Subject: Help Jim buy a car

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My Rover is about to fall apart so I'm going to get a 'new' car. No, not a brand new one, but one that doesn't result in £2k of repair bills within 3 years of owning it. Probably will do it on a personal contract basis through a company linked to my work, if their website starts working and the prices don't end up being loads higher than elsewhere. Only likely to do 15k mileage a year.

I know nothing about cars though, that's the problem - hence being up at 1am reading What Car? and getting a headache.

What I do know is...
3 door
Erring towards diesel
Cheapish to run
Better than my crap 1..4 Rover 25 for the motorways, but not so quick I lose my license in 5 mins in lovely Nottingham, England's most speed-camera festooned city (and that's a fact).

So... Seeing as it'll be a newish car I can get my mits on, my shortlist for test-drives so far is

VW Scirocco coupe 2.0 TDI 140 (it would be a bit indulgent of me to get this I think)
VW Golf 1.6 TDI 105 S or VW Golf 1.6 TDI 105 SE
Ford Fiesta 1.6 TDCI Econetic (wahey)

Possibles, but less keen

Corsa
Astra
Peugeot 207
Mini Cooper

I've ruled out getting a Civic or a Fabia because they get iffy reviews although the Civics look nice

What should I be looking for, any pointers? Is a 1.6l diesel going to crawl worse than the petrol 1.4l Rover? Car geeks I implore you, come blinking into the sunlight and bestow me with your oily pearls of wisdom in a bukkake fest of car-knowledge osmosis. Or something like that. Any half-sensible blather will help.

Rover? falling apart? Never!

How old are you looking for Jim? Just asking because in the last 3-4 years, since they introduced new ways to filter diesel, cars are miles better using this stuff.

So, depending on what you want it for, I would say these are very worthy of looking at.

Honda - build quality second to none, can be costly to run apart from the petrol. Civics are ace.

BMW - about the same, my missus has a 1 series that is simply extra-ordinarily good and will get a collosal economy if you use the little gadget that tells you how to drive... cheap tax as it is so green.

VW Golf - not bad, but expensive if you want luxuries like a radio and mirrors... can't see out the back.

Fiesta - cheapish, utterly, utterly uninspiring in all ways.

Fiat 500 - simply the greatest small car on the market, if you don't have to carry bucket loads of stuff home from B&Q every weekend, I guarantee you will love this car. stylish (the abarth version is phenominal for the price) economical, cheap and cheap to run.

I wouldn't worry about beating your Rover, I reckon a modern diesel 1.2 would wee on it from a huge height...

I like fiesta, very good car for the money you pay...especially now the new model is out see if there are some good deals on any end of line old style fiesta.

First thoughts on diesel... if you were buying the car I'd say maybe rethink it.

VW also do a Golf 1.4TSi. It's more powerful and quicker than the heavier diesel. However, if you've got a caravan to tow (please God, no) stick with the diesel.
The petrol will cost £400 more a year in fuel, £75ish more in road tax, insurance would be similar to the diesel, but the car would cost approx. £1,500 less to buy.

15k m/yr is pretty much the tipping point for petrol v diesel financially - if you think you're likely to go under 15k miles then go petrol, but if it's more likely to be over def go diesel.

Having said this, if you do stick with the persoanl contract/leasing route, then go for the diesel as they tend to be as cheap if not cheaper to lease (because the lease company gets a better return at the car auction after your contract's up).

On the cars...
Scirocco : lovely car, but you'll pay a premium for it on lease!
Golf : nice car - safe, predictable, generally reliable - would be unlucky to experience problems on a 3-yr contract.
Fiesta : it won't feel as nice as the Golf (if these things matter to you) and will be a bit more cramped, but will be cheaper to lease and service.
Corsa : the new Corsa's ok though the Fiesta imo is the better of the two. Also, historically Vauxhall's have never done well on reliability.
Astra : good drivers car, same reliability foible as for the Corsa
Peugeot 207 : ok choice, but like the fiesta, corsa and mini it will be more cramped than either a Golf or Astra.
Mini Cooper : nice car, though ride is fairly firm - this can get annoying if your regular runs are on poor road surfaces or take you through lots of traffic calming measures

Truly, the only way is up on the car front - you'd have to pull an absolute blinder to end up in something worse than the Rover...
(edited)

wow - how do you lot know so much about cars ?

Cheers all, keep it coming.
If it's PCP then it'll be a year or so old. It I buy one will be probably 3 or 4 years old.

Scirocco looks nice....guess it has to be for 20k+ new :)

I've about written that one off; it's too much. It's nice though.
I'm going to test-drive a Golf and another couple and go and skank round a car supermarket to key some motors on the sly.
Think perhaps it's going to be a petrol one after all now, as our office is moving within walking distance of the house early next year and so my mileage is going to be closer to 10k than 15k with a lorra short trips.
Ho hum. I'm also thinking this contract hire / contract purchase malarky is more trouble than it's worth and I'd be better off getting a copy of Parkers and scouting for some second hand ones.

yes. buy it, don't hire. and also don't go down the company car route as the tax kills.

I cannae get a company car cap'n. I'm public sector innit so it's a crown car. Or would be if they still did that scheme, but they don't, it's just a affiliated 'discount' for a company that does the leasing/hiring.

what's the catch?

It's not cheap in comparison with some others and you end up spending about £3-4k a year to effectively rent a car. I'm thinking I'm better off just spending about the same to buy an old one.

if you're buying, i'd buy a golf. mainly because they just run and run.

Agree Golf is definitely a good choice. Volkswagon, even the name says it`s a people`s car. Besides spare parts are cheap and easy to find.

yep, Hitler made good cars!

What by himself?


Blimey!