Recommend A Cheap Reliable Diesel?

[Tricky-Ricky]

For my misses! preferably small ish, baring in mind that i will have to fix/maintain it, so i don't want to be buggering around with it on a regular basis.

 

It has to be £500 or under, and wait for it, she will be a learner driver, now I'm not going to tell you here age as she might see this:twak: lets just say she has left it kind of late to learn to drive:innocent:

[Graham S]

old mk3 VW TDI i'd say.. Or at worst a SDI which is the non turbo version and rather slow!

[Havard]

Old peugeot 306 or something like that. £500 is not a lot for a diesel though.

 

H.

[edge]

Avensis diesel with the old non 16valve engine. Seen a few with 450k miles on. Mine has 180k on it and everything works perfectly.

[RedM]

Don't buy an early 306. Absolutely awful cars. I hate mine with a passion.

[barneybrendan]

rover 220td reliable and economical,should get them cheap i sold my v reg for £300 wish i still had it at the moment.

[Tannhauser]

We've just got rid of a Citroen ZX diesel....the body work killed it in the end, but mechanically it was brilliant. Ten years of trouble free motoring.

[Purity14]

We've just got rid of a Citroen ZX diesel....the body work killed it in the end, but mechanically it was brilliant. Ten years of trouble free motoring.

 

I had a friend who had one, used to SVO it on long journeys and if you can get past the styling and the badge, it wasnt all that bad.

[Tricky-Ricky]

Thanks for all the suggestions, i think we are going to have to expand this to petrol as well, as diesels are hard to find,

 

Would like something like a VW Polo but can only find higher mileage models,

What would be good small petrol car options?

[j_jza80]

Seat Ibiza SDi, Non turbo diesel. Not fast, but enough go for overtaking, almost 70mpg on a run, practical and very reliable. They don't suffer rust *quite* as badly as the equivalent Golf.

[redtwinturbo]

Or Seat Ibiza 1.9TDi - I had one of these that had done almost 200k without a hint of a problem, just gave it the odd oil change. No rust and 50 plus mpg always. Loved that car but my mate went into the back of me and just wasn´t worth fixing it

[bignum]

Vauxhall cavalier or astra with the isuzu 1.7 td engine, 60 mpg with reliability, getting rare these days though,

[Tricky-Ricky]

Well we went and had a look at a Seat Ibiza 1-9 D SE on a R plate with 120K and service history up till 92K with 2 owners.

bit tatty around the edges, some small dents, and a bit of cracked front trim, but essentially sound, engine sounds OK for a diesel, its had a new exhaust and a battery recently, drives well, comes with a years MOT and six months tax, £795, which after trawling through the car adds seems OK, and its close, didn't want to be traveling 100+ miles only to find i had wasted the petrol, not cheap in a 3.5L V6;)

[Swampy442]

+1 for the Gold TDi, I ran one for a year, 60 mpg on a long trip, comfortable and quite quick.