So if I pass I suppose I should buy a car?

Tobes · 30 Sep 2006 at 19:57

Howdy,

I never really post in here (think I posted my Dads Lancia but that's it) but I have my test on Monday

and if I pass I am going to need to buy a car. Your going to have to bare with me here cause I know nothing about cars.

I'm currently driving in the family's Daihatsu Sirion which I quite like but the problem I have with cars is I am quite small so have to move the seat nice and close. With the Daihatsu everything is then all in my face and cramped which is quite annoying.

I think I have been learning to drive in a Peugeot 307 and it's quite a roomy car. But here I am talking about cars I can't afford. I have a budget of about £2700 but that has to pay for EVERYTHING. So insurance and anything else.

So just wondered if anyone can help me where I should start. Cause I don't have a clue.

Cheers
Tob3z

9761 · 30 Sep 2006 at 20:02

Focus

[TW]Fox · 30 Sep 2006 at 20:05

9761 said:
Focus

18 year old new driver insurance + Focus = much more than £2700.

Tobes · 30 Sep 2006 at 20:12

[TW]Fox said:
18 year old new driver insurance + Focus = much more than £2700.

Yeh that's another thing. If anyone is kind enough to help me out I'm going to need a price on what I should be looking at and a guess on how much insurance is going to be.

Stratos · 30 Sep 2006 at 20:12

Xsara?

timbob · 30 Sep 2006 at 20:15

To be honest, you'll probably be looking at up to £1500 for insurance if you do it properly in your own name and start building up your NCB, which leaves you with £1200 for a car. Whatever you buy will probably need a service, and a few things fixing when you get it, so you're probably looking at £800 or so for a car.

Which, in true OCUK style, is Mondeo money

Or, in true Timbob style, decent Cavalier money :cool:

Nazbit · 30 Sep 2006 at 21:10

timbob said:
To be honest, you'll probably be looking at up to £1500 for insurance if you do it properly in your own name and start building up your NCB, which leaves you with £1200 for a car. Whatever you buy will probably need a service, and a few things fixing when you get it, so you're probably looking at £800 or so for a car.

Which, in true OCUK style, is Mondeo money

Or, in true Timbob style, decent Cavalier money

He is right, by the time insurance is accounted for depending on your area and the likley little bit of maintenance you are going to be left with £1k for a car.

Do a few searches on auto trader or everyones favourite auction site for Sub 1k cars and see what takes your fancy.

ajgoodfellow · 30 Sep 2006 at 22:29

You should be able to get a decent phase 2 (facelift) 306 for about £1300-1400 leaving about the same again for insurance. This would be my choice

timbob · 30 Sep 2006 at 23:39

Timbob's top tip:

Whatever you do, don't spend all the money you have available to you on purchasing and insuring a car.

All cars need maintainence - it's likely that you'll have to replace the tyres or brake pads/discs (or something similar) soon after purchasing. Most people (myself included) always give a new car a full service and check over after buying it for peace of mind, and to make sure nothing important is imminently about to break.

If you spend all the money you have on buying and insuring a car, you won't have anything left over to get a service/check over, or to get it fixed when it goes wrong, which, invariably speaking, a sub £1000 car will... Then you'll be left with no car to drive! So save some money over for maintainence!

Tobes · 30 Sep 2006 at 23:49

timbob said:
snip

Sound advice. But it's OK as all that money is to go towards a car and insurance. Anything after that (hoping it's not a massive amount) and I can use some other money I have in another account. Basically I'm spending all the cash in my savings account which was to go towards a car.

The thing is I'm not the type of person who wants a crap first car and then keep saving money and buying another after another. I already had a car (Polo VW Fox) that was given to me by parents but it's just not suitable for me. Keeps breaking down and it's very hard to drive. No power steering and 4 gears. When you have been learning in a 307 it's very hard to drive a car like the Polo. I'm just to weak to turn the damn wheel.

I would rather just have a nice car that will get me from A to B quite comfortably. Obviously though that comes with money. So it's basically "what can I get for my money".

Cheers for the advice guys. Keep it coming.

Rich1988 · 30 Sep 2006 at 23:51

rover 214 tbh

Tobes · 30 Sep 2006 at 23:57

Rich1988 said:
rover 214 tbh

Awesome

Stellios · 1 Oct 2006 at 00:00

ajgoodfellow said:
You should be able to get a decent phase 2 (facelift) 306 for about £1300-1400 leaving about the same again for insurance. This would be my choice

Thats what im working on doing now. Endsleigh are wanting £850 for insurance for me on a 1.9Dturbo or 1.4 LX. ~£1500 will buy you a very nice 306 with reasonable milage.

Rich1988 · 1 Oct 2006 at 00:42

Tob3z said:
Awesome

mine was only 280 and its pretty immaculate, WIN! you should get one, my hg hasnt failed yet either!

Tobes · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:04

A old mate (became a boy racer) has this car. Looks really nice inside with the wood panels :rolleyes:

However it does look quite nice. But so does the 306. So are you guys saying it should be possible for me to buy these cars (only 1 lol) and get insured for < £3000. I can't find any small litre ones. My Dad says that a bigger liter engine 1.4 + is going to be way to expensive or the insurance company wont even insure me.

timbob · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:11

Seriously, what about an older mondeo?

You'll probably find insurance to be comparably priced to a typical first car - as young people don't tend to drive mondeos, not many of them are crashed, so cheaper insurance!

A perfectly serviceable 1.8 or 2.0 mondeo in good condition inside and out, with a sensible mileage and service history can be had for less than £1000, there are dozens around.

The bottom end has fallen out of the car market recently, and you can buy pretty nice, bigger cars for less than a grand these days, something that 3 or 4 years ago would have cost 2 or 3 grand. Just because you're "only" spending £1000 on a car doesn't mean it's going to be a shed!

Styles · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:19

You'll probably be needing some small by the sounds of it so why not look at:

Fiesta
Clio
306

And things along those lines. I would say something like that or similar would be a perfect first car. You don't want anything too expensive because to be honest you will probably scratch it up in some way.

I always saw a first car as a learning experience.

Tobes · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:49

S7yl3s said:
you will probably scratch it up in some way.

You trying to say I'm a crap driver? Who the hell do you think you are coming in here saying I'm a crap driver.

lol. Styles you have had more cars than I have computer games.

Well it's late now so will come back to this thread tomorrow and have a better look online

Rich1988 · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:52

Tob3z said:
You trying to say I'm a crap driver? Who the hell do you think you are coming in here saying I'm a crap driver.

all new drivers are crap since we are new... we dont have the experience that peolpe have been driving for a long time have, so we are likely to scrape our cars.

Cyanide · 1 Oct 2006 at 01:56

Rich1988 said:
all new drivers are crap since we are new... we dont have the experience that peolpe have been driving for a long time have, so we are likely to scrape our cars.

My car has 2 scrapes on it - one caused by a Mondeo that decided to drive into my drivers door whilst trying to give himself plenty of room to get out the other side and one caused by some woman in a Tesco car park who opened her door onto me