Wizzbang

Im looking at getting a diesel car to replace my very tired escort estate(petrol), but Ive never even contemplated a derv before so Im a little unsure of the good from the ****e...

I have some requirements that the new car will have to meet though......

It has to be big enough to tow a trailer with 2 sports bikes and have a boot full of heavy gear. It must be economical. And it must cost less than a grand


Can anyone point me in the right direction ??

brickboy

For under 1K you're looking at mid-90s French stuff -- Pug 306 estate or early 406, Citroen ZX or Laguna.

If you can find one, a mark 3 Golf estate with the 110bhp TDi motor would do the trick but don't know if it would come in under 1K. VW / Audi is your best bet for reliability.

Brendan Hughes

Ouch. Aren't the towing capacity (big weight, big engine) and "economical" mutually exclusive?

hades

You'd be lucky to get a decent 306 TD for under a grand, certainly wouldn't get close to an HDi. Don't know about the other cars off hand. However, given regular oil changes that 1.9TD is supposed to be even more reliable than the VAG one.

Rabid

Passat TDI in mid 90's spec MKII maybe I don't know exactly
1995 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT CL TDI 4dr Diesel Saloon,
M-reg,metalic cherry,MOT&TAX,2-airbags,e/w,e/m,e/sunroof,c/locking, stereo,ono private. £890. ono Email auksutis@one.lt

or

1994 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 1.9 CL Turbo 5dr Diesel Estate,
L-reg,metalic grey,new MOT,ABS,PAS,AIRBAGS,e/w,e/m,e/sunroof,c/locking,stereo,alloys,new tyres. £1,000. ONO
ONOTelephone: 07757 120921

1996 VOLKSWAGEN Passat 1.9 TDi Estate,
P reg. 184000 miles, grey, e/window, c/locking, pas, a/c, alloys, r/cassette, full MoT & tax, full s/history, previous MoTs, immaculate condition, alloys, tow bar, looks and drives like 80,000. £1,095. . or (07903) 727759
KIANI MOTORS]

or my favourite with all the toys
1994 M Reg VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 1.9 GL TDI,
5 Doors, Manual, Estate, Diesel, 130,000 miles, Red, Manual, ABS, AirCon / Climate, Central Locking, Driver Airbag, Electric Windows, PAS. (SALE £500 OFF THIS WEEK ONLY WAS £1675 NOW ONLY £1175 !!). Web: www.berkeleyroadgarage.co.uk. E-mail: berkeleygarage@blueyonder.co.uk. £1,175.

Offer them a bag of sand for it like your a right geezer, they'll say no, then you say well I'll leave you my number if you change you minds. Then they'll ring you up a few days later when nobodies bought it and you got your car!

Wizzbang

what are citroen xantias like ?? as ive found this

1995 CITROEN XANTIA 1.9 TD VSX 5dr Diesel Hatchback,
129,000 miles, Black, ABS, PAS, Electric Front and Rear Windows, Electric Sunroof and Mirrors, Remote Central Locking, Alloy Wheels, Full Year's MOT, Very Reliable, 50mpg. £590


a question regards the 306 diesel....is it better to have the turbo over the standart diesel ?

Brendan Hughes

I'd imagine the turbo would help give you much-needed torque.

Check towing weights of your trailer compared to the car, you don't want the trailer towing the car downhill!

Xantia - watch out for infamous clutch cable snapping - will cost you the price of the car to replace it.

lightwave693

Take a look at rover 825 turbo diesels, i had one b4 the scoob and they are fantastic cars, cheap as chips these days and the engines are pretty bomb proof and tweekable if needed ran mine up to 170k with only normal problems, alternator, clutch, thats it. never let me down and would pull all the above mentioned backwards no problem. fuel is very good as long as ur not flat out all the time, easy 45-50 on a run at 80 - 90, in town around 35ish.
have a look on ebay for a rough guide... post 96 are the best ones with ecu,pre 96 are worth looking at tho. they dont have cam belts, all the timing is geared. so thats one less thing to worry about.
Rich

Wizzbang

I may be in the position of utilising a larger budget on the car now, maybe up to 2 grand.

Ive looked a bit on autotrader and have seen some VW Passat tdi saloons 1998. There are both the 90 and the 110bhp models.

Is there anything to be wary of on these at all ??


any other suggestions (non ford though) from the sub £2k price range, and they dont have to be estates either.

AudiLover

Id go with a Passat.

logiclee

The 110 is a far better bet as it has the later VNT turbo so it picks up far better from low revs, has less lag and will rev round to the limiter.
A half decent tuning box will see 140bhp and 200lbft out of the 110TDi.
Economy wise I could easily get 55mpg all day out of my old Octavia 110TDi with Dragon tuning box, driving for economy would see 65mpg on a steady run.

Cheers
Lee

hades

Definitely. The turbo is OK performance from ~2200-4400rpm (enough to overtake slow traffic), and really quite decent in top on the motorway. The non turbo really does feel sluggish, and isn't significantly better economy either. Also, with the TD, it's quite easy to tweak the wastegate and fuelling to get perhaps 120bhp with no real loss in economy. Even so, the engine will not tune to the same power as easily or deliver as good economy as the VAG unit. The benefit is that I believe the 306 is a much nicer drive than a golf, entertaining handling, good ride etc.

However, if you're looking at £2k ish, the goalposts move a bit. You could probably just afford an HDi 306 (or other HDi peugeot/citreon), which is a much more modern engine and has economy much more comparable with the Volkswagen. You'll have a much wider choice of VW's and other things too

wrx-kris

omega 2.5td, rwd big luxury motors with a bmw lump, get an elite for next to nothing with xenons all toys etc.... 150bhp and 250nm iirc

Stuart J

I had a Citroen Xantia for 4 years as a runner, great car for what it was, very reliable & with the fancy suspension brilliant for towing, we used it for retrieving Hot Air Ballons on many occasions, no matter how heavy the trailer is it self levels, Also can be jacked up for extra ground clearance, traction is poor though off road but I guess thats true of any FWD car.
Ideally get a turbo one as the non turbos are slow although probably better on fuel.
Also beware of the brakes when towing, we had a car full + a trailer with 2 balloons on that we took down to the south of France & on a couple of long downhill sections the brakes started to fade, mind you it was a tadge overloaded

Have you thought of going round the breakers for damaged repairable write offs, with cars of this age a scraped wing + door is enough to total them, you might be able to get a much newer car for your £1000, s/hand citroens are worth diddly squat & bent ones even less. My Citroen was 2 1/2 years old & had been totalled due to being driven through deep water & filling the Engine with water, cost me 3500 + a second hand engine.

The suspension should feel silky soft, if theres any bumpiness then the spheres are shot, relativly cheap to get done by some of the smaller Citroen specialists, cetainly cheaper than a new set of shocks on a conventional car