Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Vamps on 22 May 2009, 00:01:50
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For years I have threatened my youngest stepson that he will be driving a Mini (a real one) when he is 17 :y Thing is, they are a lot of money, need at least £1500 for anything half decent, can hardly believe it, a Mig is cheaper than almost any Mini :(
Ideas for a cheap and cheerful car, easy and cheap to fix, tax and insure. I am out of touch with more modern cars, but only want to be spending a few hundred pounds. Only one Metro on ebay :o so thinking Ford fiesta, or similar............... :-/ :-/
Edit. i should add that I may well trade in the Mig for something as it is just sitting there doing nothing, may try a swap......... :-[ :-[ :-X
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Nothing is going to be "cheap" to insure at 17, especially on a provisional license.
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For years I have threatened my youngest stepson that he will be driving a Mini (a real one) when he is 17 :y Thing is, they are a lot of money, need at least £1500 for anything half decent, can hardly believe it, a Mig is cheaper than almost any Mini :(
Ideas for a cheap and cheerful car, easy and cheap to fix, tax and insure. I am out of touch with more modern cars, but only want to be spending a few hundred pounds. Only one Metro on ebay :o so thinking Ford fiesta, or similar............... :-/ :-/
Personally I like Corsa's :y
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Nothing is going to be "cheap" to insure at 17, especially on a provisional license.
I realise that :'( :'( :'(
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Don't know whether to spend decent money or not, :-/ thinking cheap, as about a month ago I pulled his mate out of a car he had rolled into a field ::) ::) ::)
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When i was 17 i had a Pugglet 205 GTi 1.6 it cost £600 and cost £800 to insure lol i smashed that into a field and nearly rolled it!
Little cars that are £500ish and cheap to insure and are reliableish: Seat Ibiza 1.4, VW Polo, Puglet 205 & 106 & 306,Renault clit but dire reliability on older ones!!!,most ford fiesta's 1.25s are still £900+ for good examples,Nissan almera & Micra bullet proof!! theres more but cant think of them right now but theres a few in the list!
i know where theres a lovely Ibiza 1.4 CLS forsale :y its SWMBO's
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When i was 17 i had a Pugglet 205 GTi 1.6 it cost £600 and cost £800 to insure lol i smashed that into a field and nearly rolled it!
Little cars that are £500ish and cheap to insure and are reliableish: Seat Ibiza 1.4, VW Polo, Puglet 205 & 106 & 306,Renault clit but dire reliability on older ones!!!,most ford fiesta's 1.25s are still £900+ for good examples,Nissan almera & Micra bullet proof!! theres more but cant think of them right now but theres a few in the list!
i know where theres a lovely Ibiza 1.4 CLS forsale :y its SWMBO's
I think 1.4 is over the car tax bracket???? :-/ Swop for a Mig Estate? :D
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VW Polo or Seat Ibiza = Can't go wrong, Safe, Strong, Normally reliable and if not quite easy to fix, unless it's got a sunroof, I had one of each and both had sunroofs and I would regularly get a wet bottom and a shower on the way to college. Only problem is they hold their value quite well so might be a bit pricey. I'd stick to German reliabilityand solidness as apposed to french crumple zones and electrics problems.
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Most important thing on the 1.4 AEX Vw engine to check is HG Failure very common down usually down to a faulty fan switch and check the crank breathers if they block then the crank seal goes but they leak loads and loads of oil when this happens
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Amen to the breathers
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VW Polo or Seat Ibiza = Can't go wrong, Safe, Strong, Normally reliable and if not quite easy to fix, unless it's got a sunroof, I had one of each and both had sunroofs and I would regularly get a wet bottom and a shower on the way to college. Only problem is they hold their value quite well so might be a bit pricey. I'd stick to German reliabilityand solidness as apposed to french crumple zones and electrics problems.
Bought one of those to go to work and back (5 miles return) about 5 years ago,killed it dead in 2 months ::) :-[,replaced it with a 1.1 205,did exactly the same thing,decided me and small cars arent cut out for each other. :D ;D
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Thank you for your ideas, as I say, I am out of touch these days. Is there anything that has proper ignition and carb set up, like in the olden day's but modern...... :'( I am not getting into anything with breather problems or ECU's. please just an ordinary engine.
