First Car... Clio 1.2?

[TheCleaner]

ok, so my mum is still a learner driver, and she's just got a 1998 R reg Clio 1.2 for £250..

First off, is that a good deal? and secondly, are they a decent enough car for a first car.

its apparently in good nick but im worried slightly by the mileage.. its about 120000.. i think its a little more than average.. what does the average car do in a year? about 12000?

anyway, its got 4 month tax + 10 month MOT left, and is being sold due to a death in the family selling it. It has electric windows, central locking, sunroof, so not too bad at all.

From my uneducated POV it seems a good deal... is it though?

[Renesis]

for 250 fucking EUROS as long as it runs it's a damn good deal..

shit it's a 1998!!!

[bahnstormer]

its brit pounds ren...

and its a POS car for a POS price

thus its a great first car

buy it and drive it

[Renesis]

well still, that's like 500$ and we can't get a semi decent and so new car for so little money like that here!

[GraemeH]

Even if it just runs for the 10 months of MOT left on it then dies, it's been a great deal. £250 for 10 months motoring? Nice one.

I would expect it to need work at its next MOT though, probably so much as to render it not worth doing to keep for another year. 120000 miles is a lot for a Japanese car, so for a French car it's near the point of waving the white flag of mechanical surrender.

[TheCleaner]

hehe, thanks for the input, and it could potentially save my mum alot of money on extra driving lessons because if she has her own car to learn in she wont have to be paying £17 for every hour of driving it

it kind of got bought on a whim as the man selling it was desperate as he was having to bury his father, who im guessing had no life insurance. anyway, i havnt seen it yet and aint sure if its the old pre 1998 model or the 1998-2001 model.. im hoping the latter ofcourse.

does anyone know of a decent first car? and what prices i should be looking at, we wernt even planning on buying a car this soon. not really bothered to much about looks but mainly reliablility

hehe, a french car.. [thinks back to tg survey episode]

does anyone know where it ranked in that?

[Cactuar]

I say for that amount of money, go for it. Like Ren said, over here you can't get anything unless you pay a few grands. I'm quite surprised you can get a 98 car for 500$! That's if it's in good running order though. It might be too good to be true so make sure to get it inspected by a trustworthy mechanic.

[Buba]

Go on... Clios aren't that bad!!!

[bartboy9891]

Originally Posted by Renesis

well still, that's like 500$ and we can't get a semi decent and so new car for so little money like that here!

unless its reposessed

[DJ]

Originally Posted by Buba

Go on... Clios aren't that bad!!!

My best friend drives a Clio II 1.2 ... That car made him turn grey. All he can think of is buying something (anything) with 200+ HP. That Clio is probably the slowest vehicle I've driven in. The only acceleration that deserves that name can be felt for a short period of time in first gear somwhere just above 5000 rpm. Overtaking anywhere anytime is a russian rulette (just the other day he was explaining how the Croatian ski team was overtaking him on the motorway ... In an Iveco van )

Plus it has only 50 000 km and it has had quite a few serious malfunctions (worst of them: gearbox went to /dev/null) and of course standard French build quality.

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating ... It is an OK car if you're an older lady and the local store is as far as you'll ever go. But it's a horrible car if you're male and in your 20s.

[Y8tes]

Originally Posted by DJ

That Clio is probably the slowest vehicle I've driven in. The only acceleration that deserves that name can be felt for a short period of time in first gear somwhere just above 5000 rpm. Overtaking anywhere anytime is a russian rulette

TBH, a mother learning to drive is never going to accellerate hard or overtake anything. Unless your mum turns out to be a speed freak, definately go for it, cracking deal.

[Greatgraddage]

Can't really go wrong for that price.

[Cactuar]

The gearbox problem you mention is very serious. Make sure you get the car inspected before shelling any money for it. Remember there's plenty of used cars around...

[TheCleaner]

ok its a clio biarritz

this is basically it

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=4580166237

gearbox problem?

OH NO! what has someone done to this clio?!?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/R-1998-DIMMA-C...QQcmdZViewItem

[monkeymax]

Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to this sooner, been a bit busy.

First off, I really recommend Parkers anytime you need a valuation of a car. You can get their book in most Newsagents, which will give you valuations of any car sold in the UK up to 10 years of age. Unfortunately you then have to go online and pay to find out the value of older cars.

Anyway, by using their site, I found that the value of your car in a poor state, sold by a private buyer is £530. Click here to see this valuation.
I assume this is the car given that that was what you linked to at eBay. Also, I specified the older version as the newer version was over one grand, and the eBay one was the old version.
Looking at that valuation, they say the average mileage of this car should be 70k Miles. So your Mum's car is almost twice that.

