I haven't owned a vehicle for ten years now, but am now starting to think about getting an everyday runabout, it won't be new, maybe even in the "Bangernomics" area!. It will be used for the occasional longer run, but otherwise rural pottering. I was thinking of something that would also take wet, sandy Dogs and be easy cleanable. Something about 1.4/6cc low road tax/ins, an example of something I had in mind would be an "Escort" van (if they still made them!). not bothered whether Petrol or Diesel, but should be inexpensive for parts and of the reliable type!.
Some idea's please! - Thanks.
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How many dogs and how big are they? How many passengers will you need to carry? What's the budget?
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3 x Dogs lab size, usually just me an missus, Cheap as chips preferable! - think poor old pensioner!
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Fiat doblo van springs to mind. Cheap, less than £2000 i know a couple of people with them, reliable, lots of part sharing with the panda.
Mondeo estate plenty about, might be a bit tight with three labs in the back.
A (roughly) ten years old accord should do the trick.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage for 10 years without a car in general and with three dogs?
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Simple needs! - live in small town which has most things needed for daily living, occasional run through to Aldi (when certain friends are going) and only a mile to the nearest deserted beach for the Muttley run! (plus I have my pushbike!). Knees giving up now though, and on hot days like this, could dump dogs in vehicle and run them down to the shore for a paddle, save them from doing my head in as they are today!!
Doblo sounds useful though - will check them out! thanks.
Last edited by: devonite on Tue 19 Jul 16 at 14:11
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Thanks fair enough. The doblo is pretty good easily enough space for three dogs. I think the multijet diesel is the most popular. But if you want cheap then the 1.4 i think are a couple of hundred cheaper. Inside is the previous shaped panda interior.
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Berlingo, Qubo, Focus estate, Astra estate?
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just had a quick look on Google images, and I think that the Berlingo, Qubo (never even heard of those!) and Doblo style would suit better than the "Estate" type of the focus and astra types. Seem to be roomier in the Dog region and have doors rather than lift up lids! The search narrows, Thanks!
p.s I mis-spelt ? Doblo (left out the L) when i googled, and got loads of pictures of scantily dressed women! ;-)
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"Doblo (left out the L) when i googled, and got loads of pictures of scantily dressed women!"
Own up, how many others had to check that he wasn't lying? I know I did ;-)
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>> Own up, how many others had to check that he wasn't lying? I know I
>> did ;-)
>>
not at work
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I didn't bother. Not all scantily-clad babes are equally worth looking at. Seen more than a few in my time.
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So the dog's won then devonite?:)
Not just won the battle but got the promise of a taxi service in the future too!
Pat
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'Fraid so Pat! They even had the missus back them up on that!
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I would also favour the Berlingo/Doblo (Peugeot Partner) option, i considered it, but in the end I went down the large estate car route, because of slightly different requirements.
Those vehicles have been around for long time, so wide price choice
Most will be diesel, and plenty of those will be old style grunters, without all the modern unreliable expensive trickery, but petrol option should be readily available.
Who is going to service the new toy ? do they specialise, do they have a preference ?
I bought a van a few years ago, mentioned my prospective choice to my local Indy, who suggested another make. Went with his choice and didn't regret it at all.
A big pull for me ref the BDP option was that as van based cars they had a low, flat, loading height (how high can you lift a 12 year old 30kg labrador with rheumatism ?)
Tax is tax, but calculate your annual mileage, you might get big Insurance discount for low miles (i do)
.."Perodua Kenari?"..
Crept under my radar, so "HJ'd and AutoTrader'd" it.
HJ made me smile, he says that used ones will come will built-in doggie smell !
AutoTrader has only about half a dozen nationally.
Good luck with your purchase
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>>"Perodua Kenari?"..
Crept under my radar, so "HJ'd and AutoTrader'd" it.
HJ made me smile, he says that used ones will come will built-in doggie smell !
A forum member 'stunorthants' owned one. Some *unkind person used to refer to him as Kinari stu.
*me :)
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One of those would do as well Doggo! - the only thing I have ruled out entirely at this stage is the Fiat Multipla, absolutely hate the way they look! I could never own one, especially a sickly Lime Green one that lives around the corner !!!
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Plenty of cheap c£500+ motors on Autotrader, me ole devon toffee. I was a'looking for a jalopy this week as it happens b'cos my Subaru developed, what sound like an expensive noise from the engine area but, the oil pressure is okay, and the engine is quiet on starting from cold so, I'm beginning to wonder if the noise is down to the blimming ASDA petrol the woman feeds the poor thing - loads of 'stuff' Re: supermarket fuel on the world wide!!
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Hyundai Getz diesel GSI(1.5 chain cam 4 cylinder 87bhp).
Pro's: Larger than it looks and can seat four adults, seats fold nearly flat, big boot for a 'small hatchback'. £30 a year tax. Cheap, washable interior and surprisingly nippy about town. Good visibility.Full size spare. You may even have fun driving it.
I love mine and its been reliable, reasonably economical and cheap to maintain.
