Looking to buy my first car, advice please!

R.C.Anderson

R.C.Anderson

R.C.Anderson

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Ashton-Under-Lyne
Ok, first off, I'm 22 (just) and will have had my license for 2 years in about a weeks time. There has been far too many times recently when I really felt I needed a car, and I can see more coming up in the future (one big one being working in the summer)

I've been looking around today, and it seems I can get insured on most small hatches in the region of 700-900, which I don't think it too bad, saying I don't have any no-claims, as I've never been a named driver on a policy.

As I've been looking, I seem to have been drawn more and more towards a Fiesta 5dr 1.6 Econetic. I've seen a few around at around the £6k mark (around my budget, but it's slightly flexible), 2009, with about 60k miles.

I like the look of the econetic for a few reasons, first, it's economical, yet still 90bhp, it's free road tax (98g/km), and although the insurance is higher than a standard, it's not up by a lot (low 900s)

Main questions I have are, are these cars actually any good? For the price, are they likely to be in a good state? Is there a better car for a similar price? What options should I look out for as being worth having, and which are a waste of money?

My main requirements are for it to be reasonably cheap, but have a decent amount of space, as I quite often need to haul a large amount of stuff between uni & the parents etc.

I quite like the look of the 09 fiesta too, which is a big boost, but are there any other options?
 
<£1000 ****box to enjoy your freedom with, dent and scrape to your heart's content, you'll like it whatever because it's your first car!

Get a ten year old Fiesta/106/Focus etc and upgrade in a year once you've learnt how to drive/got bored ;)
 
I did consider that, but I've had the privilege (or sometimes it seems disadvantage) of driving some very nice, expensive cars (I did a placement year with Jaguar Land Rover, where I got to drive from a base model XF, to a top of the range f-type, from a base model evoque, to the top of the range new RR) so I've been a bit spoilt, and anything less will fell poor as it is, so I don't want to drop to a very basic car.

Along with that, I've noticed before, that buying an old car can actually work more expensive (or at least not much cheaper), as insurance prices tend to skyrocket when you insure an older car (I'm assuming because they expect you to case less, and therefore more likely to crash)
 
Anything mechanically sound, ideally with nothing to do within the next year or two (i.e. cambelt and water pump, gearbox oil, clutch etc) get something that has had these done fairly recently so you wont have to worry about it for the meantime and only concentrate on putting fuel in and gaining experience.

Something that if you scratch it backing into the drive you wont get into a paddy because your paint is scuffed. Also most importantly, get something what you want, something you like the look of and something you like to drive.

New car + new driver = dents and scratches. I have had my car since February and have already scratched the rear bumper a few times reversing into my own drive.
 
Trust m it is not about luxury, I have had more fun in my astra than I have had in the works new accord, or managements BMW's. No worries, can thrash it to your hearts content then ;)

Plus it's a bonus if you can take it down a track in first gear rally style...
 
TheYoungster said:
Trust m it is not about luxury, I have had more fun in my astra than I have had in the works new accord, or managements BMW's. No worries, can thrash it to your hearts content then ;)

Plus it's a bonus if you can take it down a track in first gear rally style...
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It's not really like that for me though... It's hard to beat a £100k 5L V8 S/C car, when you know within the next 2 years it's going to either be crashed, or crapped anyway...


Anyway, I've had another look round at the older Fiestas, they seem to start around £2.5k for similar mileage, but with the 1.25: or 1.4L petrol engines, which will cost more to run, but the insurance is actually a bit cheaper again (back to 600-700 ish)
 
R.C.Anderson said:
Anyway, I've had another look round at the older Fiestas, they seem to start around £2.5k for similar mileage, but with the 1.25: or 1.4L petrol engines, which will cost more to run, but the insurance is actually a bit cheaper again (back to 600-700 ish)
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What sort of mileage are you expecting to do? If you're only doing a few 100 miles a month then the higher fuel cost will be pretty negligible (1.25/1.4 Fiestas are hardly thirsty beasts). A £6000 fiesta will cost you a lot more depreciation then a £2.5k one.
 
