What car for £2-£3K?

[joshwa]

Looking for small family car / large family car (ie Ford Focus - Nissan Primera sized)

but would like reliable, safe (4star euroncap or above), economic, but slightly sporty as well, or very sporty as long as the insurance isn't excessive...

what would you recommend?

are there any specific models of cars I should look for?

Cheers

Josh

[dave87]

I dunno how much they go for now, but the Escort GTi Estate was a great family car, quite sporty with a 1.8 engine in it aswell. Alternatively you could get the Si, reasonably sporty but a bit cheaper iirc.

Hope this helps

Dave

[Howard]

Here comes the biased brand loyalty now... *Waits for Fox and 5Lab to follow*

A Megane would fit the bill I guess, although they're not tremendously sporty unless you get a Coupe, which isn't really a family car

4 star Ncap

[Stoo]

Older Audi etc ?

Honda Accord?

..

[joshwa]

there's so many different cars to choose from - it's difficult trying to narrow it down...

this looks like a bit of a bargain at the moment:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1998-RENAULT-M...QQcmdZViewItem

[Howard]

Same spec as my car Except mine's a 1.6 not a 1.9TD Nice

[Russ]

5lab impression "buy a volvo they am wicked"
and fox "mondeo is key to the future"

[5lab]

nagh volvo fetch a price premium at this end of the market - the only thing really suitable would be a s/v40 t4, but they're a little on the bland looking side imo. bloomin quick though..

st24? you'd probably get something around 99-2000 on that cash, but not a 4* car.. you might just get a new-gen laguna - 2001 onwards, which would probably have a silly ncap rating, knowing newish renaults (just checked - its 5*) - not sure if you'd get a sporty one though

how about a rover 75? good solid cars, stupidly low prices (starting to rise again, so now is the best time to buy), big, and well built.. a bit more class (imo) than yer average mondeo..

[obvious]

I'd probably buy something at auction. Maybe:-

Skoda Octavia Hatchback 1.9 TDi Elegance 5d 2000/X
CC/Cyl 1896 / 4
BHP 110
MPH 119
0-60 10.7
MPG 54
Insurance 9

[joshwa]

cheers - certainly considering the octavia, the s40, the rover 75 as well, seen a nice Nissan Almera X reg 2000 model TD S with 84k miles go for £2250 which seems like a good deal too...

by auctions do you mean real live auctions? and if so, will there be one local to me? (Liverpool)

[Fox]

Two issues here. First the NCAP score, then the car.

Bin the NCAP requirement. It's meaningless and prohibitivly restricted.

NCAP only became THAT important to new car buyers in recent years. Almost ALL the cars you are going to be able to find in your price range were designed PRIOR to this obsession everyone now has with NCAP scores, and as a result, don't all have 5 stars. Also, I would be rather sceptical of placing my trust in a scheme where a car can be bumped up to 5 stars from 4 simply by adding a seatbelt warning light.... Buy something nice, with various safety features, and it'll be fine.

Also bear in mind that NCAP scores between classes are not comparable becuase the NCAP test is only a test of how well the car crashes into another identical car. Wow, thats useful. So, an old Volvo 940 will have a lower NCAP score than a new Citroen C1. Which would YOU rather have a 70mph smash in?

Next, which car for you?

Well, two people have predicted it so I won't let them down - buy a Mk2 Ford Mondeo. Hugely under-rated, highly capable cars and you should be able to chose from the very best available with your budget. Get a 2.0 16v or 2.5 V6 and go for Ghia, Ghia X or ST24 specification. The top of the range model is the Ghia X - cruise, leather, aircon, CD changer, computer, electric seats, full electric windows, ABS, heated seats, you name it, it has it. More important for the safety concious - if its a late V reg or newer, it will also have 4 airbags.

Mondeo offers best in class handling - only the Primera and 406 come close. If driver enjoyment is a priority, it'll offer you more than the rest of the class. Obviously if you just want to go from A, to B, without hassle, this probably isn't much of an advantage but I felt it was worth mentioning.

The 2.0 16v versions are extremely reliable, cheap to run cars. Few things go wrong, and things that do go wrong are usually easy and cheap to fix - there are billions of Mondeos, everywhere, and as a result breakers yards are full of parts and every garage knows how to fix them. The 2.5 V6 is almost as reliable, but obviously you've got to allow for the added complexity of the 6 cylinder engine.

If you go for a V6, pick an ST24 or a Ghia X. Which one is best for you depends on a few things - the Ghia X is loaded with kit, but looks a tad bland. The ST24 has less kit - only half leather, no cruise, no computer, etc but the 5 door hatch and later 4 door saloons have a standard factory fitted bodykit which really looks smart. Performance is identical between the two trim levels and if you are lucky you can find Ghia X's in both 2.0 and 2.5 form which had the kit fitted as a factory option. These are the best non ST200 Mk2 Mondeos, but are rare.