Con's: you sit on the seat rather than in it and it has limited seat adjustment. Cheap stereo but nothing worth nicking. Bit wallowy on corners and typical small car choppiness but soft suspension soaks up bumps quite well. Bit noisy on motorways and 70mph is nearly 3000 revs.
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Anybody got any thoughts on a Skoda Octavia or Ambiente 1896cc Diesel Estate? - Pro's or Cons!
Seem to be a few about reasonably priced, £12month tax, Ins £600ish fully comp (probably cos I've not had a car for 10 years!)
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I think many must have assumed you'd have sorted the car by now over the last few months.
If the Octavia has the 1.9 PDI engine then I'm guessing it's a few years old. What's your budget?
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A quick look on Autotrader and they're really cheap if you go for a 14 year old car. But how reliable will these Pumpe-Düse diesels be now? These have a high pressure pump per cylinder and the common rail alternative is a lot simpler.
I'd start out looking into the reliability of Pumpe-Düse. I'm not sure on here might have that knowledge and you can Google as well as any of us.
There's even one of these Octavia's for sale for £450 and the garage is offering short term finance! Now that's going to cost you a lot more than £450.
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I used to have one. Very reliable and they were a firm favourite amongst mini cab and taxi drivers who claimed astronomical mileages
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Weren't the PD pumps expensive to fix or replace if they went wrong though? There's a reason why every manufacturer eventually went to a single high pressure rail with individual injectors.
Well the main reason for the common rail was it was probably cheaper to make.
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"Weren't the PD pumps expensive to fix or replace if they went wrong though?"
They didn't though. As you surmise PD technology was expensive compared to common rail hence the changeover.
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Interesting review of one with half a million miles on the clock.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbgTmJ-nDCg
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I only drove one car with the 130PS PDI engine - a Passat. I had the 1.8T Passat at the time and this was a loan/courtesy car. It went really well but a little unrefined to me. But it was a diesel. Plenty of go but it was the more powerful 130PS variant.
I suppose at the price level you can get an Octavia with the PDI engine, if it goes bang you sell it for spares and move on.
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Thanks for the replies, - All I wanted was "something" cheap to chuck the hounds in, I've looked at a few different types, cars, vans, etc, but the Octavia/Ambiente seem to offer the most "dog-space" in the "affordable" category. Even some of the other bigger saloons are suprisingly "tight" in the back-end department! and I don't want to be cleaning seats all the time. Some of the Skoda's I've seen are perfect space-wise, and seem tidy and comfy enough for the odd longer runs. Not really bothered if anything major goes wrong eventually I plan to run it into the ground, then it will just be scrapped, but I would like at least a few reliable years out of it. The last one I looked at was a 2004 (not PDi) and had 135000mls on it. Externally it looked very tidy, but I ruled it out because it was an ex-taxi. There's another near here going on sale in a months time or so, so I thought I'd ask on here about them, think I've decided on one of these over a van type thing, bit more class! ;-)
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Can't recall the exact production dates, but if you stick to the earlier style Octavias (mid/late 90s), they're nearly all non-PD engines. The non-turbo SDI is non-PD, as are the 90hp and 110hp TDis.
Towards the end of its life and prior to brig replaced with the new model Octavia, they did do a 130hp diesel, which is the PD unit. Might be cheaper to repair the diesel pump on the non-PD engines, but I thought the PDs generally had a decent reputation, provided they'd been serviced on the nose and had had the right spec VAG PD oil.
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A non turbo diesel... no thanks.
Good reminder about the VAG spec PD oil.
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The current Skoda Octavia Estate's boot space is larger than that of the Ford Mondeo estate.
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But he's not talking about a current Octavia. But the original Octavia was pretty big. With seats down room for three dogs for sure.
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>> But he's not talking about a current Octavia. But the original Octavia was pretty big. With seats down room for three dogs for sure.>>
I'm perfectly capable of understanding the original thread point, thank you.
My comment was intended as a point of interest and nothing more. I spend quite a bit of time in both a current and older Octavias - they're a cracking vehicle.
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Apologies.
Octavia's are decent cars. If the current was styled more like the Superb I'd consider it as my next car. I still might.
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Nowhere near as good looking as the Seat Leon ST though in my humble opinion
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I prefer the outside of the Leon ST. And the inside of the Skoda.... Sharp looking cars the Skodas.
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No idea, but I'm feeling a lot happier now.
Something Japanese.
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Cheers! - Skoda it looks like then! - at least nobody has said anything bad about them! ;-)
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Pal of mine is a ( very ) senior engineer at Bentley. Always, without fail, chooses a Skoda as his personal car. Says they are very well put together and every bit as good as the other VAG mainstream marques without the hindrance of being overpriced. Can't get a much better recommendation than that. Go for it.
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Just for the record, 'Ambiente' was a trim level on the Octavia rather than a separate model. It was one down from Elegance.
But an Octavia would suit your needs very well by the sound of it. Go for the estate rather than the hatch, and as suggested above the 1.9 TDI is probably the best bet. Try to find one with a service history.
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Idea's Please! - sooty123
