First car - max budget £2000

tummelv

tummelv

tummelv

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Inverness, Scotland
Hi there,

I was thinking of buying my first car towards the end of the year - just starting to learn to drive now. I was thinking of a Ford Focus - specifically a 1.6 petrol. I've been looking at the MK1 around 2002 models - they seem to go for about £2000-2500 for a good one.

How does this sound? Could I go down to the lower end of the scale and still get a nice one for £2000. I was thinking if I could save some money on buying the car then I can keep that as a repair fund if it needs some work down the line for the usuals like brakes and tyres.

I got a quote from moneysupermarket and the cheapest is about £2000 fully comp if you pay anually, £2200 if you pay monthly. I am 20 by the way.

However, I'm only working part time at the moment and earning around £5000 a year. I don't have any living expenses to pay beyond a little money a month to my parents to help out with the bills. My savings so far will be able to pay for the car and the first years insurance outright leaving my monthly wage to pay for the fuel and upkeep of the car. Is this perfectly affordable? I've heard that insurance goes down after 1 year by a third usually for a new driver so I think I can easily save ~£1400 to meet the annual payment for the second year of ownership once I have paid for upkeep and fuel. I'd only need to save about £120 a month.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :D
 
Personally, I would opt for a newer Fiesta. Buying a ten year old Focus seems slightly risky when you won't have gazillions to spend on repairs.

You should be able to get an 05 Fiesta MkVI for £2k.
 
Why get a 1.6 focus as a first car? Surely a small engined runabout is all you need for a first car?
 
Robbie G said:
Personally, I would opt for a newer Fiesta. Buying a ten year old Focus seems slightly risky when you won't have gazillions to spend on repairs.

You should be able to get an 05 Fiesta MkVI for £2k.
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I had been looking at a fiesta for a bit, something like this?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...code/iv23sq/page/2/quicksearch/true?logcode=p

Only thing is there is no mileage info. I suspect the mileage is quite high as that is a lot lower price than other 05 fiestas. You sure you can get one for £2k? They seem to be in excess of £3k on auto trader.

rjkoneill said:
Why get a 1.6 focus as a first car? Surely a small engined runabout is all you need for a first car?
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Couple of reasons why. The quotes I have been getting for a 1.2 corsa are £1800. If for only £200 more a year I can get a bigger, faster and more useful car then why not?

Also I am 6'3" so fitting in a corsa while not impossible isn't perhaps ideal for longer journeys. I have been driving the latest model Corsa dual control car with my dad and while I fit easily enough I really wouldn't want to spend much time in any smaller of a car than that.

My CV has been handed in at the place I work at with the possibility of finding me a decent job in the company. If I was offered a place it's likely I would have to travel a lot for the job so a car I can get comfy in will be really useful.
 
Even as a new driver you should be able to do better than 2k for insurance as well.

I would spend a a whole day ringing around trying to better that, you shouldnt be paying anymore than £600 to £700 fully comp unless you live in a demilitarised zone.
 
Howard said:
The Focus is a small engined 'runabout'.
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This and the small engined mini hatch cliché comes from when they used to actually be cheap to insure. These days this isn't the case, and sometimes end up being more expensive than their larger counterparts.

The Focus is a good call, it's also worth checking out the Mondeos if they tickle your fancy - the 2.0 won't be much more thirsty than a 1.6 Focus and you may even find the insurance is cheaper.
 
Get a classic car, do the repairs yourself and get specialist insurance. The premiums will be a fraction of a regular cars and whilst you dont get a no claims bonus often you can still build up years of claim free driving.

I drove a morris minor for 6 years, the insuranace fully comp was less than one third of the cost for an escort. When I bought a modern car I could prove 6 years claim free and was able to insure a 1.8 golf for £50 more than the minor with the no claims discount. The added years of age helped a ton too.
 
tummelv said:
Is this perfectly affordable? I've heard that insurance goes down after 1 year by a third usually for a new driver so I think I can easily save ~£1400 to meet the annual payment for the second year of ownership once I have paid for upkeep and fuel. I'd only need to save about £120 a month.
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Thats a similar position to what I was in when I started, only I was paying my insurance monthly to my dad, as he let me use his credit card (0% apr vs 21% apr...easy choice!) My first year was £1700, and that was on a 1.4 Fiesta.

The Focus is a nice car. I have one myself currently and enjoy it. For the running and maintenance costs its a nice car to drive, while having good practicality too should it be needed.

That said, the MK6 Fiesta is enjoyable too. I learnt to drive in one and always found it pleasant to drive, though I was hardly experienced in many cars back then!

atpbx said:
Even as a new driver you should be able to do better than 2k for insurance as well.

I would spend a a whole day ringing around trying to better that, you shouldnt be paying anymore than £600 to £700 fully comp unless you live in a demilitarised zone.
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I've been driving for 3 years, with 3 years NCB and my lowest insurance so far was £900 for a 1.4 Fiesta, even with ringing around loads of insurance companies.

No doubt this is to do with having an 'M**' postcode, as they seem to disregard me living less than half a mile away from having a Cheshire postcode (which, out of interest, would drop this years insurance by £180)
 
atpbx said:
Even as a new driver you should be able to do better than 2k for insurance as well.

I would spend a a whole day ringing around trying to better that, you shouldnt be paying anymore than £600 to £700 fully comp unless you live in a demilitarised zone.
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Not true at ALL.

£1500 is the least you'll probably be paying as a new driver without fronting.
Do remember to add parents or older females though!

MikeHiow said:
The Focus is a good call, it's also worth checking out the Mondeos if they tickle your fancy - the 2.0 won't be much more thirsty than a 1.6 Focus and you may even find the insurance is cheaper.
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The 2.0l will be a lot more than the 1.8l Mondeo!
Two insurance groups up at least, £400 more to insure a 2l over a 1.8l here at 20 with 1yr ncb.
Should be able to get a nice 1.8l MK3 Mondeo though for that budget.
 
My girlfriend has the policy to my car, makes the insurance £1000 cheaper. Although that will change next year.

I think a 2.0l is silly for a first car. I learned in my mums 1.6 focus, nice car. Insurance group was the same as my 1.3 fiesta weirdly.
 
Vigoro said:
Have you tried adding parents to the insurance quotes as named drivers?
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Holy crap...I tried adding my dad as a named driver and the quote went from about £2000 to £1500!

MikeHiow said:
This and the small engined mini hatch cliché comes from when they used to actually be cheap to insure. These days this isn't the case, and sometimes end up being more expensive than their larger counterparts.

The Focus is a good call, it's also worth checking out the Mondeos if they tickle your fancy - the 2.0 won't be much more thirsty than a 1.6 Focus and you may even find the insurance is cheaper.
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I did look a the Mondeo but the engine size alone seems to push the insurance up to just unacceptable levels. :(

Brookert said:
My girlfriend has the policy to my car, makes the insurance £1000 cheaper. Although that will change next year.

I think a 2.0l is silly for a first car. I learned in my mums 1.6 focus, nice car. Insurance group was the same as my 1.3 fiesta weirdly.
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Yeah, I've been finding that some cars have suprisingly high and some have suprisingly low insurance groups. However, the actual quote seems to have no relation to the insurance group.
 
Out of interest I ran a quote on a Ford Mondeo worth about £2500, it came to £1635. That's quite interesting because the quote was for a 1.8 mondeo and a quote for a 1.8 vectra is about £1900. Big difference for two cars that are very similar to each other.
 
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