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First Car

T

TomC

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Hi guys just passed my driving test about a week or so ago and I'm looking for my first car. I'm looking for something around £4000 including the cost of insurance.

So I guess my question is, what type of car would you recommend for a new driver? Also, what was your first car? I've got this mental idea In my head of getting a RX-8 (I know its a HORRIBLE idea).

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 
Spend little on the car. The insurance depending on your age will be crazy.

My first car a w reg fiat punto. 3200 to insure. 2nd car was a passat cc whichbwas 2l petrol and cheaper to insure somehow?

 
Elts7 said:
Spend little on the car. The insurance depending on your age will be crazy.

My first car a w reg fiat punto. 3200 to insure. 2nd car was a passat cc whichbwas 2l petrol and cheaper to insure somehow?
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Depending on what I look at quotes go from £1000-3000 and beyond. Kinda sucks but it would be even worse if I was younger.

 
I had a 07 plate corsa as my first car, it was nice and reliable, the only issue it had was when the blowers ceased up only cost 25 quid to fix, but i was in my early 20s at the time so the insurance didnt wreck me too hard at about 750 quid.

 
Ah, insurance. Me living in a city (Chester) and being 20, I was quoted about £2000 for a 2001 1.4 Honda Jazz. Moved to Prenton last year and my quotes were slightly better (like £1500 for a 1.0 Vauxhall Agila.)

Girlfriend on the otherhand, lives in a nice village, so she was quoted £1300 with a blackbox for her Honda Jazz. A year later it's now down to £500. B)

Blackboxes really aren't that bad, she regularly drives at peak times and we've had no quables from our provider.. But we also regularly get abuse from other drivers for doing 32 in a 30, but hey-ho. Anyway, spend £1000 on a Fiesta, or just something with less than a 1.4 engine, stay away from Corsa's though. Mileage shouldn't matter aslong as the vehicle has a full service history and doesn't look too worn.

If you're privileged enough to have your parents pay for your car and insurance etc then it shouldn't matter too much, as you'll only be paying for servicing, fuel etc. Or, if you're lucky enough to be with someone who lives in a nice village, and owns their own car, then you can get a classic car! Which means super cheap insurance (for example, £130 a year for a Volvo 850 estate) but you have to factor in the costs of repairing stuff that you won't likely be replacing anytime soon on a more modern car, so things like the engine.

I keep hearing that vans are cheaper to insure than cars? By van, I mean a car that has been redesigned to be a van. No idea!

 
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Having owned several RX8's in my time including a nice new R3

DO NOT get one as your first car.

You mentioned the words daily driver... it's a 16-18mpg car at best and while being fantastic to drive to look at and it will draw attention it requires slightly special care and you need cash aside in case.

If you still want one message me and I'll take you through the things to check before you hand cash over for one.

They are fantastic cars but they can bite you in the arse quicker than you expect

 
My first car was a '93 Corsa, What a beast.

For a first car I'd say look for something cheap. You're going to be charged through the nose for insurance for the first year or so you may as well get something like a 1.2 Corsa, Polo, Fiesta, etc. for £1000 or less while you build some NCB and save up for something better.

 
my first 'car' was a Suzuki Carry 1.3 van. Mid engined, rear wheel drive like a lambo, innit bruv.

cheap to insure was the only criteria and £2K was pretty reasonable when a fiat panda was £3.5-4K

swapped a year later to an old MX5 at £1300 for 10 months with admirals fast no claims bonus thing

Look for stuff you DON'T see young people in/are 'uncool' (cool is what you make it, if you 'own' something you can make it cool) they tend to be better young driver cars

and remember you only get 1 first car, so make it a good un!

 
My first car a 1.3L ford orion .... cheapish insurance £830 (back in 1997)

Get an old'ish, cheap, and small engined car, as there is a high chance that you may have a bump (if I remember correctly I reversed into a bollard)

Save your money for the next car :)

 
Until very recently I drove cheap rot boxes that cost nothing to run & when they were knackered I'd scrap em & buy another.

out of all the cheap run around's (Various Fiesta's Corsa's, Polo's etc) the humble Ford fiesta was always ace, the last one I bought was a 1.4 fiesta & I loved it, dirt cheap to run & insure, it went pretty well for a small car and you could fit loads in the back.

If I was buying a first car now, I'd buy one of them & run it for a year or two & save up for something newer & better over these two years, your insurance will drop sharply once you get through those years & you will have fun in a car that was a heap but it was a reliable heap & lets be fair you wont have to worry about knocking it on walls etc.

I have spent years getting the P*ss taken out of me for driving crap cars but I never had problems with them, I even have a picture somewhere of my 1998 Ford Fiesta half buried in mud (like all the others on that row in the parking fields) at Glastonbury after a really bad one, we managed to dig it and it drove home with five of us in it, my two other mates who went had a brand new Astra & a Nissan Skyline. guess who didn't need an AA van to get it started? I got home 5 hours before they did & I still didn't get the interior cleaned for a further three months.......I still miss driving old battered cars, I had much more fun in them.

 
I found the bigger engine cheaper insurance. Btw a few friends found mk2 focus 1.6's very cheap to insure. Worth a try pal

 
TomC said:
Hi guys just passed my driving test about a week or so ago and I'm looking for my first car. I'm looking for something around £4000 including the cost of insurance.

So I guess my question is, what type of car would you recommend for a new driver? Also, what was your first car? I've got this mental idea In my head of getting a RX-8 (I know its a HORRIBLE idea).

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Depends on where you live and the kind of roads you'll drive. You have 3 options for your first car:

Spend a small amount of money on an old runner. You have higher tax, fuel costs and will likely end up paying more than the car is worth in garage bills within 2 years.

Spend a large amount of money on a newer car. You have lower tax, better economy, and less chance of things going catastrophically wrong so quickly.

Spend a large amount of money, but over a long period of time, and lease a car. They're often within 3 years old, so have very low costs associated with them. Some are tax free. Lease companies also usually include servicing and any associated costs should mechanical issues arise.

I lease. I don't have enough money to suddenly drop £10k car in one go, nor do I want to be stuck with a crappy old banger. Lease is the best option for me. I get to drive a 2016 C Class as a first car, for £240 month. You can find lease options for small hatchbacks from around £80 a month.

Don't confuse lease with finance. When your lease is up, you give the car back, or buy it out for the remaining value.

 
Elts7 said:
In a shitty area. Not a usual car for an 18 yr old to drive hense beijg cheap
Click to expand...
To be fair I got a quote for £800 for a old 2.2 Vauxhall Vectra estate.. The 1.4 Honda is over £1k. :huh:

 
Monty said:
To be fair I got a quote for £800 for a old 2.2 Vauxhall Vectra estate.. The 1.4 Honda is over £1k. :huh:
Click to expand...
Exactly its unsual for a teenage wanting to drive it. We just found that they were cheaper to insure. For instance my passat cc 2.0 tsi is cheaper to insure than a 1.2 corsa or a 1l ka. Its mad.

 
First cars...happy days.

My 1983 Fiesta Finesse was the tits. Well, actually it was a hopeless pile of cack that broke almost every month in some spectacular way or another. Crashed it, repaired it, had it written off by some numpty that wasn't looking where they were going all inside of a year. Happy days.

Cost me less than £500 to insure though. Of course, that was back when it was all fields around here!

 
My first car was a P reg rover 214si, 1.4 litres of unreliable fury, only £350 to insure fully comp too!

 
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