Best Used Family Cars Under £1,000
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 29 August 2008
RESOURCES AND LINKS:
We’ve all been there haven’t we…living the life of riley, money in your stay-pressed chino pockets, flash car sitting on the drive, footloose and fancy free, then crash, bang wallop! Reality check time. It's now 2008. You’re married and there’s a further two pairs of Nintendo eyes staring back at you across the breakfast table of the new-build you’re struggling to keep up mortgage repayments on. Worse still, and the stay-pressed chinos have been replaced by some of George at Asda’s finest threads. And then there’s the motor. Or rather there would have been had you not had to flog it settle your trophy wife’s Botox bill. And your gambling debts and lap dancing club tab.So, with the wife now at the helm of the family finances you discover that you have the princely sum of £1,000 set aside for its ‘replacement’. Yippee! Similar to a Top Gear challenge you see problems ahead. You also believe that the unique selling proposition of a bargain basement buy will be the fact that if nothing else it will hopefully keep your barnet dry when travelling from A to B. Although opt for a ‘classic’ convertible as advertised in the small ad’s, and even that’s not a dead cert. right then, what exactly are the options?You’ve established that it’s got to be on the economic side of cheap, next to nothing to insure and good on the go-go juice. But bear in mind it’s got to accommodate four consenting passengers. Ok, it’s going to be a bit of a lottery we know, but there are still choices even at this level. All unique, any of this lot would do a job for you.
Ex-sales rep mobiles – worth all the hard sell?
Mondeo man. A phrase coined back in the Blair days and subsequently ridiculed by many, the trusty oval badged rep carrier, along with its then mighty motorway mile munching competition, the griffin logo’d Vectra, are not to be scoffed at. For starters they are still plentiful. They come in an evergreen range of models, and what's more, are definitely affordable on a £1,000 budget. Some may argue that they’ll all have intergalactic mileage and boots wedged with unsold lines of questionable lingerie, but ignore this scaremongering.Any medium size engined, relatively modern car that’s spent most of its ‘career’ on the motorways will not be considering retirement or a visit to the great scrapyard in the sky in the foreseeable. And that’s mainly because the gearbox, clutch and brakes (i.e., the important components) will have coped with a lot less stress than its ‘about town’ cousins. Plus, they’ll have been regularly serviced and generally petted heavily by their company owners, if not their cabin crew at the time. Also worth considering in the same mould, but possessing a little more, well, personality lets say, are the late 90’s Renault Laguna, Volvo S70, Peugeot 406 and Volkswagen’s Golf and Passat models.Obviously for the car-noisseurs amongst you I’d suggest you could raise that bar and take a ganders at the classy offerings of the same era from the well-heeled likes of BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Honda, however the budget would be more snapped than stretched.MT Best buy - 1998 Ford Mondeo 1.8 LX Turbo diesel, red, 60K, 6 months MOT - £950.Timeless classics – buy into the ultimate lifestyle vehicle
That said, if you’re looking for something a little more individual, to afford yourself an identity on the street (in a none prostitute way) once more then you could do a lot worse than the following ideas. Cult status is a word bandied around all too frequently these days. As is future classic. But trawl through the small ads with a powerful monocle and a magnifying glass the size of Jodrell Bank, and you’ll be quid’s in.Overlook a myriad of heart-wrenching stories of cars with Christian names and truth-stretched famous connections, and you might just stumble across a corker. Show off too much though, and you’ll end up with a prize munter as old skool becomes gets turned into a care home.A Rover P6, a Reliant Scimitar (technically four seats – not a problem), a Hillman Imp, Mercedes 500 (admittedly having seen much better days) or a Triumph Dolomite. All with four doors – excepting the previously excused Scimitar – all with history written all over them, more often than in a log book, all within your grasp.Listen. Your budget was never going to stretch to a 1967 E-Type Jaguar or a 1971 Ferrari Daytona, what did you expect? When we say classics, we mean a practical, everyday example of the genre that’s not been vacuum-sealed for the past 20 years. Think more the sort that are ‘discovered’ rotting in a barn in Surrey. Then be a little more optimistic.MT Best buy - 1975 Rover P6 2000TC, Lunar Grey, 75K, 11 months MOT - £9751990s Hot hatches – nostalgia, without the lack of spare parts
