I've done it, put deposit down on a car finally! - Yaris

Raymond Lin said:
Insurance sorted, first car, no NCB, £690 from Admiral. Not bad for a 1.8L
AA breakdown, National recovery, Home start sorted, £55 for personal (after £50 Quidco discount)
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Have you been a name driver for yonks or something?

1.8l first car? I probably still wouldn't be able to get something like that sub £2000
 
Raymond Lin said:
Well, if I were going to have fun in a car....it seems like the best bang for buck in style lol
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No i agree, it's not bad at all for a first car.

I just find it funny that it was between this and a Z4. You couldnt really get two more different cars!?
 
Brookert said:
Have you been a name driver for yonks or something?

1.8l first car? I probably still wouldn't be able to get something like that sub £2000
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Nope, but I am not 17 either.

Jono8 said:
No i agree, it's not bad at all for a first car.

I just find it funny that it was between this and a Z4. You couldnt really get two more different cars!?
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Erm, what's the point of deciding between 2 similar cars? Lol

I did look into a fiat 500 and the new fiesta for a bit but didn't like either as much as this or can get it as cheap for the same spec.

The fiesta would be a 1.2 and a fiat is too expensive.
 
Nice car, I dislike the interior... But then I would owning a swift sport :p

You will have less rattles though lol
 
I like the interior of the Yaris, but that's a personal thing. :)

I am looking forward to picking it up!

Though the down side...I just realise i will be completely skint for at least a month because of this.

Now, I got to learn how to clean the thing, the RIGHT way of clean, wax and polish...this will be another hobby.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Now, I got to learn how to clean the thing, the RIGHT way of clean, wax and polish...
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This takes some perfecting, I use the following technique:-

Buy Newspaper
Find nearest jet wash weilding immigrants
Read paper
Hand over fiver
Drive off
 
alexisonfire said:
Stand back and admire the 7 thousand new scratches
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Quite, which you have plenty of time to do as you haven't spent so long ******* about with multiple buckets etc...

I polished my Octavia with a rotary years ago and got it looking superb, then bought a couple of buckets and all the Meguiars gear, which cost me a small fortune. Spent ages washing it the 'right' way, and still got *some* swirls/scratches anyway. Not sure what I did wrong, but the idea of spending the time and money not keeping it in pristine freshly mopped condition just doesn't do it for me. I achieve the same standard these days by getting the imigrants or "valet" at the gym to clean it regularly, with a proper polish/wax every couple of months or so...
 
Bargain, Ray! The dealers round here are at least £1K more than that for the same car. Probably more, because the ones we've been looking at have had the smaller engine.

I agree with you about the interior in the Yaris. It's a lot better than the Clio which felt thin and cheap in comparison.
 
Congrats on having bought the car you wanted... :)

... but I've got to ask, if you were looking at a Z4, why have you spent the same money on a supermini?

£6.5k is entry level Z4 money, which means an 03 car. You say you moved away from the Z4 because it wasn't the most sensible choice as a first car. I'd tend to agree on that as the Zed has a bloody long snout, and tight spaces can be challenging for even experienced drivers. But you were prepared to entertain an 8 year old car. What you've bought isn't new enough to have a warranty, or Toyota Approved Used either. So why this?

I get that generic/anonymous superminis have their place amongst people that aren't interested in cars and think that the 1.8 will be like **** off a shovel (lol?), but I genuinely don't understand why people pay interesting money for generic/anonymous?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Yaris is a bad car. As you've gone for the 133bhp 1.8 it's performance is similar to my first car, ie acceptably nippy. It looks tidy in a supermini kind of way and is probably in decent condition too. I'm not convinced that the 182 Trophy/197 suggestions are the answer for a first car either but it is at least an indiction of the level of interesting that £6.5k gets you. It's not the right time for interesting, so why not spend half the money on an 04 Focus Ghia and at least add value to the qualities of generic/anonymous, and bank half the cash?
 
Kingy said:
Congrats on having bought the car you wanted... :)

... but I've got to ask, if you were looking at a Z4, why have you spent the same money on a supermini?

