Recommend me a R70K car

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cueball

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Brackenfell, Western Cape
So I'm in the market for a family-friendly daily driver with reasonable fuel economy (i.e. significantly better than my always-thirsty Jeep Grand Cherokee). Budget around R60-70k. Sedan or hatch, no real strong preference either way. I intend to do most routine servicing and even simpler repairs myself, with more complicated stuff being handled by my favourite local indy mech. So dealer pricing on labour is pretty much irrelevant, I'm just interested in reasonable parts pricing and availability.

Hit me with all the suggestions you can muster...
 
Audi A4 B7
Mercedes Benz C Class W203

Should be able to get ±2005 models with less than 200,000km.

Obviously ask about specific bigger issues, none to my knowledge on the Audi, Merc might need its timing chain done by then IIRC.
 
My 2008 Honda Jazz cost R65k. Great condition, A/C, electric windows, full history, no accidents etc and a quality car in general. 170k on the clock, mostly from long distance driving.

Looks and drives like a car twice it's price.
 
cueball said:
So I'm in the market for a family-friendly daily driver with reasonable fuel economy (i.e. significantly better than my always-thirsty Jeep Grand Cherokee). Budget around R60-70k. Sedan or hatch, no real strong preference either way. I intend to do most routine servicing and even simpler repairs myself, with more complicated stuff being handled by my favourite local indy mech. So dealer pricing on labour is pretty much irrelevant, I'm just interested in reasonable parts pricing and availability.

Hit me with all the suggestions you can muster...
Click to expand...

Hmm. My brother-in-law just spent a small fortune on repairs for his old BMW 330 (as in, he was wanting to sell it, sent it in for some "minor" touch-ups and ended up spending R40k or so). Price is likely to be in your range (he is feeling the eina!) Not sure if that would interest you.
 
My gut feeling is that luxury german sedans are not a great fit for the "reasonable parts pricing and availability" criteria. Honda Jazz was already being considered, as was Polo, Fiesta/Figo, Yaris & Getz. These are the ones that I think of as a not-particularly car-savvy guy, I'm hoping to hear from some of the more car-savvy crowd which non-obvious options I may have missed.

My gut also says that Polo TDi options in that price range tend to be a risk as they tend to be abused by 20-somethings with something to prove. Yes? No?

This is the same gut that told me my Jeep would break if I just look at it funny, and happily I was shown to be wrong on that. So far ;)
 
Jazz is a great car and will last forever. Those magic seats at the back are super useful.
 
cueball said:
My gut feeling is that luxury german sedans are not a great fit for the "reasonable parts pricing and availability" criteria. Honda Jazz was already being considered, as was Polo, Fiesta/Figo, Yaris & Getz. These are the ones that I think of as a not-particularly car-savvy guy, I'm hoping to hear from some of the more car-savvy crowd which non-obvious options I may have missed.

My gut also says that Polo TDi options in that price range tend to be a risk as they tend to be abused by 20-somethings with something to prove. Yes? No?

This is the same gut that told me my Jeep would break if I just look at it funny, and happily I was shown to be wrong on that. So far ;)
Click to expand...

Hey, I just took a leap when I saw the word "Jeep" :). The cars you are looking at are way lower in fuel consumption than his 2002 BMW 330i. Good luck with the search!
 
cueball said:
My gut feeling is that luxury german sedans are not a great fit for the "reasonable parts pricing and availability" criteria. Honda Jazz was already being considered, as was Polo, Fiesta/Figo, Yaris & Getz. These are the ones that I think of as a not-particularly car-savvy guy, I'm hoping to hear from some of the more car-savvy crowd which non-obvious options I may have missed.

My gut also says that Polo TDi options in that price range tend to be a risk as they tend to be abused by 20-somethings with something to prove. Yes? No?

This is the same gut that told me my Jeep would break if I just look at it funny, and happily I was shown to be wrong on that. So far ;)
Click to expand...

I am very car savvy but not going to tell you what to buy. Gave you an option that fits your criteria. The cars you listed are the obvious choice because they are not old as hell or broken in that price range. Polo is as cheap as it comes to maintenance in that price range unless you want a Toyota. Maybe just 1.6 then. Keep that thing serviced regularly and it'll treat you well and at R1600 a dealership service, that's a bargain.

Or go Chev/Opel
 
ChocolateBadger said:
I am very car savvy but not going to tell you what to buy. Gave you an option that fits your criteria. The cars you listed are the obvious choice because they are not old as hell or broken in that price range. Polo is as cheap as it comes to maintenance in that price range unless you want a Toyota. Maybe just 1.6 then. Keep that thing serviced regularly and it'll treat you well and at R1600 a dealership service, that's a bargain.

Or go Chev/Opel
Click to expand...

Thanks, I didn't mean to sound unappreciative, I do appreciate the input. :)

As someone more car savvy, would you reckon a Polo TDi with somewhere around 150k km is still a decent buy? Do those turbos typically start showing issues at roughly a certain mileage? That's what I've been lead to believe, but there is so much misinformation out there its hard to know what the reality is. :erm:
 
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