Hey People,
Ive been looking for a new car for a while, I do love my GP, but Im getting more than bored of it being a wee bit gutless and moneygrabbing. As it was my first car I bought it in a rush because I needed a car for commuting.

So now.. after a year of driving Im looking for a new daily driver.
Scenario:
- Drive 40-60 miles a day
- A15 driving at 40-60mph for 30-50mins
- Occasional long journeys to Scottyland and Wales to see family.

- £3000-£5000 to spend on a car.
- Something thats got a bit of "go" and looks nice
- Prefferably diesel or petrol (1.3-1.6 diesel, or 1.4-1.6 petrol)
Dont wanna go TOO old, >2006

Needs to be reliable as f**k!

Im not fussed if its a fiat or any other marque.
Will consider anything.

Someone please suggest something

Cheers
Tom
x

My thoughts would be a Corolla T-Sport, bulletproof, cheap now, reasonable costs and 189bhp
Admittedly, it doesn't fill all the briefs but I think for the money you can get them for now, it'd be worth it. You can get a decent one in good nick for roughly the trade in of your GP

I did look at a T-sport a while back, but Insurance is a killer on them.
Cheers for the reply, doesnt really seem like anyone else is interested :/
Cheers
Tom

No worries man. For big mileage, you can get Octavia L&K's, in the pre-facelift new shape for under budget with around 60k on them. And taxi firms love em, theres one on Autotrader with 250k+ on it, and is still in a servicable condition.

Just had a look a them, they dont really do it for me tbh. I have been looking a Mazda MX-5s. You can pick up a reasonably decent example for round about 4-5k

Very quick and tons of fun to drive too.
Thoughts?
Cheers
Tom

RWD +ice/snow.... best not to get one around this sort of year, v v different to driving a FWD car, recovery and everything.

Its gonna be at least February by the time I get a new car, I was even thinking about saving a bit and getting a second car and then putting them on a multicar policy, not sure though tbh :/
Been looking at Fiesta Mk6/6.5 zetec s deisels. Nippy and tuneable, massive torque aswell

Tom

Take a run over to BCA Nottm

Ex VAG lease cars, e.g. Tue 13 Dec

59 Ibiza Coupe 1.4 £5.2K

08 Golf 1.9 £4.85K

58 Golf 1.9 Bluemotion £5.5K

58 Passat 2.0 £4.7K

07 Audi A4 Avant 2.0 £5.2K

111222

hmm... VAG
Ex lease:
Lots of miles worth of thrashing:
Auction:

I know many people who'v bought cars from auctions thinking they were getting a real bargain and found them selves spending £££s fixing them every other week with stupid problems (cracked manifolds, Bonnet release cable snapped, blowing exhausts, head gaskets ect)
Cheers for the imput, decent prices on those cars though!

Cheers
Tom

Yes but between them they'll probably have done the equivelant of to the edge of the universe and back.

Reliability (VAG) = expensive, bear that in mind. It may not go wrong often, but when it does prepare to be billed through the anus.

Ok that last sentence doesn't make sense but you understand what I mean.

EDIT: What about a tjet or mjet?

Last sentence, the price on the cars he listed was really good, yeah, the mileage was probably ridiculous but 5k for a 1.9D Golf is cheap!

I did consider a T-Jet or M-Jet and insurance would be on the pricey side but affordable, but No offence to GP drivers but I want something different.
I will probably end up getting a T/M-Jet in the future at some point, but Atm, I want something completely different to the crowds of stereotypes (being 19 and surrounded by Corsas, Polos, Golfs, Puntos, Fiestas.)

I think an MX-5 would be perfect to turn a few heads and be fun to drive at the same time.

Cheers
Tom

ysidfa said:

Last sentence, the price on the cars he listed was really good, yeah, the mileage was probably ridiculous but 5k for a 1.9D Golf is cheap!

I did consider a T-Jet or M-Jet and insurance would be on the pricey side but affordable, but No offence to GP drivers but I want something different.
I will probably end up getting a T/M-Jet in the future at some point, but Atm, I want something completely different to the crowds of stereotypes (being 19 and surrounded by Corsas, Polos, Golfs, Puntos, Fiestas.)

I think an MX-5 would be perfect to turn a few heads and be fun to drive at the same time.

