Is there a better all-round , more reliable car, with a higher level of tech and performance you can buy for £1-3K? Not really!
Maintenance costs for 3 years and 22k miles were:
CCFL Angel Eye Kit: £27.99
[An expensive way to replace a dead sidelight bulb, but an essential update.]
Driver's Window Switch-Panel: £25.00
[Still worked, but had plastic chipped from one edge. Had to be replaced.]
Camshaft Sensor: £62.00
[Car became difficult to start when hot and would sometimes need to cool. Still never left me stranded.]
Drive-Belt Bracket: £14.00
[Car was parked with front wheels deep in gravel. I believe this caused too much tension on the PAS drive-belt and made the bracket snap. Belt was re-useable though. It took away drive to the alternator, but still I could have limped the diesel home if I'd needed to.]
Propshaft Centre-Donut: £114.00
[There was always a slight clunk sometimes when shifting on and off the gas and after about 5000 miles it started to get worse so I replaced the prop-shaft coupling in fear of it causing strain to the drivetrain.]
Rear Fuel-Pipe: £18.80
[While swapping the prop-shaft coupling I gripped a fuel return pipe as I tightened a bolt and smelt diesel on my hand. After a day or two, tiny spots of diesel had started to appear on the drive, so I had to replace the pipe, which was annoying.]
Air-Con Compressor Drive-Belt: £9.84
[When the sun finally came I noticed my air-con was struggling so popped the bonnet to give the system a clean and noticed the belt had snapped. With British summers, it could have been like that for a year or two.]
Front Anti-Roll Bar Links: £18.00
[2013 MOT in July, O/S was shot so replaced both.]
2x Nexen nBlue Tyres: £100
[2013 MOT in July, 2.5 years out of the tyres was great and the O/S two were still fine.]
Reverse Parking-Sensor: £12.50
[Fixed the reverse sensors to sell the car, Jan '14.]
Total: £292.39
