Have a mate ( female) after a new car , she has £1600 ish to spend ( can stretch that a few hundred if needed)

Needs to be small engine for insurance, 1.6 or under, preferred 5 door.
Nothing French or Italian.

Looked at a few golfs, focus' corsas, and fiestas this evening but ones we looked were rough for the money IMO.

Any other suggestions please?

 

golf tdi mate mark 4 shape

 

toyota yaris are good cars mate

 

also check out the ford ka

 

But not a diesel!!..... as they're powered by 3 mice called Henry Jim and Steve.

 

Nice one chaps. Was thinking yaris! Need to find a few local ta. KA no good really as a bit too small and 3 door. Golf definitely a possibility just need to find one with small engine

 

SEAT Ibiza

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/u.../price-to/2000

VW Polo

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/u...rice-from/1000

 

1400-1600 focus.
Really can't fault mine, you'll get a nice mk1.5 for that budget easy, even better bargains to be had from the salvage yards if you wanna do alittle work.
Got mine light front end damage, mega low mileage for £500 quid on a 51 plate.
Panelled up and painted looks better than new.

 

Seat Ibiza.
Ka are great if a touch small,she would get a pristine mk5 fiesta for that money although their a bit long in the tooth.
Focus 3dr 1.6?
Maybe a touch thirsty but seriously good cars.

 

i have a yaris for 2 years now and it takes the beating all the time. nothing has eve happened to it ever

 

Small engined golfs are dismal,really struggle to pull that big lump along.polo a far better option,mk5 are lovely little cars 2000 on.

 

Great stuff cheers all, not interested in any work tbh, she's a mate of my girlfriends who's asked a favour on me to try and find her a reliable car. Needs something reliable for work and 5 doors to get her man in the back, performance isn't an issue but noted on the golf cheers gonna look into focus a bit more, also yaris and Almera possibly. What are the seats like for reliability and parts availability?

 

The Market for cheap small hatches is really strong at the moment so forget things like Yaris or Golf or Polo tdi as £1600 won't get you much these days.

Focus
Mazda 323/121
Astra
Seat Ibiza 1.4' sport

All those are a better bet for £1.5k if you want a good example with fsh and
Hpi clear.

 

Seen a couple of decent mk 6 Fiestas of through the auctions lately for sub 2k... If you fancy playing the auction lottery that is... Otherwise I default to Nissan Micra when it comes to cheap, reliable easy motoring.

 

1.6 focus is the best car for the budget IMO

 

SEAT is part of the VW/AUDI group along with SKODA

The Ibiza is basically a VW Polo, but in a prettier body and is cheaper to run/maintain.

The same can be said of the Skoda Fabia, again this shares the same mechanicals as the VW Polo, along with the SEAT Ibiza....ok the suspension set ups maybe different, but on the whole they are basically the same car with a different badge.

For VW Golf read SEAT Leon, Audi A3, same chassis, engines etc, but diferent costs to maintain depending on whether you are a badge snob or not

 

Cheers massively for that. Going to look at a few yaris' she's got lined up tomorrow night and also just saw a tidy w reg A170 Cdi merc manual for 2k. 111k miles . I reckon a few hundred off that would be a decent car For the money. Right I'll tell her to look for audis

 

Old Civic 1.6? around 98-01 shape.

 

Been looking for those but haven't found any local. Found 1 Honda jazz and few toyotas but no civics for the right money! Also the above post should've read 5 doors to get her nan in the back, not her man

 

How about a Ka?

My girlfriend loves her one!!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2308277064...84.m1555.l2649

Fiesta?