New (old) car suggestions. MPG critical!

[arge]

Hello one and all.

Due to an oversight (me misreading the MOT) my current daily will be being scrapped a couple of months earlier than I had planned, so I now find myself in need of searching out a good replacement daily.

My budget will be about £500-£1000, but ideally as close to the bottom end as poss and I will be looking for the following;

Pre 2000.
Maybe chain driven?
Hopefully available 4/5 door but not a deal breaker.
Generally reliable.
Interesting to look at/ugly as sin.
Capable of GOOD mpg.

My outgoings will be going up next year whilst my wages for remain stagnant, so I NEED something that will give me the same if not more than the 40ish mpg that I get from my 6n Polo.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions or guidance?

Please save me from saying f**k it and buying something huge and comfortable that will bankrupt me! (Current cravings are early 90s Mercs and BMWs along with Range rovers!)

Thanks!

[skrapz]

How do you feel about French cars?
I bought a MK1 Clio last year as I needed a cheap to run car. I've ran a fuelly on it over the time I've had it and its averaged 46mpg over 9000 miles the best its done is 51mpg the worst was 40. Its had nothing done to it in a year except a service. They do have a cam belt but its an easy one as its only a single cam. Its only a 1.2cc they do come in 5 door. Your budget would get a super clean one I paid £250 for mine with 6 months test. Look on ebay there are lots for around £400 with low mileage and no rust. It was only bought as a stop gap after my Diesel ZX died but i've ended up keeping it as its been faultless. That said a diesel ZX Citreon is awesome on fuel and quite quick if you get the TD one. Theres also a ZX for sale on this forum for £500 and thats a Volcane Diesel.
Hope this helps.

[arge]

I am not prejudiced against French cars at all!

Thanks for the suggeation re a Clio. What years did the mk1 run till?

I have had my eyes on old French diesels also, but would ideally like to keep to a lower tax bracket of which I am struggling to find any engine sizes that comply with this...

Thanks again.

[skrapz]

Clio's are 1990-1997 On a MK1 I think. They were face lifted in 1996 so they have all in one headlights the earlier ones have separate indicators and lights on the front. The 1.2 is cheap tax 70ish for 6 months. Mine is a 1996 but I have been thinking of unfacelifting it as the earlier front parts do fit. They also do a 1.4 but they normally seem to be auto's and i'm not sure on the MPG. The models are RL RN and RT the RL is very basic no power nothing not even steering so very easy to look after and hardly anything to go wrong. I have the RL so I have to wind windows manually but as above its less to have problems with.
According to the Renault forums the model designations stand for..
RL - Renault low
RN - Renault normal
RT - Renault top.

Not sure how true that is but RT's do have all the posh goodies on them.

[THE_Liam]

If you don't mind French, want amazing MPG and cheap tax, I'd recommend a 106 or Saxo 1.5 diesel. Very tough, will do 40-45mpg round town and 60-65mpg on a run without even trying, plenty of 5-door ones, good fun to throw around like all French small cars, biblically slow though. Avoid the 1.4, it blows its head gasket very regularly, the 1.5 is far stronger.

Otherwise I'd recommend a 205, 306, 405, 406, ZX, Xantia or Xsara with the 1.9 XUD. Not cheap tax but a Bosch pumped one will run veg oil at 75p a litre and still do 55mpg on a run, easily tuned to 120bhp-ish for the price of a boost gauge and very tough.

[welshpug]

post 2001 xsara or 306 hdi, 50+mpg, cheap to fix lower tax.

[jakemk2]

As I saw this thread I heard on the radio that we could see petrol going to below a pound a litre in the next few months.

Just something to bear in mind because it may make a more uneconomical car now with in your budget.

[composimmonite]

My vote goes for a Skoda Fabia diesel. I'm bias as have a 1.4TDi which are probably outside your budget but you'd still be able to get a VW 1.9 diesel powered. BTW the 1.4TDi lump used by VW is actually a Skoda item rather than he other way round !

[joem83]

205 1.9d 5dr. Stupid mpgs, will run on veg and not much to go wrong.
Also cheap to buy.

[ontheedge]

Clio's are fine:
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/173754/swap-retro-cheshire?page=1&scrollTo=2019842

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Or maybe a Citroen AX 1.5 diesel - it's less common though. But fits the "interesting" bit

Or yet another Polo or Arosa SDi - I've not owned one, but from reading and hearsay they'r capable of astronomical MPG And last time I looked they were cheap as fook!

[THE_Liam]

Dec 17, 2014 11:00:54 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Or maybe a Citroen AX 1.5 diesel - it's less common though. But fits the "interesting" bit

Same engine and chassis as the 106 and Saxo but lighter and even better on fuel, good shout.

[bortaf]

Vote here for the Mk1 clio, just doing an engine change on a 1.2 at the mo, nice little compact and tough engine and way better on fuel than me boys 1.25 fiesta, although the build quality isn't there with the clio, leccy boot release keeps failing though water ingress, plastic front wings crack with the slightest bump (also replaceing the Fr bumper and Dr wing while it's in the yard) but then so do the fiestas TBF (both 53 paltes) both are available for around the £600 mark, in fact the local breakers have one of each for sale, fiesta 53 plate £500, 54 plate clio £600.
Both are easy to find and maintain, parts are available (unlike a lot of cars mentioned above) easyly S/H and cheap new.

[stevieclj]

Buy my Xantia 2.0HDi...

[surprisingskoda]

All the above are good calls.

I'll add these ones:
if you can live with a post-2000 car, a 1.4hdi 206. £30/yr tax, 65mpg.
or a Skoda Felicia 1.9d. nothing will break. Ever. 45-50mpg.
or a Rover 420d/620d, mid 90s type. As above. 50mpg.

[rob0r]

406

[steveg]

Our AX diesel did us proud for about 5 years but got too rusty. We now have a 106 thats got most of the mechanical bits I tok off the AX but sadly not the engine. The 106 is a 1.1 petrol and I really miss the extra grunt the 1.5 diesel had.

[DWDarkWheels]

If you're talking bottom-end cars, I'd assume you have some mechanical dexterity, i.e. to the point of changing a cam-belt. Sorry, not trying to be funny about it if that's how it seems. But change it once, it'll last until the car dies for other reasons.

1.8 petrol Vauxhall Vectra. I ran a boggo estate version and it gave me a consistent, real-world 40mpg. They've got to be beer-money by now.

[joem83]

Dec 18, 2014 19:49:55 GMT DWDarkWheels said:

1.8 petrol Vauxhall Vectra. I ran a boggo estate version and it gave me a consistent, real-world 40mpg. They've got to be beer-money by now.

Assume thats a Vectra B? I would not advise anyone buy a C with how often something breaks on them lol

[DWDarkWheels]

Dec 18, 2014 19:56:51 GMT joem83 said:

Dec 18, 2014 19:49:55 GMT DWDarkWheels said:

1.8 petrol Vauxhall Vectra. I ran a boggo estate version and it gave me a consistent, real-world 40mpg. They've got to be beer-money by now.

Assume thats a Vectra B? I would not advise anyone buy a C with how often something breaks on them lol

Ah yes, I did mean to mention '98 model.