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Cars that go on forever


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So here's the deal.

 

You have £2,000 to spend on a car. Any car you like, as long as it meets this criteria:

 

Current mileage doesn't matter, but it has to look tidy

It has to be reliable enough to do 12,000 miles per year

It has to have room for 4 adults inside

It has to be comfortable

It has to be a hatchback or an estate

It has to be reasonably economical

It has to be reasonably quick, not a wheezy old bus that takes a week to get to 60 and won't go over 50 uphill!

It has to have at least two years (24k miles) left in it, probably more

If it does go wrong it has to be fairly cheap and easy to repair

 

What would you get?

 

It's just a question for discussion, but it makes me sad that lots of perfectly serviceable cars have been crushed just to support car manufacturers over-capacity. Modern cars that have been serviced seem to go on forever, and don't rust away like they used to, and surely using them is 'greener' than buying a new one, even if they do a few less mpg?

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Agreed on the Audi, maybe something like an A4 avant. Estate that you can get in a 1.9tdi, mpgs are probably not too shabby as well.

 

I do agree the scrappage scheme does seem counter productive in a lot of ways.

 

I can't really talk though we've having our Mondeo ST200 2.5V6 crushed in favour of a 1.4tdi fiesta, it'll save us so much money in fuel.

 

It'll be sad to see it go in a lot of ways, but this particular example has not been well cared for and has too many problems :(

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I'm not a driver just yet but Ford Escorts are pretty good, my ex partner had one and i was with him 3 years without no problems what so ever. It drove us to France and back twice with no problems and was very cheap on petrol etc and was a nice looking car.

 

They were pretty reliable but not many left now - are you talking the last one before the Focus came out? I have to say though I wouldn't touch one because I had one as a company car briefly that was an absolute dog - I found out later that two other engineers had crashed it and it had never been the same since, but it put me off them! Funny how you are irrational even when you try not to be! Incidentally those Escorts were much better from M plate onwards when Ford made quite a lot of revisions to the suspension as I recall.

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I would say an Audi, a friend had one with 198,000 on the clock and was still going strong.

 

Good call - I used to work with a guy with an Audi 100 Avant with god knows how many miles on it; it was about 15 years old. From the outside it looked fine, but he gave me a lift in it once and the inside was a mess - I think he might have been living in it! It went prefectly well though, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still is 15 years later.

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They're all equally crap nowadays. Audis did indeed used to be known for longevity (as did the sister VWs) but all cars today are designed for a '10/15 years then bin' life-cycle.

 

Escorts (the last ones) are only good on account of their reliability and only reliable on account of their simplicity. 2 grand would buy you a gold plated one, I should think.

 

Personally i'd be inclined to hunt down a Skoda Octavia

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I'm not a driver just yet but Ford Escorts are pretty good, my ex partner had one and i was with him 3 years without no problems what so ever. It drove us to France and back twice with no problems and was very cheap on petrol etc and was a nice looking car.

 

Was it on fire then? :hihi:

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The best ive ever had is my dads cavalier...Paid £70 for it 4 years ago,...inc all mot work and repairs ive spent about £200 on it in that time....servicing??...whats that??.....Ive never changed oil..topped coolent up or nothing....This car will never break down. :-)

 

Other than that the other best car ive ever had was a Toyota Corolla...Again,had it a few years and,never broke down and cost me next to nothing.

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