Just had my old 216 written off after somebody pulled out in front of me. I now have a short time to buy another car. I am after an estate with a diesel engine, used but am not sure how used to go for.
I have heard lots of good things about octavias but a quick look on autotrader and they seem to come out a lot more expensive than similar vectras (12k vs 9-10k), all about 1 year old. Why is this? I thought the octavia was supposed to be a size class down from a vectra.
Is getting a car that is only a year old economically sound as compared to one that is 2-3 years old?
Can't spend much above 12k but would prefer 10k or less. Any ideas?
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Just did a nationwide search on Autotrader.co.uk and there are several 04-plate Octavia 1.6 estates for £8999.
IMHO, a car still has quite a large chunk of value to lose when it's only a year old, so it's better to buy at 2-3 years old to avoid the worst effects of depreciation. Having said that, if you're keeping the car for a long time (5+ yrs) then depreciation is not such a big deal as it smoothes out over the lifetime of the car.
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Mister T, I'd recommend a black Citroën C8 with tinted windows, a sliding door, fog lamps and a spoiler on the roof.
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Mister T, I'd recommend a black Citroën C8 with tinted windows, a sliding door, fog lamps and a spoiler on the roof.
And a red stripe surely?
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A C5 2.0 or 2.2 HDI manual would be an excellent estate (avoid autos and HPI petrols!) Second hand, even year old C5s, plummet in value and with the balance of manufacturer's 3 year warranty they should be safe enough.
The HDIs are sound motors - unbeatable on refinement and very reliable. The Citroen suspension on an estate is unbeatable (and again, surprisingly reliable)
The unreliable bit (and only if you're unlucky) is the minor glitches with electrics etc that some owners report - but even then, most of those were ironed out in the early days. My one is a very early model (2001 build) It's had few upgrades but is now totally 'sorted'. Newer models ought to be OK from the word go.
Lots of car for your dosh - especially second hand. Worth a test drive at least.
Graeme
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Vectras have great petrol engines though not so good diesels until you get to '04 1.9 CTDi's. How about a Focus TDCi?
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Toyota Avensis estate? Should be lots of choice at sub £10k. Bland, perhaps, but always easy to sell/px you'd have thought.
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Vectras have good old basic direct inj diesels, easy to work on, chain driven, 50+ mpg, bit noisy at tick over, but plenty of grunt and quiet at motorway speeds. I've just bought an 03 2.0 Dti to replace my old 1.8 petrol, and i prefer the diesel, it only had 38k and i paid £6800
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Is an octavia going to hold its value better than a vectra of a similar age and type?
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According to What Car, 3 year residuals for the previous model Octavia are amongst the best for its class.
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Based on reputation i'd say yes, although after 5/6 years could be a lottery. Remember the Octavia is based on the Golf floorpan so is a smaller car than the Vectra. This may or may not be important to you. I have also heard that in the 'old' model Octavia a weak point is the seats which can get uncomfortable after a couple of hours - relevent if you do long trips. Now if you could stretch to the 'new' Octavia these look excellent!
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Before my crash my rough plan was to keep the rover going long enough to get a used new shape octaviva estate when they started to appear on the used market.
Much as I would prefer the new shape I would be put off by both the extra cost of buying new and the initail depreciation.
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Vectras have good old basic direct inj diesels, easy to work on, chain driven,
Apart from the new CDTi's, which have a cambelt.
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