recommend a car please!

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 00:36
recommend a car please! - jt196

Howdy all! Very briefly, I'm looking for an economical/reliable car to take me about 100 miles up and down a motorway twice a week and a little bit of running around in town.

My budget is up to 3-4k. I like the look and have heard good things about the 1.3l Yaris and have seen some nice models from around 2005 with fairly low mileages.

I guess the main thing is that I'm going to want something that is a comfortable ride on the motorway, but isn't going to cost me a fortune to run/insure/maintain.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

JT

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 00:49
recommend a car please! - bbc123

I work with a guy who has a 1.3 Yaris and commutes 60 miles a day on the M6. He says that the car has been excellent - modest cost to run, no reliability issues, and surprisingly refined on the motorway, provided you don't mind the engine spinning fairly fast (around 4,000rpm at 80 mph).

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 01:46
recommend a car please! - mattbod

A bit of a default choice but what about a Ford Focus Diesel (previous gen TDCI) or one of my favourite workhorse cars: a first generation Skoda Octavia TDI 110 BHP. You may like small cars but I like something round me for motorway hauls and both these will be up for 50 mpg plus with great motorway manners.

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 01:55
recommend a car please! - primeradriver
It's only around 10K miles a year, not enough to justify a diesel really.

Lots of choice really, depends on what you want. If all you are after is a box on wheels to get you around, then you could do a lot worse than a 54-plate Lacetti (yes, a Korean) for only £1800 or so. Reliable with reasonable parts prices on these newer cars (they sell to the rental firms), and not a great deal to go wrong whilst still giving you plenty of space.

Mitsubishi Colts seem cheap for what they are -- I've seen a few <5 year old ones selling for about 4K. A bit of a Tardis car these, spacious inside.

Otherwise the default choices of the Astra (cheaper Focus equivalent) or something like the Skoda Fabia would do the job.
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Thu 29 Apr 2010 12:48
recommend a car please! - jt196

Thanks for all of your advice! It's a massive step (and expense) buying a new car, but I've got my hand full with so many things at the moment that I just don't have enough time to research it all - and I know that I need to do the research to get my money's worth.

Well, I'll keep things updated, but for now it looks like a toss-up between a Focus Diesel and a Yaris 1.3l Petrol.

What kind of mileage do you think I'll be safe getting - obviously there's a trade-off between price and mileage - what do you think is a happy medium?

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 16:15
recommend a car please! - bbc123

If I was buying the car for myself, I'd go for a newer car with higher mileage rather than an older one with lower mileage. Proportionally you would expect less wear on the higher mileage vehicle, plus it should be well run in. If I had a choice, I'd also go for something that had done mainly motorway and dual carriageway driving rather than heavy town driving - again, proportionally less wear on the mechanicals and the engine frequently gets up to normal working temperature - if you go for a diesel, this can be quite important if the engine is to work optimally.

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 19:47
recommend a car please! - Avant

Welcome to the Backroom!

We're getting more and more horror stories of secondhand diesels with major engine failure: a lot depends on whether the previous owner had it serviced regularly with frequent oil changes.

If your mileage isn't huge, go for a petrol. You could consider a Toyota Corolla which is a little bigger than the Yaris and just as reliable but a bit more comfortable on the motorway; or a Skoda Fabia 1.4 or Octavia 1.6 or 1.8. Or of course a Focus - the advantage of these is that there are lots of them around.

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Thu 29 Apr 2010 20:39
recommend a car please! - corax

I would recommend a Yaris. We have a 1.3 '05 Colour Collection. It's very reliable and cheap to run at around 48mpg average.

However for motorway runs they can be sensitive to crosswinds and turbulance from lorries. The later Yaris might be better, but would be more expensive. If that doesn't bother you, go for one, but something a bit bigger and more aerodynamic would be more restful on 100 mile motorway runs.

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Fri 30 Apr 2010 07:34
recommend a car please! - madf

I have a Yaris diesel. I keep tyres at the pressures recommended for full load: this appears to minimise side wind impacts..

Wind noise can be an issue over 75mph - not that you will ever drive that fast. My son has a 91k miles 2001 1.0GS and it goes very well. They survive high mileages very well provided they are maintained. Watch out for front anti roll bar bushes wearing - clonks over bumps.. but cheap to repair..

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