New (used) daily car for the wife

[mikebishop]

Hi,

last weekend some nice truck driver drove into my wifes car at slow speed, but it was written off by the insurance company.
so now we are on the hunt for a daily driver for her to get to work and general use, i was hoping to set a budget of about £3000,

there are hundreds of car out there on ebay and the like, so its abit of a mind field!!!

my wife was thinking about a mini cooper (BMW), any thoughts from people on here?

or if any body knows any descent car please PM me details.

[sanzomat]

Hi Mike, you are right about it being a minefield. I've always hated buying cars in that sort of price range as there is such a wide range of quality/condition and its often hard to tell them apart based on normal inspections. I've tended to prefer going down either the banger route or new. If you get a banger & it turns out to be sh*te you can just scrap it and you've not lost much, if you buy new you can get some amazing finance deals and discounts and it comes with a proper warranty, brand new tyres, no MOT for three years etc.

At the 3k mark its got almost as much chance of being tosh as an £800 banger but when it goes wrong you've got to fix it 'cos you've got a reasonable amount invested. You might end up with a peach though but how do know!

[mikebishop]

tell me about,

its such a minefield that it makes me not want to look any more, you might have a point about the banger thing though!!

[damouk]

When I was looking at mini's a while back the price was quite a bit more than your budget for the one with the better engine in, The early ones suffer from hg's apparently and the boxes aren't a lot of cop either. might be tosh but there seemed to be a lot for sale saying the had had engine work done....

[benchmark51]

I bought an Escort 1.6 zetec 2000x reg, to 'rob' for spares. Went, with a mate, to tow it home and when we got to marlborough found that the car had a minor accident with a wooden fence. The lady selling it gave me the keys to try the engine. I didn't expect it to be a runner! Sure enough it started first time, then I noticed the 67k miles on the clock. The interior was immaculate, ashtray unused, air con working, electric windows ect all worked! I was going to haggle her down because it didn't have a sunroof but thought better of it and gave her the £150 she asked for. I drove it home, fixed the broken door mirror, bumper and fitted a second hand drivers door(£30) and took it for MoT. It passed that one and four more since! Just normal service items over the 5 years or so that I had it. Got £250 trade in, last year, for it. I can vouch for going the banger route 

[mikebishop]

Wow benchmark51, you were very luckly!!

its looking more likely a good bet!!

damouk, i have heard the same with the mini gearboxes which is slightly concerning.

[benchmark51]

I was lucky there, but not for the first time either.I had a 1300 escort before that for 4 years. I drove that all over europe between Amsterdam and Gibraltar and back home. It didn't miss a beat

[Facial Hair Optional]

When I was looking at mini's a while back the price was quite a bit more than your budget for the one with the better engine in, The early ones suffer from hg's apparently and the boxes aren't a lot of cop either. might be tosh but there seemed to be a lot for sale saying the had had engine work done....

hg's ??

[benchmark51]

heebie geebies? or maybe head gaskets

[Moleman]

Buys her a car that has a tow bar & can easily tow a trailer with a car on it. It could come in handy. 

[mikebishop]

My thoughts exactly, just working out how it go about it

[Facial Hair Optional]

heebie geebies? or maybe head gaskets

Thought of your 1st version myself Dave but could not for the life of me work out what 'suffer from hg's' meant!!  Hard grommets? Heater grumbles? 


What Damo actually meant was that they suffer from head gasket failure then? 

[Crunchie Gears]

We bought a Mondeo 2.2 TDI GhiaX estate (with tow bar ) for years ago for 2800 and it has now done 130k it has been brilliant.  Drive really well and has all the bits on it.  It is the family hack, our grown up kids use it too.  We bought it as we got a dog but the Mondeo isn't one

If it were me I would look at something less popular, either a bigger car or something like a Beetle which are better value.  Good luck hinting 

[mikebishop]

Well we did it, we bought an 02 Mini Cooper  for £2100, with 52k, so fingers crossed we have bought a good one...

[sanzomat]

Hope its a peach and not a lemon! That is seriously low mileage for an 02 - some kit cars do more than that!

[Iancider]

Mini purchase major success hopefully!