OT small car for she who must be obeyed!

One that is obviously out is a Pug 107. If you can get one of these for much under £5k I would be surprised as they have only been out for 2 years (Also note that these are similar to Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo).

Focus is probably more a mid size car, Fiesta maybe?

Ian (Ian@ian) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Why would that be a buying criteria? If it's been serviced properly, and you continue to do so, it's really no issue. It's not even going to be an especially huge or expensive job on something like these.

But is barely over that brand spankin'.

"similar" is a bit of an understatement, considering the only difference is some light panelwork and slight spec differences.

It might help to define the type of driving. For instance, if SWMBO mainly travels short distances in town, the Micra would be better. For longer motorway journeys I would pick the Focus, but note that the smallest engine option here is 1.4, and is best avoided in favour of the 1.6.

If, as seems likely, you are not a car enthusiast (apologies if a wrong assumption), you may want to narrow your choices down on the basis of what dealers are nearest to you, or what local facilities you have for independent servicing.

WRT to your financing query, if you have 2-3k cash available, don't even think about buying from a dealer. Main dealers won't have much on offer in that range, and the cars you would get from most independents will be what you can buy privately for much less. The chances of getting a meaningful degree of post-sales support at this price point are minimal.

You would be better off setting your your upper budget limit at 2.5k, buying privately and keeping the 500 quid in a savings account to cover any problems.

If you are worried about your ability to check a car over, take a knowledgable person with you, or pay for an inspection.

I assume you are asking about belts versus chains for reliability issues? If so, bear in mind that Ford belt changes are now only due every 100,000 miles; many chain driven cams will need the chain replacing at about that sort of milage, sooner if the engine has not had regular oil changes. This generally is more expensive than a cam belt change. (Chain or sprocket failure will wreak similar havoc on an engine as a belt failure.)

HTH

Chris

My wife (and go on, I'll admit it, me too) loved her Smart car - the original 2-seater city coupe. We had it for just over 4 years (import from Germany in1999) and it was brilliant. Didn't cost us anything to maintain except routine servicing costs and two tyres over that period. Superb, rock-solid and oodles of fun :o)

Fred

person with you, or pay for an inspection.

only a very poor chain design would last 100K. Generally they last the life of the car - 200K+ and give lots of warning if worn....

I wouldn't trust any cambelt after 60K whatever ford says....and age related rubber deteriation occurs too....

Then there are a lot of poor Japanese and German designs out there! If you think chains should last 200k+, try Googling for information on VW's V6. (As used in Sharan et al.)

It's not always the chain that fails either. It's not unknown for the (plastic) sprockets to break up. In fact, that's exactly what happened to my Brother's Corolla. It was just under three years old, and had less than

Why would Ford set an unrealistic change interval? It's not unknown for cars to get close to that sort of milage whilst still under warranty, so it would not be be in their interest. Presumably they would also like to sell as many belt kits as possible. Premature belt failure is not a common occurrence with Ford engines.

Incidentally, the official change interval is 100k/10 years, so age related deterioration is not an issue either.

The thing about belts is that they are usually easy and comparatively cheap to replace. It's only a few bad designs by the likes of GM that have got them a reputation of unreliability.

Chris

Get a Punto, best of both worlds. She'll get a nice nippy little runner (tyre roar at 70 is a tad loud) and you'll have a weekend project car ;)

Regards,

Tim

We have an old (early K11 = bubble) Micra 1.0 which I bought for very little six months ago. It's an absolutely brilliant wee car, and I'd buy another one without hesitation (*).

Ian

• Actually this one did have hesitation which I fixed by resoldering the air mass meter connection. But you know what I mean.