Find my sister a car.

[Kezzieboy]

Lol at the petrol vs diesel argument that CAR brings into all these threads.

It IS true of newer cars, I wish the ecoboost petrol Fiestas were old enough to be a similar price to my 1.6 TDCi Focus...I'd have already swapped it for one if they were, the petrol would be considerably cheaper in all aspects apart from purchase price.

However, at £1500, you're not looking at many economical petrols, the 1.3 square shape Fiesta for example, terrible mpg and high tax due to that.  Diesel servicing costs roughly the same in my experience.  Yes some need 'special' oil, but so do newer petrols, Mums uses something like 0w20!

So really it comes down to either buying a petrol which will cost more to run, but isn't likely to break anything expensive.  OR buy a diesel which costs less to run, but all your savings will be wiped out IF something like a DMF or turbo fails...  You're f*cked either way basically.

I know right. And a lot of small petrol cars have serious reliability issues too, so it's not all gravy there either (headgaskets being a common one across all manner of engines!)

Basically, buy your sister an 80's 1.1 205. It will cost nothing, never break, cost sod all to fuel, insure and service, and be a damn sight better to drive and more relaible than any modern shite!

Unless you want electric anything, modern air conditioning, a car without major rust issues (it's going to have lived in Cornwall most of it's life, remember), or something that your average young person will recognise as style. I agree with most of your arguments about old cars, but the aren't the answer to EVERY question. 10yo cars offer a great balance of value for money and technological advances.

I agree with both sides of the argument...

From my experience - even though it might actually be a little cheaper to purchase a petrol car, slightly more to fuel, but slightly less to service - it's the resale that kills it for me..

I know for a fact that people will snap up a 306 HDi in no time at all, especially if in good condition! They're in mega high demand!

Go try do the same for a 1.4/1.6/1.8 petrol car, nobody wants them, because they know they're pretty vile on fuel etc... People will always pay a premium for a "cheap to run" diesel car... Same with my V50, my car instantly has another £1-1.5k (on a car that's probably worth £3.5k!!!) on the price PURELY because it's a diesel! Plus the fact that I know that even though the petrol models are "worth" a little less, they're even more of a bastard to sell - you've got to find a buyer!

But it DOES mean if you're in the market for a slightly thirstier petrol model, because you prefer the sound/revs/fits with your religion/makes you feel fuzzy/think you're ken block etc you can get some cracking deals on them.

Exactly, my T5 was silly cheap, because it's a big thirsty petrol. Makes little difference to me as I'm only likely to do about 6k miles in the next 12 months, and can eek reasonable economy out of pretty much anything anyway.

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Also, forgot to mention, she's looked at these two over the last couple days:

C3 No1

C3 No2

Apparantly the blue one was really tidy, it's the 16v HDi, with 90bhp. Grey/Purple one less so, so she's made an offer on the blue one and is waiting to hear back. She's being f*cked around by insurance though, as ever. Is there any way of changing cars mid-policy without getting utterly f*cked over?