First Car

granger

granger

Senior Jockey
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Messages
18,987
Location
Moscow Flyer Stables
I'm soon to be buying my first car thanks in large to Cooldine & Quevega. I'm by no means an expert on cars so who can recommend/discourage any brand. We are in recessionary times so my Willie Mullins up front money will surely merit me to be in a strong haggling position

The requirements

No later than 2004
1.0-1.4 l
Hatchback
 
A 2003/4 1.4L Ford Focus Mk1. In the North, you can pick one up for around £2,000 - £2500 with decent mileage (<50K), no idea of down your way though.

Great driving car, very reliable too and the last batch of Mk1 models - most of these have all of the optional extras thrown in as they were trying to shift these for the MkII's coming in.

If you'll be doing a lot of miles, you'd probably be better going for a 1.8 diesel though.
 
Can't say I have a great frame of reference (passed my test 2 yrs ago - one car since), but my '05 1.4l Skoda Fabia was excellent value for money IMO. Cost approx 2/3 of similar age/mileage Golf, but has much the same engine and internals.

They appear to hold their value well (although there is a downside to this), they are about the largest of the hatchbacks I've seen internally, low tax costs in the UK and excellent mpg (65 on A roads at a normal speed).
 
Depends on the money available.
However, as a rule of thumb, I'd avoid any European car apart from German or Czech (aka Skoda) ... ie, no UK, French, Swedish, Spanish, Italian (with notable exceptions for flying horses.) Purely personal preferences.
 
For the same reasons people mentioned Skodas, check out the small Seats i.e. the Ibiza.

Your getting a VW group motor, with snappy styling and less of the climbing frame gags associated with the Skodas.
 
Which? Car’s best buys

Superminis
New: Honda Jazz, Renault Clio*, Skoda Fabia
Used: Mazda 2, Mini, Toyota Yaris

Mini MPVs
New: Renault Modus**, Skoda Roomster,
Used: Toyota Yaris Verso

Medium Cars
New: Kia Cee’d / Pro_cee’d, Mazda 3, Nissan Qashqai,
Used: Honda Civic (2001-2005, not the new shape – apparently the new car is notoriously unreliable), Toyota Corolla (2002-2006)

*Surprised me too, yet it only scores average across the board. “…bucks Renault’s usual reliability record” they say.
**Likewise for scores but it’s got the Nissan Note (“worth considering” and only rated below the Modus on account of its Euro NCAP crash test scores) mechanicals.

We recently bought a Jazz for Mrs O but if I could have got a similar deal on a Mazda 3 I’d have gone for that. It really impressed me.
 
I would get a 1.1 if you are looking to save money on petrol, I got from Brighton to Cardiff on £25 petrol 2 years ago, now thats value!
 
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