Thread: Reliable second hand car options

Some information on European car brands that is probably irrelevant to your choice of a used car. Would say that you need access to a good mechanic who has plenty of day to day experience with the brand/model you are looking for. Think how you would look for a Land Rover mechanic rather than someone who fixes whatever car comes through the door that day

The French cars went down market a few years ago when they decided could not compete in the middle ground with VW, Ford and Vauxhall/Opel. So set out for a new market segment between middle and the bargain basement that was FIAT. Unfortunately for them the Koreans turned up looking to compete in this same segment with cars that were more reliable and with a longer warranty. Priced closer to FIAT than the French

FIAT only sold volume in Italy. When this market started to buy elsewhere a buyer was needed or FIAT was going to be closed down. The auto business had already been separated from the rest of the FIAT group so either could be done without impacting the wider business. Italian government was very active in arranging a sale as closure was not going to be politically acceptable

Purchase of Vauxhall/Opel by Peugeot was completed as it allowed them back into the middle ground customers they had previously abandoned. Peugeot had of course gone bust a few years earlier being bailed out by the French and Chinese governments. PSA is totally dependent on Jeep as this is the only part of their empire that is making a profit. At the moment enough to cover losses made across the rest of the group

The Clio improved a lot after the partnership with Nissan as the newer models were engineered by Nissan. Megane was never really given the investment it needed but if you pick carefully from the options engine/gearbox there are some good versions. General rule is to look for Nissan involvement in the Renault vehicle as these are significantly better

Well, I've had a series of Honda CR-Vs and I'm told they're good for 250,000+ kms - ours have only ever needed consumables. The later petrols were a bit heavy on the fuel, but the diesel is good (but out of the price range quoted).

If you're interested in Renaults, the Latitude is a really good/interesting car - it's a Nissan Maxima with a Renault diesel engine built in Korea in a factory bought off Daewoo by Samsung (yes, the phone company - it had a car-making division that went bankrupt and was bought by Renault).

I haven't driven the Latitude but I've driven Maximas and that's a good base to build on.

We have a 2015 Renault Captur , 1.2tce only new car we have ever bought ( apart from the Iveco) . Had 12 month services done at local Renault dealer , now its out of warranty have switched to 10,000 km services at a garage inn town ( I cant be stuffed with DIY on it ), Car has only done 19,000km (as the EV Landy is our local runabout) so long time between services .

The car is completely reliable and nothing needed done, nice to drive but heavy on fuel, even in eco mode it only gets 7.6 l/100km and thats mostly country highway driving. We left it at the dealer for a service and borrowed a Megane , that went like a cut cat in comparison.

So did you end up with a camry/hi-undi I30 ...... Or something far less sensible

Still looking. I called the owners of the only Megane close enough to go look at and they wanted me to be there at 10am on Mothers Day - I asked what other times they could do - "We'll work that out and get back to you'- which they never did, so that was that. Haven't had much time since to do much due to a couple of guys being off at work with Covid the last week. Will get there - my Daughters current Camry is still going and safe to drive so no urgent rush.

Just to close out this thread, my Daughter ended up with a 2003 Mazda 323 Protege with 180KKM on the clock. Ended up being a friend of the Business Owner my former partner works for. 1 owner, always garaged - so the paint is awesome not falling off it like most, full service history, 11 months rego for $2,500. Didn't come with a RWC but after looking over the car I had no concerns and I could only pick tyres and a few bushes - which is pretty much all that got picked up on it. $1,300 for the repairs, new set of rubber and the RWC she's got a great little runner for under $4K all in. It actually goes better than I thought - the 2 litre in it is quite nippy and she's happy so a win all around. I didn't even have to do any work on it so I'm happy too!