Simple enough thread here. I am short of opinion where it comes to cars.
I have a budget of around £7000 for a car. I'm looking for pre-reg cars or used up to a year old and a 56 plate Mitsubishi Colt Blue is going for £7200 with delivery miles.
The new Colts seem to be getting pretty good write ups on the internet and the price of 7.2k seems great compared to the list price of 8.5k. I'd just like some opinions on what you would do with the same budget. I'm looking for a small car to get me to work and back round town and for the occasional motorway trip, rarely more than 2-3hours.
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The Colt is not a bad choice, and the price of £7200 is pretty keen.
Other cars I've be looking at at around the same sort of spec would be the Skoda Fabia (new 1.2s sometimes available for £7000), Kia Rio (pre-reg (excellent) diesel model available for about £7-7.5K), Hyundai Getz (warranty!!/1.4 engine is a good one), Fiesta (loads around so cheap nearly-new), Suzuki Swift (£7500) and maybe the Citroen C1.
Colt is one of those cars where if you like it, end of story. There are no hidden nasties as with some other models (reliability issues etc). The bad points will be obvious on test-drive, so that's all the research you'll need for the Colt (same with most German/Jap/Korean cars really).
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seat-ibiza.sgpetch.co.uk/pages/specialoffer/rowid=...7
Here's another decent deal, the Seat Ibiza (same as Skoda Fabia/VW Polo) 1.2 for £6795, and I'm sure it'd be possible to get it for slightly less online.
My advice in this area (and I'm sure you'll notice this with my suggestions) is to go with a firm that has a good reputation but doesn't have the greatest brand prestige, that's where the true bargains are. Mitsubishi is right slap-bang in the middle of that category; their cars are always durable and dependable but, Evos and 4x4s aside, they're not normally foremost in people's minds so the prices are a bit weaker, which you take advantage of.
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Is the 56 plate Colt Blue pre-registered or will you be the first registered owner? If the former make sure you still qualify for the year's free insurance and 3 year servicing deal.....!
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Toyota Aygo? Recommended by HJ in his review.
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Aygo can also be had with 1 years free insurance and 3 years free servicing.
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>Aygo
same as C1.
Whether it's worth spending the extra £1000 on an Aygo depends on whether your insurance is going to be more than about £500.
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I think the Swift is a better car and better value.
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£6995 here:
www.simpledeal.co.uk/vehicles/Car_Detail.asp?ID=24...c******=6&Cat=1
I don't believe these include free insurance or servicing though.
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Does anybody know what sort of discounts are available on a new Colt CZT (The 1.5 Turbo hot-hatch)?
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don't think you can buy outright from there, it's all finance. Rather have it paid for up front.
www.simpledeal.co.uk/vehicles/Car_Detail.asp?ID=24...c******=6&Cat=1
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it would be pre-reg so I doubt i'd qualify for the deals, still my insurance is quite low being 25 and having 5+ years no claims. Not sure how much the servicing is worth but the low price of 7.2k should offset it.
As for the aygo and c1 I don't really fancy either, just a bit too small for me. The colts won't be in stock for up to 3 weeks so I'll have a look around at other cars.
Been around some garages today looking at larger model cars. Would consider a ford focus if the price was right, can you pick up 1-2year old mk2 focus for between 7 and 8k?
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Motorpoint have 55-reg Focus 1.6 LXes with about 10,000 miles for £7599, so I'd say it's easily attainable yes.
Of course you can get brand-new Almeras for less than that, if that's your bag.
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Been around some garages today looking at larger model cars. Would consider a ford focus if the price was right, can you pick up 1-2year old mk2 focus for between 7 and 8k?
Ford Direct advert in the Independent today was listing 55 reg Focus 1.6 LX for £7999.
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