At this rate it could be a 'Series' Land Rover.......... ::) ::)
Swop a Mig for one, anyone..........
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Just remembered I may know of a Ford Ka going for £50 near by all I know is it's got couple months tax just run out of MOT couple of weeks ago. Will try and find out n let ya know A.S.A.P
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Just remembered I may know of a Ford Ka going for £50 near by all I know is it's got couple months tax just run out of MOT couple of weeks ago. Will try and find out n let ya know A.S.A.P
Thanks, but i think that might be too cheap........... :y
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All cars will have injection/ecu etc nowadays to pass emissions test. :y
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All cars will have injection/ecu etc nowadays to pass emissions test. :y
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im having same prob mike my lad wants a car !! probly be a corsa or a punto :y
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the 1.3 Polo is a Carb engine & VX Nova's
Punto's are really really bad for reliability!
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The Corsa is a good car and only level 2 with insurance :y :y
My eldest son has driven and owned Corsa's since 17 years of age. 8-) 8-)
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We got no.2 daughter a 1.1 saxo for her 17th, cheap to insure and she's still using it 2 years on :y
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Do not buy a 3 cylinder polo, one missfire and the timing chain stretches and eventually jumps the teeth resulting in a new engine.
Electrician at work had this exact thing happen, and that was a 2002/3 reg polo. It has 3 seperate coils, and yes they fail. common problem.
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ann's civic coupe was a cheap enough car to buy and insure and has not let us down since i cleaned out the throttle body :y
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Nothing is going to be "cheap" to insure at 17, especially on a provisional license.
I realise that :'( :'( :'(
Do what I did, be a complete idiot and buy an omega :D
Four digit insurance renewal :-X
Seriously though, I did my test in a micra and it was just fine, and cheap enough :y
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TBH Mike most small cars are reasonable. As you said, it's not worth spending too much as most youngsters have a prang of some sort in the early days... Although not normally quite as spectacular as the one you witnessed :o :o :o
I disagree with the comment on the Punto though... As with any car, as long as it's maintained they are reliable enough! I find most small cars lack in "driveability" and feedback but get on with it!
If I were to pick one though I'd probably go for a Corsa.... Although try to steer clear of the 1.0 as a lot of them are 3 pots :y :y
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No really bad small cars.
The polo is over rated and a pretty shite drive, there not as reliable as the pre 1992 units which had no features (most not even having servo brakes).
The Micra pushrod engine variants suffer bad cam wear at 100K ish miles.
Fiestat still seem to rot the floor pan and sills out (easy to check though)
Corsas, avoid the 3 pot 1.0, its a bit slow.
Small Renaults tend to suffer cluch cable issues which gets worse as the clucth wears down.
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The little fiats are reliable, and more rustproof that in years gone by, and dirt cheap.
Corsas are a possibility, but newer ones hold price too well, and older ones are pretty naff.
Fiestas, any built in the last 10-12yrs seem to be mechanically reasonable, but watch out for rust.
Rover 200/25, HG problems, particularly bad on 1.4 and 1.8, otherwise robust
clit, seem to be reliable mechanically, luxury electrics such as windows/locking etc will fail on older ones.
Polo, reputation for reliability, but the 2 that colleagues have always seem to be in the garage for something, and parts aren't cheap.
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Watch the Fitas.....they suffer head gasket failures almost as often as the K series lumps
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Watch the Fitas.....they suffer head gasket failures almost as often as the K series lumps
And the diesel ones, certainly that 1.2 (or is it 1.4?) diesel, seems to have ECU issues...
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Watch the Fitas.....they suffer head gasket failures almost as often as the K series lumps
And the diesel ones, certainly that 1.2 (or is it 1.4?) diesel, seems to have ECU issues...
Dont seem to be any worse than most others (I suspect they are the same unit!)
