Cheapest Car ....

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Timster

Active Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
556
Location
Scottish Borders
Car
Currently Merc' Less.
Hi.

As a money saving exercise with child no. 2 on the way we're looking at trading my wifes 10 yr old 1.6 Focus for something cheap.

The focus is averaging 35 mpg and always seems to be going wrong since turning 100k in the summer.

The plan is to use the focus as a deposit and lease something small and cheap.
We'll keep the S210 E220CDI for family stuff and long drives, and I'll use the new cheap machine for commuting etc

Looking at annual mileage approx 8k
Not keen on putting down a huge depost - probably just use the Focus (Value approx £500)

Best contenders so far:

Kia Rio 1.1 crdi
Corsa 1.3 CDTI
Citroen C1

Happy to have a diesel (would prefer) DPF not an issue as daily commute approx 50 miles on fast A road (A68 from Borders to Edinburgh)

Anyone got any good ideas for me.

Remember, the plan is to save money so looking at:

Low Spec
High MPG
Low VED
Low insurance category

Cheers!
 
I can't see any car lease being cheaper than running a 35 mpg £500 Focus

Nick Froome
 
Avoid the C1, they're just tiny.

Avoid the Corsa, terrible interior.

Get the Kia, they have to give you a lot for your money as it's a Kia, and they're trying to build trust in their name. Look at Hyundai for the same reasons.
 
Kia Rio 1.1 crdi
Corsa 1.3 CDTI
Citroen C1

When looking at insurance for my son, we found a few anomalies in the insurance market. For example, it was cheaper (by £800) to insure a six month old VW Polo 1.4 Match than a Corsa 1.0 base model of any age. You only have to look at what the yoof are driving to see what is going to attract a higher premium and a boring, reliable, staid VW Polo is not cool, apparently………I paraphrase the insurance company reps' answers to my obvious question.
BTW, I am in no way plugging VW, just using it as an example………..I would disregard the Corsa & C1 and go for the Kia or something else.
 
Kia Picanto can be had for £75 a month but I think it would need more of a deposit than just the focus. The latest version is very good.
 
Kia also have a 7 year warranty - that's got to be worthwhile. :thumb:







Not that MB would ever need to offer so long a warranty - they are far too reliable to ever go wrong… :eek:



.
 
You will in no way be disappointed with the Kia, but treat the MPG figures with a pinch of salt.

I paid for the three year service up front at £300 (I think they are doing this for £99 on the VR7) and the only cost so far has been fuel, insurance and a pair of wiper blades.
I'm expecting similar costs until year four.

If you're thinking of the Rio, I think there are deals on the VR7 'special'
 
Kia Picanto can be had for £75 a month but I think it would need more of a deposit than just the focus. The latest version is very good.

How is £75 / month cheaper than a Focus?

Those rates will be for 6000 miles a year. I calculate your mileage to be about 12k for a 50 mile commute. At 14p / mile the extra 6k will cost £840 / year

Buying a new car to save money is like fighting for peace. It never quite turns out the way you planned

Nick Froome
 
How is £75 / month cheaper than a Focus?

Nick Froome

The OP isn't looking for something cheap-er than the old Focus, just something cheap to run. And who knows what the Focus may start costing.

Mitsubishi Mirage? 0% apr deals at present.
 
I'm aware it won't be cheaper initially than the focus, but the focus is getting expensive with a timing belt due and lots of other niggly faults.

If I can find something cheap to run then I might end up better off in the long run. There's only another year or so left in the focus anyhow.

Currently interested in a 61 plate Yaris at my local Toyota dealer. 0%apr available.

Not the cheapest car by a long shot but would suit my wife perfectly and allow me to stick to the merc!
 
We have a C1 and it is a great city car but driving it 50 miles every day would be torture.
The new C1 does look a lot better but I've yet to test drive one to compare the refinement differences.
 
Do you really need 2 cars? If your mileage is that low mpg oughtn't be a big consideration. Running an S210 for occasional use isn't economic so why not use it as a daily drive.
 
We do need 2 cars. We live very rurally so I need one for work and she needs one for life with 2 kids. Annual combined mileage 22k.

My commuting approx 8k pa

We tried with one car - doesn't work!
 
The OP isn't looking for something cheap-er than the old Focus, just something cheap to run. And who knows what the Focus may start costing.

