Hi people, I'm looking to buy a cheap second car to use as a run about. Looking to spend about a grand. Must be as reliable as possible, cheap to insure/tax. I'm thinking a 1.4 Lupo as the missus loves the Lupo's. I'd love to get a GTI version but the insurance doubles in price! There's a few decent looking one's around where I live so before I take a trip out, is there anything I should be looking for in perticular (apart from services, brakes, tyres, etc) that goes wrong with these? Or.... any other car you could suggest which would be cheap to run? I'm going down the VW route as the missus works for VW so any work that needs doing or parts would be nice and cheap. I'd rather get an opinion from people who drive the cars daily rather than a mechanic who just works on the cars. Thanks in advance
Get a 90's Ford, you needn't worry about getting parts cheap, they just don't break! 1000 is a lot to spend on a 'cheap' car though, I've never spent that much on a car!
my mates got a L reg mondeo, petrol 1.8 16v, even though i have vw blinkers on, it drives and handles very well. has MOT just needs a replacement ICV, he's only asking like 350-400 for it.
My Mondeo is a 2.5 24v with all the leather and luxury, paid 200 for it [] Also had 2 1.1 Fiestas, one was 100 the other was 30, nothing wrong with any of them (other than a bit of rust) and all came with MOT's too
jofa did you read this his missus works for VW and can get cheap parts but i have to admit a fix or repair daily is good value and plenty of them it just finding rot free one and when they do go rwong pepole just throw them a way then some one like use can get them for 50 and fix them for penuts run it a year and sell it on for more
They don't! It's cost me 40 in repairs to keep my Mondeo on the road for 6months now!!! And there's no way I would've trusted my Golf to do a 1500mile round trip to France!
Can't agree more, I've just clocked 160k miles in my 306 D Turbo daily hack. Just tweek the fuelling and give the wastegate a twist and you've got about 100bhp and a gazillion lb/ft
my fiesta done 157k only needed a couple of replacement engines to keep it going lol i would get the diesel lupo can be pretty quick with a remap
Agreed, I've had the door looms apart twice this year so far, and the interior is shot, but that damn engine refuses to give me any hassle. After 5 years and 100k miles in it, it's never let me down (just jinxed myself I bet). Plus it only cost me 60 to get decent-ish sounds out of it, but I'm looking at over 200 and a few hours fettling to get the MK2 ICE good enough for me to listen to the Archers at lunchtimes. To the OP as you're set on getting a VW I had an N reg Passat TDI which had 152,000 miles on it when I bought it. I sold at over 200k miles to my mate who ran it for 2 years and then scrapped it. Well that was 4 years ago and last year I saw my old car in the highstreet, so someone must've dragged it out the scrapyard and got it running again. It must be nearing 300k on the clock by now!!!!
yes electrics are dodgy as **** but the rest of the car is solid, very rarely rust and engines go for ever. mine has 161k and starts first time and goes all day long without missing a beat.
anything over 15 years old can be insured as a classic with adrianflux. mk2 gti was costing me 225, inc breakdown cover, fuly comp, no no claims bonus necessary.
Thanks for all the reply's and advice guys. I had a 2001 zetec-s fiesta as my last car and sold it about 4 months ago. It was a fix or repair daily. Quite a lot of things went wrong with it. Starter motor, exhaust and even the indicator stalk (which connects to the headlights and left me in the centre of Leeds in the middle of winter at night with no lights!) so I think I'll be going for something else. I would probably have another zetec-s in the future for fun but insurance is around 800 since I use my no claims on my other car and would be totally against the point which I'm trying to go for here - cheap and reliable. I'm looking at around 450 for insurance on the Lupo 1.4 I'll have a look into the 306 diesel and also look into the mk2 gti if I can get cheap insurance on that. I just want something that I don't have to repair daily and use as a backup car in case the other decides it doesn't want to play ball.
