Best small Car for £2500...?

[paulus2112]

I have also until now been 100% anti French cars, but with £2,500 to spend there does seem to be a lot of the buggers about in good nick with low miles and few owners.

I'd have preferred to get the missus a Polo, but a decent one is as rare as the preverbial rocking horse excrement it seems - certainly for the budget.

In the previous thread we've talked about the Ka being a deathtrap in a crash, although I know someone that rolled one and survived injury free, I assume this being because the Ka is basically a sphere with a flat bottom!

The 206 we just bought has come under fire for being useless in a crash, although it did get 4 stars in the Euro NCAP test - no ABS though but it's mainly a round town car so not really worried.

Obviously the car was for the missus so it was her call at the end of the day, I figured the 206 was the lesser of the many evils out there!

What do you guys think what's best small family hatchback for £2500?

[lambo-lude]

civic...
A LUDE
astra
polo
golf

[paulus2112]

I was trying to get her approval on a Civic, new ones too expensive, old ones are apparently, I quote "incredibly uninteresting" - This was the point at which I gave up!

Preludes are "Too pointy" (Exactly why I like them myself) and are "enormously unpractical"

Astras are "Too grown up looking"

Polos are cool, we actually agreed on this, but hard to find one in a dealer, we wanted the warrantee etc. Loads around 1998 didn't have power steering either for some mad reason.

Golfs need at least a 1.8 engine in my opinion and she doesn't need an engine that big.

Sadly the Pug won over all these! it is a sorry state of affairs....

Could have been worse though, we didn't end up with a Citroen or a Fiat.

[macca]

I'm not a fan of Astra's, all the ones old and new that I've been in have been crap and the build quality is awful.

Civic's are nice but yeh, they are a bit uninspiring!

The polo is probably the best bet, I wouldn't have been so worried about the warranty either as most of them aren't worth the paper they're written on as they try to wriggle out of everything.

You can get a much better after market warranty that will actually cover things that go wrong.

Going to a dealer just means you get stiffed for the privilege of having some jumped up twit talk bollocks to you whilst you try to buy the car, and then get told to sod off if anything goes wrong after they get your money.

At least in a private sale, you get a cheaper car usually in better condition and expect not to have any comeback should something go wrong. Saves the stress.

[paulus2112]

fair point, but what muppet would buy our purple Ka for £750?

at least with a dealer you get a yrs MOT a change of oil and some comeback if you get down the road and the clutch falls out!

warantees are ok if you know what your getting and yeah some dealers are a pain in the arse, the one we went to was good, just gave us the keys and left us to it!

[Stavros]

Toyota starlet turbo ;)

[macca]

Fair enough, best of luck with it and I really hope you have more luck with it than any French car I've come across :d

Ooh, Starlet Turbo, now there's an idea! Only a 1.3 too ;)

[Stavros]

Not french, has a turbo, 1.3 (economical-ish)...all i see is positives :D