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R.C.Anderson said:
It's not really like that for me though... It's hard to beat a £100k 5L V8 S/C car, when you know within the next 2 years it's going to either be crashed, or crapped anyway...


Anyway, I've had another look round at the older Fiestas, they seem to start around £2.5k for similar mileage, but with the 1.25: or 1.4L petrol engines, which will cost more to run, but the insurance is actually a bit cheaper again (back to 600-700 ish)
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but the chances of you owning a 100k jag/RR are slim to none for the next 10 years, so why are you even comparing?

The most fun I had was a cheap Saxo and £300 Tigra, I didn't care about paintwork(it was multicoloured anyway) and it cost me £200 to keep it on the road for 3 years.

Otherwise, if you really must get a pricey car, have a look at something that isn't quite so obvious for a first car, the insurance might surprise you (mondeo, hell my 21 year old gf is insured on an Impreza WRX for £1k)
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
What sort of mileage are you expecting to do? If you're only doing a few 100 miles a month then the higher fuel cost will be pretty negligible (1.25/1.4 Fiestas are hardly thirsty beasts). A £6000 fiesta will cost you a lot more depreciation then a £2.5k one.
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Well over the Summer, I will probably be doing around 200 miles a week commuting to work & back each day, during the rest of the year, however, it'll probably work out no more than about 200 miles a month.

I didn't really think about the losses due to depreciation tbh, so I might have a work out of the different costs in fuel, and try to compare that to get a rough idea.
What sort of depreciation levels am I looking at? Obviously the ~06 Fiestas at £2.5k will depreciate slower than the ~09 fiestas at £6k, but by how much?
 
R.C.Anderson said:
Well over the Summer, I will probably be doing around 200 miles a week commuting to work & back each day, during the rest of the year, however, it'll probably work out no more than about 200 miles a month.

I didn't really think about the losses due to depreciation tbh, so I might have a work out of the different costs in fuel, and try to compare that to get a rough idea.
What sort of depreciation levels am I looking at? Obviously the ~06 Fiestas at £2.5k will depreciate slower than the ~09 fiestas at £6k, but by how much?
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Well, since the '06 Fiesta is £2.5k, and the '09 Fiesta is £6k, they both probably started out with the same OTR price - so assume a £6k Fiesta will depreciate £3.5k in three years, roughly £1k / year. Depreciation on the '06 Fiesta will be harder to work out, but it will be much less than £1k / year.

[Edit] Taking percentages / averages into account, in three years the '06 Fiesta could be worth £1250, which gives a smaller depreciation of £400 / year.

This stuff is all guess-work though.
 
R.C.Anderson said:
I did consider that, but I've had the privilege (or sometimes it seems disadvantage) of driving some very nice, expensive cars (I did a placement year with Jaguar Land Rover, where I got to drive from a base model XF, to a top of the range f-type, from a base model evoque, to the top of the range new RR) so I've been a bit spoilt, and anything less will fell poor as it is, so I don't want to drop to a very basic car.
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But you're thinking of dropping to a 1.6 Fiesta Econetic - hardly the king of interiors :p

Do what you're considering and drop to the cheaper Fiesta at least. It would hurt to spend £6k on a Fiesta - think what you could buy with £3.5k+, or spend it on a second car once you know what you're after a bit more?
 
Perhaps if you've enjoyed these large cars you should try a few quotes at the Mondeo size. It'll be a more comfortable place to spend time and miles than the smaller car I'd have thought. You know, wheelbase, intended purpose etc.
 
Griffo said:
Perhaps if you've enjoyed these large cars you should try a few quotes at the Mondeo size. It'll be a more comfortable place to spend time and miles than the smaller car I'd have thought. You know, wheelbase, intended purpose etc.
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I did consider that, however even insuring a focus, rather than a fiesta bumped the insurance price up by about 300, so I didn't bother with anything bigger.
 
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