|
With such a small budget there is no point or sense in setting your heart on a specific brand or model of car. Any purchase could end up a money pit, and VW, despite what you may think, are no more reliable than any other car.
You really need to be focussing on condition over anything else at that price, and ideally be looking for something which is not going to appeal to a budding boy racer (ie, probably been thrashed to within an inch of its life). Look for something 'unfashionable'.
Also, you say a family of 5, a car in the polo class is going to be a bit tight for all of you. The only smaller car i'd recommend for your needs and budget is the (unfairly overlooked, both when in production and now) ford fusion, which is a taller, squarer fiesta. Good sized cabin and the higher seating position means more leg space in relation to its overall length, and a boot closer in size to the focus than the fiesta. Keep it simple (as should be the case for any potential purchase), petrol engine, manual gearbox. We had one for 3 years (from new, back in 2002), a 1.4 petrol. Brilliant small family car and very underrated.
|
With such a small budget there is no point or sense in setting your heart on a specific brand or model of car. Any purchase could end up a money pit, and VW, despite what you may think, are no more reliable than any other car.
You really need to be focussing on condition over anything else at that price, and ideally be looking for something which is not going to appeal to a budding boy racer (ie, probably been thrashed to within an inch of its life). Look for something 'unfashionable'.
Also, you say a family of 5, a car in the polo class is going to be a bit tight for all of you. The only smaller car i'd recommend for your needs and budget is the (unfairly overlooked, both when in production and now) ford fusion, which is a taller, squarer fiesta. Good sized cabin and the higher seating position means more leg space in relation to its overall length, and a boot closer in size to the focus than the fiesta. Keep it simple (as should be the case for any potential purchase), petrol engine, manual gearbox. We had one for 3 years (from new, back in 2002), a 1.4 petrol. Brilliant small family car and very underrated.
Essentially they could look at the Mazda2 from the same time - its mostly the same as the Fusion underneath and very reliable too by all accounts. One thing to note is that the Fusion (I can't speak for that Mazda2, nothing like the one from 2007) was, unlike its Fiesta sibbling, a poor handling car unless you bought an upper model with the stability control package (its in the HJ review).
I would say that fitting 5 (especially if there are going to be growing kids [or adults] in the back) in any any of those cars will be quite a squeeze to say the least. Little kids, maybe (though as others have said, if they all have to have child seats, would there be enough room to fit them all?).
For the budget, it may be worth looking to spend the money on keeping the existing car on the road (unless a HUGE bill is the reason for dumping it) as well as looking at a known-reliable medium sized car such as the Focus or Mazda3 in petrol form. As others have said, condition and maintenance history is key - a car may have done more mileage or older, but if well looked after will be more reliable than one that is newer and/or younger and hasn't been cared for. As well as looking at the service history (and of general maintenance carried out), its always worth checking the MOT hostory of the vehicles you're specifically looking at on:
www.gov.uk/check-mot-history
...and a general (basic) vehicle check to see if the details match the car (not a HPi check) on:
www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla
The MOT history will show up whether the car has had a littany of faults or not and is a good guide to whether any of its owners have been lax in its maintenance - if its had many failures, particularly on tyre tread depth (bald tyres) or several items that were 'advisories' that were left unfixed until they became a 'fail' item (often for more than a year), to me, that indicates either an unreliable car (it could be just luck, but you still want to avoid it) and/or one that wasn't cared for.
It should be said that there are both ups and downsides to getting a low mileage car, especially when owner by an elderly and/or disabled person. Most are well-maintained, far more so than the average (and especially younger owners) car owner, but some are not, perhaps due to a health condition or age leading to them forgetting, hence why seeing the service and (if possible) maintenance history (repairs, receipts, etc) is really useful. These cars often are low mileage as they almost exclusively do short trips to the local shops and very few longer ones - its not too much of an issue for the petrol-driven ones that don't have a direct injection (GDI) engine, which can clog up a bit, though not as much as modern diesels (which cost far more to fix when they do), however it sometimes is better to go for a car that has done a reasonable mileage if all other aspects are the same.
Obviously with older cars, some may imminently need replacements of wear-and-tear items such as clutches, exhuasts, brake pads and/or discs, even steering racks (one of the few faults with early 2000s Civics), as well as general corrosion (a problem with some early Mazda3 mk1s). For whatever cars you're actually going to look at, check HJ's Reviews/car-by-car section for each model (Good & Bad sub-section is really handy) and if the OP isn't much into cars, then take along someone who does have some reasonable knowledge if you can't afford to bring along someone from the AA or RAC (about £120 - £150: worth it if there's no-one else - just save up a bit longer).
