I need a new car...

[Dee]

...So what do you all suggest?

My budget is only about £3000, but Ive seen some nice cars for about £2000 on Auto Trader.

Paying it off over about 3/4 years will range from £70-£100 a month which I can just about manage. I dont know how people do it with brand new cars :(

Ive no real preference on the make, so any suggestions for reliability and cheap insurance? :)

[Kell_ee001]

I need a new car too although can't really afford it atm.

Will keep an eye on this though, just incase the urge takes me :D

[Daz]

Maybe you should wait and buy abroad next year if that's still on the cards? Certainly better value for money if nothing else.

[Dee]

I need a new car too although can't really afford it atm.

Neither can I, but I dont have much of a choice right now :(

Maybe you should wait any buy abroad next year if that's still on the cards? Certainly better value for money if nothing else.

Thats kinda why I need a new car :embarassed:

[Daz]

:confused:

[Dee]

Jay will be giving his company car up in December, is that any help to you?

Edit: Sorry that sounded really short, didnt mean it to be

[Flibster]

Anything in particular you're after?

Make?
Size?
Number of seats?
Something girly or a bit more fun? ;)
Big boot for shopping?

Simon/~Flibster

[Dee]

No preference on make or engine size, just as long as its under 3k.

Ideally 5 door though, this 3 door I have now is a pain in the rear ;)

[Daz]

Got ya :) Sorry, I'm just nosey :embarassed:

Reliability wise at that price, I'd be looking at Audi. Could get some nice A4's for £3k when I was looking a couple of months ago. About 6 years old, and under 100k if you look around. Might be a bit big for what you want though.

I'm far from the best car source on these boards of course :embarassed:

[Dee]

Yeah, Audis are a bit big for me. I drove one today, and they feel really nice, but they always strike me as company cars :p

[Piggymon]

If you're looking for something cheapish to insure & run I would suggest a Focus ( if you're not too bothrered about looks )

Could get a decent 1.4 / 1.6 for that, would be reasonable to insure and also if things went wrong would generally be easy/cheap to fix :)

[Daz]

Matt picked up a second hand S3 last week which is obviously a lot smaller. Damn fast though, and somewhat bad for insurance ;D

But yeah, Ford are a decent bet if you can find one with reasonable mileage.

[Dee]

Is that just a Focus, or Fords in general?

Edit: Daz pipped me to the post ;)

[Piggymon]

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/cars_search.asp?nU=0&make=FORD&model=FOCUS&min_pr=2000&max_pr=3000&postcode=NG2%206HS&miles=40&max_records=50&modelexact=1&photo=1

A few there :)

[kaiowas]

Has Fox sold his mondeo yet ;)

[Piggymon]

If an A4 is too big I don't think she's gonna be happy driving a mondeo :p

[Flibster]

Found a couple of interesting possibilities.

2001 Seat Leon 1.6 16v
2003 MG ZR 1.4 105
2001 Toymota Corolla 1.4 VVTi
2001 Alfa Romeo 166 3.0 V6 24v *not sensible - but a great car*
2001 Suzuki Wagon R 1.3GL
2001 VW Golf 1.9 TDI 90
2002 Skoda Octavia 1.9 SDi
2002 MG ZS 2.5 180
2002 Hyundai Coupe 2.0 16v
2001 Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia
2002 Smart ForTwo

Lots of stuff out there. :D

My choices out of the first few that I found - Seat Leon, MG ZS, Hyundai Coupe or the Toymota Corolla.

Simon/~Flibster

[Daz]

<3k for a 2002 Coupe :shocked: Got a link dude?

[Flibster]

Just spotted that it's LHD... serves me right for not reading it properly and just flipping through pages.

Linky (http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/CARS_popup.asp?modelexact=1&lid=search_used_cars_full&make=HYUNDAI&model=COUPE&variant=&keywords=&min_pr=75&max_pr=3000&mileage=0&agerange=2&postcode=sg4+9sb&miles=1500&max_records=200&source=0&photo=1&sort=5&ukcarsearch_full=SEARCH&start=2&distance=169&adcategory=CARS&channel=CARS&id=200638250664085)

Shame that. They are wonderful cars. They drive very nicely, the engine is a bit wimpy but revs well and you can throw them about like hell. ;)

Simon/~Flibster

[Daz]

Yeah, drove one last year and quite enjoyed it. Pretty much as you say, not quite enough poke, but it was good fun.

[Flibster]

The 2.7 V6 is much better - heavier engine gives it a bit more grip at the front, more power and most importantly a LOT more nice burbley noise. ;)

But it's still underpowered . :(

Rumors of a 300bhp RWD version in 2008 though... :D

Simon/~Flibster

[Will]

Now THAT would be interesting...

Anything VAG variant would be a good bet. Or a 306 or something like that - I loved mine. Again a Focus is a good car, you cna be a bit boring and go for something like an Astra.

[PeterNem]

For fairly decent reliability but cheap enough to work on and source parts in case something does go wrong you can't really go far wrong with a Focus or an Astra (or pretty much any other medium sized hatch, 306 etc etc).

Pick up a 1.6 of either and it'll be pretty frugal but nippy enough for most situations and not too heavy on the insurance.

Something a little more out of the ordinary or with a little prestige would be nice, but I suspect although old Audis are pretty reliable, if something were to go wrongit'd probably cost a fair bit to fix.