Cheers
Tom

Click to expand...

You'll have to change your career also. All MX-5 drivers are hairdressers, no?

Nah, its not an Audi tt If I did get one, I would JDM it

ysidfa said:

hmm... VAG
Ex lease:
Lots of miles worth of thrashing:
Auction:

I know many people who'v bought cars from auctions thinking they were getting a real bargain and found them selves spending £££s fixing them every other week with stupid problems (cracked manifolds, Bonnet release cable snapped, blowing exhausts, head gaskets ect)
Cheers for the imput, decent prices on those cars though!

Cheers
Tom

Click to expand...

My mistake – auctions for some people are perhaps best avoided.

First of all a prospective buyer needs to have ready money to pitch their bids at the level of a car with some warranty remaining. If s/he can’t hack that, then obviously they fall outside that safety envelope into a downward spiral towards the Turnip Shed auctions of your anecdotal evidence.

Some argue that prejudices over auctions should be encouraged – the more competition that can be eliminated the better.

111223

I've always found buying an ex lease car at auction is the most honest and cost effective method of buying a 2-4 year old car, pity the BRS auctions in Stoke have long since gone.......

After much deliberation (and a few pints of abbots ) Me and a mate have decided to rent a garage and buy a Cinq to either restore, or turbo.

My GP is ok for another 6 months at least so I think I may be keeping it. ( Also got a shed load of Meguires stuff from my OH and Santa so I will be giving it some well deserved TLC aswell.)

Cheers guys,
Seasons Greetings n' all that guff

Tom

ysidfa said:

I did consider a T-Jet or M-Jet and insurance would be on the pricey side but affordable
Tom

Click to expand...

Group 6 for a car that does 0-62 in about 8 seconds and has a TURBO! you wont find another car as fast for such cheap insurance that is also cheap as chips and absolutely gorgeous! before i got my GP t-jet i got a quote on my old 2001 1.0 vw polo that did 0-62 in about 18 seconds and there was a difference of £200 so u have to go for the t-jet.

ysidfa said:

After much deliberation (and a few pints of abbots ) Me and a mate have decided to rent a garage and buy a Cinq to either restore, or turbo.

Click to expand...

Wow.

I think, given the topic title and general direction, if we all compiled a list of what we thought the outcome of this thread would be, your final decision would not be on anyones list.

VAG cars are not bad for reliability.

I have a VW Passat 1998 1.9 TDI diesel. In the 14 years I have had it, it has only needed one CV joint done, timing belt changes, and one spring replaced in the rear suspension as well as routine maintenance which is incredible given it has done 140k miles.

Plus, It doesn't half fly with all of it's turbo diesel torque, and it is very comfortable and easy to drive.

Back to reliability and upkeep, I used to live in Belgium and I bought my Barchetta there. Belgium is notoriously expensive for auto fixing etc. I had the timing belt done on the passat and it cost 600 euros. The Barch's timing belt change cost 1450 euros.

Having moved back to the UK, I see the scale on which I was looted by looking at what halfords can do the same job for.

The passat may not fill out all your criteria, but you can pick a mid-high milage one for ~2000 pounds. It also gets 54~MPG.

In fact, the passat impressed me so much, I have gone and bought a brand new 2011 model.

Paolo TJet said:

Group 6 for a car that does 0-62 in about 8 seconds and has a TURBO! you wont find another car as fast for such cheap insurance that is also cheap as chips and absolutely gorgeous! before i got my GP t-jet i got a quote on my old 2001 1.0 vw polo that did 0-62 in about 18 seconds and there was a difference of £200 so u have to go for the t-jet.

Click to expand...

Bearing in mind, I am 19 and have 1 years experience and no NCB. I have done quotes and its hitting the topside of 2k. I know thats not alot considering some people can be paying up to £4k for a 1.0 Corsa b.
Nothing final yet any way. The whole garage cinq/sei thing was just pub talk and although it would be fun, It would be a massive money pit to say the least.

I have been oggling 1.6m-jet Bravos over the last few days, and the trim is really nice for the price! Much better than most VAG

Thanks alot for all your opinions and such like.
Didnt think I would reach 2 replys let alone 2 pages

All the best
Thomas ;D