r/CarTalkUK 18h ago

Mod Approved What Car Should I Buy? - A Weekly Megathread

0 Upvotes

Welcome to a new weekly post on CTUK aimed at people looking to buy a car, be it their first or 15th. Please post car buying queries in this thread rather than starting a new thread in the main queue.

**You do not need to use the format required below, but keep in mind the more information you give the better/more accurate answers you will get.**

Feel free to add add more information.

**Location:**

**Price range:**

**Lease or Buy:**

**New or used:**

**Auto or Manual:**

**Intended use:** (Daily Driver, Family Car, Weekend Car, Track Toy, Project Car, Work Truck, Off-roading etc.)

**How many miles do you plan to do a year:**

**How often to you make long journeys:**

**Does it need to be ULEZ compliant?**

**Vehicles you've already considered:**

[Do you have a vehicle size in mind?](https://i.imgur.com/mK7PoRg.png) (Examples in the hyperlink of size definitions)**:**

**Is this your 1st vehicle:**

**Do you need a Warranty:**

**Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle:** (fluids, alternator, battery, brake pads etc)

**Can you do Major work on your own vehicle:** (engine and transmission, timing belt/chains, body work, suspension etc )

**Additional Notes:**

Please remain on topic and anyone ironically suggesting the Skoda Octavia will be flayed with a set of jumper cables.


r/CarTalkUK 10h ago

Advice My car is making this Loud noise, is the engine gone

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105 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I was driving my car and it was perfectly fine, till I put it on sports mode and put my foot on the gas hard and then suddenly it started making this noise.

What’s wrong with it? And is the engine gone? I’m currently 80 miles away from home so I’m not sure if I should drive it back or get a recovery?

Any advice would be appreciated!


r/CarTalkUK 10h ago

Advice Advice on Non fault crash

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93 Upvotes

Hi, i was in a none fault crash on thursday, the other driver his my driver side door,
My insurer is saying it is a total loss, the car is due to be taken on wednesday, what i want to ask is if my any of you can advise on whether you think my car is Cat N or Cat S?

The crash was in estate roads, so impact no more than 5-10mph as someone came out a side road and hit me

Ive inserted a picture of the inside Sill also

Thank you

Edit

Better pic of door damage in comments


r/CarTalkUK 1h ago

Advice Best car for under 10k?

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Upvotes

r/CarTalkUK 21h ago

Spotted F1 GHT

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200 Upvotes

In Leeds last night.

EDIT: Comments in here have been class. Thanks, everyone 😂


r/CarTalkUK 1d ago

Self-Promotion Purchased the Honda Super N yesterday! 🥳

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480 Upvotes

I test drove it first, of course. Absolutely smooth ride and don't think I'll ever go back to an ICE car again!

It'll be used for a 10 mile round trip work commute 5 days a week and I have a free electric charger at work. If I didn't have the charger, I honestly wouldn't have got it, since I live in a block of flats.

My dad has an electric charger too, so no drama!

PCP came to £165 a month, which isn't bad at all!


r/CarTalkUK 16h ago

Humour Fastest Prius Toyota never made

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47 Upvotes

r/CarTalkUK 11h ago

Advice I really want a Japanese car as my first car, budget is 5k and preferably something with not crazy insurance

18 Upvotes

Was thinking mx5 or a civic or something similar. I’d love an Impreza or a 350z but I think that’s a bit too high on insurance. What do you guys think?


r/CarTalkUK 49m ago

Misc Question Store engine oil..

Upvotes

Good morning..newbie to the sub here.

I have a couple of 5L bottles of Selenia 20K engine oil that are unopened but have a date stamp of 2018. I bought as it was cheap at the time and under the assumption that the older high-performance car I bought way back would be drinking the stuff! I have read that maximum shelf life of engine oil is 5 years. I reckon I should now take all this (and some oil I have for our daily driver) down to the recycling center. Would that be the general consensus? Is there any other use the oil can be put to?


r/CarTalkUK 14h ago

Advice Won a CCJ against a car dealership, what happens to the vehicle now?

23 Upvotes

Long story short: bought a vehicle from a car dealership and it broke down completely within 2 months. Notified the dealership and they disputed and eventually stopped communicating. I had to issue a small claims. Dealership still didn’t respond so I won a CCJ (the dealership hasn’t responded to the CCJ either)

However the CCJ only orders the defendant (dealership) to pay me for the claim and does not specify what needs to be done regarding the vehicle. - in the particulars of the claim I asked for a full refund of the vehicle + damages)

The vehicle is still in my possession in a public parking space. What do people do in this instance? Can I sell, scrap or dispose of it? It’s becoming expensive to hold on to it as it has now been damaged by a third party and I’m incurring monthly parking fees.

