So I might be about to buy a lightly broken Daewoo Matiz off a colleague for £50 (see below). Its a beastly 0.8l 3 cylinder with a whopping 50bhp, however its got a years MOT and has just had stacks of work done to it (backed up by receipts). It needs a new ignition barrel, front left tyre and new front brake pads (all the spares are already in the boot!). To cut to the chase, me and my idiot mates are going to clean it up and then take it on a trip around Europe over the summer going to all sorts of places (really want to get to Lichtenstein for a start). Obviously if this ignition barrel thing is gonna be expensive, it won't happen. So basically, am I utterly mad?! 

47 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

So basically, am I utterly mad?! 

 

Yes! Probably 😁

But what a blast! 😎

Go for it.

 

 

 

It will get you there and back no problem.

I'm not familiar with this car mechanicly and reliability wise. Sounds fun though if you go on a trip out with it with your friends. 

If you are looking for a small cheap to run and cheap to buy car look at the Peugeot 107, Citroën C1 and Toyota aygo. All come with a 1 litre petrol engine with 68hp with £20 road tax and get you around 50 to 60mpg. You can pick them up from £1500

barking mad but why not

Sadly the ignition barrel was going to be too much to fix, so it’s scrap. However, we still plan to get a £500 car and take it round Europe.

9 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Sadly the ignition barrel was going to be too much to fix, so it’s scrap. However, we still plan to get a £500 car and take it round Europe.

Noooo!!!

 

Remove barrel, reroute cables to under the dash somewhere hidden and install some kind of hidden switch type thing. Would add an exciting element to the trip.... "Will the car still be there in the morning?" kinda thing 😁

14 minutes ago, Turvey said:

Will the car still be there in the morning?" kinda thing 😁

I would say yes

Euro trip should be fun...but you'll want something more comfortable and spacious than that!! 

 

Looking at estates, possibly a 1.9 TDI Passat or something as pretty reliable and can swallow lots of stuff plus actually cheaper to insure than the Focus for me.

Yeah, that sounds like a better option!

 

3 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Looking at estates, possibly a 1.9 TDI Passat or something as pretty reliable and can swallow lots of stuff plus actually cheaper to insure than the Focus for me.

My dad has a VW bora 1.9 TDI auto and its a good reliable car. Well he did have a boost leak which took him a while to fix and he had to fix the door lock module but it runs well. Wouldn't recommend auto as it's more on fuel and tax. 

On 1/5/2019 at 11:05 PM, zain611 said:

My dad has a VW bora 1.9 TDI auto and its a good reliable car. Well he did have a boost leak which took him a while to fix and he had to fix the door lock module but it runs well. Wouldn't recommend auto as it's more on fuel and tax. 

Oh yeah no auto for us, no fun on the Alpine passes! The 1.9tdi B5 Passat is a reliable old bus, seen some with over 400k on the clock still on original turbos and injectors plus no DPF to worry about! Think electrics not oily bits are the biggest killers on these.

On 1/5/2019 at 7:04 PM, Turvey said:

Noooo!!!

 

Remove barrel, reroute cables to under the dash somewhere hidden and install some kind of hidden switch type thing. Would add an exciting element to the trip.... "Will the car still be there in the morning?" kinda thing 😁

Just came to say this! Could also mount any kind of ignition barrel from any car, they all connect power to other wires, or just put switches in.

Have been tempted to take my Focus into Europe... but the reliability question crops up again and again - even though (touch wood!) my Focus has been the most reliable car i've ever owned... out of a sample size of two 😁

The little green Daewoo is now but a cube of metal sadly. I’d take the Focus on this but A) I want to try something different and B) I’d be crippled after driving some of the distances I plan to as I don’t find very comfortable on long journeys!

any ideas of what to take 😊

As mentioned above, thinking of a 1.9Tdi Passat as heard very good things about reliability, should swallow all our camping gear and cheap too.

Well developments have occurred, we have our route planned! Going to be a near 3000 mile across Europe, taking in places like Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana, Stuttgart and other places like the beaches of Dunkirk, Spa racetrack, the former GDR border crossing at Helmstedt and Lake Bled in Slovenia. Sadly due to time constraints, we couldn't get everywhere in that we wanted like the Italian lakes and Switzerland but there's always next year!  Got a few offers of cheap cars from various people, so will see whats what nearer the time in that respect!

19 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

Well developments have occurred, we have our route planned! Going to be a near 3000 mile across Europe, taking in places like Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana, Stuttgart and other places like the beaches of Dunkirk, Spa racetrack, the former GDR border crossing at Helmstedt and Lake Bled in Slovenia. Sadly due to time constraints, we couldn't get everywhere in that we wanted like the Italian lakes and Switzerland but there's always next year!  Got a few offers of cheap cars from various people, so will see whats what nearer the time in that respect!

good luck

Cheers Del, should be a good one!

Another update, I think we will be taking two cars but I will be taking my Focus as it will save a significant chunk of money. The other car will be a 2014 Focus Titanium. and out of curiosity, do these have an option to swap the lights from RHD to LHD via a menu?

13 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Another update, I think we will be taking two cars but I will be taking my Focus as it will save a significant chunk of money. The other car will be a 2014 Focus Titanium. and out of curiosity, do these have an option to swap the lights from RHD to LHD via a menu?

If it's just a Titanium it'll have conventional halgoens so no option to swap and you'll need lens stickers.  If it's a Titanium X with xenons (HIDs) you should be able to swap via electronics, either in the dash or with FoCCCus.

13 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Another update, I think we will be taking two cars but I will be taking my Focus as it will save a significant chunk of money. The other car will be a 2014 Focus Titanium.

what happened to the old car idea

@TomsFocus Yeah just a straight Titanium so beam deflectors it is.

@dezwez Not entirely dead yet, it’s just that it’ll be easier to take my car as it already has European breakdown cover (all the cars we were looking at were too old to qualify) plus all the insurance and tax etc and will save a lot of money to use on other things on the holiday.

19 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

@TomsFocus Yeah just a straight Titanium so beam deflectors it is.

@dezwez Not entirely dead yet, it’s just that it’ll be easier to take my car as it already has European breakdown cover (all the cars we were looking at were too old to qualify) plus all the insurance and tax etc and will save a lot of money to use on other things on the holiday.

right ok I see ☺️