It's quite obvious one of the previous owners has done some serious mileage on that car.
I bought my car for £100 a year and a half ago. When I bought it my landlord at the time was a mechanic. He owed me a couple of favours so I asked him to check out the car for me (this was after I'd already bought it, as it was very much an impulse buy - long story) which he did. It went straight for the MOT and passed straight away just fine. I've had not a single problem since, it's my first car and it's not cost me anything. Except for new front discs and pads for the brakes, which I did myself. And Oil, which I change myself. But it's been great for a year and a half.

Though it's now possibly needing some more work on it, and this is why I'm telling you this story.

When the Mechanic checked it, he said it was fine but that I should run it into the ground. As the car was so cheap, it wasn't really worth spending anything on it.

And it's the same for you. From what you said, it seems you've already bought the car so really it's too late to change your mind.
For £250 you're not going to get anything special, and especially with that mileage I can't imagine it's got much longer left on it. However, it could - like mine - be a real surprise and last a couple of years (mind you, mine was at 82k when I bought it, but is 14 years old, and also French).

My advice to you is to make the most of it. It's a cheap runabout (especially at insurance group 3). Give it regular oil changes and treat it gently. Don't expect stellar (or in fact any) performance from it. Use it until it dies. If it's got 10 months MOT on it, then the last check was ~two months ago. Which means it should be in running order. If I was you, I'd take it to a mechanic you trust (or one that a friend trusts) and just ask them to inspect it for you. Most of them are happy to do this and give you a verbal inspection, though it may cost 20 quid or so (believe me, it's worth it, especially to check the brakes - if anything else breaks it's not too bad, but brake failure, particularly for a learner Mum, is never a good idea). If that mechanic says you need to spend a lot of money on something, decide if it's actually worth it (usually it probably won't be) and possibly get a second opinion on it.


Basically, it's difficult to say much about the car itself. All we know from what you said is the car model and age and mileage. Although the mileage is extraordinarily high (and the price reflects this), it's impossible to tell how good such a car is (or how long it is likely to last) without seeing it and hearing it.

I have a bunch of things I check whenever I'm looking at a car for myself or for other people, but I think that as you've already got the car it'd be better for you to get a professional's opinion.

Hope that helps a bit.

Let us know how you get on, and what your impression of the car is once you've seen it.

Also, you're right about that second eBay Clio you linked to. Someone's wasted a whole lotta money!

[TheCleaner]

thankyou very much for the input monkey. Good thing a good family friend is a mechanic and he's going to be checking it out. if its not upto much, its going in the paper and ill hopefully fetch my £250 back, but from what i hear its running decent. I'll update as i find out more.

[monkeymax]

Originally Posted by TheCleaner

thankyou very much for the input monkey. Good thing a good family friend is a mechanic and he's going to be checking it out. if its not upto much, its going in the paper and ill hopefully fetch my £250 back, but from what i hear its running decent. I'll update as i find out more.

Glad I could help...
And yeah, it's always good to have a family friend who's a mechanic!

Look forward to the update.

[massy]

i learned to drive in a clio 1.2. it's not fast (really not) but it gets you whee you need to get or very little money. even if it only lasts for half a year or so, you would probably get your money back for th car selling it for spare parts.

[Deanodriver]

250 pounds for a 1998 model car? That's a bloody bargain!

Most 1998 model small hatches (even Hyundai Excels and the like) are worth around $5000 here in Australia (many Euros twice that). For 250 pounds (which is about $650AUD), you'd be struggling to get 1988 model cars for that money. (A good ~15-20 year old car with roadworthy certificate (kinda like MOT, I spose, but you have to do it when you change car owners) and a year's rego is often worth at least $1500 where I am).

120,000miles is about 190000km, isn't it? I know that here, you can normally expect at least 250,000km (155000miles) or around 15 years from a car, more if it's bigger, at 190K, it should plenty of life left in it, a good couple of years. Then again, maybe the cars over there live shorter, harder lives.

Why are cars that aren't all that old (8 years isn't all that old) that are so cheap there? It's kind of sad, a friend of mine is after a Peugeot 406, but they're $10,000 here (even early models, that's 4500 pounds), but over there, they're less than half that.

[TheCleaner]

oh my goodness, i wish my mum could make up her mind about what car it actually is. ive had another email and now its a

Renault Clio RN Provence 1.2 - 1997

· 3 door

· Central locking and immobiliser

· 5 previous owners

· 113,000 on clock

And insurance quotes seem to be around £600-£700 with £60 tax

thankfully i am going home this weekend so ill be able to see it for myself