They may have been tooled around every spare ribbon of tarmac in your neighbourhood, or been holed up under a tarpaulin going nowhere fast for the better part of the last decade, but you don’t really care about the odds that stack up so heavily against ownership of something as potentially divorce-tempting as a once-great hot hatch, because you always promised yourself a bit of regression would be in order at some point with the advent of the mid-life crisis, so why not now when it ticks every box for every reason.Cheap and cheerful might sit alongside cheesy and Wotsits but you’ll never tire of the fun you could have blasting a Peugeot 205GTI – providing it’s the lairy 1.9-litre version and not the meek and feeble 1.6-litre - or Renault 5GT Turbo or Vauxhall Astra GSI back and forth. We say back and forth as the very straight and optionally narrow is the safest route to take when retracing your steps to Toytown.Excepting the go anywhere, do anything Pug 205 GTI that is, which can be chucked at any hairpin or apex and come back looking the same as when it went in so to speak. Which is more than can be said for the Renault 5GT Turbo, of which what’s engine would have blown with the thought of it. And the Astra GSI which would be blocking the flow of rainwater in a ditch nearby not quite knowing what to do when faced with a corner.MT Best buy – 1992 Peugeot 205 GTI, Diamond White, MOT, 134K - £750Q Cars – exactly. Sneak below the cool radar, and then creep up behind detractors
If you thought being cool means you have to stay calm as suggested above, and then think again, as what better way to fritter away £1,000 of your credit crunching car cash than on a Q car. At this point your face may be awash with the look of a perplexed man, unable to fathom or compute. But don’t fret, as MT always reveals all in its own inimitable way.A Q car is and always has been the automotive code for a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A true Q car is a deceptive character with ideas way above its un-aspirational-looking station. Porsche-baiting cars that look like they’d labour under a few bags of groceries and a French stick as they go through the motions. But oh no. Discernment is key to the Q car’s appeal to those in the know, and utter bewilderment to those asking the questions when destroyed at the traffic lights by something that looks more lethargic than a supposed job-seeker clutching his disability benefit. To qualify the car must look discreet, yet have enough going on under the bonnet to surprise.A Rover 620TI for instance holds no visual clues as to its willingness to embarrass the high and mighty of the car world, other than marginally wider alloys and an almost none-existent boot badge. Oh, and the most pathetic looking twin tailpipes ever to emerge from beneath a car. But it’s a riot of subdued Rover paintwork and tyre smoke when you apply the loud pedal and will leave many a GTI in its pensionable-looking wake, make no mistake. 143mph and 0 – 60mph in 7.0 seconds.A Volvo S70 T4 looks indistinguishable from a bog standard S70, a Saab 900CSE disguises 280bhp as a slab of Scandinavian flat pack constructed. A Lancia Thema hid a 3.2-litre Ferrari V8 under its underwhelming bushes for Godsakes, a de-tuned version of the lump found in a Ferrari 328, and could hit 60mph in 6.5 seconds. All blindingly fast, yet stupefyingly naff looking to the uneducated.MT Best buy – 1995 Rover 620 TI, British Racing Green, MOT July 2009, 65K - £780Diesel choice – frugal, yet still a bit fruity, there’s plenty of curveball ones knocking around
Diesel. A filthy word to some, the future of your relationship as far as you’re concerned. And remember, black smoke-belching oil burners have come a long way whilst you’ve been reproducing yourself. Sadly you’ll not necessarily buy into this widely-acknowledged snippet of info, as for less than £1,000, your range is more limiting. But it’s still not as gloomy as you might otherwise think.Nearly all the Citroen BX diesels have long since met their makers, any remaining Peugeot 406s have been converted to run on LPG or chip fat and outstanding Volkswagen Passat diesels are in the local knowledge-savvy hands of provincial taxi firms.So, how does a BMW 525TDS grab you? The blue propeller on the bonnet’s leading edge, a spread of hide and a smidgeon of wood-look plastics on the insides, and around 40mpg for having to dig deep into your reserves of social standing if not piggy bank.MT Best buy – 1995 BMW 525 TD SE, Imperial blue, 131K MOT - £950Off Road fun – head off the beaten track, and set your own trend
Regardless of your age and what the neighbours may think, you can still get down and dirty at any age. Although weekends are usually the best time as there’s less rushing involved and you can pack the kids off to the relatives. Although don’t tell your friends, as they’ll probably want to join you. We’re talking mud-wrestling, but not in the way you may have first thought.Four wheel drives, whilst not being known for their fuel-sipping ways, do their level – and decidedly unlevel – best to put you back in touch with nature. There are not many outdoor pursuits that pack in as much of the fun factor as scaling a 1:4 gradient whilst tucked safely behind the wheel of a Land Rover, or something as utilitarian and genuinely versatile. Versatile enough to enable you to take the kids on the school run during the week – and upset the Chelsea Tractor brigade by going so au naturel – as well as indulging in a bit of cross-country if your moods takes you intrepidly where others cant travail.The erstwhile Land Rover Defender SWB would be the first choice we suspect, because it’s pretty cool and different, as well as dependable and as loyal as the family dog. However colours are limited to either dark green or a sort of china blue. Parts are cheap and plentiful mind. Other variations on an affordable, occasional off-road motoring theme include the early 1990s Nissan Patrol GR, Mitsubishi Shogun of the same era and ditto Toyota Hilux Surf. But the last couple will probably tip the scales.MT Best buy – 1990 Land Rover Defender 90 diesel, that china blue colour, 109K, MOT, £800Motor homes – they may be the only option if things go all Pete Tong