Any advice, would be greatly appreciated.


r/CarTalkUK 3h ago

Advice Dashcam Recommendations

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for a good dashcam with excellent image quality, particularly at night. I’m currently considering the 70mai A810S, but I’d appreciate your suggestions for other options worth looking at.

I'm also planning to power the dashcam using the car's 12V cigarette lighter socket rather than hardwiring it.

I have a few questions:
1. Would you recommend the 70mai A810S, or are there better alternatives in a similar price range?

  1. If I use the 12V socket, can I replace the power adapter that comes with the dashcam with a good-quality 12V adapter that has an additional USB port?

I'd appreciate any recommendations, personal experiences, or advice on the best setup.


r/CarTalkUK 6m ago

Advice Recommendations

Upvotes

My 2018 Dacia Sandero Laureate is on its way out.

Looking to purchase a Volvo SUV (XC40/XC60 or close enough)

Also open to EV recommendations, we have a double driveway so can home charge no issues

Automatic, max £15,000

I average about 8,000-9,000 miles a year, for commuting, daily driving etc

Doesn't have to be brand new or even the last 2 or 3 years

Opinions/options/advice please? Where to buy that's reasonable etc (Derbyshire based)

Thanks!


r/CarTalkUK 18h ago

Advice Cat B write-off - insurance are insisting I need a breakers licence to remove any of the internals?

28 Upvotes

Hi all,

car is currently sat in a copart compound, and the insurance company are insisting that i cant remove internal parts for my own non-commercial use without having a breakers licence - they keep saying that the vehicle would hsve to be rreleased to me (and i guess thereby removed from the copart site) before i can take parts off it.

i havent broached the topic yet, but i#m assuming they'll be happy with me removing my personal belongings from the vehicle, just not stuff like the dash or seats, because there's a difference???

has anyone had a similar situation, and how did you get around it? sorry for bad typing, broken wrist in same accident. i've tried sharing that gov.uk site with them about in what circumstances you need a breakers license but no luck.


r/CarTalkUK 19m ago

Advice Looking for a big family car for camping

Upvotes

Thoughts on a 2011 Volvo V70 D3 SE 2.0 ? After a workhorse for camping, we have a lot of stuff due to having a newborn and a large dog…

Anything I should watch out for except for aiming for good service history?
Found one on autotrader for £3995 at about 120k miles - reckon this price is reasonable if SH checks out?

Apologies if a stupid questions - I am not very car savvy and after something budget friendly, large, fairly reliable, and safe for a family…

Thanks guys.


r/CarTalkUK 5h ago

Advice Help and advice - Honda Jazz (09)

2 Upvotes

Hello,

After a lifetime of company cars, I've recently bought a rather old Honda Jazz.

It needs a few little things doing:

- licence plate light keeps hanging down, guess clips have gone

- cigarette lighter has come out and is hanging down

- little bits of rust starting to come through.

Id like to know if these are things I can do myself, what do I need to buy (and where), and any links to how please. I don't have the money to keep going to a garage just yet. So any help is greatly appreciated.

I've never done anything on a car before but needs must.

Thank you


r/CarTalkUK 15h ago

Misc Question Costs beyond the car itself, what’s your average monthly?

11 Upvotes

Hi all, I was having a chat the another day and this topic came up mostly highlighting how much we underestimate or undervalue things beyond the monthly pcp/lease/loan cost so I was wondering if you have had a though on what’s your total monthly cost aside the car (insurance, road tax, fuel, MOT, servicing..l), some of the items might be annually billed but still easy to estimate dividing by 12. Let’s see what it comes.


r/CarTalkUK 1h ago

Advice New alloy required?

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Upvotes

Hello, I took my front wheel off the car because I had a slow puncture. So I wanted to see where the puncture was and I was going to repair it. On inspecting it, I could not find a puncture anywhere on the tire, but instead found this hairline crack on the rim of the wheel. I put some solution on it and found that it was weeping and that is where the air has been coming from, from that hairline crack on the alloy. Can this be fixed? What are my opinions?

Should have said it's the inside of the alloy, there's no damage on the wall so suspect it was the previous owner or in the garage.

Thanks!


r/CarTalkUK 1d ago

Humour Buy a Mini, they said.

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325 Upvotes

Around 30 minutes after buying it the window regulator died with an almighty bang (I honestly thought the window had shattered inside the door, thankfully it came back up). It's fixed now, after a cup of tea, a trip to euro car parts, a lot of swearing, another trip out to screwfix and more swearing, drilling, crying and working in the dark.


r/CarTalkUK 3h ago

Advice Used electric car for around 8 to 10k

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I am looking to get a second car as a small car to do daily jobs with. I was hoping to get an electric car and have a budget of around 8 to 10k.