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Watch the Fitas.....they suffer head gasket failures almost as often as the K series lumps
And the diesel ones, certainly that 1.2 (or is it 1.4?) diesel, seems to have ECU issues...
Dont seem to be any worse than most others (I suspect they are the same unit!)
I know of 2 that have gone in (one to dealer, one to independent), been diagnosed with ECU failure, ECU replaced, customer picked up and now working. Obviously, as you know, it might well have been something else they found when the ECU replacement didn't work...
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Oh... And the Corsa. IIRCC the 1.2 is a chain driven engine :-/ :-/ :-? :-?
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Oh... And the Corsa. IIRCC the 1.2 is a chain driven engine :-/ :-/ :-? :-?
Indeed, the 1.2 16V and 1.0 12V are both chain driven lumps.
No big problmes if serviced well and about a 2 hour job to change the chain and tensioner/guiide assembly if its noisey
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Using a year 2000 clit sport (1.6) for nearly 1 year we got no problem.. (only wheel bearings need to change and new tyres)
although a bit noisy (I cut the springs ;D) comfortable for that size (for 2 persons)
and consumption in city avgs 43-45 mpg..
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As MDTM states, chains aren't a big problem if the car has lots of regular fresh oil. On a small engine like that, I would expect, with decent servicing, the chains would outlast the engine...
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A saxo there cheap to buy and run :y
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The little fiats are reliable, and more rustproof that in years gone by, and dirt cheap.
Corsas are a possibility, but newer ones hold price too well, and older ones are pretty naff.
Fiestas, any built in the last 10-12yrs seem to be mechanically reasonable, but watch out for rust.
Rover 200/25, HG problems, particularly bad on 1.4 and 1.8, otherwise robust
clit, seem to be reliable mechanically, luxury electrics such as windows/locking etc will fail on older ones.
Polo, reputation for reliability, but the 2 that colleagues have always seem to be in the garage for something, and parts aren't cheap.
There's always the diesel, cheap to insure and run :y
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Bought my 17 year old daughter a Peugeot 106 K reg, she had it two years, it was a good cheap little run around... :y
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The little fiats are reliable, and more rustproof that in years gone by, and dirt cheap.
Corsas are a possibility, but newer ones hold price too well, and older ones are pretty naff.
Fiestas, any built in the last 10-12yrs seem to be mechanically reasonable, but watch out for rust.
Rover 200/25, HG problems, particularly bad on 1.4 and 1.8, otherwise robust
clit, seem to be reliable mechanically, luxury electrics such as windows/locking etc will fail on older ones.
Polo, reputation for reliability, but the 2 that colleagues have always seem to be in the garage for something, and parts aren't cheap.
There's always the diesel, cheap to insure and run :y
Tempted to get one myself ;D. One of the glow plugs is a right bitch to change though
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is this the 220 Diesel Rover Engine the 2.0 BL Perkins derived engine? very reliable!!! Tensioners can play up
SWMBO's been offered a Polo to replace the SEAT with but after reading on here i dunno id much rather prefer a Diesel Fester or a Diesel 106
1.8D Festers live forever and the car will rust away long before the engine gives up thought about the Ford Teapot (KA) Has a engine loosely based on the Crossflow engine
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is this the 220 Diesel Rover Engine the 2.0 BL Perkins derived engine? very reliable!!! Tensioners can play up
SWMBO's been offered a Polo to replace the SEAT with but after reading on here i dunno id much rather prefer a Diesel Fester or a Diesel 106
1.8D Festers live forever and the car will rust away long before the engine gives up thought about the Ford Teapot (KA) Has a engine loosely based on the Crossflow engine
Nah, pre-dates that
1.8D Fiestas are truely bloody awful.......and the engine does suffer starting issues
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is this the 220 Diesel Rover Engine the 2.0 BL Perkins derived engine? very reliable!!! Tensioners can play up
SWMBO's been offered a Polo to replace the SEAT with but after reading on here i dunno id much rather prefer a Diesel Fester or a Diesel 106
1.8D Festers live forever and the car will rust away long before the engine gives up thought about the Ford Teapot (KA) Has a engine loosely based on the Crossflow engine
Nah, pre-dates that
1.8D Fiestas are truely bloody awful.......and the engine does suffer starting issues
Had a fair few vans with that engine in, both Escorts and Fiestas, all were non turbocharged variety.
