Good first car?

Noni Juice · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:07

Hi there.

I recently passed my driving test (YAY). But now I want to drive a little. My family has two cars. A manual Passat Y-Reg 2.0 TDI and a Honda Civic 16 Vavle 1.6.

The Passat I cannot get insured on and the Honda is too expensive and automatic.

Whats a cheap banger to get? I like Honda Civic's and the only requirements I have is probably power-steering and good security.

Im also worried about the fact that I wont use my car much. I mean, when I go out its normally in my mates car and that's every now and then. All other times its normally always in my town centre. So I would probably go in central maybe 1-3 times a week.

Anyhelp and suggestions would be great.

Conscript · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:12

How much are you looking to spend (Both on the car and insurance)?

Andr3w · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:12

don't flame me, but a simple corsa then

?

Noni Juice · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:18

I really dont know about price. But I guess cheap?

Mostly I'm looking for suggestions so I can get put in the right direction.

ci_newman · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:20

Andr3w said:
don't flame me, but a simple corsa then ?

I'd think a french rot-box might be more suited, 106 or 306? It's always the same argument really

Dr Jack · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:39

I'm gonna say Micra. I mean, my god, they're girly but they're cheap, cheap to insure and run, and they're reliable as anything.

But, tbh, any moderately recent, mid-mileage, small-engined supermini is probably going to suit you. There's no point paying for an expensive box if you're not going to do many miles in it, and if you're mostly town driving then a supermini has a distinct advantage over larger cars.

Conscript · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:41

Ford Fiesta 1.25 Zetecs are always a good bet. Cheap and abundant, fairly reliable with a decent engine, if a little more expensive to insure than the older 1.3 Endura units.

I say this mainly because when I was looking for a first car, I looked mainly at the Fiesta. I like the looks, and many of my friends drive them and my experience of them is of excellent small cars for good money. Their interiors always seemed much nicer than other cheap hatchbacks as well.

With shopping around, a decent example can be had for between about £2250 - £2750 a around about the 50-60K mile mark. Go private and Im sure you can find yourself an even better deal.

EDIT: Probably the best advice I had was when shopping was "buy small and buy Japanese". I was looking around for a Toyota Yaris at one point, as i had been driving my sisters for a few months before I had my own car. Yes, it has a girly shopping trolley image, but it has typical Toyota reliability (ie, bulletproof), decent build quality, near enough runs on air and is cheap to tax and insure. The 1.0 litre units are insurance group 2 and surprisingly nimble with a 68BHP output in a small, lightweight chassis. Also, they are easy to drive and park. The gearbox is precise and well built with a light clutch. Fantastic little runaround, but I found the initial costs to be higher; you might have trouble picking up a decent example for less than about £3000.

Jimmi · 27 Dec 2006 at 14:30

Mr Jack said:
I'm gonna say Micra. I mean, my god, they're girly but they're cheap, cheap to insure and run, and they're reliable as anything.

Just as i passed my test my mum bought a new motor and passed on her old Micra 1.0 (L reg) to me, only i had it for a year but i had no problems with it and it was so damn cheap to run and insure. I bought a 306 a year later, and kind of regreted it as it cost me more than double to run and hell of a lot more to insure........as well as being a french piece of rubbish which had to see the mechanic quite a bit :mad:

/\ndy · 27 Dec 2006 at 16:29

Go for a VW Polo MK4 (1.4CL) only insurance group 5, cheap to run, solid car and very reliable engine wise