First Car

BigglesPiP said:
You're not going to get a reliable car for £500.
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I'd say that's utter, utter rubbish only said by those who have been burned on car deal in that sort of price range. As always with used cars, it boils down to being careful when choosing, and of course, pot luck.

I have/had a 205 XS as my first car. Awesome thing for what it was, 'upgraded' to an E30 316i last weekend and have been missing the manic acceleration. Don't get me wrong, it's not a quick car by any means, but enough to put a smile on your face, certainly if you've been using your Bus Pass to get you from A to B for the last couple of years ;).

I'd also say a Cinquecento Sporting is a good shout, a MK2/MK3 Polo too.
 
[TW]Fox;14798768 said:
Rover fanatics will constantly play down the HG issue but it remains a serious concern. Even the most fastidious of owners is likely to have problems.
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You're right - Dad's got an abolutely mint TF with 9k miles on it, its extremely well looked after. Kept in a garage under a cover on a maintenance charger, fluid levels checked before each use. The HG failed a few months ago....
 
Joshy said:
I'd say that's utter, utter rubbish only said by those who have been burned on car deal in that sort of price range. As always with used cars, it boils down to being careful when choosing, and of course, pot luck.
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Completely valid, but in my books luck != reliability. The chances of cars in this budget hiding gremlins is too high for me.





£1000 is a lot better, how about a Honda Civic 1.4i? You can get a ~2000 one in budget. I drove a really old one of these with 75k on the clock fairly recently, and the whole car was still solid.

I wouldn't go for the FIAT Chinkquechentosdflaje (500) as suggested earlier, they are getting a bit close to rotting in places. The FIAT 600 that replaced it would do if you can tolerate the girly looks. If you go for one get the FIRE, not the OHV, and be on the look out for HGF. A Punto would make a better run about if you can find one in good condition, it might be possible to get a 188 (2nd gen) in budget.
 
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BigglesPiP said:
Completely valid, but in my books luck != reliability. The chances of cars in this budget hiding gremlins is too high for me.





£1000 is a lot better, how about a Honda Civic 1.4i? You can get a ~2000 one in budget. I drove a really old one of these with 75k on the clock fairly recently, and the whole car was still solid.

I wouldn't go for the FIAT Chinkquechentosdflaje (500) as suggested earlier, they are getting a bit close to rotting in places. The FIAT 600 that replaced it would do if you can tolerate the girly looks. If you go for one get the FIRE, not the OHV, and be on the look out for HGF. A Punto would make a better run about if you can find one in good condition, it might be possible to get a 188 (2nd gen) in budget.
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Civics are strangely difficult to insure as first car I found, weird considering that they aren't particularly special.

Thinking about it, given the chance again I'd have gone for a 306 D Turbo. Great performance for it's insurance group (5), a bit of scope for tuning (if that's your thing), plenty of space, cheap to run, buy, etc.

What I can't stress enough is that there isn't an ideal first car, many say a Fiesta 1.25 is the ultimate first car, but I wouldn't give them the slightest consideration when buying my first car. Others would say that a 205 XS is uncomfortable, thirsty and not the nicest car to drive around, I loved mine :). Just play around with quotes and go with what you want (with the insurance man's approval of course ;))
 
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Hxc said:
Civics are a pain to insure as they are bought by "JDM y0" tools.
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Doubt it. It's probably got more to do with insurance companies' irrational fear that Japanese cars of that sort of era being expensive to repair.
 
At this price I wouldn't worry about the brand just what's cheaper to insure and has the most MOT and Tax.
How's insurance on a Peugeot 106 or Vauxhall Corsa?
 
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BigglesPiP said:
You're not going to get a reliable car for £500.
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I've only paid more than £500 for a car once in my life and none of them have been particularly unreliable. Maybe I've been lucky.

One thing worth mentioning about cheap cars - people often forget is that more expensive cars have things that can go wrong with them too. And a cheap car does not necessarily mean a cheap repair.
A radiator blows on your £4000 Focus and you fork out £150 because you know that cars can and do go wrong, and it's one of those things.
A radiator blows on your £350 Mondeo and you fork out £150 and are staggered at the massive cost in relation to the car. But that radiator would have been £150 to sort if a stone went through it the day the car rolled off the production line.
Don't fall into the habit of comparing repair costs with initial purchase price, as more often than not it's pretty much irrelevant.
 
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