3k~ to spend on a car what would you buy?

[Atterz]

I think ive struck lucky after a year of rather bad luck haha, she seems like a good one. The guy who sold it to me wasnt a car man at all, and was stressed with work or somthing similar. He had it up for £3300 but i guess it was probably worth more than that. One of them cars where only the drivers seat has been sat in! Ill take some interior shots tomorrow and post them in my project thread!

Really sorry for hijacking your thread Stephen!

[306Puggy]

I saw on Fifth Gear a few years ago that you could get an Impreza Turbo 2000 for 3k. 3k for an Impreza turbo! That would be what I would spend 3k on a car. Can't see the point in anything else, TBH! My 306 is the ideal general purpose car.

[Stephen]

I think ive struck lucky after a year of rather bad luck haha, she seems like a good one. The guy who sold it to me wasnt a car man at all, and was stressed with work or somthing similar. He had it up for £3300 but i guess it was probably worth more than that. One of them cars where only the drivers seat has been sat in! Ill take some interior shots tomorrow and post them in my project thread!

Really sorry for hijacking your thread Stephen!

Its alright mate, interesting to see what you got for 3k! looks tidy

[Jake]

someone at work has just purchased a focus pretty much exactly the same as that for £3500.. at lot of car for the money!

[Toms306]

I saw on Fifth Gear a few years ago that you could get an Impreza Turbo 2000 for 3k. 3k for an Impreza turbo! That would be what I would spend 3k on a car. Can't see the point in anything else, TBH! My 306 is the ideal general purpose car.

If you can afford to fuel a thirsty petrol there are loads of those about under £3k.... Not so many diesels though, which is what we all need in the recession.

[cwspellowe]

I saw on Fifth Gear a few years ago that you could get an Impreza Turbo 2000 for 3k. 3k for an Impreza turbo! That would be what I would spend 3k on a car. Can't see the point in anything else, TBH! My 306 is the ideal general purpose car.

If you can afford to fuel a thirsty petrol there are loads of those about under £3k.... Not so many diesels though, which is what we all need in the recession.

You seem to fall victim to the typical eco driver phallacy Tom. Considering the price difference between a lot of diesel and petrol variants of the same car it would take a few yeara to actually save money running a diesel.

Say for instance the petrol version of X car is £2.5k and the diesel version is £3.5k. Diesel is usually around 10p per litre more expensive than petrol but with better fuel economy, say 50mpg compared to 30mpg.

Petrol would cost, for instance, £1.30/L = £5.90/G. Which at 30mpg = £0.19 per mile.

Diesel, at £1.40/L = £6.30/G. Which at 50mpg = £0.12 per mile.

So 7p per mile cheaper, you'd have to do £1000 price difference divided by that 7p difference, or 14k miles before you save any money. Personally that would take me about 3 years as I don't use the car much. But still, even if you did that in a year, you wouldn't actually save any money until that point, and even then you'd save money at a rate of 7p per mile.

All hypothetical figures of course but could easily be applied in the real world.

[Stephen]

Valid point there, i plan on keeping this car for awhile though and i do a fair amount of miles commuting

[Midnightclub]

Personally, (ok I'm obviously going to be slightly bias but..) I'd have the 330 petrol over the diesel.. much less to fo wrong and fairly solid engines.. I'm getting about 30mpg average, the 330d's only get about 34mpg average and probably about 5mpg more on the motorway.. with the difference in fuel costs it probably works out cheaper per mile for the petrol

[cwspellowe]

I appreciate that mate. Was just in response to Tom saying "if you can afford to fuel a thirsty petrol".. technically anyone considering a diesel can afford to run the petrol version for a good while before they'd reach a total spend near the original budget.

[Toms306]

You also have to factor in the lower tax for the diesel. But then of course theres more to go wrong as well (DPF's etc).

However, I'd rather spend the extra grand on a diesel version, that will depreciate less than it's petrol variant and spend less on fuel.

Way I see it - fuel turns into smoke, you get absolutely nothing back from that at all, when its gone, its gone. Buying a car means you will still have a car to sell on after a year or so. You might lose ~£100 selling it (or you might gain if you break it )...but that's nowhere as much as the fuel cost difference in a year. I worked out last week that the difference between a 1.8 and HDi 306 in real world figures was about £30 extra per fortnight for me when I was doing town and back each day for work and college (which I aim to be doing again soon).

That works out as about £700 extra in fuel alone for the year, and that's just wasted imo.

[cwspellowe]

Right but you're talking about 306's, the price of them is so low anyway that it's barely a drop in the ocean when you compare a HDi to a 1.6 in terms of running costs.

And yes you have resale value, but if you look after your car you could sell the petrol for more than you bought it. Amazing what a bit of elbow grease can do. You don't buy a car with a view to sell it though, you buy a car until you feel you need a change, hence only taking purchase price and running costs into consideration.

[Toms306]

You can't sell big petrols for much..... They won't go up in value, no matter how much you try polishing it.

I always take selling into consideration, hence being so picky about tidy bodywork and decent spec when buying. I know I won't be keeping them more than a year, infact it's a surprise when they last more than 6 months!

I've also never really lost money selling a car, think the most I lost was £200 on my 2nd car (Y reg 1.4 heap). So for me its more efficient to stick with diesels and spend less on fuel. That may not be the case for everyone though.

[Atterz]

I got the diesel variant of the Focus because i prefer the power delivery and also because its a DW10. For the motorway miles i purchased it for its absolutly ideal for saving money and for effortless speeding up/slowing down in 6 gear. If my circumstances were different id maybe have considered a Perv, but i couldnt justify to myself something that did the same or less Mpg than the Wallye, just didnt make sense as that is supposed to be the fun un-eco car!

[Poodle]

You don't half talk some shit Pellowe, I never knew it was only possible to spruce up a petrol lol.

