swee'pea99
Legendary Member
I was once told by the bloke who worked in our local garage that the key to cheap motoring was simple: Buy careful, buy German.
Yeah, the one I got burnt on most was a Mercedes Estate. Was supposed to do me a couple of years, off loaded it for peanuts after a couple of months, still not working right. That was one of those times when I'd arrived and was suddenly told all the things that weren't broken any more. I should have got back on the train and gone home, but I'd travelled quite a way and I was sure it'd be OK. My bad. Then again, you could argue I wasn't careful.I was once told by the bloke who worked in our local garage that the key to cheap motoring was simple: Buy careful, buy German.
I was once told by the bloke who worked in our local garage that the key to cheap motoring was simple: Buy careful, buy German.
With you there 100%, I had an old Renault 5 with alleged low mileage and it was always breaking down with parts impossible to get and cost a bomb to keep on the road. The only one worse than this was a Hyundai
If I was going sub grand on anything it would be a Ford as parts are easier to get either from a scrap yard or motor factors.
Hmm, depends on the Focus, and probably similar for the Fiesta, they don't wear well. When we scrapped our 02 Focus the recovery guy was pretty scathing, suggesting while most Fords are pretty bulletproof (I'd have very little worries owning a high mileage Mondeo for instance) the Focus tends to get tired after around 100,000 which is pretty quick nowadays (it'd be on its third head gasket if it'd been a Cortina of course). You might be OK, but generally the smaller the car, the less likely it is to survive high mileages.
We have had a VW Lupo since new - 15 years now, with just 60k miles. For the last few years its role has been reduced to pub and tip runner. Yet it still looks great and starts on the money. It had new tyres and a new battery last year. And a new clutch pedal box (a known fault on Lupos and Polos). Other than that, in its whole life it has had two services, one of which included cam belt. As far as I can remember, it has never even had an advisory on MOT. It cost about £6k when we bought it brand new. It's extraordinary. And has to represent the best value for money car I've ever had. You do have to wind the windows up by hand though. I will keep it until it dies.I was once told by the bloke who worked in our local garage that the key to cheap motoring was simple: Buy careful, buy German.
I had a Renault 5 where the gear box went. It transpired that for the year period of my car there were 15 different types it could be and it happened that I had one of the "300" they built which had a 4 speed inside a 5 speed casing. This meant that whilst it bolted to the front of the engine like a dream it had no where for the gear lever to bolt to operate. After months of phoning around and trying 3 different replacement gear boxes and speaking to a specialist Renault reconditioned expert to try and get to the bottom of the issue I realised how lucky I was to be one of the 300. I cut my losses and shared that luck with the scrapyard.
Now running a W reg Ford Fiesta which has done 45,000 miles and is a doddle to work on, pick up parts for a snip, not that it has needed much work doing to it over the last 3 years.