wrote:
On 6 May, 11:39, "Duncan Wood" wrote:
On Tue, 06 May 2008 11:26:23 +0100, MichaelS
wrote:
What would you buy if that was all you had to spend on a car? I'm
thinking maybe a Ford Focus or old Nissan Primera.

Whatever looks like the best buy at the time. & get insurance quotes.

What he said. Once cars have got to that sort of age, the difference
in reliability between 2 cars of the same make and model is likely to
be much more than between 2 different makes.

That said, if I cared more about reliability than performance or
handling, I would look at the korean cars. You are likely to get a
much newer one of them than a european car, and I have only heard good
things about there reliability. And if I was spending that much, I
would not want an old anything unless it was interesting (read fast).
You can get a quite new car (6 or 7 years old) for well under a grand
these days, so there is no point in going old.

Going rate for an 8 year old Focus looks like £1-2k. I recently picked up a
5 year old 406 HDI estate for £2.5k. If you avoid the German makes, the
depreciation is pretty vicious and the cars end up damned cheap for what
they are.

With fast stuff, you can easily be looking at a 15-20 year old Golf GTI at
that sort of money. Fast stuff tends to hold it's value.