Super Uwe said:

Well the Aygo was a lovely example, and the garage owner was really friendly too.

However, it's not the car for us. Bit too basic and certainly nowhere near as refined as a 500/Panda. The 3cyl engine has plenty of pull but it was very noisy IMO!

Back to the drawing board...

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I know what you mean, having driven many of the cheapest rental cars available...!

“Back to the drawing board”... does that mean, off to test-drive an older Abarth? ‘persistent’ is my middle name you know... LOL

-Alex

Mini cooper/one , there's a load around the £2700 mark 2009 year,
This seems a nice one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...&onesearchad=New&aggregatedTrim=Cooper&page=1

Or a very sensible toyota yaris https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...odel=YARIS&postcode=b775lu&radius=1500&page=2

I had one of those toyota's , they will go on forever
'

jrkitching said:

At that price point, I'd look for a 2009/10 Panda Dynamic Eco with the 60HP Euro4 1.2 engine. Just possibly the best value small car Fiat have produced in the last 20 years; everything you need (A/C, remote locking, £30 RFL), and nothing you don't.

I don't know what they're selling for now, but back in the day, you could bag a new one for about £6600. I'd buy another tomorrow if they still made them.

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That's something i didn't think of when recommending cars to buy , i wouldn't what to buy a euro 4 car nowadays even if it's petrol.

It's gotta be a 500 or Panda @Super Uwe - Fiat take first and second place in terms of city car sales for a good reason! The Aygo, whilst characterful, can only be a city car - I'd dread a long motorway journey in one. The Panda & 500 on the other hand, no such concerns.

Obviously the Panda represents the better value for money, but I'm guessing the lady of the house would prefer the style of the 500?

For a basic runaround with aircon, how about a Dacia Sandero - £3.5k for a 15 plate 55,000 miler?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...=sponsored&model=SANDERO&price-to=4000&page=1

Have driven a Hyundai I20 in a previous job. Nice car, not sure comfy enough compared to a Fiat. Even serviced by Kwik Fit on time with fresh oil. Was recalled by car rental firm and sadly never found for sale.

TrevC said:

For a basic runaround with aircon, how about a Dacia Sandero - £3.5k for a 15 plate 55,000 miler?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...=sponsored&model=SANDERO&price-to=4000&page=1

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GOOD NEWS!

-Alex

JTD_Liam said:

It's gotta be a 500 or Panda @Super Uwe - Fiat take first and second place in terms of city car sales for a good reason! The Aygo, whilst characterful, can only be a city car - I'd dread a long motorway journey in one. The Panda & 500 on the other hand, no such concerns.

Obviously the Panda represents the better value for money, but I'm guessing the lady of the house would prefer the style of the 500?

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Haha! My wife would love another 500, to be honest I wouldn't rule it out just yet

The Panda - aargh, I don't know. I've been there before and never really loved it as much as the 500s we owned. But undoubtedly a really good car which I now appreciate a bit more than I did two or three weeks ago.

I've seen a few other cars this week. First up, a 57 plate 1.4 207 in bright metallic blue for £1995. Have driven a few 207s back in the day and thought they were OK. Well, this one was a complete DOG! Really really scrappy and didn't feel like it had been looked after at all. No thanks!

Next up, a 61 plate Swift 1.2 SZ3 in bright metallic blue. Now the Swift drove really nicely, in fact I was really surprised how high up the driving position was. The engine felt really nice though, very smooth and decent power pulling away. However - once again, the service history was a bit iffy and it hadn't been looked after as much as the ad had suggested. It was sub £4k, I had the feeling it probably would serve me well, but with 80k on the clock I think I wanted it to have a better service history.

This morning - well, I nearly bought a Citigo lol! Plenty of good value examples available, nearly went for a 15 plate for five and a half grand. The dealer was really helpful and actually it's opened my eyes up to their cars - haven't ever considered one before.

However - given my "interesting" experiences this week, both the wife and I agreed it was a good plan to take a step back and see how things go the next couple of months. A second car would be lovely, but I can't honestly say we desperately need one. So I'll park this one for now!

Well, my wife's sister is looking to get rid of her red Colour Therapy 500, purely because she has to do a lot of longer journeys for work and the 500 just isn't comfortable enough for her back.

She is desperate for it to go to someone she knows as she loves it to bits and can't bear to part with it!

So half a chance we may well have another 500 in the new year, would be more than happy if it materialises

Job done!

I've bought a 1.2 Nissan Micra Acenta+ in the finest silver. It's an 08 plate with 79k on the clock, not a lot of history but a genuine seller who already had a new car. Air con, Bluetooth, cruise control - quite a lot of stuff actually. All for the princely sum of £900. Boom!:slayer:

Very pleased with it, not going to pretend I'd have liked something a bit more exciting, but for £900 I will be incredibly unlucky to lose much on it. Needs a bit of a clean but other than that the engine is sweet.

Next time Fiat, next time...

Super Uwe said:

It's an 08 plate with 79k on the clock... All for the princely sum of £900.

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Which is about the right money for a 10yr old small hatchback sold privately.

