When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
If you could only have one all-rounder car for the next 10 years ...
If you had to have one car until 2030 for under £10k to buy now - what would it be?
Mine would need to have:-
- 4 or 5 doors
- room for a bike and/or dog
- four wheel drive traction in all weathers
- 0-60 in 6 secs or less
- 40mpg + overall
- Road tax currently under £350 a year (as we will get enviro-hammered in 5-10 years)
- decent sounding
Unfortunately that doesn't leave me much from Subaru - unless I knocked out the 40mpg rule and took a Legacy or Forester Turbo ?
So mine would probably be an Audi A4 Allroad 3.0Tdi V6 with a remap from 240 to 280 bhp
probably a jeep grand cherokee 6.1 v8 srt for me, built like a tank,plenty of shove and as i dont care about mpg the 6.1 v8 would be fine. plus im a bat-fastard so plenty of room in it for me
probably a jeep grand cherokee 6.1 v8 srt for me, built like a tank,plenty of shove and as i dont care about mpg the 6.1 v8 would be fine. plus im a bat-fastard so plenty of room in it for me
Yes - under-rated over here. You could always stick an LPG tank on it in a few years.
Right. What we have here is basically a car pushing 10years old that is expect to last another 10years as a daily drive...Or something with mega miles.
My experience during this time being furloughed and giving my 15yr old Golf a bit of TLC in hope it will last at least another 5yrs has resulted in this:
Yes Volkswagen, Audi’s, Seats and Skodas rust! Hopefully I’ve saved the sills from falling into holes (metal on the corners has gone wafer thin, so welded in some fresh metal, zinc primed and doused the cavities with waxoyl). It’s shocking what can lurk behind wheel arch liners and plastic side skirts.
Also beware of rusty ferrules on brake hoses hiding behind ‘protective’ rubber sleeves....a few more winters and one emergency stop could see that hose popping off, as it’s hidden by the sleave it would pass MOTs all day long!
Future work involves a lot more tarting up, fixing oil leaks and burning over a grand on a new steering rack (I don’t trust non-VAG recons ).
Cant recommend it to you as it doesn’t quite meet the MPG criteria, nor the tax.
... most things rust underneath and in covered places - I keep looking round my 20 year old (next month) Impreza for signs in the usual places.
I know there are some very rusty cars in Scotland that have seen years of rock salt. Booked a train ticket last year to get an 08 Forester but asked for more photos of the rear arches and sills at the last minute - they were all rotten so put the £150 down to experience and stayed home.
I wasn’t really expecting it, as it was garaged for half it’s life, it’s low miles and I always jetwash the muck off from underneath and round the arches during winter. Managed to keep my Imprezas rot free in this way. Problem is VWs seem to have more trim/liners around the arches and sills that retain mud underneath. Had I known the issue I’d have all the trims off along time ago.
Probably would have swapped it for a RS4, but that fails for you on mpg and price So the allroad tdi is a good alternative.
At the moment looking for a runabout with similar criteria to you but with a sub-£6k budget and came up with Volvo v60 D5 AWD
Theres a few Merc R350CDi 4matics knocking about below £10k, it’s an acquired taste though and IIRC they have active suspension which is fun when it plays up ( had a SL55 in recently that acted like a nodding dog when stationary ).
Some of the VAGs with the 240ps BiTdi lump are dropping in price but it’ll probably be another year before you get a estate/suv with that engine within that price bracket
Since working in a garage the last few months I’ve been quite surprised at the VW group cars failing MOT’s on rust.
First one really took me back as I saw my work mate with a really nice looking polo on the ramp, looked clean and he was wheeling the welder round. He’d talked about welding sills and I just didn’t put the two together seeing the car and asked what he was doing. The sills were badly rusted and car was being repaired. Pretty sure it wasn’t even 10 years old (May have even been a 2012)
Made me feel not so bad about my 20 year old imprezas! There’ll be nothing left of some of the newer vag stuff in 20-25 years, mind you all these modern cars are throw away plastic fantastic under the bonnet so doesn’t surprise me.
The front wings went on my 54 plate Passat B5.5 Highline daily. They go right at the top of the arch lip and apparently it's due to some sound deadening foam that holds water so they rot out.
I was lucky enough to get both wings replaced under warranty. The car was almost 10 years old at the time.
VW then extended the rust perforation warranty on it to 12 years I think.
I did suffer the blocked drain grommets under the battery which saw water ingress in the carpets, but this was covered under the original 3 year factory warranty.
It's been and still is a great all rounder car, 1.9 PD AWX 130ps nicely mapped to 170ps by AMD in Thurrock about 12 years ago. 55+ MPG all day long on a longer / motorway run.
