Whats the most reliable car for a poor student ???

That'll be why I haven't seen one for *ages* now, then.

Remember, they also sold to the kind of people who got themselves so far in debt buying the bloody thing that they had no money left to maintain them. This also applies to Proton, Hyundai, Kia etc.

Still not much in the way of pattern bits, though, not compared with a MkII Golf or MkII Polo.

Yes, very good.... but, again, not anywhere near the range of stuff you get from GSF or Euro for VWs....

Aside from that, Favorits are utter s**te.

Why not?

Parts aplenty, you can buy a decent one for much less than £500 and they'd be great for moving between digs.

John

Yup, add to that autochoke problems on potentially any carb, not to mention carb icing when the coolth sets in.

Ok, carbs are more tuneable and potentially more economical than injection systems (I might be talking complete s**te on the "economical" statement), but on balance, especially for someone wanting hassle-free motoring, injection wins hands down.

So long as it's Bosch and not Magnetti Spaghetti.

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Except carbs without autochokes.

Mine cost me £300. Does 35+mpg. All the space you'd need unless you're an antiques dealer.

Not too bad to insure. Spares are cheap and scrappies are plentiful. Certainly not 'cool' ;-)

I meant from an insurance POV.

Si

Bugger - thanks for reminding me Conor - best go do that CV joint boot.

:-| it's fecking cold out too - oh well - will encourage me to do it quickly :)

Cheers Dan.

Many diesels have auxilliary heaters, of course these use fuel and offset the savings of running one...

They are. Nothing wrong with 214/414 and the K series motor either - if it's driven hard and the levels checked frequently. Town bound ones that get the bonnet lifted every 24 mths seem to have problems with gaskets.

Never really got into carbs - had a couple of carb'd cars but not really much to speak of in terms of problems.

Always seem more complex than they need to be - the Holley (sp?) on my mates transam looks nice and simple - big tube to suck air down with a big pipe to deliver fuel to it. All the stuff I had had motors, screws and things everywhere...

The message from "Tim S Kemp" contains these words:

Not in the age range he's talking about! Actually - apart from one ambulance many years ago I've never seen a diesel with an aux heater.

Just about every current merc has one AFAIK. I think our toyota has one as well as it's very quick to blow hot air.

Hated the passat I rented at one point as it would be 20 miles for hot air.

I'd go with Mungos suggestion - Skoda Favorit. Get an estate one. Cheap to insure, very reliable, decent economy.

Bigsteve - are you tall? Favorites have lots of room for tall drivers.

Cheers.

I was going to suggest that too. Forget the image, at least you'll have a car when most of your mates won't. Years ago I ran an Estelle 105S through my time at Uni, never let me down, and it was newer than most of the cars my colleagues could afford.

Re: Favorit, I forgot to say, if you find high milage ones, don't be scared, they are like anvils. Ours has 130,000 miles and feels like it's just got out of bed. Top cars.

And stupidly high insurance for what they are - I researched this when my son wanted one. (In the end we still got a 1.3 for him - Capri looks but affordable insurance for a youngster - yes I know it has no guts!).

Autotrader reveals a huge choice of 5 Favorits nationwide, only one of which is an estate.

Felicias are all over the place, but they're utterly horrible to drive.

True, true. However, they do pop up. If it were me looking, I'd have a good scout about first.

Cheers.