Best car to buy for under £10K

[thesaint sfc]

Looking for something fairly reliable with some reasonable speed to replace my Golf GT 1.4 TSI 170 that I have at the moment which is starting to fall apart.

 

I was thinking about upping my budget to £15k and buying the Toyota GT86, but what with potentially moving to London next year and probably getting it scratched I thought I would be better to see what I can get for under £10k. I drive all over Europe too, so economy is something to consider - but not my biggest concern.

 

Any suggestions?

[Batman]

Honda Civic Diesel?

[ecuk268]

Don't buy a new car.

 

Get one about 6 months old. Any faults will have been fixed and you'll save a couple of thousand quid.

[saint si]

My stock answer to any question like this: Skoda Octavia vRS

[Marsdinho]

You can have my Volvo 480 (1993) for £9999

[thesaint sfc]

I'd been considering a Skoda Octavia - looking at this one. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2012-SKODA-OCTAVIA-VRS-TDI-CR-DIESEL-170-BHP-LOVELY-CAR-5-DOOR-HATCHBACK-/321777394007?

[badgerx16]

I'd been considering a Skoda Octavia - looking at this one. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2012-SKODA-OCTAVIA-VRS-TDI-CR-DIESEL-170-BHP-LOVELY-CAR-5-DOOR-HATCHBACK-/321777394007?

 

"SKODA, makers of happy drivers". Have had my Occy for 10 years from new - may splash some of my redundancy on a replacement - Octavia of course, ( if Mrs B has her way it will be a VRS ).

Edited 9 June, 2015 by badgerx16

[LGTL]

Honda Civic Diesel?

 

They are good cars. After filling up it goes on and on and on and on and is as reliable as you'd expect.

[buctootim]

I've just bought a nine year old Honda CRV diesel . Admittedly its very low miles but the only thing which has gone wrong with it in all that time (apart from consumables likes brakes and tyres) is a faulty ECU.

Edited 10 June, 2015 by buctootim

[Wes Tender]

I've just bought a nine year old Honda CRV diesel . Admittedly its very low miles but the only thing which has gone wrong with it in all that time (apart from consumables likes brakes and tyres) is a faulty ECU.

 

If it hasn't already been fixed, send it to these people in Derby:-

 

http://www.ecutesting.com/honda.html

 

They did the Transmission ECU on my Mercedes. Mercedes insisted that a replacement ECU would have to come from Stuttgart and would cost £900 + removal and fitting for about £600. In the event, these people repaired it within a couple of days of receiving it and the repair/removal/refit cost about £500. They give a lifetime guarantee. The past few thousand miles have been faultless.

[buctootim]

If it hasn't already been fixed, send it to these people in Derby:-

 

http://www.ecutesting.com/honda.html

 

They did the Transmission ECU on my Mercedes. Mercedes insisted that a replacement ECU would have to come from Stuttgart and would cost £900 + removal and fitting for about £600. In the event, these people repaired it within a couple of days of receiving it and the repair/removal/refit cost about £500. They give a lifetime guarantee. The past few thousand miles have been faultless.

 

Thanks Wes appreciate it. However my post probably wasnt clear enough. I meant the car had come with a a complete history of every service, MOT and lightbulb. The only thing which had ever gone wrong in nine years was the ECU, before I bought it. I was endorsing the prior post about the reliability of Hondas.

[Wes Tender]

Thanks Wes appreciate it. However my post probably wasnt clear enough. I meant the car had come with a a complete history of every service, MOT and lightbulb. The only thing which had ever gone wrong in nine years was the ECU, before I bought it. I was endorsing the prior post about the reliability of Hondas.

 

I suspected that it had already been fixed.

 

All modern cars since about 2003 have ECUs as their electronic brains and the info was certainly worth posting for anybody else who encounters ECU problems in the near future to bear these people in mind.

 

Whenever an ECU fault surfaces, the main dealers are inclined to recommend new replacement parts to come from the manufacturers at great expense. Many people faced with a potential bill for around £1500, might consider that the car's current value with a faulty ECU renders it not worthwhile to do the repair and they then scrap the car. There are probably people in the trade who know of ECU repair specialists like this one, who make it a policy to buy up cars with ECU problems on the cheap, get them fixed and sell on at a healthy profit.

 

That site identified that Honda had problems with their ECUs, as did Mercedes and many other makes. I was tipped off about these people by a friend in the motor trade. Online Mercedes forums indicate that many owners around the World do not know of people like this who repair them. There is another place in Poland, I think it was, and people in Canada, USA and Europe were sending their ECUs to them. Regarding the lifetime guarantee, I was sceptical, but they were insistent that the repaired ECU would outlast the car.