Thetownend.com

It's TEF advice time. I need a new car as a matter of relative urgency and I wish to canvass the TEF hive mind for advice on what to get.

My Clio is a write-off and was valued at £2,700 however I have a budget of around £3,500.

I preferably want a reliable diesel engine that is relatively economic on fuel as I drive at least 400 miles a week almost entirely on motorways. Furthermore, I'd like it to be decent spec; air con, electric windows, power steering and so on. The size is unimportant although I don't want another tiny hatchback, anything bigger is fine.

Anyone got any ideas of what kind of thing fits my criteria? I've been looking around and I've seen a few Mondeos and Octavias within my budget that fit the bill.

Well they are a tad juicier than a Clio...........Puntos are smart these days and very economical on the juice,just an idea.

Mazda3 Hatch? The 1.6 diesel clocks almost 60mpg, but you'd be looking for an early version (04/54) for your budget, and they aren't easy to find.

VW Golf. They are built like tanks and drive brilliantly. For £3500 you will get a decent VW.

I spent £2000 on mine 2 years ago (S reg, 150,000 miles) and it has driven me to Rome and back and to Austria (not back yet though)

I am looking at this very moment for a newer one.

Yep Golf all the way for that budget. I'm just about to swap mine. In 5 years I've had a headlight bulb go and that's it, although that was from new.

I've no direct experience of VW, but the market seems to indicate they are good quality cars given they hold their value well. Great for the seller, not so good for the buyer.

Of course, you could consider the other VW group platforms based on the Golf - the strangely titled VW Bora (Golf with a boot), Seat Leon or the Octavia (which you've already identified).

This..gt tdi 150bhp model if u can

i'd advise to keep an open mnd regarding which make and model you go for.finding a well looked after car for that budget is the most important thing.

Agree arriba. I've always gone for an older car with lower Milage over a younger car with high miles. I don't understand where the appeal is for a 4 year old car with 110k on the clock vs a 7 year old car with 40k for instance.

If not a Golf maybe go for a Seat Ibiza. Obviously they're pretty much the same car, although the interiors are supposed to be shit, but some of the Diesels are very economical. I remember they had an ad for one years ago that said it could do coast to coast in the US on a tank of fuel.

2,500 + miles on a tank of diesel ......... you sure ??

Ibiza is based on a polo isn't it? I like Seats though

Big hole in the middle?

Bigger than a Polo, but smaller than a golf.

Yeah, standing when driving would be a pain!

yup yup, although the petrol consuption is crap. haha

I would defo suggest a golf, or anything german really. And stay away from french cars

Skoda.

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who was concerned about image, but as it's you...

Nothing wrong with skoda's these days hence why they are popular among taxi drivers,Very reliable now with some of the parts and engine being VW.

The superb is a very good model,you just need to look behind the image as herthab mentioned.

Good point. I should have thought about it a bit more and maybe Googled the ad.  ???

Maybe it was coast to coast on less than £xxx or something. I'll find it!

EDIT: I did some searching and all that I learned was that Google is becoming increasingly shit. It now weights some words in your query so heavily it almost ignores all others and fails to find closely matching text strings. Hopefully the end is now in sight. It's like the old meta search engines.

get a horse

Cheers guys, looking at Golfs and they seem like they fit the bill perfectly. Much obliged!

Before you do I'd check out owners reviews in a magazine like Which Car? When I bought a year or so ago I was staggered by the really poor scores that VW's got for reliability, which went completely against their reputation.

The buy German advice certainly works for the premium brands, but in your price band Japanese cars almost always offer better VFM in terms of just keeping on working with little money being spent on them.

If you don't give a shit about image you could do worse than looking at a Kia C'eed. About Golf size, a fuck site cheaper, so you'll get a lower mileage, younger, higher spec'd car for your money. And they don't give out 7 year warranties with the things for nothing, they do it because they're confident that fuck all serious will go wrong with them for a very long time.

Sorry to crash the thread but I have just purchased a second car due to our dirty great Newfoundland looking ridiculous sat next to me in the front seat of my coupe.

Anyway I have found a half decent motor (CRV) but when I got an insurance quote from my existing provider the price nearly blew me away.  They said they don’t offer two car policies and my no claims is tied up in the other car hence the rather pricey quote. 

I’ve always been half arsed with insurance and just renewed with existing provider to avoid the hassle and paperwork.  Anyone any advice?

I still have a few months remaining with my existing policy.

Cheers

Insure it with someone else and add the other car to the policy when t runs out

Quick poll: 51 plate Audi 1.3 1.9 TDi SE, 110k and previously owned by our local car dealer. Great condition inside, 4 new tyres and price of £3895 - yay or nay?

