Possibly time for a new car

Sp00n · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:26

Well my golf seems to be getting more and more ill lately, i think the current problem is new shocks on the back which is just another thing to add to the list.

So i am seriously considering getting a new car but i'm not sure of the best way to do it. People have told me that buying a 'new' car these days is one of the best options because the finance options are so good, but i'm not really clued up on that kind of stuff so a little bit of advice would go a long way.

Car wise, it needs to be fairly sporty looking, good economy but i dont want to sacrifice performance by worrying about mpg's. Aslong as its more than 35mpg i'll be happy.

My golf is IG6 and ive had a look on parkers and noticed that the citroen C2 GT is IG6 which i found odd as its a 1.6 but i had a look at the stats and noticed that its only 110bhp and 9.2secs to 60 which isn't quick enough if i'm honest.

I don't really know what kind of cars i should be looking at but price wise i reckon around £5/6k would be faily easy on my bank account if i go with finance.

Also i've been thinking about diesels but again, i'm stumped on whats good and whats bad.

Would anyone be able to throw me some suggestions?

cymatty · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:28

What about insurance, age ncd how much you want to spen per year, if insurance isnt to much of an issue get a clio 172.

Scottland · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:30

Clio 172 or Seat Leon 1.8(/Turbo) or Focus 2.0

Worth doing some insurance quotes so you know what you're looking at?

Sp00n · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:31

IG10 is a fairly respectable limit i reckon.

I'm 20 atm, 21 in may. 1 years NCB, 3 points and 1 claim.

I pay £770 TPFT for my 1.4i mk3 golf at the mo.

I dont really want to be spending too much a month but i dont know enough about finance to give a limit on cash, as i said in my first post 5/6k is just a guess.

cymatty · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:32

Sp00n said:
IG10 is a fairly respectable limit i reckon.

I'm 20 atm, 21 in may. 1 years NCB, 3 points and 1 claim.

I pay £770 TPFT for my 1.4i mk3 golf at the mo.
.

My friend similar age points etc got quoted 1k fc on a 172 so could be worth a look that was with admiral btw.

merlin · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:33

Sp00n said:
My golf is IG6 and ive had a look on parkers and noticed that the citroen C2 GT is IG6 which i found odd as its a 1.6 but i had a look at the stats and noticed that its only 110bhp and 9.2secs to 60 which isn't quick enough if i'm honest.

I wouldn't discount a car as not being quick enough purely on the 0-60.

Getting something quick round the bends would be nice - you know bends, they're the things that join the straights together.

Test drive a GT. The Focus would also be pretty good - handle like they're on rails straight out the box.

L0rdMike · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:33

Dont limit a car out just because of insurance group, try getting a quote then if its unreasonable knock it off the list.

bandit · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:42

i would suggest a leon/ibiza/fabia 110TDi.

reasonable on the insurance, and when you have the money get it remapped

NickXX · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:44

L0rdMike said:
Dont limit a car out just because of insurance group, try getting a quote then if its unreasonable knock it off the list.

Agreed. I thought there was no-way I'd get insured on my car because it's IG16. I'm 22 and have a claim in my name and no NCB and still managed to get a quote of £1,600.

Ignore IG and just get quotes off online insurance companies.

Scottland · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:44

There are 3 main options with regards to finance:

1) Bank Loan
Use the calculator here
This option is normally unsecured, i.e. not tied to the car. Which means you can sell or change the car without any hassle, it also means you could tie up existing payments with the loan, or take out enough to cover insurance too.

2) Hire Purchase (HP)
Normally the type of finance you'll get offered at a Garage or dealership. The interest rates quoted are normally lower than personal loans are they're given as flat rate, not APR (not always the case, and lower does not always equal better, depending if it's APR/Flat Rate)
With this type of agreement, it is secured against the car. Which means if you want to sell it before the finance is paid off, you will have to either pay it off, or have some sort of arrangment with the buyer that they will pay the finance company or something. This can get complicated, but not if you know what you're doing.

3) Personal Contract Plan (PCP)
This is where you agree to pay e.g. 80% of the car as finance, and at the end of the term you will have a balloon payment of the remaining 20%. Then you can do a number of things such as pay off the remainder and keep the car, give the car back or offset the finance against a new car.
This is a very basic description of PCP's, different companies have different arrangements. But you are again secured against the car, and also you're also tied in to the amount of miles you do over the contract term.

AFAIK that's all correct, hope its of some help. As a sidenote, 1,2,3 is in order of preference IMO, i.e. Bank loan is best etc...

Jez · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:48

cymatty said:
My friend similar age points etc got quoted 1k fc on a 172 so could be worth a look that was with admiral btw.

