With a budget of £5000, I want (obviously) an economical car, but at the same time a fun car - decent acceleration and a nice chassis.
Comfort and safety are important too, so I want dual airbags, air con and abs. In fact, any feature beginning with A would be good!
Oh and I don't want a 'birds' car. C'mon people, you know what I'm talking about.
Any ideas? I don't want much, do I?
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Skoda octavia. At that price you will find the 110bhp engine scarce but the 90bhp is available. Had a Golf and a Leon with this engine and never had a problem in 200000 miles. Other cars at this price would be the obvious French candidates ( Xantia/405/406/306) but I would start with Skoda.
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Citroen Xsara HDi. Plenty of go, plenty of kit, nice agile chassis. Octavia's a bit of a slug with the 90bhp unit.
God almighty, I've just recommended a Citroen...
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Make sure it is the 2.0 HDI, not the older, slower and thirstier 1.9 diesel.
The HDI is a gem of an engine. Alternatively, you could find a Xantia with the same engine.
Ben
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Xantia HDi.
The later ones in particular have lots of added kit, such as aircon.
There you go, never mentioned a C5 once......oops!
Graeme
(one of the usual suspects)
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Older BMW 525 TDS/SE - a 1996 model, before the current shape car arrived. 145 bhp, beautiful chassis. RWD as well, of course. Looks classier IMHO than the modern variant. Not recommended for overwhelming fuel economy though, you would probably average 38-41 mpg. One other thing - if you're tall, the sunroof brings the ceiling height down a bit too low for comfort. Still, it would have pretty much everything else you're looking for, with kudos in spades! Plus it'll be virtually depreciation proof over a year or so - I had a 525 TD which I actually made £200 on after adding 6000 miles to the clock. This should more than make up for the slightly higher (for a diesel) fuel costs over that time. So long it had been looked after and the bodywork was in good nick, I'd consider one with anything up to 120k miles on the clock, as that diesel engine is really built to last. Mine stilled purred like new at 105k miles. Oil, air and fuel filter service from an independent cost me £75 all in. Buying, fitting & balancing two new Bridgestones cost me just £112 from an independent, while a wiper arm strut was £25 fitted from a main dealer, so maintenance is comparitively cheap.
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Is that the same engine found in a 325 td?
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No 325 td was 115 bhp and 325 tds was 143 bhp. you would be lucky to fnd a decent one at £5k!
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Oops, 143 bhp not 145, my mistake. Yes, it'll be easier to get a 1996 model for £6k, but I found several for less than that on a national search on the Autotrader site, some 1995, some 1996, entering "tds" as a keyword when searching for 525's. As for quality, just give it a thorough inspection as per HJ's How To Buy & Sell Cars (BTW, thanks for all the tips HJ!)and do a HPI and you should be fine. I had the slower version, the TD, which I got in November for £3900 and sold for £4100 in March.
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