.
Printable View
.
Golf, Polo, Jetta, Passat any VW really.
Volvo's, Saab's.
And the ultimate in reliability is the Toyota Corrola.
I paid 250 for my e reg golf 2 years ago. drive 100 miles a day. Only had to fit a new gear box. passed it's MOT last week with flying colours!
Doubt you will get much help from here mate, if you are from the states as post seems to suggest.
Status: Newbie
Since: Jul 2002
From: USA
Posts: 2
Online: No
DF Dollars: 20
AFAIK most people on here are british
Gimp
Germans BUILD cars, Italians go for looks and design, French try too hard to be innovative fail, Americans go for overkill and the British cut corners and hope. Go for something German if you can, you won't regret it.
Personaly speaking, if I was looking for something that was built well, is safe and will last, I'd buy a used 924\944 Porsche, they are easily found and seriously under rated.
go for a 5 series bmw picked mine up on a g reg for under £2000 2 yrs ago gone through 2 mots needing a wiper blade:D
i was gonna close this thread cos like gimp said if Neuron Pulse
is in usa then dont help much but i havent cos we can all maybe learn a bit from this thread on what to buy?what reliable and worth the money hybrid summed it up. also,
Quote:
Personaly speaking, if I was looking for something that was built well, is safe and will last, I'd buy a used 924\944 Porsche, they are easily found and seriously under rated.
a m8 of mine got a cracker one of these 924 last year for about a grand and i think it was well worth the dosh,he dont have it now he doubled his dosh :)
booboo:)
I'd have to agree with the above comments - you can't beat Kraut automotive engineering. I've been driving a German motor for the past few years and it's never let me down.
my friends mother got a renault 19 1.4,1993, not top of the range, but ok, marvelous condition, 53000 miles, for £1100 only. they drive well, are reliable, good diesels, even non turbo, and look up to date. he got a 1990 diesel version for £350 no power steering but for a non turbo it goes quite nicely.
I've only ever driven Fiats. I utterly neglected my first one (126 1977) and my last one (Uno 45 1989).
The only attention that they ever received was to get them through MOTs, but they rarely ever let me down until the day they were taken to the scrappies, by which time I'd had about ten years service out of them.
I'm now on my third Fiat and it gets the regular services, six-mothly oil changes, etc., but I'd recommend Fiats to any young lads who just want a cheap, reliable car to get from a-b.
I'm not sure I'd agree with that m8. FIAT's are reliable, yes, bulletproof might be a better description, but that only applies to the engine and g\box. I learned my trade on FIAT's, I know the models of that time inside out and they all suffered from the same thing, rust, if you stopped at traffic lights, turned off your engine and listened close you can actually hear them rusting away! They just weren't built for the wetter climates like ours, yet if you go to spain you'll see Mirafiori's (131) all over the place along cos the climate is better and only then can you REALLY see how reliable these engines are cos the cars survive long enough to burn them out. I know FIAT has upped it's corrosion warranty to 6 years now, but it's too little too late. Maybe if they had done that when they had desirable cars they would be better placed in the current market. The other point that will always keep FIAT's from the top is the fact that insurance companies load them because the spares are expensive which makes the cars more prone to be written off. Even the good ole 126 which was way smaller than it's rivals at the time, the Mini and the Fiesta, in both physical size and cubic capacity, it was always in a higher insurance bracket because of the price of spares.Quote:
Originally posted by abarthman
I've only ever driven Fiats. I utterly neglected my first one (126 1977) and my last one (Uno 45 1989).
The only attention that they ever received was to get them through MOTs, but they rarely ever let me down until the day they were taken to the scrappies, by which time I'd had about ten years service out of them.
I'm now on my third Fiat and it gets the regular services, six-mothly oil changes, etc., but I'd recommend Fiats to any young lads who just want a cheap, reliable car to get from a-b.
In short:
German cars if you have the money.
French cars if you don't.
I run French cars... :(
C.
Aye, it was rust that got my wee 126 and my Uno in the end. :(Quote:
Originally posted by Hybrid
..they all suffered from the same thing, rust, if you stopped at traffic lights, turned off your engine and listened close you can actually hear them rusting away! They just weren't built for the wetter climates like ours.
When I took them to the scrappies, they were still running great, but you should have seen the state of their bodywork; not very pretty sights! :eek:
My current Fiat is just over four years old and it's not even got a spot of rust on it yet, so I'm hoping they've now overcome the corrosion problem. Maybe the weekly wax-washes and stonechip touch-ups help, too? :rolls:
I'm now getting on a bit and have a full NCD, so I don't really worry too much about the cost of insurance, but, now that you mention it, insurance wasn't cheap for the 126 when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I remember that I insured it as my Dad's second car for a while. :rolls:
Maybe I should review my original post and recommend recent model Fiats for older drivers with full NCDs? ;)
You should stick to your guns m8. There was a time not so long ago I thought FIAT's were the best thing since sliced bread. I owe FIAT a lot seeing I learned my trade on them. I had loads of them, my 131 racing was my fav though, very, very limited edition of the Mirafiori sport (of which I had several too) whith a few modifications and interior changes. X\19's, 124 Special T, 124 coupe, 132. I had loads and every one had one thing that was the same as every other, rust! I must have welded for miles all told. Still...........I wouldn't change a thing cos they were good experience.