The insurance isn't much more expensive.

Seems really steep to me.

Edit: It's an auto. Boo. Autotrader does seem to have a few good ones though.

sonic. for your price range, if you go for more expensive cars(like the audi)they will cost more to run and put right when things go wrong.
that said you could be lucky and get little go wrong with it.
no right or wrong answer really.

Agreed, does sound steep. Cheers

having had a little look on autotrader you can get a  6 year old diesel 2 litre mondeo with around 70,000 on the clock for just over 3 grand.
seems to be a few of them around at that sort of price.

There is a hell of a lot of 'em around...

The Audi has just been serviced, brand new cambelt, four new tyres, MOT'd and all that malarky so that accounts for some of the added cost. The interior and exterior is immaculate too. The price is still steep but after driving it, can't find any fault with it aside from the cost.

I'll keep looking. I've got my courtesy car for the rest of the week, not sure how long after that I'll be able to keep it

sonic, you can get something with lower milage than that. i got my golf for 5k with 52k on the clock

Nearly £4k for a 10 year old car with 100,000+ miles? No thanks. It's worth £3k at a push.

Not found much else around Seb.

Like I said, £4k is steep but not far off the market value when you take into account the recent work on it and the fact it's a dealer. It's the best option I've found so far that's a viable option, everything else is either beyond my price range or I simply can't get there to view/pick it up

Look what the fuck I just found?!! This can't be right, it's 4k, but it only has 25k on the clock and is 2008...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201045372875952/sort/pricedesc/usedcars/transmission/manual/price-to/4000/maximum-mileage/up_to_80000_miles/fuel-type/diesel/model/golf/make/volkswagen/radius/1501/postcode/sn40nw/page/1?logcode=p

Try motorworld on dorcan way, me & the wife have now brought a car each from there and they have such a good range.

I found that earlier as well Barry. Something wrong there.

I'm not local to Swindon jutty but thanks

I decided to drop him an email. It's your typical, I'm living abroad and will ship it to you. The bloke must think I was born yesterday. He's selling it cheap because it's right hand drive and he can't sell it for any more, as no one in Spain wants a RHD car... I've told him I want it. ;)

This one looks good, but I suspect Manchester is too far. 51 plate Golf with 54k for £3,495.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201043371317834/sort/pricedesc/usedcars/maximum-mileage/up_to_80000_miles/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/4000/model/golf/make/volkswagen/postcode/sn40nw/page/4/radius/1501?logcode=p

thats a good shout there,

sonic, whats your post code?

I put a deposit down on that Audi after my awesome negotiation skills dropped the price a bit. I know I'm paying over the odds for it but I need something by Friday and the piece of mind makes a difference to me (and the missus).

I have an A3, (albeit newer) and in 3 years have never had a problem. Hope it works out for you.

Are you going to 419 him? I'm up for a bit of that :D

I'm in the process of doing so, although getting bored because he doesn't seem to care that much - he's a very lazy scammer. (I've asked him how to pay a few times and he says, read the last email with no further help.)

I am using an email address with a name crafted especially for this though. It makes me laugh like a self-righteous girl. :)

If you manage to get a sort code and account number let me know, I wouldn't mind signing him up for some very charitable monthly donations :)

Oh, I've got that, although it's in the international format. Here. :)

Beneficiary Bank Name :       CAIXA NOVA
Beneficiary Bank IBAN :         ES55 20800847780000001700
Beneficiary Bank Account Number :      20800847780000001700
Beneficiary Bank Swift Code :        CAVIES2V

It's a Spanish bank account. If anyone's Spanish is any good, sign him up for some charity donations through a Spanish website (e.g. Oxfam have a branch in Spain). His bank details are below:

Bank code 2080
Branch code 0847
Account no 0000001700
Check 78

So... I bought the car and got it today, when driving it makes a really loud rattle. Any idea what it is?

A rattle could be anything. If you bought it today then take it back.

Is there any chance that there's a rattle snake in the glove compartment?

It's less of a rattle and more of a loud clunking. It's worst when doing over 30mph and it makes an almighty thud when I shift gear.

Did you test drive it?

No. Should I have?

Yes!!

Could be the driveshaft, propshaft, differential. So many possible reasons.

Take it back to where you bought it.

oops.

You seriously bought it without test driving?!

It's not that unbelieveable... car salesmen are reknowned for their honesty.

Oh...

I wasn't committed enough to the wind up. Sorry.

The car is fine :)

You just got to hope you haven't tempted fate now!