Best small car for £2000

[Son of Bob]

http://mr2.com/ARTICLE/Mobil1.html

 

Depends on the car and how it has been treated in terms of service history. If there are full service receipts (not just stamps in the book) then surely this would suggest the wear is minimised.

 

I agree. Cars with around 100,000 miles on the clock that have been well looked after are a better bet than something that's done 40,000 but has no history. I've owned around 30 different cars in the 19 years I've been driving and the high mileage ones have always needed less money spent on them than the lower mile cars.

 

One in particular sticks in mind which was a Rover 200 SDi which I had as a company car. I had it from new and it was nothing other than an absolute pain for the first 12 months and 100,000 miles (yes I did do 100,000 in 12 months!) but then from 100,000 through to a massive 189,000 (when my company eventually got rid of it) it didn't miss a beat. It was a far nicer car to drive for the 2nd 100,000 as well for some reason!

 

And also, with regards to the GTi engine, my mate had an early mkII Golf Gti with 180,000 miles on it but it had been looked after impeccably. He then had the engine stripped as he had it skimmed and some internals upgraded and the guy doing the work said the inside of the engine block looked like new!

[saint_stevo]

my 100,000 plus mile Golf has cost me crazy money......

[Ponty]

Yeah, mileage isn't everything but it's a pretty good indicator for a buyer who is a complete novice mechanically. That said, I know my way around a car but I got caught out when I bought an MGZR with only 15k on the clock. I took it for granted that the engine was sound, after all it went ok on the test drive, but within a thousand miles I'd snapped the camshaft. That was messy, and expensive.

[Handyman]

Yeah, mileage isn't everything but it's a pretty good indicator for a buyer who is a complete novice mechanically. That said, I know my way around a car but I got caught out when I bought an MGZR with only 15k on the clock. I took it for granted that the engine was sound, after all it went ok on the test drive, but within a thousand miles I'd snapped the camshaft. That was messy, and expensive.

 

Thanks Ponty. I should have said that the advice was for people with limited knowledge of cars. Having said that, we can all make mistakes, though thankfully not very often.

[Al de Man]

My missus' W-reg Polo 1.4 16V.

 

60-something on the clock.

 

Now open to all.

 

Silver, MOTed 'til April 2010

 

£2000

[Post-it note]

Now open to all.

 

Silver, MOTed 'til April 2010

 

£2000

 

Lol its only worth £1500 max

[Al de Man]

Lol its only worth £1500 max

 

 

 

I would suggest £1500 doesn't even buy you a lower powered 60bhp example which is two years older.

 

X-reg 2000 75bhp 1.4S @ £2395 MOT Jan 2010

 

W-reg 2000 75bhp 1.4S @ £2495 MOT March 2010

[Ponty]

TBH, Al, it's worth whatever someone will pay for it and if it's a good example you'll have no trouble getting £2k.