Been offered a Leon 1.8T for a first car...

[Kazzan]

I'm currently still having driving lessons and planned on waiting until I'd passed my test before considering buying a car, but someone at work just picked up a mint contition 1989 Golf GTI convertable for the summer and is planning on shifting his bright yellow 02 plate Seat Leon 20v 1.8T, which is the 180bhp non cupra version, however it does have the cupra bodykit. The car has done 47k and is in good condition. He's offered it me for £5000, which seems like a good deal to me.

It's insurance group 16 which is higher than I'd have liked for a first car, but I got quoted £1900 for the Leon and £1100 for a 1.8 Focus I was looking at, so I'm happy to pay the extra £800 to get something a bit sexier. Plus I'm 25 in 8 months, so that combined with (hopefully) 1 years NCB should mean that paying £1900 for insurance will be a one-off. I've not shopped around yet though, so I might be able to get that down a little.

There are a few things that worry me though. For a start, this car is fairly fast for a new driver. A lot of friends have told me that it would be too fast for a first car. Funnily enough the only person that actually said it would probably be fine is my driving instructor who says that as long as I have the willpower to be gentle with the pedals I should be fine. Another concern is the cost. I have £4000 cash, which means I'll probably need a £3k loan if I get this car. Which brings me onto running costs. My friend says he usually gets about 25-30mpg, which is lower than I'd like, but since I won't be commuting (I live 3 minutes walk from work) it's not the end of the world. Also how costly are SEATs to repair? I'm hoping that because they're V.A.G. motors it shouldn't be too bad..?

My final concern is that I haven't passed my test yet, so the last thing I want to do is to buy this car and then fail my test repeatedly while the car sits at the side of the road costing me money.

On one hand it's a very nice car for what I think is a very nice price... on the other hand there are a lot of things about my situation that make me think that buying it would be a bad idea. If I had my license now, or had £7k saved instead of £4k I'd probably jump on this offer...

One possibility is keeping the car off-the-road in my parents garage until I pass. Would I be able to get just fire+theft insurance?

 

[Kazzan]

Driving one day-to-day, trying on occasion to see what makes it give-way, I say you are 100% wrong. Sorry.

This worries me... however, the guy who owned it keeps going on about how much more fun his new mk1 Golf GTI is because it doesn't feel like "drive-by-wire" like the Leon (Maybe he's just trying to put me off because he regrets only asking for £5k ) so it can't be that crazy can it?

On the other hand I had a friend when I was 19 who bought an imported MR2 Turbo at 25 after driving small engined cars for 8 years, and proceeded to spin it on a roundabout on the first day he got it, before finally writing it off 2 weeks later. So maybe it's not too bad of an idea to get something quick now while I'm scared to death of it, and learn to drive it with the proper respect it needs, as opposed to pottering around in a 1.25l Fiesta for a year and then jumping in a performance car and thinking I'm a pro.

 

[Kazzan]

and ouch at that insurance quote

Well the thing is it should go down a lot after a year, and Parkers seem to rate the car as being worth £7630 in good condition which this is. So while the insurance is very steep, saving £2630 on the car would ease the pain

 

[Kazzan]

Is there no way you the guy selling will let you take it out for a spin? Probably the best way to see if you can handle the power

Ahaha, and what happens if I cant?

I have no idea how hard / impossible it would be to get temporary insurance for a provisional driver on an IG16 car, but I'm guessing it's tough.

 

[Kazzan]

Maybe get some advanced driving tuition?

Yeah, at very least I'm going to do Pass Plus. (which should help with the insurance quotes too )

Also I said at the start that it wasn't the Cupra, but it had the Cupra bodykit. Apparently it is the Cupra, but it has the front bumper and side skirts replaced with 2003 panels. (which will hurt the insurance quotes )

 

[Kazzan]

How old is it? If its only a 2000 this isn't THAT great a deal and you'd be better off just buying something else.

02 plate.

 

[Kazzan]

He hasnt got a driving license, he probably wouldn't even fill confident in a Fiesta 1.25 yet.

Yeah, 8 hours driving experience in an 80bhp supermini + test driving a 180bhp turbo =

Looking at Autotrader I'm not too sure it's that great of a deal anyway. 20V 1.8T Cupras are all over there so it looks like he might have trouble shifting it anyway. There is even one the same spec for £4995 which is 6 months older, but with 5000 less miles on the clock, and no modificiations.

Maybe I'll hold off until I pass my test then.

Is there anything else around the same price (£4-£5) that would still be sporty, but not quite as crazy as the Cupra? Possibly IG10-15?

I should point out that I work in an industry with a lot of 20-30 year olds a fair amount of disposable income and I would quite like something "cool" (which in my opinion the Leon would be, whereas a 1.25 Fiesta wouldn't really )

 

[Kazzan]

Insurance isn't a problem, I had 0 NCP in the Cupra. Dang. Thing is, if the spotty youth start buying Leons It'll be time for me to get the Porsche early. Don't do it!!

Hey, I'm only 3 years younger than you

The guy brought it in to work today and took me out for a drive in it, then let me drive it around the carpark at work for a bit. I told him I didn't know whether it was a good idea for me to have a go since some of you told me it was a monster, but he seemed to think it was fine. So I fired it up and pulled up the handbrake released the clutch, wheelspun into the lake taking six nuns and three children to their watery grave... no wait, that's not what happened. I was able to pull away easily, manouvre around the carpark, reverse, park, go round corners, and brake all without wheelspinning, skidding, or ever feeling like I was losing control of the vehicle. Infact given a choice between learning in my driving instructor's Clio or learning in the Seat I'd much prefer the Leon with it's smooth and responsive clutch and responsive steering, as opposed to the lumpy cheap-feeling clutch and very "floaty" steering on the Renault.

As far as I can see the only time I could see the Leon being dangerous is if I drove it like a maniac. I'm almost 25, have a steady income, and am not a nutter. As Steve said, life is too long to drive boring cars. Plus the big yellow Leon looks fantastic up close.

 

[Kazzan]

Put it this way, he was willing to let me take it out on the road (not that I did, because remember: I'm responsible ). But the fact that he has been driving that car for four years and would trust a novice with it seems to say to me that it's not that hard to drive (or he's mental).

I drove my friend's MR2-Turbo around a disused airfield once and that was a scary car, the Leon, while quick, seems like it can be driven sensibly much more easily.

That said this might all be irrelevant anyway because I just tried getting a proper quote (declaring the body modifications) with Adrian Flux and they quoted me £2820.

On a slight tangent when he was giving me the test drive he did tell me about the time his boss lent his 911 turbo to an 18 year old co-worker who then went and span it on the A3. So there are crazier scenarios than a 24 year old with limited experience driving a Leon 1.8T

 

[Kazzan]

Or he wants to sell his car.

Why does he want to sell it so cheap anyway?

We were at the pub at the time, I asked where his Leon was and he jokingly said "I'm selling it, I don't suppose you have five grand lying around do you?" expecting me to say no, but instead I said "well, actually..."

He sent me an email the next day saying that he doesn't know what would make him feel like more of a ****, going back on his word or losing out on a grand or so. Which is why I told him to feel free to put it in auto-trader for what it's really worth, then if it doesn't sell in a month or two I'd probably still be willing to take it off him for £5k. (he wants to shift it fairly quickly because he's currently insuring both the Leon and his new car)