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Ideas and suggestions for circa £2k or less shed or a car

MrGreedy

MrGreedy

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
2,570
Location
Here and there
Car
E350 CDI
Hi

With high car prices, I'm thinking of cashing in the E class. Best car I've ever owned and maintained to a very high standard.

In order to cash in, this means buying a cheap turd box of a family car load lugger. I'm only doing about 3k miles a year, so petrol would be appropriate.

Estate, SUV, MPV.
Needs to be suitable to put non isofix car seat in the back, so 5 door.

At this hateful price point, I can't be picky with options. Top of list is well maintained history and clean inside. Non paint breaching external cosmetic issues are irrelevant.

I've seen Renault Scenic, Skoda Octavia, Focus Estate, Mazda 6 estate and Honda C-RV.
All mid 2000s age. Around 100k miles or less.
Last year when I was looking, Audi estates of the above criteria were also in scope, but I see they have edged up to circa £3.5k plus.

Any recommendations learned forumites?
 
You used to be able to get some great old cars back in about 2019 BC (that's Before Covid!) for sub £1000......now it seems that any old piece of junk with an MOT has got a 2 grand plus price tag.....most also have more miles than the Enterprise. I was trying to help a young friend buy a cheap Corsa/Fiesta type first car......utter rubbish for the money.....many of them were one step away from the breakers....and I'd love to know where some got their "new MOT" from.....probably one of those special £100 MOTs you can get!!!
 
Just got my nephew a nice 2008 Astra 1.4 for his first car. Roomy, economical and hopefully reliable. Has a cd, electric windows and even rear parking sensors otherwise a bit light on other items. Bit of a come down from your E350 but ..
 
What about a 5 door RAV4 , 2004 onwards , they are very well built , ultra reliable, enjoy driving ours, definitely not a shed, our 3 door version actually sells for higher prices than the 5 door .
 
Maybe I was just uncharacteristically lucky, but having bought a 2003 ex demo and run it for over 100K miles (and it was still going strong with no body rot when I sold it), my vote would be an Octavia.
 
5dr Rav could be a good shout.

I'm not in any way financially forced to do this, I'm just concerned about when diesel supply is hit by a 40% import reduction by the end of the year, the pain in the backside of finding diesel fuel probably along with rationing of diesel, and the potentially massive resultant loss in retail or diesel vehicles will be annoying. Affordable for me, but annoying. Hence the look to move to something else now, and locking in high value in resale means something reassembling a shed.

The cash difference is probably about £6-7k. But that doesn't take into account the hassle of buying and older shed with 1 million niggles and things that need fixing!
 
Saab 9-5 estate will do you well at that price. A few miles on most, but.....

Mondeo or Insignia estates (or even Volvos) worth a look?
Most Zafiras will be very well used at £2k
 
Amazingly my wife’s 2004 Rav ( her third ) with 80k on the clock generally sails through its mot , last time cost me a £12 exhaust gasket . Over nearly 5 years has cost a new exhaust system , an auto gear selector and set of discs and pads plus second hand £50 electric window motor total about £1000 in addition to usual servicing costs. Almost no depreciation at about average of £4-500 per year , probably appreciated this year 😂. Now running it as our only car as I spent all the Mercedes money on our house refurbishment . Can do a 200 mile run and find myself only a little more fatigued than when I had the SLK55 so hence why I would recommend one
 
fabes said:
Saab 9-5 estate will do you well at that price. A few miles on most, but.....

Mondeo or Insignia estates (or even Volvos) worth a look?
Most Zafiras will be very well used at £2k
Click to expand...
I had a 59 plate insignia estate (diesel) 2 years ago before the Merc. Mist have put £5k into repairs, mostly myself over the 2 years I owned it, and is showed no sign of slowing down on fault generation. If I'd paid a garage, that could have easily been £8-10k, and probably north of £14k via the Vauxhall dealership. I'm a bit nervous about a Vaux after that
 
I would see if you can get a Mondeo Mk4 hatchback. I sold mine to our neighbour on 160k miles years ago and it's still going and still looks presentable. Massively competent and actually handles much better than the E (at least my E). Great load carrying capacity, cheap to fix (though i only spent £1k on mine on repairs in the 7 years or so i had it, and most of that was a DMF). The Titanium X ones are surprisingly well equipped.
 
Mercedes B Class,

SAAB Estates,

or James Bond's Casino Royale car.

If it's only 3k miles a year, why not an A or B class. Why not a ....VW Golf ?

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ChrisHGTV said:
I would see if you can get a Mondeo Mk4 hatchback. I sold mine to our neighbour on 160k miles years ago and it's still going and still looks presentable. Massively competent and actually handles much better than the E (at least my E). Great load carrying capacity, cheap to fix (though i only spent £1k on mine on repairs in the 7 years or so i had it, and most of that was a DMF). The Titanium X ones are surprisingly well equipped.
Click to expand...
Great minds think alike. As you can see above, we were both typing the same message at the same time.


Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

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Last edited:
I think there is some risk in attempting to play the market based on your assumption that diesel prices may go the way you think and petrol won’t go the same way .
You may be wrong and end up selling a ”known” good condition diesel car for an “unknown “ petrol car and the diesel market doesn’t then go the way you think ( for instance a deal is done in Ukraine) .
 
Nissan X-Trail.

Enjoyed the one I had for a couple of years.
 
O
W1ghty said:
I think there is some risk in attempting to play the market based on your assumption that diesel prices may go the way you think and petrol won’t go the same way .
You may be wrong and end up selling a ”known” good condition diesel car for an “unknown “ petrol car and the diesel market doesn’t then go the way you think ( for instance a deal is done in Ukraine) .
Click to expand...
It's not diesel prices I'm worried about. It's getting hold of diesel.
 
Oh boy @Darrell I love that Saab rag top.
Unfortunately, being the man, I can't have the fun car, I have to have the load lugging, trip to tip carrying, child eating and vomiting abuse wagon.
Currently, I'm super careful with the E. Shoes off. Child lifted into seat. No food or drink in the back. Pay for delivery or renting a van.
But getting the little boy in the back of the convertible plus load lugging might be an issue.
We have a France trip in the summer, and the E will (or would, depending on how this goes) be awesome for it.
 
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