New secondhand car

[The Jogger]

A Toyota Avensis or a VW Passat, in estate version to give extra space, diesel for economy and both bullet proof imo.

I drive a Land Rover Defender, probably the opposite of what you want.

 

[biggs682]

we have a citroen xsara picasso , its been great even though its french

and loads of room for the bikes

 

[gbb]

I have a Focus, 57 plate and while its comfortable, looks ok, cheapish to buy, cheap to repair (reputedly) mine being relatively low spec (Focus Style 1.6), i feel its underpowered and you find yourself frequently losing speed if you dont concentrate. Accordingly i find it not that economical...45mpg through the winter and thats with driving like a saint,really really carefully. I suspect if you drove it 'normally' you'd be in the high 30s to 40mpg. Drive it round town and the MPG plummets.
Summer driving should be better.
I did wonder if i'd brought one with the wrong engine..but it seems many Focus owners, whatever engine, feel there not that economical.
If economy isnt your primary consideration, you could do worse.

 

[Terry Kay]

Another vote for German.. Yes the parts are more expensive, but if you find one that's been looked after it'll last you longer than anything Ford shaped.
Current run about is a VW golf thats just racked up 180,000 miles and though rattly, no more so than when I bought it! And in the 2 years I've owned it the only thing I've had to replace was the thermostat when she overheated...

And don't get French.. Just as expensive for parts but we've had Renaults and they were forever breaking down..

 

[vernon]

Toyota - my wife couldn't start her newly purchased Toyota and rang the RAC who duly turned up, told her to press the clutch down before turning the ignition key and advised her that she'll never need the RAC again as long as she owned the car.

Can't get a better testimony than that.

 

[col]

Ford everytime, reliable and parts are relatively cheap compared to overseas makes.

 

[rich p]

Cheers guys!

So, in a nutshell...

...definitely get a Ford or Ford's are crap

Honda's are crap but buy Japanese but they may be expensive to repair

Don't buy French unless it's a Citroen, maybe

Don't get a Landrover

Buy anything, they're all as unreliable as each other

I'm leaning towards Toyota or Ford so far...

 

[gavroche]

I have a Peugeot and a Citroën and both have been very reliable do far. Bought Citroën c3 diesel new in 2008. Had done 83000miles with it with no trouble. Both cars are only 30 pounds a year road tax too. Both diesel 1.4 engines.

 

[Red Light]

Get a Mazda

Until fairly recently Ford had a controlling stake in Mazda.

 

[compo]

£200 Skoda Felicia estate (that's estate not "a state") off ebay . Gone straight through the past 2 MOT's with no problems or even advisories. We go camping with it all over the country.

 

[Orange]

I've had 4 Peugeot and 2 Citroen - all utterly reliable and economical. Same goes for the 4 Fiats, 2 Honda, 1 Suzuki,1 Mazda and 1 Alfa Romeo that I've had.

The unreliable cars I had (early days, so a bit older, were an Austin, a Vauxhall and a Ford - the latter by far the most unreliable, heapof junk ever). The only modern car I've had that broke down was an Audi - it also used a lot of oil.

 

[col]

Ill add most cars are pretty reliable now, but its the cost to fix or replace that makes me a ford owner .

 

[2wd]

Got to be Jap

All utterly reliable,never had an ounce of trouble with any

I've had
2 Honda Accords
1 Mitsubishi Pinin (still got it)
2 Subaru Impreza's

Only got rid of my last pride and joy when petrol prices got a bit too much(well ok it only did 15MPG )

 

[rusky]

Just don't buy anything from Portland Carriage co!!

 

[swee'pea99]

"high on your list of criteria was ease and cheapness (relatively) of future repairs and parts" suggests to me that what you're *actualy* after is low cost of ownership, and that has at least as much to do with the liklihood of needing repairs as how much they cost. And there is a trade off. I'd guess Fords *are* generally cheaper to fix than, say, a Honda. But they're also far more likely to need fixing.

I'd look for a Toyota/Honda/Mazda with 80,000 on the clock, a good service history and a seller who seems like a decent sort. You'll probably get another 50,000 miles out of it with minimal servicing costs. (And I would echo others' warnings: nothing French. Also, nothing Italian.)