The engines, particularly in the heavily laden escorts were gutless - I never used 4th or 5th gear as 3rd was fastest, banging on the governer at 70mph. Did use 4th once on the M25, got a decent tow right up the pipes of a transit in front doing 90, but he edged away from me, then it was 70mph again :(
1.8 was adequate in the Fiesta though, just drove everywhere flat out, mostly licence threatening speeds.
The way mine was treated, the last fiesta in particular, and that fiesta of my colleague, I can only say that the engines are pretty bomb-proof - the only engine failure was in my colleague's one, he was following me flat out down the M3 one day, kept banging up the back of me (we were young and irresponsible), when an aux tensioner let go.
edit: just remembered, another colleague's fiesta dropped a liner at about 100mph as well. Engine destroyed.
But they were pretty bulletproof. The other small vans we had at the time (ignoring the earlier Maestros and Itals, themselves pretty resilient to being thrashed by us) were Corsa/Combos, 1.7TD unit I think. They certainly did not stand up quite so well to the abuse ::)
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is this the 220 Diesel Rover Engine the 2.0 BL Perkins derived engine? very reliable!!! Tensioners can play up
SWMBO's been offered a Polo to replace the SEAT with but after reading on here i dunno id much rather prefer a Diesel Fester or a Diesel 106
1.8D Festers live forever and the car will rust away long before the engine gives up thought about the Ford Teapot (KA) Has a engine loosely based on the Crossflow engine
Nah, pre-dates that
1.8D Fiestas are truely bloody awful.......and the engine does suffer starting issues
Had a fair few vans with that engine in, both Escorts and Fiestas, all were non turbocharged variety.
The engines, particularly in the heavily laden escorts were gutless - I never used 4th or 5th gear as 3rd was fastest, banging on the governer at 70mph. Did use 4th once on the M25, got a decent tow right up the pipes of a transit in front doing 90, but he edged away from me, then it was 70mph again :(
1.8 was adequate in the Fiesta though, just drove everywhere flat out, mostly licence threatening speeds.
The way mine was treated, the last fiesta in particular, and that fiesta of my colleague, I can only say that the engines are pretty bomb-proof - the only engine failure was in my colleague's one, he was following me flat out down the M3 one day, kept banging up the back of me (we were young and irresponsible), when an aux tensioner let go.
edit: just remembered, another colleague's fiesta dropped a liner at about 100mph as well. Engine destroyed.
But they were pretty bulletproof. The other small vans we had at the time (ignoring the earlier Maestros and Itals, themselves pretty resilient to being thrashed by us) were Corsa/Combos, 1.7TD unit I think. They certainly did not stand up quite so well to the abuse ::)
I got stopped in an Escort van on the way to Dover once... Said he had me clocked at license losing speed, which I found hard to believe as flat out the needle sat on 90ish ::) ::) ::)
Luckily it was 2am and I was very polite, combined with the urgent Aircraft spares I was taking to Paris, and I only got a slapped wrist :o :o :o Slowed me down somewhat though ;) ;)
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My brother brought his 17 yr old daughter a nissan micra for her earleir this year off of fleabay , he went to see it as it was local to us ,its was a cat "c" write off when he saw what damage it had it was only superfiscial ,bump in back bumper and bent the boot lock out of line ,paid the guy £540 for it ,insurance £800 odd ,bit of a joke really
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Shame Vamps, you could have had our lass`s Yaris, it went about 2months ago for 1400. 52 plate, 1.2 vvti, had 75k on the clock, ran it for 2 years sweet as a nut and suprisingly nippy(pardon the pun). :-X
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The earlier Micra's are known for chain probs. Ours went at failry low mileage, then the tensioners loosened and the engine clattered and ran rough. Its a pain to change cause the engine mount has to come off etc.
ken
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Thanks for the info guys :y Some food for thought :y