As the OP will more likely be buying from a small independent dealer or a private sale, then the chances of them being ripped off with a more difficult path of redress is higher than with a newer car from a main dealer, hence why having someone with car knowledge go with them is, I think really useful, as is asking friends, work colleagues and family whose opinion they trust for possbile reasonable dealers they could look at: word of mouth is far better than going by an and in the local paper or internet (where reviews can be faked).
|
|
I'm afraid I have to take issue regarding your comments on the fusion Andy. 1st, I have just read the honest John review of the car, and it does not say it handles poorly. What it does say is that the fusion doesn't handle as well as the fiesta, which is not the same thing at all. Not that I agree, as, having driven both back to back, I could discern little difference, certainly nothing that couldn't be explained by the fiesta's lighter kerb weight. And I also have to say, I've had quite enough of the 'dissing' which the fusion consistently receives. Especially when it comes to to whether or not there is any point in buying one over a fiesta. The answer to this is very simple, if you need more room than a fiesta has, but don't want or need to go up to a focus, get a fusion. It has usefully more cabin and boot space than the fiesta, but is virtually the same size (length and width). Also, if you have mobility problems, like my wife, you will definitely appreciate how much easier it is to get in and out of the fusion, with its higher seating position. And if all that wasn't enough, a 4 star euro ncap crash test rating was pretty impressive for the time.
I can understand why the fusion tends to get overlooked in this image obsessed market, it just looks a bit dull, especially the lower spec versions. This was not helped by that appallingly cringe worthy advert with the short guy!. Ford missed a trick here as the overall shape of the car had more SUV about it than meriva (which is what ford were aiming at). Had they butched up the styling, just a little, it could have pre-empted the mini-SUV craze, sold much better than it actually did, and would have been a much better effort than the awful eco sport.
|
I'm afraid I have to take issue regarding your comments on the fusion Andy. 1st, I have just read the honest John review of the car, and it does not say it handles poorly. What it does say is that the fusion doesn't handle as well as the fiesta, which is not the same thing at all. Not that I agree, as, having driven both back to back, I could discern little difference, certainly nothing that couldn't be explained by the fiesta's lighter kerb weight. And I also have to say, I've had quite enough of the 'dissing' which the fusion consistently receives. Especially when it comes to to whether or not there is any point in buying one over a fiesta. The answer to this is very simple, if you need more room than a fiesta has, but don't want or need to go up to a focus, get a fusion. It has usefully more cabin and boot space than the fiesta, but is virtually the same size (length and width). Also, if you have mobility problems, like my wife, you will definitely appreciate how much easier it is to get in and out of the fusion, with its higher seating position. And if all that wasn't enough, a 4 star euro ncap crash test rating was pretty impressive for the time.
I can understand why the fusion tends to get overlooked in this image obsessed market, it just looks a bit dull, especially the lower spec versions. This was not helped by that appallingly cringe worthy advert with the short guy!. Ford missed a trick here as the overall shape of the car had more SUV about it than meriva (which is what ford were aiming at). Had they butched up the styling, just a little, it could have pre-empted the mini-SUV craze, sold much better than it actually did, and would have been a much better effort than the awful eco sport.
I'm not 'dissing' the Fusion - I actually remember seeing a TV review (possibly Top Gear or 5th Gear) saying lower-spec models without the stablity control weren't the best handling - that doesn't mean they are either unsafe or rubbish, just probably not as good as the Fiesta (not as high sided) and models with stability control, but probably on a par with the more 'boring' Japanese equivalents such as the Honda Jazz or Toyota Yaris Verso. I'm sure it would be fine around town.
I actually like (other than the headlights) the higher-spec models - my sister has owned two of them and currently has a 1.6TD (diesel-of-doom, though it seems to run fine). Nice in that medium metalic blue or off red colour too. The lower spec models don't look so good though.
|
|
Had a top of the range Polo recently as a hire car in Spain, was only the second person to have been provided with the car, it had less than 1,000 KM on the clock. I found it disappointing compared to the Fiesta, seemed to lack feel and overall driving appeal. Also I noted some of the screws around the door hinges were already rusting on what was essentially a brand new vehicle, so much for VW quality.
|
£2k, need legroom and space, there is only 1 car I would consider which is a 2010/2011 Nissan Note 1.4 petrol.
Check full service history.
Engines run forever, one of the last of the proper Nissan's.
|
£2k, need legroom and space, there is only 1 car I would consider which is a 2010/2011 Nissan Note 1.4 petrol. Check full service history. Engines run forever, one of the last of the proper Nissan's.
At a £2k budget the money needs to be spent on engineering quality and not fancy-pants styling, plush interiors with lots of toys and perceived badge-snobbery. A Polo wouldn't be at the top of my list, as you say, something Japanese, comfortable and hardy/reliable. People on that sort of budget won't be able to afford large repair bills that ineviatbly come with owning a (again, perceived) 'premium badge' car.
Not sure whether it would be worth the OP considering an Almera hatch or Tino for the same reasons, perhaps with the 1.8 petrol engine. SLO may have some advice whether they are worth considering (a late model) in the mix.
|
"Not sure whether it would be worth the OP considering an Almera hatch or Tino for the same reasons, perhaps with the 1.8 petrol engine. SLO may have some advice whether they are worth considering (a late model) in the mix."
The Mk II Almera is probably the ultimate example of bland half hearted engineering there is. It's not even that reliable, especially compared to the Nissan's of old. The 1.5 is notorious for timing chain stretch if it hasn't seen regular fresh oil and the front crossmember rots badly which is what writes most of them off eventually. As a sub £1k runabout they make sense if you can find a solid example that's been looked after but they are pretty much the worst thing in the class to drive. A Focus or Mazda 3 are much better both to drive and regarding reliability too. I don't rate them but a mint low miler with full history could be worthwhile under a grand if you don't like driving.
|
|
|
|