£6.5k is entry level Z4 money, which means an 03 car. You say you moved away from the Z4 because it wasn't the most sensible choice as a first car. I'd tend to agree on that as the Zed has a bloody long snout, and tight spaces can be challenging for even experienced drivers. But you were prepared to entertain an 8 year old car. What you've bought isn't new enough to have a warranty, or Toyota Approved Used either. So why this?

I get that generic/anonymous superminis have their place amongst people that aren't interested in cars and think that the 1.8 will be like **** off a shovel (lol?), but I genuinely don't understand why people pay interesting money for generic/anonymous?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Yaris is a bad car. As you've gone for the 133bhp 1.8 it's performance is similar to my first car, ie acceptably nippy. It looks tidy in a supermini kind of way and is probably in decent condition too. I'm not convinced that the 182 Trophy/197 suggestions are the answer for a first car either but it is at least an indiction of the level of interesting that £6.5k gets you. It's not the right time for interesting, so why not spend half the money on an 04 Focus Ghia and at least add value to the qualities of generic/anonymous, and bank half the cash?
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Erm, I am not really after annoimity, that wasn't a criterior. The logic for the Z4 was my own logic. My car search started out as this.

1 - What car do I want and what do I need?
2 - List out criterior - built quality, reliability, running costs

The result from that is a Japanese super mini, mainly Toyota, or a Honda. I could have gone German, and got a Polo but my sister had one, although it did the job, it wasn't that amazing.

So the starting point was a Yaris - It ticks all the boxes above. Logical choice. Then I looked for one, and realise that I want the Mk2, not the Mk1. For Mk2, to get a low mileage, right spec, I am looking at £6k for one in the right trim level. The sub £5k ones has steel wheels, I wanted alloys.

Then I threw that out the window and looked what else i could get for the same kind of money and found that a 03/04 plate Z4 can be had for about £7k to £8k.....which for about a week I was REALLY considering. The problem is that to get that, i will have to either get it on Finance, borrow £2k from the bank or save up for a few more months. Then there is the little issue that it is my first car. RWD, 3.0L will be a bit too much I think. Then there is also the running cost, got a quote for like £1,500 with £300 excess. Then there is also a running cost for a BMW, service, parts and also being 03 plate, 8 years old, something will go wrong sooner or later. All that just went against it.

So back to the drawing board after that, and then i considered other options.

Fiat 500
I like the look, it has good residual value, it's nippy, it is still under warranty
But it's also £1k to £1.5k more for the ones i want so need to either finance or save up more

Golf, Mk5 or Mk4
I like how it looks on the outside, inside is dull but can live with it. Reliability good but also higher insurance group than the Yaris and for £6k I can only find 05 plates so will be the last Mk4 or First Mk5. £6k for a 6/7 years old car too, and to get a low mileage one that old isn't easy, considering the majority of them are Diesel on the market and i don't do enough mileage (sub 5k as I take the train to work so car is only used at weekends) to warrant that.

Focus
I am just not keen on them. The new mk3 are nicer though but can't afford one of those.

Fiesta
Actualy, like the new facelift, seen one near me in a dealer for £6.5k but it's a 1.2 basic model too in a Lime Green colour.

Oh, I forgot my desire for a MINI Cooper and Cooper S as I can get one of those in budget too. But it would be a 03/04 plate Cooper and same with it being BMW, it comes with high running cost and maintainence.

In between I looked at others, saw a Mercedes C320 for £5k...70k on the clock though
Someone at work offered me his Mercedes 05 plate B Class with 45k on the clock for £6k, but its a Diesel.

After all that I went back to the Yaris and I upper the engine criteria up from 1.3 to 1.8 (after all that with the Z4, i thought 1.8 would be more "future proof), and found that one above. Looked around and noticed that it is cheaper than most listed, and after haggling it became a bargain of a car considering mileage, age and engine size.

I also paid for that in full, so no finance, no loan, which means I can start saving for that Z4 :D
 
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Nice Yaris SR. It should have some poke from it's 130BHP engine, only wish it was lighter. Needs JDM spoiler on the back tbh. But nice first buy!
 
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