Cheap first car for my girlfriend

GT3

GT3

GT3

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Chesterfield
She's just passed last week and has 3 grand for car and insurance. 25 years old but still insurance isn't cheap so won't be anything exciting. I suggested 1.6 focus, fiat panda 100hp or maybe even an mx5 but she doesn't want any of those. Just wants a small little supermini and I'd prefer if it was reliable so I don't have to fix it constantly!

What are Yaris T Sports like? Looks like £2k will get a reasonable one and insurance is about a grand, not much more than a bog standard 1.0 yaris and she'd rather have the T sport with nicer seats, aircon etc. Anything to look out for apart from ignoring the usual modified crap ones. Is high mileage a problem for these cars?

Also any other ideas? I thought maybe a mk6 fiesta but don't know if the budget is enough for a decent one.
 
Fiesta for a first car without a doubt. My sister has a 2006 1.25 Zetec and its been treated like most girls treat cars eg always nearly running out of petrol, never serviced, never topped up with oil etc you get the picture and it never misses a beat.
She test drove my Focus when i was selling it and she found it way too big to park etc with being a new driver but the Fiesta is small, good handling and plenty nippy enough for most women :D
2k will get u a low mileage 2004 Fezza
 
Edit: ignore, somehow missed the first sentence...

Ford or something Japanese and you'll struggle to go wrong I think
 
Marvin said:
Has she just started driving? £1k for insurance at 25 is mental!
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She passed a week ago yes. Was going to give her my Xsara VTS till she found something she likes but thats £2k for her to insure! I'm only 2 years older and its about £300 to insure. I'm assuming it will come down quite a lot after a years experience.
 
I used to own a Yaris T-Sport and it was a lovely little car. I had mine whilst at uni and could get 40MPG the vast majority of the time even when driving it like I stole it. I think the lowest I ever got was around 35 in the very depths of winter doing nothing but short trips.

I thought it was a nice little fun thing to drive. Naturally I did the big exhaust and lowered suspension as I was that age but even standard it was a good laugh. I thought it had enough power to be fun but not so much that insurance / running costs were high. You can fit 195/50 tyres on the standard rims instead of the normal 185/55 so tyre costs come cashing down and I found servicing relatively cheap. The only thing I did notice was that as the mileage went up it started wanting a little bit of oil.

The main thing to keep in mind is that there are two versions of the t-sport. I had a non facelift but I would personally try and go for the facelift version with the teardrop headlights as it had a few nice little improvements. (Better rear lights / air vents inside etc).

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411098859972 <-- This is the facelift, though I wouldn't go for this exact one.
 
ShiWarrior said:
what's your budget?

im assuming also, under 10 K a year?
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£3k for car and insurance so probably £2k on car and £1k insurance. She would like to pay the insurance up front too.

Yes under 10k a year, no idea really as she's not driven before but she only works 5 miles away.
 
Janesy B said:
1.6 over the 1.25 or 1.4. They all cost the same to run, 1.6 will still give 40-45mpg on a run.
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Absolutely I agree, just seems to be a limited amount of 1.6's about apart from the zetec-s which all seem to look a bit high mileage/tired/barried for the budget.

Loads of 1.25 and 1.4 though.
 
GT3 said:
Absolutely I agree, just seems to be a limited amount of 1.6's about apart from the zetec-s which all seem to look a bit high mileage/tired/barried for the budget.

Loads of 1.25 and 1.4 though.
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funny, I just noticed that on the parkers website

so its either a 1.6 Ghia ? or id get the 1.4
 
GT3 said:
Me too but sadly its not for me and she doesn't want a focus :(
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Why do women have the worst taste in cars lol. When I tried to point out to my sister that the focus is better at everything compared to the fiesta she said it was too big and the Fiesta is better looking :eek:
Your girlfriend will probably only be able to get the 1.25 for 1k insurance as when my sister ran quotes the 1.4 was another £150 over the 1.2k she's already paying
 
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