The best bet about these cars is the utterly savage depreciation. The Ghia X and ST24 cost in excess of £20,000 when new but now you can have an X reg 2.0 Ghia X for less than £3k. That's a hell of a lot of reasonably new car for your money. ST24's hold their value better than Ghia X's, so you'd probably end up with an R or an S plate for your budget. Don't worry too much about mileage - it's no trouble with these cars and of course the more miles, the cheaper the car.

I've had my 2.0 Ghia X for over a year and a half now, it's sailed through two MOT's on the trot without any advisories, is capable of over 40mpg on the Motorway and 35-40 on a run, but it can be a bit thirsty around town.

What else can you get? Well, you might just scrape a high mileage early Focus - great cars, and again reliable, but I cannot help thinking whats the point when you can get a newer, higher spec'd Mondeo for less cash.

This is my area of 'favourite cars' at the moment, so I've done a lot of research into the pitfalls and benefits of virtually every similar car - I spent 6 months chosing the right car for me before buying the Mondeo so if I'd have found anything better I'd have bought it, but here is a quick sum up of other similar cars:

Vauxhall Vectra - not horrifically unreliable but cannot be described as faultless. Steering vague, handling..... not that good. Interior quality average. No real reason to buy over a Mondeo.

Citroen Xantia - Much under-rated cars, people are scared by the complex suspension which isn't all that expensive to fix. Cost virtually nothing these days. Fantastic diesel engines, but can be plagued with niggling electrical faults. Owned a 94 TD for 2 years, was a great car, but my Mondeo felt like I'd moved up a class...

Peugeot 406 - A Xantia without the complex suspension. Great handling cars - closest in class to the Mondeo in terms of handling, good levels of equipment and again, excellent diesel engines. Can have electric gremlins but decent cars - I almost bought one.

Renault Laguna - A reliability nightmare. If it can break, it WILL break, and it WILL cost a fortune to fix. Just don't bother, which is a real shame because they look great.

Nissan Primera - utterly dull to look at, utterly dull inside, nasty bland interior but beneath this, an epically reliable car. It will JUST not let you down. Pretty good to drive, as well. Another one that comes close to the Mondeo in terms of handling. Primera GT is a bargain quick car.

Volvo S40/Mitsubishi Carisma - More or less the same car. S40 not proper Volvo, built somewhere else, uses Renault diesel engines, based on the Carisma. Awful handling, dull, uninspiring, S40 breaks lots, Carisma doesn't. Can't see why you'd want one.

As you can see all mentioned cars are larger. Why? Well I don't see the point in the smaller stuff - due to supply and demand you'll pay more for an older car.

[obvious]

Great post there Fox. I'd agree that you can get a lot of car for your money with a Mondeo. I based my recommendation for the Octavia TDi on the economy/performance/reliability criteria. Being based on VW/Audi is a bonus here as well.

Motor auctions in and around Liverpool :- http://www.google.co.uk/local?hl=en&...sa=X&oi=localr

[Fox]

I don't really know an awful lot about the Octavia in this price bracket and how it stacks up as a used buy, so I didn't mention them

[Tumble]

The Ford Diesels seem to be nice motors.. had a test of a 2001 Diesel Focus the other week and boy did it shift (you get a nice hiss from the wastegate on the turbo to if you're tramping on a bit )

[5lab]

hmm, personally i'd disagree on the ncap point - back in 98 cars were not designed to pass it, so imo the results are probably a lot more of a realistic test of safety.

fox - is the suspension on a st24 not modified?? i ask because i'm half considering one for my next car (a non-st24) and was wondering if it'd be the same..

the only s40 i reccomended is the t4, and thats becasue the sus is uprated (so it handles a bit nicer), and because its shockingly fast.. 200bhp in a 'dull' looking car gives lots of people lots of fun it is a volvo engine (same engine as the t5 but one cylender removed) its not *that* unreliable, and neither is the slaguna (for a general idea of reliability - see how much a warentee from an independant supplier - ie warenteedirect.com - would cost - the more the cost of that the worse the reliabliltiy and the more likely to cost more to fix)

[Konan555]

I dunno how much they go for now, but the Escort GTi Estate was a great family car, quite sporty with a 1.8 engine in it aswell. Alternatively you could get the Si, reasonably sporty but a bit cheaper iirc.

Hope this helps

Dave

The escort was at the tail end of its life when the real crash testing started. Think it's a 1 star job.