Need Suggestions for a medium sized car...

Loads to choose from, but my Dad's 1.8 litre Mk1 Mondeo (P reg) which he's had since two years' old has never let him down once. Performance is reasonable, and it's fairly good to drive.

Peter

I think its time you opened your account at Ebay!

Adam H

You must be joking? Buy something for £1500 which I have not seen, only going on pictures? No Way! Stu.

Generalised answer:-

YES CARS Toyota Carina not diesel Nissan Bluebird/Primera 'poor man's Toyota/Honda' (not early Primera though) Honda all seem reliable but I hear parts are dear VW Golf built like a battleship (not so good now though!) Ford/Vauxhall less reliable but lot of spares/dealers and very cheap to buy s/hand

NO CARS Austin/Rover French Italian

Main thing is has the oil been changed regularly and timing belt replaced (otherwise budget to change it when you buy).

2.0 Nissan Primera '94 on. Earlier ones had a few niggles like noisy timing chain tensioners (easy to fix though) and throttle bodies that gummed up, but the Phase II engine (from around mid '93) is super reliable and low maintenance even at >150000m and it also is very responsive for an 'ordinary' motor. Service items are as cheap as any, other parts not too bad not that you're that likely to need any. If it drives OK then it is OK.

What is wrong with Austin / Rover ? At this age they are all Honda designs and as reliable as the equviliant Hondas. Granted that the rear wings on a

600 are prone to rust they are cheap cars and they come with a diesel which was pretty much the class leader in 1995 (noisy but more powerful and economical that the best of the rest).

Renault, Peugot and Citroen are all as good as a Mondeo or Vectra of equvilant age / price. I've got a M Reg Xantia with 149.5K miles on the clock and have had no major problems with it in the time I've had it (37k miles).

Personally I wouldn't want to touch a Fiat with a barge pole, but it seems a lot of the problems you get with a Fiat are teething type problems. Once the first owner gets a Fiat past its teething problems, the second owner usually enjoys reasonable reliability. My Dad had a second hand Lancia Thema for 3 years without troubles and that was a Fiat Croma with a better badge and better trim.

The truth of the matter is that there aren't really any really bad cars about today. Not in the same way that there used to be. Every car has it's weaknesses and know faults and a lot of them are down to poor maintenance or not being assembled correctly rather than a poor design.

-- James

The message from "James" contains these words:

Not much as long as you're handy with a welder. The Montego TD estate was a very handy car provided you got to use it before it dissolved.

My Dad had a Montego estate with the two litre mayo-matic engine (before the condensation problems were sorted) . He says it was the worst car he ever had, and that was after a Bedford CF van, and Series I & Series II Land Rovers. Austin Rover sorted out the corrosion problems in fact almost all of the problems that the Montego had, not long before it went out of production.

-- James

David Wood waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...

I always found the Primera to handle better than a Toyota or Accord. Not much legroom though.

Someone's got to pay for the 5 speed ashtrays etc...

Can't argue with Golfs being reliable (if you get a good one, bad ones are TRAGIC)

Fords are dead reliable if serviced well

I'd say get a Mondeo, don't get a diesel, go for a 1.8 or 2.0 GLX and you'll be happy.

agreed.

Nothing wrong with a good Peugeot 405 or Xantia. Get the 1.9 Turbodiesel or

2.0 petrol.

apart from electrics with a sense of humour, a nice, well maintained Alfa

164 is a great car. Just check the heater works before you buy, the heater (amusingly one of the only Saab bits in the car, controls excepted) is astoundingly complex and therefore monumentally likely to leave you either boiled to death, or freezedried.

Actually, mate of mine bought an IMMACULATE Saab 9000 2.3 Turbo saloon today from the auctions. J reg, metallic blue, mint inside and out, full main agent service history, 12 months mot, 107000 miles, full electric pack, leather, alloys (with 5 new Pirellis), Air con and all the toys... £175 (including premium, bidding stopped at £135). Company director owned. Runs brilliantly, everything works, very quiet, smooth, receipt for new clutch, brake pads and discs 6000 miles ago. Only marks on it are a few stonechips on the leading edge of the bonnet, the headlamp wiper arms are missing, and the aerial has been snapped. Fuel computer reckons he's averaging 28 mpg out of it. I offered him £500 on the spot, but he's not letting it go. :-(

I'd rather run about in his Saab or an Alfa 164 than a £1500 Cavalier anyday.

If looking at Austin-Rover - check out the price of a cambelt change for the model you are buying. Can be much much more expensive on some models than on, say, a 1.8 cavalier.

Yeah, Ihave 1.6, and it is incredibly economical for it's size But somewhat gutless.

Huge boot, but rear view is a bit limited.

Mines an M reg, and I have known it since new, and am unaware of anything going wrong on it.

Guess worth *well under £1500 unfortunately for me

Rover 600. Tried and tested ultra-reliable Honda engineering, they can run to starship mileages reliably, best chassis in it's class (better than the Mondeo's, it just never got the recognition!) and they don't rust quite as bad as some people make them out to, certainly nowhere near the Montego rate. Rear wheel arches seem to be the only spot worthy of mention. Surprisingly good towcar, and a cavernous boot!! Mine has a 70ltr LPG tank in the boot and there's still room for a set of golf clubs and weekend bags, easily! Badger.

Oddly enough have recently changed my Cavalier for an Astra Estate - slightly narrower, somewhat shorter - but can still cram just as much stuff in the back as I used to. Slightly less legroom in the back, though - an inch or two perhaps.

Might be difficult getting a privately-owened one, or one at all that isn't scruffy/cream crakcekred/used as a builders van or ex fleet, but you never know.

The Montego 2 litre was pretty good only real faults were front wheel bearings, and the paper thin body.

Very very good cars and cheap to buy but handling isn't great a bit too rolly-polly execept on the turbo model which is a bit too extreme for most buyers.

Granted, but it only rolls around more than any comparable car in the same class if it's fitted with crap tyres. Needs decent tyres with a decent ammount of sidewall support. The chassis and suspension design (and ability) pi$$es all over the Fraud Mundane IMO. It's actually the best handling saloon car "out of the box" that rover / austin rover / blmc / leyland ever managed to produce. Best thing I ever did to mine was to fit Accord typeR suspension, maybe a little extreme for most tastes, but by god, it handles!!!! even on std 15" rims, allbeit with Good Year Eagle F1 rubber! Badger.