You cant compare across area really, i paid £440tpft for a Mk3 Golf 2.0 GTI (20, 1NCB) as my area happens to be good.

I dont know about insurance grouping but if you want something not too large, respectable, and newish then i would definately consider a leon turbo. They are by no means sporty but they are pokey and just as good as the mk4 golf.

paradigm · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:48

L0rdMike said:
Dont limit a car out just because of insurance group, try getting a quote then if its unreasonable knock it off the list.

Sound advice, infact I haven't even looked at IG this time around, ive just quoted for cars im interested in, only after finding a decent quote (sub £800) did I realise that the car i'm after is GRP16!

Sp00n · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:52

Excellent post scott, thank you for that.

I hadn't really considered getting a bank loan, are the % rates generally better or worse than finance from a dealer?

I may even be able to borrow the cash from my dad @ 0% but thats lucky thinking.

Just had a little look on autotrader, leon 1.8T or a3 1.8T are looking rather good at the moment.

I know parkers says 35mpg or whatever for those 2, but is it easy to get more than that? like driving off the boost, will that increase it by much?

I was also thinking about a Bora diesel?

richolmes72 · 17 Mar 2006 at 16:59

L0rdMike said:
Dont limit a car out just because of insurance group, try getting a quote then if its unreasonable knock it off the list.

Too true.

My current group 16 car costs just £346 to insure TPFT (It does help that its a not particularly quick old mans car).

I am similar to the OP, 21, 2 years NCB and 1 fault claim 2 years ago.

My IG5 306 would've cost me just £300, but a IG11 2.0 Ghia X Mondeo was coming in at over £400.

Scottland · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:02

Best rate you'll get from a bank loan at the moment is 6% (give or take). From a good dealer (Flat Rate) you'll get about 4%. They do sometimes quote in APR and in my exprience it's normally higher. But it varies from dealer to dealer.

As long as you're not paying the wrong side of 10%, there's very little in it, use the calculator link and get quotes for a loan at 5% and a loan at 10% - for 6 grand there's probably about £12 amonth in it over 36 months?

Also, with any kind of finance if you wanted to pay it off early, you're charged (I think) 58 days of interest.

If you like the Bora diesel, have a look at the Seat Toledo TDI, it's essentially the same car inside and out. Except without the VW premium, typically about £1000 cheaper for the same model. The main difference I've found is that the Bora comes in Sport trim where you can get it with the PD130 engine, as opposed to the TDI 110 engine. The PD130 is availabl in the Toledo's, but this was later on and as such they are ~04 plates and over your budget.

For reference, I'm looking at getting a Toledo TDI when I sell my current car, for ~£3,500 you'll get a 2000 W/X reg "SE" with about 70,000 miles. For £5-6k you'll get the same but it will be about a 52 reg.

James_N · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:12

Skoda Fabia vRS is my recommendation. Remappable to 190ish BHP, 50 odd MPG, Insurance grp 9 if i remember rightly.

Spanker · 17 Mar 2006 at 17:15

Sp00n said:
I know parkers says 35mpg or whatever for those 2, but is it easy to get more than that? like driving off the boost, will that increase it by much?

The way i see it is those figures will be optimistic at best, and you wouldn't keep it off boost.

[TW]Fox · 18 Mar 2006 at 03:07

Sp00n said:
Excellent post scott, thank you for that.

I hadn't really considered getting a bank loan, are the % rates generally better or worse than finance from a dealer?

Bank loan if you can do it is usually better than finance. It's also not secured on the car, so does not cause hassle if you get bored with and want to change the car.

Just had a little look on autotrader, leon 1.8T or a3 1.8T are looking rather good at the moment.

Get the Leon not the A3. The A3 has a posh badge so despite being fundamentally the same car like for like it is considerably more expensive. You could get a 2001/2002 Leon or a 1998/1999 Audi...

[TW]Fox · 18 Mar 2006 at 03:08

James_N said:
Skoda Fabia vRS is my recommendation. Remappable to 190ish BHP, 50 odd MPG, Insurance grp 9 if i remember rightly.

If people to continue to recommend this car regardless of the critiera specified, I'm going to start telling EVERYONE they need a 540i Sport even if they ask for a £500 first car.

The guy wants to spend £5-6k. You CANNOT get a Fabia vRS for anywhere near this. Come on guys

Blinking Fabia vRS is fast becoming the new 306 DTurbo on OcUK

benneh · 18 Mar 2006 at 03:55

[TW]Fox said:
I'm going to start telling EVERYONE they need a 540i Sport even if they ask for a £500 first car.

Personally i think that's a good idea. Regardless of anything mentioned in this thread, that is a good idea.