Message Forums

Quote: Originally posted by ratcatcher on 19/3/2013

---

IMHO most cars today are much of a muchness especially now rust problems have been almost eliminated and electronic problems are being ironed out.

The exception of course is all the french rubbish with its roly poly suspension and engines that could have been made by Cadburies.

German, English, Swedish, Japanese, anything at all really except french
If you have a high milage french car you should go and buy a lottery ticket while your lucks in.

This of course is just my opinion as a mechanic of 40 years

A bit controvertial maybe but what the heck

---

up to a point i'd have to agree , our previous tow car was a 1.5 DCI Megane II, we had that motor for 5yrs never had a minutes trouble with the car mechanically, it was fantastic on fuel and when we traded her in, the body work was as good as the day it came out of the showroom .

however the electrics were a nightmare almost from day one , electric window motors kept failing,dealer only part at £280 a time to supply and fit , we had 3 out of the four go on ours

and woe be tide you if you needed to change a headlight bulb , i needed one changing so popped along to to Halfords to take advantage of their buy and fit option, bought the bulb but was told they don't fit front bulbs to that model due to access difficulties, wasn't until i tried to fit it myself that i found out just what they meant ..not a chance, eventually took it to our local spanner jockey, he changed it alright...he had to take the front bumper off to get the headlight unit out in order to replace the bulb 

other than that it was a really good car

before that we had a peugeot 405 hdi, had that for 4yrs never missed a beat until the timing belt went, over £1300 to repair ,needless to say that was sold for spares or repair as i only paid £1000 for it to begin with

Quote: Originally posted by nigel58464 on 19/3/2013

---

Hi read somewhere the other week, that if you do less 18,000 per year petrol is the cheaper option and over 18,000 then its the diesel. So the choice is yours

---

I'm surprised not to see any recommendations for a Volvo yet. The older V40 diesels are reasonably cheap to insure, maintain and run. The petrols slightly more so. The engines are solid and will run for hundreds of thousands of miles if looked after.

If you want something slightly more modern, the V50 offers a good mid-size estate for all budgets. Slightly more technical to maintain, but very comfortable and coupled with a roof box, offers a large amount of carrying space.

Buy an unfashionable estate (Volvo/Skoda/Ford)  for around £2500/£3k and keep money in the bank for repair fund if required

Depreciation minimal and likely to find top end models from range at similar prices so more equipment for your money

Older petrol models will be in your price brackets rather tha some of the newer more efficient ones Jon refers to above, so as long as you do plenty of longer runs aswll as the short stuff you are no more likely to have issues with diesel than petrol

Personally I would probbaly go for an older BMW 5 series estate (touring) a 525 or 530 if budget permits but maybe 520D at a push for better economy and lower tax. Huge aftermarket for non OEM spares on BMW as well as independent dealers and plenty of European support if you consider that an issue