If you spend under £5k on a car how long would you except it to last ?

[mamatomany]

I've always preferred to buy cheap cars unless I get a company one due to have little knocks and scuffs and not wanting to spend much either.
But I bought one, had a full RAC check, all seemed great, 2 months later the cam belt went and it'll cost more than the car did to replace it.
So I'm wondering if I spend about £4500 this time, how long would you expect to get out of say a Grand Voyager type car for example, or a Honda if I should be so lucky ?

5 years.

Really ? Wow that's not as bad as I thought, certainly couldn't be any worse than 2 months though

It depends on all sorts of things really. Some cars are more expensive than others - what kind of age and mileage are you looking at? And what kind of milelage do you do?

If DH were here I'd ask him what you can get for your money.

We have a T reg Peugeot 306 that we've been driving for five years, and it cost us £1200.

Well we have no option but to spend less and i would say at least 5yrs if not more if its well cared for.

Thats the key if its a good buy that was previously looked after and well maintained and you continue to do so, then it should last as long as you need it too.

Good luck in your search!

Thanks Madonna - We haven't a clue about cars, I think because i need at least 5 seats and a good boot so a 7 seater size it'll be between 80 - 100k for that money.
Mileage wise I think I do about 150 miles a week.
I'd really like diesel I think (although somebody else told me that wasn't worthwhile unless you are on the motorway doing a lot of miles).
I would love a gem like yours, sounds perfect

We got a zafira we have same needs as you. We luckily found one that belonged to a elderly couple and FSH with dealer. Just up to us to take care of it now

The gem is DH. He keeps it on the road

We bought a Ford Escort for £3,000 (this was in 1999) and it lasted us 6 years. Sold it for £750!

We then bought a 9 month old Zafira which we've had for 6 years and apart from servicing, the only money we've had to spend has been on a battery and two new tyres. We expect it to go on for a good few years yet.
It was £11,000 though (but only 9 months old).

It really depends on how old the car is, how many miles it has done and how well maintained by previous owners. Certain makes and models have longer lifespans than others.

We bought our Volvo V40 in 2006 for £3300 and its still going strong despite having done loads of miles.

FYI, I recently bought a Kia Sedona Diesel from ebay for £3,500. 55 Plate and only done 44K. Its the same size as a Grand Voyager but half the money because they're not as "popular" as other makes.

Volvos are meant to be good for 200,000 miles. Ours is 12 yo with 110k on the clock and is still going fine.

kia sedona is heaps better than a grand voyager

I spent £1500 on a Nissan Micra about 8 years ago, it's still running, I love it :o

Polly - my Volvo has nearly 170K on the clock and runs like new.

My FIL who is a mechanic says it will do the same again no problem.

I bought a VW golf for £400 and drove it for four years. But DH got the cam belt changed after we bought it as it is a much cheaper job if you don't wait til it snaps. You need to change them every 40,000 miles or so. DH learnt that expensive lesson on the M1 in his old car!

Op, with any car you need to check when the cam belt was last changed. It tells you in the manual how many miles they are expected to last for and if its reaching the end of its life expectancy you NEED to get it changed.

Have you got quotes for a reconditioned engine? Would be cheaper than buying a new car.

The reconditioned engines are about the same as a new cam belt, the car only cost us £1200 and the repair is £900 + VAT, my worry is what is something else goes wrong once we've had it repaired.
But yes I tell everyone I meet now, have you checked your cambelt lol

We got our current car about 5 years ago (and need it to last at least another 3 or 4 years) It's an S reg Peugeot 406 and cost me £1800 iirc. I've gone through a fair few cars over the last 20 years, some have lasted longer than others. A lot seems to be down to luck. You can buy a 'new' old car and it trundle on for ages or have something major go (clutch, brakes, suspension) with no warning.

We spent £725 on a Ford Mondeo in 1995 and it is still going, never been serviced.

We have had our car nearly 7 years and it cost £6000. It's a heap of crap, a real turkey!

We were hoping to get 10 years out of it but it's going very soon, it's cost us loads in repairs and I've had enough of it.

It's a vauxhall vectra by the way, don't get one! I do think you have to be careful of make and sometimes for no reason, cars turn out to be a bit crap, just bad luck I guess.

It was low mileage when we got it, FSH, only one owner....it's still crap

Just a thought, I had assumed the car had cost around £3K. My apologies if my last post sounded a bit patronising (just read it back), just wanted to make you aware of the cam belt thing so it doesnt happen to you again.

I agree you do need a bit of luck when buying a second hand car.

Everybody thought I was mad when I bought the Volvo off ebay assuming it must have something wrong with it because it was so cheap but it has really come up trumps.

The Sedona was also from ebay and my Mondeo was bought from the auction rooms so none of them had a warranty but have all been fab.

On the other hand, I bought my first second-hand car from a dealer and it broke down on the way home!

It largely depends on the make of car how far your £5k will stretch.

We just bought an 09 Kia Carens which is worth the same as my sister's 51 BMW Estate! I would expect my car to be on the road long after hers has bitten the dust.

£5k will possibly get you something with some warranty left if you buy a Hyundai or Kia, so you have trouble-free motoring for a while.

like bibbity we bought a 9 month old Zafira on 12K miles for £11000 & traded it in recently at 70K miles after 7 years with similar costs (it was a diesel)

diesel zafiras have a chain cam so the cambelt thing isn't an issue with them; I've inadvertently bought a car which does have a cambelt so that's a £400+ job to look forward to

and the zafira averaged 45mpg, including quite a few silly short local trips & very few motorway miles.

Newer diesels (since 2009) have to have a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) - it's an emissions control thing - and they do need to do a reasonable amount of motorway driving (another thing I didn't know about my new one before I bought it )

\link{http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/diesel-particulate-filters.html\AA inf on DPFs}

I'm missing my old one, can you tell?

Anyway, try looking for an older diesel with a chain cam & no DPF!

An Audi is the way to go, used ones with good history and low milage, my a3 is fab, 4 wheel drive quattro so good in ice and snow and very good mpg, around 50 I think. It has held it's value amazingly and is only worth about£1500 less than I paid for it 21/2 hrs ago.

We had an a4 before that was a good buy too.

Oh for a Q7