Liviu Marcus
Introduction
In today’s financially fraught world, in which inflation seems to be constantly climbing and the ‘cost-of-living’ crisis is taking up more and more space in the newspapers, you might initially imagine that £3,000 wouldn’t go that far as a budget for a car purchase.
Also if that’s the way, you’re looking at it, our team here at Cars Under 3000 would likely have a strong differing opinion. The name in itself should also make known that this is a group of people who really understand the value this type of market can bring.
Definitely, there are some aspects you must be on the lookout for while shopping for a car that the price is less than £3,000, and make sure you take all of your senses into consideration like thoroughly checking behind the scenes of every vehicle you want to buy while giving every one of them a test drive. A clean service history would be top of one’s priority, perhaps even before an undemanding provider of the car.
Anyway, that’s enough preamble from us. What car models do we reckon you might be especially well-advised to take a look at when you’re interested in purchasing in this price category? Below, we’ve set out three examples, as spotted at the time of writing in our own generous stock of used cars in Raleigh and Essex.
BMW 3 Series
Anyone who has been reading motoring magazines and websites since… well, decades ago, will know a little something about how highly rated the Bavarian marque’s compact executive car range has long been. The very name ‘3 Series’ is synonymous with the best in driving sophistication in this category.
We bet you didn’t realize you could have a surprisingly recent example of the 3 Series for less than £3,000, though. Just recently, a 2000 E46 325Ci Coupe SE entered our stock; with its gold paint finish and cleanliness inside and out, it was a beautiful motor that had clearly been well looked after by its one previous owner.
As for the price, it was that low to help encourage a quick trade clearance sale – and with there not being many examples of that particular model left on UK roads, we knew the eventual buyer would be getting quite the bargain. It’s worth regularly checking our used vehicle listings online to discover the latest attractive deals, as they don’t tend to last for long.
Ford Focus
One of the good things about the original version of Ford’s venerable hatchback, having debuted way back in 1998 (when it replaced the also-long-lived Ford Escort), is that when you fast-forward to 2022, many Focuses of various vintages are within reach on a £3,000 budget. And let’s not forget how well-rated the Focus has been over the years, especially with regard to the driving experience.
That’s certainly a strength of the easily overlooked coupe-cabriolet version of the car, too. And when we were browsing our stock for the purposes of putting together this article, our eye was caught by the availability of a black 2.0-litre CC-3 model for just £2,495.
For that, the buyer could look forward to such perks as air conditioning, auto headlights, electric windows, and steering wheel controls – not to mention a nice, long MOT. There were also just 115,000 miles on this 2009 car, so it’s fair to say that even when you’re buying at this price point, you can find attractive vehicles with plenty of life left in them yet.
Land Rover Freelander
The ‘SUV crossover’ craze of recent years perhaps owes a lot to the acclaim and success accorded to pioneers of the genre such as the Land Rover Freelander, which entered production in 1997 and continued to roll off new-dealer forecourts into 2015.
As with the Focus, such a long production run gives you a lot of options for interesting models if you fancy a Freelander but are on a tight budget. One such car we discovered in our stock was a 2005 1.8-litre three-door Adventurer in blue. It did have a high mileage – 158,000, to be exact – but it was also a hard-to-come-by model with a lengthy MOT, on sale for a mere £1,995.
Reflecting on the first-generation 1997-2006 Freelander years later, What Car? described it as “one of the first 4x4s that was, more or less, as light and easy to drive as a conventional family car”. The magazine added that while the car was “now less refined to drive than a more modern SUV… [it’s] still quite good.”
Conclusion
So, there you go – three potentially very relevant cars that could be within your reach on a £3,000 budget. If we’ve piqued your interest, why not check out our current range of vehicles being advertised on our site today, or get in touch directly for further advice and information on the other ways we could serve you?
