A little help for a friend!

[Andy W.]

I'm hoping some Brit Friends can help me!

I have a buddy that just moved to the UK. His wife is in the military. They sold both cars here before moving. Vehicle wise he is in shock of prices. They need to cars because he will be on shift work and her on regular hours. They may have a new addition soon. They don't want car payments and have a bit of cash to spend. I suggested a used Mondeo for family but I had no idea what to get for a commuter car.

Any help would be great, thanks!

-Andy

[btcc93]

We tend not to differentiate between family and commuter cars, they are usually used as a one size fits all. Take our house for example, there's my trusty '98 Mondeo 2.0 Si, that does every thing from take me to work, go on vacation and several car shows a year and has done so for 8 years now, my wifes got a 1.4 Fiesta thats the general commuter for her plus shopping, etc no long haul trips though. My student son has a 1.8 Focus, that gets used for all the sort of stuff a guy in his early 20's does. Then I've also got my '93 BTCC touring car lookalike. I would tend to stick with the likes of a Mondeo or a Focus for general all round use, there are a lot of diesels in use over here nowadays and performance is not much different to petrol engine equivalents, but fuel consumption is much better. Bear in mind that at the moment gasoline costs the equivalent of $9.40 a gallon over here. Where are your friends based, because the cost of buying the same car, especially used, can vary quite a lot from one part of the country to another

[bob a]

www.pistonheads.co.uk

If you cant get one there you never will

[Big Daddy Kane]

I would recommend buying a halfway decent beater car. They always turn up around PCS (permanent change of station) time... Have her ask around her unit and whatnot for people PCSing/seperating back to the states. An example is my 1991 VW Scirocco... running gear is all 80s Golf, so it's super cheap to repair. Paid $350 for it, and put a total of $50 in it for maintenanace (battery, fuel pump, cooling fan, fuse block). Still gets 20-25MPG on a 3 speed ATX (no overdrive). Usually cars like this hit rock bottom on price and everyone just sells it for what they paid for it until someone wrecks it or drives it into the ground and junks it.

The reason PCS time is the best to get a car is that people will sell their non-US spec car cheap since they want to drive it as long as possible (right up until they move), and will need to sell it QUICK when the time comes. Just steer clear of the crooks trying to get retail value out of a car that's fair at best. It's everywhere overseas... no breaks!

A 2:1 exchange rate doesn't help! The rate is about 1.5:1, and just as an example there's a 1990 Cherokee for sale at a dealer for 4000€, which is nearly $6000... $4000 would be alright for a super clean, low mileage, high end 1990 Cherokee... but $6000??? Now imagine that up in the UK... $8000!

Another option is buying a new US-spec car... I know two new cars is probly out of the question, but maybe they can get one new (US spec!) car and add a cheap beater to the loan. At least they will have peace of mind with one of the cars having a warranty and able to take it back to the states with them.

[Bobster]

Pick up a copy of Parkers guide from any good newsagents - it`ll give you a very good guide on used prices in the uk and its updated every month.

[bob a]

Parkers guide is also available on the net.

http://www.parkers.co.uk/