Scottish Elises

Evening all,

I am fast approaching the end of my time in the forces and must look ahead to a new (As yet undetermined!) job. As a result I need another car (in addition to the Liz!) that is a wee bit more practical and it must be cheap (£2.5k max) to get me to and from my new work and easy to work on. Looking at estates...

My suggestions are:

Audi 80/100 Estate
BMW 3/5 series estate
Vaxhall (!) Omega/Astra estate

Anything else I should consider?

cheers
Rich

I cant say a bad word against my Peugeot 406 Estate. It is the Diesel version and does great mpg. It has done about 20k miles/year for the last 3 years and never missed a beat or cost anything other than general servicing stuff.

My last Estate was a Volvo 850 T5R which was more exciting to drive but a tad too much fun!

Jim

i had a BMW 325tds


it survived me

I had an Omega MV6 (not an etate). RWD. cheap to buy, fun to drive, uses quite a lot of petrol (3.0 v6) and not very reliable. My mate bought it off me, he' a Vauxhall nut and knew what he was buying, but there was a fair list of stuff. They rust too.

Comfy mind. And everyone thinks you are a cop which is cool - the only car I've ever driven where other cars don't just let you past they actually pull over and stop - class. ( it was dark blue).

Dad had an Astra estate. That was a bit sh*t too. Atrocius to drive too.

pete

buy a Toyota Carina E for about £200. My other half just sold hers for £50 to a mate, and it was raking happily past 100k miles. Never had any bother at all, and only needed a new radiator & zorst over the last 4 years! You'll hear lots about german build quality, but the japanese know a bit about that too!

Talking about Carina E's - I think the Avensis would be the one to go for. Can pick them up now for £1200+ and I prefered driving it to my dad's 04 plate Merc, very smooth practical cruising machine.

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/CA ... 5231310325

Opinions of Mitzi Galant? I quite like the look of it and there are quite a few at the right price.

RICHARDHUMBLE wrote:Opinions of Mitzi Galant? I quite like the look of it and there are quite a few at the right price.

I had one of them for nearly 4 years, great car, did over 100,000 miles in it Loaded with kit, especially the newer ones and quite rare.

I rember 1 guy in Aberdeen, stopping staring at it for a bit and then saying, "that your car? what is it? Great looking car!" Not the average statement made by someone about a 3year old Jap estate!

Watch out for drive shaft or gearbox problems, other than that nothing went wrong...

Cool cheers MacK, Looks like the one to look for then. I like them and they seem to be solidly built and high spec for low money.

TVM All, I'll keep you posted
Rich

Turns out they are high spec and high insurance group too... £400 to insure as no no-claims to apply

Hunting for better insurance...

I had a 96 525i touring SE 5speed auto...

magic car, fuel consumption was atrocious & not huge inside.

hugely reliable but parts quite pricey & mucho complicated when they go wrong.

I'd recommend steering well clear.

Father in law had a dzl omega which was huge inside and you'll get a far newer car for your cash (my recommendation) I think the dzl engines are detuned bimmer units of the era & pretty unstressed/reliable.

we went for a dzl touran, just for acceptance into the suburban 2+2 kids suburban death clique you understand. (but you might struggle to get one for your 2.5k & a 2.5k zafira would be pretty poor (the early dzl engines have a rep for being prety sh*t)

Just read an interesting article on the MG ZS. (touring car style one) The V6 got a good right up for its "dynamics" and pure driving feel. Better to drive than the "sanitized" hot hatches.

Much cheapness...

RICHARDHUMBLE wrote:Turns out they are high spec and high insurance group too... £400 to insure as no no-claims to apply

Hunting for better insurance...

AON will mirror your NCD across as many cars as you insure with them, that's how I got around that problem.

Audi 80s are good btw, I have a J plate saloon one with 156k on the clock that I got for £200 last September.

Simon

ironside wrote:

RICHARDHUMBLE wrote:Turns out they are high spec and high insurance group too... £400 to insure as no no-claims to apply

Hunting for better insurance...

AON will mirror your NCD across as many cars as you insure with them, that's how I got around that problem.

Audi 80s are good btw, I have a J plate saloon one with 156k on the clock that I got for £200 last September.

Simon

Simon Ironside - shed collector.....

Shug wrote:Simon Ironside - shed collector.....