First car for 18yo - £5K Budget
- Thread starter Housey
- Start date
Probably not, you will want something boring and crap if you dont want to need a tub of vaseline on the insurance cost.
Maybe a polo?
Though generally I just stuck my budget into autotrader, and tried various number plates from the adverts in gocompare until something came back remotely sensible.
Turned out to be a 307.
Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Fiesta 1.25. Have you factored in insurance?
Soldato
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Insurance for me on the 1L ecoboost was cheap as a first car. Cheaper than the 1.25, in fact.
Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
That kind of budget will shirley be near the timing belt debacle.
Soldato
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Toyota Yaris
Soldato
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Possibly, though you may also find one with a fairly new engine if it has previously gone due to the rust issue - I got mine on 55k miles and it had a brand new engine, for example.
Soldato
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Vauxhall Corsa
Caporegime
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I was actually looking for my daughter and Alfa Romeo Mito's were incredibly cheap to insure even the 155bhp version which is madness. Even the 500 abarth was reasonable. Both with black box mind.
Soldato
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My lad picked up a R56 Mini One (1.4) - costing him £1200 a year to insure with Direct Line (he was still 17 when he passed his test)
They are good cars but the engines are lemons unless looked after really well - timing chain being done is definitely a requirement! We looked at several and waited to find one that had everything done.
EDIT: We didn't spend £5K - £2.8K here.
They are good cars but the engines are lemons unless looked after really well - timing chain being done is definitely a requirement! We looked at several and waited to find one that had everything done.
EDIT: We didn't spend £5K - £2.8K here.
Don
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Do people really still think this?
Soldato
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I had a Fiat Panda as my first car and it was a hoot.
I do, yes.
35 years in the motor trade as a tech, MOT tester, service advisor and car salesman leads me to say what I say.
I also worked as a vehicle inspector for the AA.
If a prospective buyer wants a 2nd hand car checking out before buying it, then they pay the AA a fee and they send an inspector out to do a report.
Believe me, it doesn’t take long to see what cars are a good buy and what isn’t, especially at the OP’s price point.
The car is for an 18 year old currently having lessons. No need to spend £5K, less is fine, but I wanted to set a maximum budget to give some sort of measure.
I know about buying cars.... but at this end of the market I am fairly clueless. I know what to look for, what to avoid when I view a car, but really this was more about the sensible to own, sensible to insure, sensible to maintain within that sort of price range/use case and what sorts of cars might best suit. I am sure many on here have taken a similar 'first car' buying journey so simply seeking pointers on what they bought, insured etc
I know about buying cars.... but at this end of the market I am fairly clueless. I know what to look for, what to avoid when I view a car, but really this was more about the sensible to own, sensible to insure, sensible to maintain within that sort of price range/use case and what sorts of cars might best suit. I am sure many on here have taken a similar 'first car' buying journey so simply seeking pointers on what they bought, insured etc