Heya peeps, now be gentle with me, I keep an eye on the motor forum but this is the time I have started a thread in here! And the situation is thus....
I have been offered a job oop norf with the old bill which means I have to leave the big smoke of London (yay!), however, a car is required and has to be insured for business use as well. I am 28 years old and have recently passed my test and as such have 0 NCB
I never really had the urge to get my license sooner as I was happy with the public transport system in london (yes more fool me!).
Now, I have no idea what to go for as a 1st car - I have no real desire for anything too weedy under the bonnet but what concerned me was that when i enquired about insurance I was told by directline that of the 5 cars I mentioned, 3 of them they wouldnt insure me on outright until I had my license for at least a year (for those interested the cars were Audi A4, A3 and Skoda vrs) but they did say ok to a pug 306 d turbo and a honda civic coupe lsi. I am hoping the insurance will be a lot cheaper as I will be based oop norf - am looking to relocate around the Darlington, Northallerton, North Yorkshire area.
Are all insurance companies the same in which there will be NO chance of me gettin insurance on any particular cars I may be interested in? Personally I would like to get something that would be comfortable - I'm not interested in being a boy racer but at least having a lil power under the bonnet if needed would be nice. As a result I feel I would be happier looking towards a saloon instead of a hatchback. Oh and it may be worth noting that I am of the portly size as well as being 6'2" so space within the cabin IS important to me as I will need a fair bit of it - I struggle gettin into and outta n being comfortable for long drives in my mates honda prelude
I learnt in a Corsa which werent too bad much to my surprise sizewise and have sat behind the wheel in a 306 no probs as well which was good.
Ok, now of course the most important question would be as to what budget I would have. Now this is something I would like to ask you guys about as well. Would it be better to take a loan out for a car or buy a rustbucket now and drive that for a while to save up funds for a nicer car? I reckon I could save around £500 a month realistically after all the bills, rent, etc. Please recall, this is a first car so I am deffo not after being flash or spending outside of my means. I reckon I could look towards £5/6k max altho I would rather spend less money if at all possible (Of which a 306 d turbo/hdi looks tempting even tho its a hatchback as it seems you can pick one of them up for about £2-3k).
So please, let the comments commence:
- are there any makes models that i should deffo consider or avoid?
- If one insurance company refuses to insure me due to not havin the license a year, will others be the same?
- driving position will be important due to size
- would it be ok to take out a car loan or should i wait and save? (roughly £5/6k max - reckon to save £500pm no probs)
- what are the approx running costs of a car so I can budget appropriately?
- I can't imagine doing more than 10k mileage a year
I realise this is a bit of a swooping generalisation of a request I am making here and please forgive me for it but with a distinct lack of knowledge relating to all things 4 wheeled I hope that you, my peers, can help and assist me with this query. I realise you could just turn around and say something along the lines of "well its horses for courses" or "one mans meat is another mans poison" but I'm hoping that there will be at least some common factors that people can agree on which can point me in the right direction at least!
And now over to you.....
I have been offered a job oop norf with the old bill which means I have to leave the big smoke of London (yay!), however, a car is required and has to be insured for business use as well. I am 28 years old and have recently passed my test and as such have 0 NCB
I never really had the urge to get my license sooner as I was happy with the public transport system in london (yes more fool me!).Now, I have no idea what to go for as a 1st car - I have no real desire for anything too weedy under the bonnet but what concerned me was that when i enquired about insurance I was told by directline that of the 5 cars I mentioned, 3 of them they wouldnt insure me on outright until I had my license for at least a year (for those interested the cars were Audi A4, A3 and Skoda vrs) but they did say ok to a pug 306 d turbo and a honda civic coupe lsi. I am hoping the insurance will be a lot cheaper as I will be based oop norf - am looking to relocate around the Darlington, Northallerton, North Yorkshire area.
Are all insurance companies the same in which there will be NO chance of me gettin insurance on any particular cars I may be interested in? Personally I would like to get something that would be comfortable - I'm not interested in being a boy racer but at least having a lil power under the bonnet if needed would be nice. As a result I feel I would be happier looking towards a saloon instead of a hatchback. Oh and it may be worth noting that I am of the portly size as well as being 6'2" so space within the cabin IS important to me as I will need a fair bit of it - I struggle gettin into and outta n being comfortable for long drives in my mates honda prelude
I learnt in a Corsa which werent too bad much to my surprise sizewise and have sat behind the wheel in a 306 no probs as well which was good.Ok, now of course the most important question would be as to what budget I would have. Now this is something I would like to ask you guys about as well. Would it be better to take a loan out for a car or buy a rustbucket now and drive that for a while to save up funds for a nicer car? I reckon I could save around £500 a month realistically after all the bills, rent, etc. Please recall, this is a first car so I am deffo not after being flash or spending outside of my means. I reckon I could look towards £5/6k max altho I would rather spend less money if at all possible (Of which a 306 d turbo/hdi looks tempting even tho its a hatchback as it seems you can pick one of them up for about £2-3k).
So please, let the comments commence:
- are there any makes models that i should deffo consider or avoid?
- If one insurance company refuses to insure me due to not havin the license a year, will others be the same?
- driving position will be important due to size
- would it be ok to take out a car loan or should i wait and save? (roughly £5/6k max - reckon to save £500pm no probs)
- what are the approx running costs of a car so I can budget appropriately?
- I can't imagine doing more than 10k mileage a year
I realise this is a bit of a swooping generalisation of a request I am making here and please forgive me for it but with a distinct lack of knowledge relating to all things 4 wheeled I hope that you, my peers, can help and assist me with this query. I realise you could just turn around and say something along the lines of "well its horses for courses" or "one mans meat is another mans poison" but I'm hoping that there will be at least some common factors that people can agree on which can point me in the right direction at least!
And now over to you.....
