James Ruppert: Budget bangers lead used market resurgence

Let’s finish on a low, because Chevrolet Lacetti estates make sense as super-practical hatchbacks and a 2008 1.8 SX with 60k miles and an automatic gearbox at £1200 strikes me as a wagon that will suit most of us for shopping and doing the basic motoring things. I actually passed over another Lacetti to get to this one. Obviously, these little Chevys must be the best under-the-radar everyday purchase. Anyway, that’s what the back-from-the-dead used car market is telling me right now.

What we almost bought this week

Audi A3 1.4 TFSI Sport Mk3: For a brilliantly built hatch that ticks all the boxes, the third-generation Audi A3 takes some beating. In fact, even its replacement – released just this year – isn’t as good in some respects. This £6500 one has done 100k miles in six years but looks well looked after and is fresh from an MOT and service.

Tales from Ruppert's garage

Land Rover Series 3, mileage - 131, 895: This isn’t strictly about the Lorry. A neighbour was having a clear-out and offered me a couple of ramps. I find it hard to refuse free stuff, especially useful stuff. I already have a set, but they are blue and these are rust red. The thing about ramps is that with the fancy overhangs and low suspension of many moderns, they are difficult or impossible to use. Not so with the old stuff. Now I can have two of them in the air at once. No idea why I’d need to, but at least it’s an option. Especially after I filled my garage pit in, because it resembled a tiny swimming pool.

Reader's ride

Morris 8: Allan rather enjoyed Roderick’s Morris: “By coincidence, I was also a 19-year-old student in 1959. Damn, just given my age away! And, more to the point, I was driving a Morris 8. Well, sort of. My first car, it cost me £30, and of all the cars I have owned, this was the ugliest. You might, if you were kind, describe it as an early kit car.

“It was not of my making. Some genius had taken an ex-GPO van, hacked off the body and rebuilt it as what? An open-top two-seater? I had some fun in it, until I got pulled over by the police on Gravel Hill, just off the A2, and fined £3 for a defective handbrake. Well, it was a steep hill, and the officers were pushing it backwards, your Honour.”

Readers' questions

Question: I have a 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera 2. I’m tempted to change for a nearly new Alpine A110 but have never driven one. Would I regret selling my manual Porsche or be won over by the Alpine? I don’t do track days. David Martin, Dunblane

Answer: Why not keep the Porsche? I’ll bet it’s still a delight to drive, and it’s probably the more convenient to live with. If there’s a chink in the A110’s armour, it’s the slightly small (and flimsy) interior. But if you do fancy something new, the A110 will deliver a similar thrill mile after mile. DR