It puts the prices folks are paying for 500's of similar vintage into perspective, gven that the Micra is objectively the better car.

Well done on getting sorted, and for a good price too!

Decent buy. Just regular servicing needed (you know someone for that). And any work undertaken by Nissan would have decent guarantee. If they were Fiat level comfy, who knows I may have had one.

jrkitching said:

Which is about the right money for a 10yr old small hatchback sold privately.

It puts the prices folks are paying for 500's of similar vintage into perspective, gven that the Micra is objectively the better car.

Well done on getting sorted, and for a good price too!

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Thanks! Yep, I have been very lucky with the price - it's definitely worth a little bit more, but a quick sale was needed so I'm a few hundred quid up.

The engine is surprisingly good, it's the 1.2 16v unit with 80bhp. It feels reasonably fun to drive as well, again wasn't what I was expecting

The bodywork and interior is a little scruffy but I had a good comb through the MOT history and there was nothing other than wear and tear items.

jrkitching said:

It's a crazy price .

At 10yrs/120k, it's likely at or very close to the end of its economic life. The engine might well be good for another 100k; it's the rest of the car I'd be concerned about.

My rule of thumb for valuing small family hatchbacks is that at 10yrs/120k, they're worth between 5%-10% of the price of a new one. A Panda of similar age and mileage would likely only fetch a few hundred pounds.

Or to look at it another way, if I had a 10yr old 500 with 120k on the clock and someone offered me close to three grand for it, I'd bite their hand off.

Anyone depending on a garage for servicing and repairs might well find they could run a new one on a pcp for less each month than they'd be spending on a car like this, with far less hassle.

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Sorry I cant agree with this comment. If the car has been properly maintained it should be good for more. I have had a number of Fiats and the reliability record has been excellent.

jrkitching said:

It's a crazy price .

At 10yrs/120k, it's likely at or very close to the end of its economic life. The engine might well be good for another 100k; it's the rest of the car I'd be concerned about.

My rule of thumb for valuing small family hatchbacks is that at 10yrs/120k, they're worth between 5%-10% of the price of a new one. A Panda of similar age and mileage would likely only fetch a few hundred pounds.

Or to look at it another way, if I had a 10yr old 500 with 120k on the clock and someone offered me close to three grand for it, I'd bite their hand off.

Anyone depending on a garage for servicing and repairs might well find they could run a new one on a pcp for less each month than they'd be spending on a car like this, with far less hassle.

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A very good point. I changed from 5 years old at purchase usually owning for 18 months to 3 years to new and found it saved money.

My mrs wanted a 500 but i kept telling her they are overpriced new and even more overpriced second hand, after looking at around 25 up to august 2017 with 5 grand to use i couldnt find one that i would have parted with that money for, in the end we bought a 40000 mile mr2 54 plate, passed its mot last month after a year of ownership and its used as her daily now on 47000.
Yep she still wants a 500 but now an abarth lol

sandeel999 said:

My mrs wanted a 500 but i kept telling her they are overpriced new and even more overpriced second hand, after looking at around 25 up to august 2017 with 5 grand to use i couldnt find one that i would have parted with that money for, in the end we bought a 40000 mile mr2 54 plate, passed its mot last month after a year of ownership and its used as her daily now on 47000.
Yep she still wants a 500 but now an abarth lol

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I would happily have got another 500, but in the end I couldn't justify the cost.

A quick search on Auto Trader and the cheapest 500 within a 40 mile radius of here is an 09 plate 1.2 Lounge in white for £3000 with 80k on the clock. Not a bad price relatively speaking, but too much for me.

I've tended to find 3 or 4 year old 500s aren't too bad price wise, there are some reasonable deals out there. Depends what you want though.

My experience with these cars is that maintenance tends to get neglected as the owners are often
a: Skint.
b: Not aware that mechanical things wear out.
c: Often buy on PCP and run them as long as possible before chopping them in for a new one after 3-4 years.

My 08 plate has 80K miles and is mechanically OK, but self destructed due to lack of prior maintenance.

So far I have had to replace..

Alternator bearings
Front Shocks
Clutch kit
Clutch fork and bearings
Clutch fluid flush
Water pump
Cambelt kit
Thermostat
Rear brake drums
Rear brake shoes
Rear brake slave cylinders
N/S Rear brake pipe replacement
Oil and filter
Gearbox oil
Air filter
Coolant
Fan resistor
Hatch wiring loom repair
Front DRL socket repair
Dashboard lights
Cigar lighter socket
Exhaust manifold gasket
Starter motor repair

So far that's about £700 worth of parts and a stack of time, so you can see there is a case for buying a newer car on PCP if you don't do your own repairs.

I wouldn’t touch one of these cars at that mileage/age
From what you list above is a complete lack of ownership interest and maintenance....
For some reason they are so popular that even 10 year cars are pricey....
But they are not high end cars, they don’t last well if the owner isn’t prepared to keep up the basic maintenance.
Since it is possible to pick up ex lease bargains - 2 1/2 year old 8000 miles for around £7k
I can’t see why anyone would want to spend £2 - 3k on something that is going to be virtually shagged and near 10 years old