VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 11:29
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - Olga Danes-Volkov

I'm 70 yrs old (though not decrepit yet!) and now need an automatic after many years of successful buying of old motors and cheap motoring. Having been through a very traumatic series of events recently I want a convertible to cheer myself up. Has anyone any thoughts on this? £1500 is my very, very top price.

I appreciate this is a pretty tall order and you can't get a Ford Focus convertible but everyone else in immediate family happily drive Focuses (Focii?!) so I suppose that'd be the "sensible" option but I will be very appreciative of any comments or thoughts by others. Many thanks.

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 12:32
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - RobJP

A £1500 convertible - of any make - is highly likely to be a money pit.

Someone will be getting rid for a reason, and the reason is usually that it requires a fair bit of money spending on it.

Avoid - like the plague - anything French in your budget, specifically the 206CC or Megane convertible.

The best bet would probably be a Saab 9-3.

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 12:41
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - scot22

Agree completely with Rob's advice.

I had a 9-3 and found it a marvellous car - passed my advanced drivers in it as well. Comfort,acceleration and general reliability from when it was Swedish owned.

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 12:51
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - Metropolis.

Also agree, Saab is your best bet. Something like this would be a decent buy subject to seeing it in person. Seems to have had alot done to it which can be seen as both a positive or a negative.

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20160907753...2

Or a Volvo c70 is nice, if you can find one of similar vintage.

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 14:16
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - Mike H

Looks a good buy to me, having had many Saabs over 31 years! The important things have been done (timing chain, head gasket etc.), although just a little surprised that they needed doing so early in the car's life - 72k miles is peanuts for a Saab, we bought ours at a similar mileage when it was 4 years old, and let it go last year at 230k.

Look after it and it sounds like it has plenty of life in it yet!

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 14:57
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - RT

Looks a good buy to me, having had many Saabs over 31 years! The important things have been done (timing chain, head gasket etc.), although just a little surprised that they needed doing so early in the car's life - 72k miles is peanuts for a Saab, we bought ours at a similar mileage when it was 4 years old, and let it go last year at 230k.

Look after it and it sounds like it has plenty of life in it yet!

But will modern Saabs last like the originals - especially given their Vauxhall underpinnings?

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Thu 8 Sep 2016 14:34
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - twitcherman

Mazda MX-5 if you don't need 4 seats.

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Fri 9 Sep 2016 15:04
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - Olga Danes-Volkov

Thank you all so much for this advice. I will look into it and I will go onward and upward!!

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Fri 9 Sep 2016 16:26
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - RaineMan

If you shop carefully you might pick up a BMW 3 series or an MGF (StepTronic box) for your money...

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Fri 9 Sep 2016 23:21
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - SLO76
A tall order indeed. I ran a Mk II Mazda MX5 for two years that cost me £1475 and got £1600 when I sold it but they rust like it's the 1970's again and autos are rare and I believe only availabile in unofficially imported cars which have even less rust protection. Access is a struggle and space limited but they're great fun to drive and mechanically strong.

The Saab 900/9/3 is a good cheap to buy option. Plenty of them around and many are well looked after with reasonable mileage and history. They're nowhere near the quality of pre GM cars but will last well into six figure mileage a if maintained correctly. Avoid any that haven't got evidence of annual servicing, these are complex turbocharged engines with timing chains and don't take kindly to neglect and remember that some parts, particularly trim and body panels are getting hard to come by since Saab shut down.

Another worthy option is the Volvo C70. They're large, comfortable four seaters with bombproof 5cyl engines and a reputation for longevity. Not cheap to run but far better made than the Saab and available for under £2k and mileage isn't a worry as long as it has been maintained well.

Above all though I'd forget the notion of having a firm fixed budget of £1500. Buy the best you can afford up front, it's far cheaper than forking out to fix a bad motor afterwards. Stretch as far as you can and I'd go for condition and history above all else. These aren't cheap cars to buy parts for and if that is your maximum budget I'd advise forgetting it and buy a simple basic as you can find hatchback with less to go wrong.

I've sold complex older motors to people on limited budgets before, despite warning them against and watched as the cars end up scrapped or as driveway ornaments when anything major goes wrong and it will go wrong. As I've said many times before. If buying on a budget keep it as simple as possible.
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Sat 10 Sep 2016 00:10
VW Golf or Ford Focus - Buying cheap old small automatic - RobJP

I had a C70 T5GT coupe (manual box) back in the late 90s. Stunning car. Beautiful to drive. Spacious for 4, decent boot. It ate front tyres, however, but all the 850 / S70 / V70 variants did. But even when relatively new it only did 25mpg. So expect 20mpg or so from one that's the thick end of 20 years old.

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