Brilliant car, and I just won't part with it because I know what I've got. Now on 130k miles - nothing on a 1.9 PD...nothing.
Tons of headroom, legroom, massive boot. Often gets V-Power diesel, the car loves it.
It's had the odd CV boot and most recently a CV joint - but it's entitled to that, and a clutch at 110k miles. New rear pads and rear discs a few weeks ago, I didn't even need rear discs after 130k miles.
Detailed regularly by myself and the most recent thing I can highly recommend is Collinite 845 Insulator wax. Liquid, and goes on thin as anything using a sponge applicator. Such a brilliant wax, and so is Collinite 915 paste wax by the way.
My mums 20 year old Golf Mk4 is the 115ps 1.9 PD engine. 42,000 miles from new. We drove it out the showroom in Hamburg in 2000 (in the days when importing a new car would see you save approx £4,000 or more)
It drives like new. Ice cold A/C that has never been re-gassed in 20 years. Literally one lady owner from new! A cracking car, but a bit small for me really, plus the seats don't go low enough for me. Again, this has only had consumables in it's life, except the odd perished rubber bush, CV boots, and the dreaded blocked sunroof drains.
Although I do wonder what it's like underneath....
Last edited by Hawkeye D; 25 May 2020 at 08:44 PM.
I actually started off doing the front wings; All Jettas/Golfs/Passat rot there because of that sponge. But that’s a simple bolt-on panel and are wafer thin, so it doesn’t take much.
Sills are structural sections made of thicker metal...and despite this they still rot!
We recently had a mk5 Jetta in which had the sills fall into holes so I thought I’d use my spare time to check out my sills. My front wings were Italian (replacements are German), so I suspect it could be Italian steel or poor/faulty zinc coating...the zinc is literally brushing off in some areas, also after popping out the grommets there is very little in the way of waxoyl in the cavities, really wished I did all this ten years ago but never thought I’d keep the car for this long.
We had a mk4 Golf and gaffer’s got a Bora, bar some bubbling from stone chip damage they appear to be solid. As was the 1984 Mk2 Polo I had back in 2002
I had a BMW 335d Touring Xdrive hire car for a while and that was a ridiculously competent car. I didn't want to like it , but I couldn't help it! It was refined, fast and handled well. Not as involving to drive as a Subaru, but would embarrass a LOT of fast cars.
I had a BMW 335d Touring Xdrive hire car for a while and that was a ridiculously competent car. I didn't want to like it , but I couldn't help it! It was refined, fast and handled well. Not as involving to drive as a Subaru, but would embarrass a LOT of fast cars.
If I could get one for £10k that would tick some boxes !
Im actually looking for my long term car now....facelift Legacy 3.0 or import turbo....but current favourite is a 2008 Outback 2.5 XT import...fast, rugged, big enough for dog and family.
For me it’d be a fresh import, mint underneath Impreza JDM STI Hatchback.
Practical with the hatch
Quick enough (remap maybe)
Proper 4wd
Old school enough still not to annoy me on repairs *
Reliable
Only necessary mod is to de-chav the rear lights & coat the underside with something oily.
* working in the trade I can’t tell you how hateful most modern cars are to work on. Just yesterday we had a merc in with a leak from the oil cooler. Customer supplied the gaskets and said “can you fit these for me”... 8.5hrs book to change the gasket! And I can tell you the guy struggled to be just starting to put it back together in that time as the whole thing was a coked up mess so it ended up being a clean up job too. As opposed to about 10 min job on an impreza. It’s a great place to work to justify why I don’t have a car newer than 17 years old!
I think sometimes people aspire to own new cars but honestly most of them are just built to be lasting the warranty periods these days. I can only imagine how worthless some of this modern tat is going to be in years to come. Bodes well for older stuff IMO.
Used to make me laugh when I’d read reviews of Imprezas even years ago and they’d get slated for being behind the times in regards to interiors and tech, some of us see that as a positive!
I think sometimes people aspire to own new cars but honestly most of them are just built to be lasting the warranty periods these days.
Used to make me laugh when I’d read reviews of Imprezas even years ago and they’d get slated for being behind the times in regards to interiors and tech, some of us see that as a positive!
I totally get this. The truth is that most car makers can make more margin from servicing and parts for a few years than selling the car itself.
Should be interesting to see what happens when hybrids and full EVs need proper attention and how the independent motor trade hopefully steps in !
Been locking around for sub 10yr and practical AWD stuff and really nothing floats my boat. It’s nearly all VAG/BMW, Land Money-pit Rovers or Japanese SUVs
That said high mile Lexus RX450Hs are fairly good value for money...must be something wrong with them (barring being dull to drive)
25 May 2020, 11:39 AM
If you could only have one all-rounder car for the next 10 years ...
So the allroad tdi is a good alternative.
).