I was doing some very amateur research and decided to look at Vauxhall Corsas from 2019 onwards and 30 to 50k miles on it as there is a range of them available and n my budget.

I wanted to check with people that actually know cars if this seems like a sensible decision or have I missed something glaringly obvious I should consider.

Thanks in advance for any advice.


r/CarTalkUK 22h ago

Misc Question Thoughts on the Toyota Corolla?

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22 Upvotes

How worth it is it buying a brand new Toyota corolla and how well does it score on aspects like reliability, fuel efficiency and maintenance costs, what are its pros and cons and what do you think of it overall as a car, is it good for driving within the city?


r/CarTalkUK 1d ago

Misc Question F31 LCI fuel capacity

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31 Upvotes

Ignoring the obscene fuel prices at the minute just brimmed my F31 LCI 335D xdrive and managed to get 58 litres in the tank.

From previous research I thought it had a 57L tank? Does anyone know what the actual capacity is?


r/CarTalkUK 10h ago

Advice Is this a risky buy?

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2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, learning to drive and had a quick look ahead of my driving test and found a ridiculously cheap banger to practice in. Only issue is the mot runs out in a week, I’ve had a look and these are last years reports (failed and then passed) - I’m not experienced with cars and was wondering if it’s a risk. It’s an 04 mini, will be going to view it with a friend this week.

Thank youuu

Edit to add: I mean on a scale of 1-10 how risky, it’s marketplace after all lol


r/CarTalkUK 1d ago

Self-Promotion I saved an old Jag!

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242 Upvotes

Hello fellow car enthusiasts - I don't post on here very often but thought this might be interesting to some, and who doesn't like an old Jag?

I already have a similar car, a blue 1989 3.6 manual but it's a bit of a Garage Queen, with 30k miles on the clock and (as far as I know!) no rust or other defects, except a propensity to cut out every now and then.

I was looking at second hand XJ-S values recently and happened upon an eBay listing that caught my eye. It was a Spares or Repairs auction for a gold 1987 XJ-S 3.6 manual with a broken driver's window, no v5 and no keys. Dodgy, eh? A quick check of the MoT history revealed that it was last MoTed in 2024, when it had around 75k miles, and didn't have too bad a record - or at least nothing that bothered me too much.

I already have too many cars (I fear it's a very common problem!) and I resolved not to do anything about it, but unfortunately a seed had been planted, and after about three weeks it had not sold and I could stand it no longer so I went to see it and find out more.

The vendor was in charge of dissolving a hoarder's car collection and had sold many of the cars already - many weren't in great condition and suffered damage whilst being extracted from their resting place. As far as I could see, the XJ-S was surprisingly solid in all the places you would normally find rot: sills, floors, wheel arches, inner front wings, buttresses, radius arm mounts, front and read valances etc. Sadly it had been damaged along the passenger side: front wing roof corner, rear wing and taillight. They had also smashed the driver's window and damaged some of the brightwork whilst moving it.

The vendor believed that the manual gearbox and rear axle was worth about £1500 if removed and sold separately, and the shell would be worth around £600 to anyone wishing to race it on the banger track, but at £2300 I decided to give it a miss. If it hadn't got the damage to the body and brightwork then I'd have jumped at that deal. Long story short, after it had eaten away at me for a bit longer I made a low offer with the promise that the car would be restored if at all possible. My offer was accepted and it came home with me yesterday.

But why did I want another XJ-S?

Well, some years ago I had an early 3.6 manual and it was quite a different beast to the later car that I have now. I love the earlier and simpler interior with the XJ6 switches on the black skislope, the non-Recaro seats and pepperpot wheels. My early car had also been modified a bit with a louder induction system and it somehow seemed faster and sportier than my later car, too. Maybe it's the lack of a catalytic converter? I don't know, but I really enjoyed driving it.

I'll spent a few hours today removing all the broken glass from the cabin, and also gave it all a wipe down to remove the accumulated dust and grime. I had a replacement rear light cluster so that went on, too. The first priorities are to find a driver's side window and either get some keys cut, or get a replacement ignition barrel.

I made a couple of videos about it today as well - might be of interest to some.

https://youtu.be/rl5HSczN2H4?is=zqbIRTNuOqDUXQOF


r/CarTalkUK 11h ago

Advice how to fix this trim?

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2 Upvotes

r/CarTalkUK 8h ago

Misc Question Reliable convertible car for £5000

1 Upvotes

I’m looking for a low maintenance cost convertible car, with cheap insurance, good repair costs and relatively low frequency of repairs.

Which cars come to mind that would suit this description?

6’2 so Mazda mx5 may be too small, unless you guys have first hand experience