maybe its worth me buying outside of London?

No claims discount resets to zero if you've been off the road/uninsured for 2 years.

Ah! Thanks SP. Bit of a bugger that, added about £200 of insurance onto a random Civic I picked out from AutoTrader.

Prices always seem to be higher around Swindon and North Wilts, I would say London will be cheaper.

Honda Jazz

Also looking for a cheap car myself. My lease went back in May and to be honest we haven't missed it and have coped ok with just one car (well, van actually) although I have had used of my bikes.

I'll probably need something to get me through winter, although it looks like I'm going to be working from home for the foreseeable so won't be doing loads of mileage.

I've got Civic, Focus and Mazda 3 on my list.

it's probably out the price range anyway, but avoid at all cost the focus with the ecoboost engine.

there's a Facebook group dedicated to the engine replacements after they drop coolant without warning.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FordEcoboostNightmare/?ref=share

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Skoda Fabia or an Audi A3 (3dr Hatchback). When you drop the back seats on an A3 it pretty much turns into a small van and still room for driver and passenger. You can pick them up pretty cheap too.

Like most hatchbacks  :)

Yeah but better  ;)

I had a ST250 back in 2013/14. Then my first child came and had to get rid. I had the built in Sony media pack which consisted of a sub-woofer taking a 3rd of the boot space away.

Loved that car.

We are probably goes down the Focus route shortly as we need a bit more space, also thought Astra but every Vauxhall I have driven has been like driving a sofa!

Will have a reasonably low mileage 08 plate Polo 1.4 up for sale shortly.