Unless you want to go for something older and correspondingly less luxurious, i'd be inclined to stick with 320/30d plan bud. There's nothing else around with the combination of practicality, rwd, decent chassis, mpg and relative reliability. Best bet is probably an ex-exec model - nothing but motorway runs to London and back, serviced on the schedue because he/she needs it reliable etc.

[Piggy]

Im with pellowe on this.

In some instances the price gap is even greater...different budget, but a Mini cooper S and Mini cooper S diesel...with current figures, it would take 3years to start seeing the saving of the diesel.

So get a petrol and save yourself some dollar and then you can not constantly be talking about how many mpgs you got, or didnt, and enjoy driving a petrol.

[C.A.R.]

My boss has been running a Focus similar to that which Atterz has bought - same colour in fact too.

It's a brilliant car IMO, does everything he needs it to and hasn't let him down once. Eats tyres on the front axle but I suspect this is his driving.

Aside from general servicing costs he has had to replace the dreaded Dual-mass flywheel / clutch and he has a slight boost leak which comes and goes (!). Otherwise it's fine. Driving position and cabin ergonomics are a million miles apart from the Mk1 Focus, which IMO is a steaming pile of sh*t.

[ginge191]

Who would you honestly buy a 3 series; apart from those with children, 2000mile commute and care little about their image whilst driving. Unless its a club sport/m spec; gah, I see anyone driving these under the age of 30 and just sigh.


My money would be on a focus or Audi.
My brother is selling his focus at the moment actually, there's a for sale thread up for it at the moment

[Poodle]

I think a lot of it depends how many miles you do and what your driving style's like - I do a lot of miles and enjoy using my right foot, a petrol thats worth having for the noise would cost me about £2000 a year more to run just on fuel, that's ignoring any change in insurance premiums or the cost of rebuilding the head when I bounce it off the limiter one too many times.

Besides, as Tom has pointed out, unless you're daft enough to buy new, there's little chance of the price differential changing enough that it costs you much come time to sell.

[C.A.R.]

Who would you honestly buy a 3 series; apart from those with children, 2000mile commute and care little about their image whilst driving. Unless its a club sport/m spec; gah, I see anyone driving these under the age of 30 and just sigh.


My money would be on a focus or Audi.
My brother is selling his focus at the moment actually, there's a for sale thread up for it at the moment

I think a lot of it is the "OMG RWD, FWD Sucks!!!" mentality to be honest.

They're very well-rounded cars, the 3-series, but they're not where my money would go if I had kids tbh. They're a premium car and kids DESTROY interiors, so you'd be gutted about your leather before long. Also, 320d's are very rattly sounding IMO, compared to a lot of other diesels.

I'd still want a 330d coupe mind

[ginge191]

In fairness CAR, I just look at them and think they're just sooooo boring; spoke to a mate who has a '6 and was thinking of changing for a 3 series. Literally slapped him for even considering it.

[Toms306]

Does it matter how boring a car looks? If it drives well and suits someone's needs, why shouldn't they have one? Personally I prefer BMW subtlety over something lairy and what I assume you'd think of as not boring.

It's all down to opinion and preference at the end of the day, if everyone wanted the same car there would only be one available.

[ginge191]

Does it matter how boring a car looks? If it drives well and suits someone's needs, why shouldn't they have one? Personally I prefer BMW subtlety over something lairy and what I assume you'd think of as not boring.

It's all down to opinion and preference at the end of the day, if everyone wanted the same car there would only be one available.

Correct me if in wrong but I believe manufacturers spend millllions on how a car looks.
And Christ, I'm sure sraymond cares about an image being the youngster he is.

Yes, a 3 series would suit you Tom; with be ideology and mentality of a 40 year old

[Midnightclub]

I find it funny how you own a 5 door 205 and then say a 3 series looks boring lmao!

[Jake]

I like the way 3 series look! I'd have an m3 at the drop of a heartbeat it the overall costs weren't so high each year.

[Jonny b]

f*ck economy I just got a scooby lol!! Can't take ιt with you so meh

[Ricky]

Not sure how much they go for but I would love a D5 Volvo

[ginge191]

I find it funny how you own a 5 door 205 and then say a 3 series looks boring lmao!

But there's a difference. My car has cost me (including the car itself) less than £900 to put on the road. And it's pretty fun.

Spending 3k on a 3 series which is old and boring.... errm.. yeh...

IF i wasn't a trainee teacher and had 3K to spend on a car as apposed to budgeting my life around transport, i wouldn't spend it on a 3 series.

MY car is not the focus of this conversation, but please, answer back to the above

---

SUCH a boring looking car!




As a constructive input, Saab 9-3 2.2 all day.

[Toms306]

Does it matter how boring a car looks? If it drives well and suits someone's needs, why shouldn't they have one? Personally I prefer BMW subtlety over something lairy and what I assume you'd think of as not boring.

It's all down to opinion and preference at the end of the day, if everyone wanted the same car there would only be one available.

Correct me if in wrong but I believe manufacturers spend millllions on how a car looks.
And Christ, I'm sure sraymond cares about an image being the youngster he is.

Yes, a 3 series would suit you Tom; with be ideology and mentality of a 40 year old

You've completely missed the point. It's boring in YOUR opinion!

It's subtle in my opinion. I couldn't drive something like an Evo or a Scooby as I find them far too conspicuous. But that doesn't mean no-one else should drive them.

[ginge191]

Sorry, Tom, i completely agree with you, opinions are what this thread is for completely. And you have a complete opposite oppinion to myself; i'd love myself an EvoVIII/VIIII any day!

[Pete]

SUCH a boring looking car!

Mainly because its sat two foot in the air on casters. Dropped on big wheels that'd look the part, all cars have potential