What Car Should I Buy?

I had a 106 n/a diesel - a tempremental bastard to start but comfy seats, managed to get 2 bikes in with seats folded down, 2k+ miles around Europe approx 60mpg if kept to 70mph. Would've kept if it wasn't for the bloody ritual I had to carry out everytime I wanted to start it and the fact it was held together with chewing gum.

206 Diesel is full of win and so is the Skoda Octavia. Lots of cars going sub £2K.

Get a Renault Kangoo / Citroen Berlingo with a small petrol engine, cheap to ensure, maintenance is very easy, loads of space, you can fit about 7 bikes at the back.

having had everything from fiesta to track day tr8 and some kit cars and having worked on all of them and run my own fitted LPG, diesel, biodiesel and petrol

• i'd say diesel - not too young, astra, 405 / 406/ merc. 200d / 190d/ 250d. rover 200/400/600 (diesel only - never get the k series engine) escort or focus D
  
  

my car of choice (in the real world where price, reliability and economy, are issues but the image isn't) if i went for one now would be 405 or 406 estate diesel turbo or non-turbo, you don't need any silly toys in it really but i'd get one with power steering.

one thing i'd say is look at the cars taxi drivers and reps use now and what they used to use. passats, octavias, avensis, 405/406, 4 door saloon or estate stuff

^ yes to the berlingo too - i'd have one of them in diesel

avoid toys such as 4wd, traction control, electric seats, or other swanky things which will go wrong sooner or later. if it's mechanical it's peice of piss to fix - electrics is a world of grief. also avoid prestige cars or uncommon cars- or anything with retro fitted bits.

chain driven cam is probably better then a belt - which is merc or newer jap stuff generally. older Citroen should be as good as the older pugs but avoid the ones with silly suspension on. the older stuff with mechanical injection is more reliabel appaerently and easier to fix - hence i'd have the 405 with it's mech injection before i'd get the 406

For two grand I can sell you my Z3. OK for two people. Reliable and easier on petrol than my Scenic.
I've never ever repaired anything since 1996 apart from changing oil and fitting new brake pads/discs.
it needs a respray, though.
Generally, whatever people say, old BMWs without too much electronics never brake down and the engine goes for ever. Tax and insurance is just unfair.

In the real world a 206 is a good idea. Built in Coventry so a good deal more reliable than any other 'French' car. (Except the cabrio which was built in Italy and is woefully unreliable)
If you need it to be cheap to insure the new Fiat Panda is a good choice, but probably out of your price range. Low-end Puntos are also cheap to insure. Diesels are cheaper to insure than petrols, but cost more to buy and don't save much fuel except on motorways. Unless you are buying a big capacity turbodiesel they are also gutless, noisy and stinky.

The very cheapest car to insure and run is the Daewoo/Chevrolet Matiz. But it is tiny. However, something like a Daewoo, Proton, Hyundai or other korean/malaysian thing might suit as they will be cheap, probably as reliable as Japanese and more likely to have been owned by a granny than a boy racer or minicab driver.

Older Rover 200/400/600 is a good idea. Cheap as all hell and as long as you don't get a K series car it will be reliable as they were built alongside their honda equivalents.

You see a lot of the old square shape 200/400s on the road still, and there's a good reason for it. By and large they don't rust and nothing ever goes wrong. They were cracking cars and it's a shame that Rover followed them up with pieces of shit. 1.4s are really cheap to insure and are very fast for a 1.4. It is the K series but it was originally designed, not as subsequently ruined by BMW and MGR. 1.6s are the Honda engine as found in the Civic. 2 litres are the M or T series and are bombproof. Diesels are L series and reliable. The 400 tourers still look really classy.

600s are still handsome, especially in dark blue or racing green and they all had either Honda engines (the 2.3 goes wrong, the 2.0 doesn't) or the nutter turbo 2.0 T series. Insurance is probably no good for you.

I like rovers as well, my flat mate had a 216gti cabriolet which never skipped a beat, toured it round the highlands for a week over the summer and it was grand, solid honda engine although the soft top was a bit worse for wear with bits coming away and rusting but good fun none the less.

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Majority of 200/400/600 series Rovers were sold to fleets.

The second owner may have loved and cherished it, but the first owner will have thrashed it.

Yeah buy a K Series Rover if you want to spend all your available spare time changing head gaskets.

Saab 9-3 2.2 TiD, group 13 insurance + over 45mpg, Pre 2002 gets you the biggest boot/hatchback going, Pre April 2001 will get you tax based on engine size not on CO2.

Yeah buy a K Series Rover if you want to spend all your available spare time changing head gaskets.

The original 1.1 and 1.4 versions (as used in the metro and the 200) did not suffer the HGF problems. That came later when the capacity was increased.

Yeah the 1.4 does, I know tonnes of people who went through head gaskets like they were toilet paper.

We have a 1 litre Toyota Yaris, 5 door, 1999, its done 80000 miles and is just started (i hope). can fit two mtn bikes in the back with the seats down, or just get a rack. We've toured england, scotland and france in ours, only trouble has been rear bearings after a particularly heavy load of wine was brought back from bordeux. Smell funny if you do over 80, but who ever needs to go that fast? just leave earlier. we've got 60 miles to the gallon on the motorway and it fits in tiny spaces too. x

Yeah the 1.4 does, I know tonnes of people who went through head gaskets like they were toilet paper.

there are new multilayer gaskets that have sorted this problem. been around for ages. it's another one of those stigmas that stick with the car/engine forever, even though the problem has been sorted for ages.

triumph stag v8, per exemplar?

Still costs a few bob to chuck an MLS gasket on though.

yeah, but you only do it once.
buy one that has had it done.

yurp.

I'd resisted until now:

^£2,000, and proven to transport one Australian, one Englishman, three bikes and some luggage at 146mph through Germany en route to Italy.

Get the most modern turbo diesel you can so you get good mpg. Ford are a safe option with plenty of cheap parts about. I would also recommend the VW polo 1999 cos Ive got one.

^£2,000, and proven to transport one Australian, one Englishman, three bikes and some luggage at 146mph through Germany en route to Italy.

So. Is it a T5?

^£2,000, and proven to transport one Australian, one Englishman, three bikes and some luggage at 146mph through Germany en route to Italy.

2k? how much have you really spent on that. ;-)

So. Is it a T5?

Yep.

Fully rebuilt about a thousand miles ago with H-beam rods, bores honed and pinned, pistons re-ringed and so forth.

Engine builder thinks circa 325 horsepower in the current state of tune.

Needs a better exhaust now.

EDIT\ the engine rebuild was £2,500 it is true.

But I did buy the car for £2,000!

hehehe