OK. We don’t wish to tempt fate or owt, but the chances are you may not pull through this phase of denial and return to marital bliss, so you best hedge your bets and perhaps plug for a motor home. See where we’re going with this one? Admittedly the range on offer at this price level won’t afford you the 3 bed semi-detached luxury to which you’ve become accustomed, but it will double as a vehicle to get from A – B in. And even entertain.The spec this sort of money puts you in the bracket for includes converted Ford Transits, converted ambulances, converted Leyland DAF Sherpa van….in fact, a lot of ‘converted’ vehicles that like you, started off with different intentions. Still, once you pull the curtains, it’s just like being at home again.Nearly always diesel, they’d all be pretty economical with the oil-burning stuff where it not for the fact that the van-calibrated snails are humping an enormously un-aerodynamic mound on their backs. Parking’s easy enough though, as there are lay-bys and motorway services everywhere.MT Best buy – 1984 Ford Transit 100 Custom, dark blue, 81K, 11 months MOT - £620Estate of mind – its 2008, estates aren’t called estates any more. And they’re hip
There was a time when estate cars were seen as just the hulking great, style-bereft hod carriers of the car world, and treated by owners with the same respect. Dogs, wardrobes, garden machinery, bricks and mortar and any other needless trinkets. There wasn’t anything that wasn’t routinely uprooted and firmly planted in the business end of the original one-tier, two-dimensional people carrier.But then everything changed, as Audi, BMW and Mercedes - and even Volvo finally caught on – decided to call its estate cars names like the Avant, Tourer and Wagon. As if to imply and underline a hitherto unheard of greatness and order of importance. And with it, determining what purpose the car then served. Dogs were still allowed, but everything else was work fit only for a van.Unfortunately, your money is old money, and pre-decimalisation estates were workhorses. A Volvo 850 is good to go, as is what Audi used to call the 80 and 100 estate. Elsewhere the Merc 230TE will do your £1,000 proud and should polish up well once you remove the cobwebs and replace the starter motor. Or wrestle it from the steel grabbers of an automated car pressing/folding machine and turn the milometer back from 1684.MT Best buy – 1990 Mercedes-Benz 230TE estate, dark blue, 207K, July 2009 MOT - £650
See Also:
Click here for more Motoring costs stories
Click here for more Used Cars stories
Budget 2008: What it means to you
What the 2008 budget mean to car-buyers: fuel duty delayed; higher road tax for gas guzzlers; biofuel tax break scrapped.
Top Ten Cult Cars
What are the top ten best cult cars? The Batmobile, KITT or General Lee? Check out our list of the ten best cult cars.
Budget 2008: New road tax bands
A list of the new road tax bands as described in the 2008 budget. Cars are placed in VED bands acording to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the vehicle.
'Help, I´ve put petrol in a diesel engine' - Frequently Asked Questions
Around 400 people a day risk damaging their car by misfuelling, and filling up with gas is a mistake that could cost thousands. So what do you do if you´ve filled up your diesel car with unleaded petrol?
Bugatti Veyron: Buying the best car in the world
We have all seen the Bugatti Veyron by now. Do you want one? Then you have to sign a contract with the company which - quite frankly - is rather absurd.
advertisement
Jaguar has introduced the new performance-orientated diesel XF S – which also returns an impressive 42mpg. | 05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models. | 05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire. | 05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January. | 05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises. | 05/01/2009
|05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire.
|05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models.
|05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises.
|05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January.
|05/01/2009
The Association of British Insurers have revealed that an increasing amount of people are jeopardising their insurance cover by lying or failing to disclose information.
|01/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has acquired Pinco 1555 Ltd, including all 53 of LSUK's 53 branches, together with subsidiaries M I Diesel Products, Protech Automotive (UK) and Yeovil Rewind.
|20/11/2007
Around 400 people a day risk damaging their car by misfuelling, and filling up with gas is a mistake that could cost thousands. So what do you do if you´ve filled up your diesel car with unleaded petrol?
|06/12/2007
Fuel protests similar to those that brought the UK to a halt in 2000 are being planned by a breakaway group of disaffected hauliers, according to press reports.
|07/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has put out a statement on the closure of LSUK, stating that a closure of the business was unavoidable due to a 'lack of support'.
|06/10/2008
LSUK, thought to have been rescused by Euro Car Parts, has been unexpectedly closed by the new owners with the loss of over 600 jobs.
Search Motortorque:
No readers comments
Be the first to write a comment on this article