Mitsubishi Mirage? 0% apr deals at present.

He's looking to save money - that's the point if the exercise.

If the OP doesn't mind doing a few of the basic jobs himself, I'd suggest that the £900 p.a. spent on a Kia Picanto (or anything else for that matter) will be enough to tax, insure, MOT, service and repair the Focus for another year with change to spare.
 
Thousands of people (maybe millions) want the cheapest car to run as the number one priority. Accepted they have different other needs such as the mileage per year, but interestingly we don't see (almost) everyone driving exactly the same car around......this suggests that the "holy grail" of cheapest possible motoring isn't in fact that easy to achieve, or answer.

There's a lot of sense in

1. Running a <£1000 car
2. Not changing your current car

since 1) a lot of money is "lost" in depreciation. And if you're leasing etc, don't think you're getting away from this, its effectively a large proportion of what you're paying
And 2) every time you change car, you never seem to make enough money from the sale or trade-in of the old car (never really get your money back); and the new car always (ok, most of the time) seems to need a few jobs doing to get it sorted nicely. After all, there's a reason why someone else sold it or traded it in for another. And don't be fooled by secondhand car warranties covering you. Yes they'll cover the basics but there's plenty else on a car they won't cover for various reasons.

So I'd say in the OP's particular circumstances, boring as it is, keeping the Ford Focus makes a lot of sense. Sorry its a really dull option but there you go.
 
Interesting points all round.

However - my original question was "what is the cheapest car to run."

It might work out cheaper in the short term to keep the focus on the road, however 3 years down the line (or maybe less, hopefully more) the focus will reach the end of it's life.

I do all the routine maintenance myself where possible, but will be paying someone to do the timing belt as it's beyond me time, tools and knowledge so there's a circa £500 payment looming.

We think the current plan is to stick to the status quo - I'll stay in the merc and we'll keep the focus running for another year or more if we can.

Meanwhile I'll be keeping an ear to the round for a super economical car to come my way, or as we'd both prefer - a good quality C 220D estate for her to move into!

The more we thought about it, if you're going to be spending money on a car, you may as well have something you want to be in!
 
Interesting points all round.

However - my original question was "what is the cheapest car to run."

It might work out cheaper in the short term to keep the focus on the road, however 3 years down the line (or maybe less, hopefully more) the focus will reach the end of it's life.

I do all the routine maintenance myself where possible, but will be paying someone to do the timing belt as it's beyond me time, tools and knowledge so there's a circa £500 payment looming.

We think the current plan is to stick to the status quo - I'll stay in the merc and we'll keep the focus running for another year or more if we can.

Meanwhile I'll be keeping an ear to the round for a super economical car to come my way, or as we'd both prefer - a good quality C 220D estate for her to move into!

The more we thought about it, if you're going to be spending money on a car, you may as well have something you want to be in!

In theory the "cheapest" car to run would be a small diesel, with a basic (non-ECU) engine. Years ago I had a peugeot 106 diesel. It was a 1.5, not even a turbodiesel. It had just about adequate performance, and did the things other cars did - go from A-B, had electric windows, central locking, a sunroof, but that's about it. It went in for the MoT and failed on a number of things, one of which was welding on the rear end. This particular 106 was a bit rusty. I worked out that EVEN WITH approx £500 repairs to fix all the small faults it had, it would be more economical to do these repairs and keep it because it was just so good at fuel economy, 60+mpg being quite achievable. Even the modern turbodiesels couldn't achieve this, because of their weight. I was looking at saving £1000+ per year on the fuel compared to say a 1.6 petrol, and that money could be part-put into its running repairs.

In the end, I lost confidence with the car and wanted another, so I sold it with lots of MoT on it and I dare say its still running fine. Spent more money on its replacements, but they've been cars with more comforts, quieter, more performance and more features etc.
 
Replacing the cam belt on a 1.6 petrol Focus won't cost £500. The common faults on these seem to be bad coil packs and cam covers leaking oil. The cam covers get distorted when overtightened and they leak even worse than before… Headlamp bulbs are a pain to replace so take it to Halfords and get them to do it

A friend has my dad's old 2002 1.6 Focus and I think it's a brilliant car. Aircon and a heated windscreen - are heated windscreens even available on Mercedes models?

There's an awful lot to be said for worthless cars, particularly when they drive as well as a Focus

Nick Froome
 
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