Used car purchase under £2k

Francorelli

Forum fella
My venerable mk1 Avensis is on its way out, so I'm seeking advice from our car-savvy members regarding my next used car purchase.

My budget is limited (£2k maximum). I need a practical family estate. It must be automatic, and I'd prefer petrol but will consider diesel. Parkers and eBay have been my main research sources so far, and I imagine I'll be mostly looking at cars between 12 to 15 years old.

Choices I'm considering are Honda Accord Tourer, VW Passat or Skoda Octavia. That said, I've always wanted something German and RWD, so that makes either BMW 3 series or Mercedes C class estates possible options too.

I suspect the Honda will give me the most value, but the BMW/Merc options are tempting me. All opinions and advice gratefully received :).
 

pjgh

Forum GOD!
I tend to buy cars around 10 years old ... what you do get is enormous value for money when it comes to higher end specifications. To that end, I'd say you can get a better car by looking at BMW or Mercedes - all the toys and tricks installed.

I'll be swapping my 18 year old SAAB 9-5 Aero (Hirsch) on Wednesday for another SAAB - a 10 year old SAAB 9-3 Aero (another factory Hirsch Performance). Jump in at the top model and you get everything for the same price as a pedestrian model. You might even bag a special, like my Hirsched cars.

Beyond that, the usual advice ...

Service routines, same driver, different owners, how it looks, how it feels, mileage has NEVER been a consideration for me other than getting on over 100,000 as my experience of sub-100,000 is that just about everything goes at that point. Get one after and it's all been done. Former contract car? Routine servicing and nothing but banging up and down the motorway on its mileage.

Good luck! I hope you find something suitable.
 

Dipesh

Forum GOD!
Staff member
Bmw, Merc and Honda auto boxes are brilliant.

VW group auto gearboxes can be troublesome compared to the above.

Go for a petrol, you'll get more for your money. Avoid Merc's that are older than 2007 as they rust badly.

I would be inclined to go with a Honda Accord or another avensis. BMW's would be good if you got a 6 cylinder car. Avoid 4 pots as are unreliable.

If you wanted a manual, passats and octavias are bargains that are built very well. Especially the TDI cars.
 

chrisbd

Forum GOD!
Bmw, Merc and Honda auto boxes are brilliant.

VW group auto gearboxes can be troublesome compared to the above.

Go for a petrol, you'll get more for your money. Above Merc's that are older than 2007 as they rust badly.

I would be inclined to go with a Honda Accord or another avensis. BMW's would be good if you got a 6 cylinder car. Avoid 4 pots as are unreliable.

If you wanted a manual, passats and octavias are bargains that are built very well. Especially the TDI cars.
+1. At the risk of being shot down the rule of thumb is VW group don't make good auto gearboxes, Mercedes don't make good manual ones. So if auto is a priority I'd put VW well down the list. If it helps, our VW mechanic told me that if he was looking for a good, reliable car that's reasonable to maintain now he'd look to Japanese makes, principally Honda.

Good luck with your quest.

Regards,
Chris
 

Francorelli

Forum fella
Very helpful comments everyone, thank you.

From the advice so far, the Honda is still looking like my best option.

I'm keeping an open mind on the BMW though, @Dipesh - I presume I would I be considering 328i/330i engines for 6 cylinder options? And any advice on diesels for that 3-series era?
 

Chris

Forum DOG!
Staff member
From the options given I'd go for the Honda, they tend to be extremely reliable. Have you considered a Mondeo? My wife's just bought one and it's really comfortable and nice to drive. The boot is cavernous too.
 

Francorelli

Forum fella
Have you considered a Mondeo? My wife's just bought one and it's really comfortable and nice to drive. The boot is cavernous too.
I test drove a couple of Mk III Mondeos before choosing the Avensis a few years back (I'd previously owned a Focus which I really liked). The Mondeo is a sound choice but the ones I tried left me underwhelmed.
 

Dipesh

Forum GOD!
Staff member
Very helpful comments everyone, thank you.

From the advice so far, the Honda is still looking like my best option.

I'm keeping an open mind on the BMW though, @Dipesh - I presume I would I be considering 328i/330i engines for 6 cylinder options? And any advice on diesels for that 3-series era?
If it's the e46 (c.2000-2006), both 320d and 330d engines are brilliant. Nothing major goes wrong really but at 2k it would be quite high on the miles so injectors could be showing wear so it could be smokey on acceleration and poor on fuel. They are very expensive and need to be coded too.

Petrol engines from memory are 320i (2.2), 325i and 330i. All brilliant. Very smooth and work so well with the auto box. 330i being the pick for the bunch power vs fuel consumption.

Only thing that these suffer with is rust arches and brake pipes at the rear so check the MOT history for advisory for this.
 

Chris

Forum DOG!
Staff member
I test drove a couple of Mk III Mondeos before choosing the Avensis a few years back (I'd previously owned a Focus which I really liked). The Mondeo is a sound choice but the ones I tried left me underwhelmed.
I can understand that, they're solid cars but not exactly exciting.
 

dadant

Forum GOD!
Well I was just going to say go for the Accord as I ran a mk7 diesel estate for a few years and they are pretty much bullet poof with that timing chained engine. Got to be pre - 08 and looks by the plate to be an 05 or 06? Looks immaculate, what mileage and what did you pay?
 
Top