Your opinion of a 1st car for a newly passed

RareEntitee

RareEntitee

RareEntitee

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Hi i'm hoping to pass my test which falls just under my 20th b-day so was hoping if you guys could spec me a motor that performs well in reliability, fuel economy, cheap insurance etc.

Also i was trying to find some loop holes in insurance policies and was wondering if i could do the following

- Add my parents to my policy as second drivers, etc, would that bring my premium down.

- If i add myself to my uncle's Lexus, as a second driver, would i be eligible for no claims discount, and carry it on when i get my own policy?

- Paying an excess in the event of a claim

- Does pass plus lessons make a difference, cause not many insurers take it into account.

I was specd cars like toyota aygos but the cheapest price i could find was jus under £4k, which is too much. You guys know any good sites i could browse.
 
You could try Bell, Admiral or Elephant and add you parents onto your own policy. Brought the price down by a couple of hundred for me :)
 
Carcraft. *flees*



More seriously, eBay and Autotrader, avoid carcraft lol.
Just get a cheap hatchback of some description, of varying age/mileage depending on your budget. My 15yr old 106 does >50mpg country/motorway driving and >40 town driving.
DirectLine do a named driver's no claims discount. It's not as good as having the policy in your own name but helps a bit.

My advice would be to get something so cheap that if it dies, it doesn't matter because you can just get a new one rather than worrying about repairs. Then you can get third party fire&theft insurance so save some pennies on that, because if you crash it, it's not worth paying the excess before they start paying for repairs/replacement.
 
RareEntitee said:
- Add my parents to my policy as second drivers, etc, would that bring my premium down.
- Yes, it helped me a lot

- If i add myself to my uncle's Lexus, as a second driver, would i be eligible for no claims discount, and carry it on when i get my own policy?
- Yes you could, but make sure that if you're the main driver, state that, or else you're fronting, which is illegal. Only certain companies give you NCB for being a named driver, Direct Line being one of them.

- Paying an excess in the event of a claim
- Most insurers have a young drivers compulsory excess, be wary of that.

- Does pass plus lessons make a difference, cause not many insurers take it into account.
- Not many do, and those that do it doesn't seem to make much difference, you'd probably save more by not doing it.

I was specd cars like toyota aygos but the cheapest price i could find was jus under £4k, which is too much. You guys know any good sites i could browse.
- I'm guessing you're looking for a car here, Auto Trader is my regular place, found all my cars either there or round the local garages.
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okily dokily, i'l add my parents to it, make it cheaper and start building my no claims, oh how long can you build it up for and whats the max discount available
 
LOL Solid.

I was shocked at how much it was to insure a 1st car, I had a 1.3 metro S (pmsl more rust than car) when I was 18, it cost me £450 & I has to insure it for £1200 is I remember correctly. When I moaned the bloke in the insurers (swinton I think) said it wasn't how much my car was worth it was how much whatever I crashed into was worth.

I never crashed & my premium did come down a lot. it's really hard for a young bloke to get started now, don't you find these "we only insure women" companies a bit sexist......I mean if I was to open a firm that said "blokes only" they wouldn't be long in moaning about it.....sorry for not being much help, I have a step son who is coming up for 17 soon & I'm a bit worried what we will have to shell out for him.

Keep us posted.
 
Elephant were great for me, 18 going on 19 with 0ncb was 720 for 10 months cover (with parents added). Car is a rover 25 1.4 which was cheap to buy, drives well and is decent on the fuel.
 
Most places only accept the first 5 years. Make sure you keep record of your NCB above that though, would hate to have only proof of 5+, then have a claim and knock it down to 3...

Paid 2K on a 2K punto TPTF first time round, dropped to £800 with 1 year NCB :D
 
dovey said:
Elephant were great for me, 18 going on 19 with 0ncb was 720 for 10 months cover (with parents added). Car is a rover 25 1.4 which was cheap to buy, drives well and is decent on the fuel.
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£720? How did you manage that, i want insurance that cheap :eek:
 
Car wise, go German or Japanese for reliability. Avoid going French. Look on AutoTrader and eBay.

If you're on Quidco or a similar site, you can often get cashback of over £50 for first time customers with various companies. I myself got £75 cashback with More Than this year.
 
Carefree Chris said:
Car wise, go German or Japanese for reliability. Avoid going French. Look on AutoTrader and eBay.

If you're on Quidco or a similar site, you can often get cashback of over £50 for first time customers with various companies. I myself got £75 cashback with More Than this year.
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Why avoid french? Do they break down every other week? Am i missing something here?
 
Liquidfox said:
On a cheap budget, the electrics will be shoddy, and they tend to cost quite a bit in general maintenance (things falling off etc)
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Ah, yes that will explain why my clio keeps blowing it electrics up all the time and everything falls off it.............oh wait :rolleyes:
 
Carefree Chris said:
Car wise, go German or Japanese for reliability. Avoid going French. Look on AutoTrader and eBay.

If you're on Quidco or a similar site, you can often get cashback of over £50 for first time customers with various companies. I myself got £75 cashback with More Than this year.
Click to expand...

German and Japanese does not mean automatic reliability, I wish people would stop falling into using lazy stereotypes...

As for insurance, a lot of the mainstream insurance companies are quite poor for new drivers so even with your quidco, you're not going to be quids in.
 
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Liquidfox said:
On a cheap budget, the electrics will be shoddy, and they tend to cost quite a bit in general maintenance (things falling off etc)
Click to expand...

:/

I had a £20 205, it ran fine, all electrics that it had worked fully. I think other than me crashing it, the only thing to go wrong was a plastic plug in the engine bay that some retard snapped, so it came off by itself.
 
At 21 I had a 2.0L Mondeo TPFT for £645 a year from Elephant. If your not bothered about what you drive to start with then an "old man" car will get you a lower premium and a whole lot more comfort/speed than a 1.0L tin box.
 
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