Car Advice needed - New to PH, New to Scotland

[KCN]

I am moving Glasgow from outside the UK in June and I am deciding on a what car to buy. My budget is £4500.

I am looking for a reliable, economical, cheap to maintain 5 door family car, preferably a hatch.
tax less than £200
insurance less than £400

I checked on Autotrader and there are 2007 Fiestas for £3500 and 2008 Focuses for £4500

I am leaning towards the Focus because i had a 2007 1.6 Sport a few years ago and had no issues with it.

What is the best car I can get for £4500?
How different are running costs of a Fiesta and Focus?
Also i want to keep the car for 2 years, so resale is also a factor.

[BorkFactor]

You can't go far wrong with a petrol Focus to be honest. What about something Japanese - Honda Civic etc?

[jith]

BorkFactor said:

You can't go far wrong with a petrol Focus to be honest. What about something Japanese - Honda Civic etc?

Really? About 6 weeks ago my wife was T boned by a guy in a brand new Focus. She was driving her Audi Cabriolet: it's a '98, or rather it was. He came through a give way sign and pushed her all the way across the road onto the pavement on the opposite side of the road!

The Audi was still driving and both doors opened perfectly. It was written off simply due to its age, but could have been easily repaired. The Focus was smashed all the way up to the screen. Every airbag went off inside the car despite the fact there were no passengers. Both front doors had to be levered open and the whole front of the car was damaged.

I'll stick to my old Audis thanks.

J

[KCN]

I'm not really a civic fan. They are not as common as the focus. I am hoping the Focuses popularity will mean lower insurance and cheaper maintenance costs.

As for the Audi vs Focus accident, I will have a look at the Ncap ratings.

Also can someone give me an estimate of running costs in Glasgow.
Service
Brakes
Disks
Clutch
Tyres
.....

[Fitz666]

jith said:

Really? About 6 weeks ago my wife was T boned by a guy in a brand new Focus. She was driving her Audi Cabriolet: it's a '98, or rather it was. He came through a give way sign and pushed her all the way across the road onto the pavement on the opposite side of the road!

The Audi was still driving and both doors opened perfectly. It was written off simply due to its age, but could have been easily repaired. The Focus was smashed all the way up to the screen. Every airbag went off inside the car despite the fact there were no passengers. Both front doors had to be levered open and the whole front of the car was damaged.

I'll stick to my old Audis thanks.

J

So the Focus absorbed the engergy from the collision, but the Audi didn't?

[AmiableChimp]

KCN said:

I'm not really a civic fan. They are not as common as the focus. I am hoping the Focuses popularity will mean lower insurance and cheaper maintenance costs.

As for the Audi vs Focus accident, I will have a look at the Ncap ratings.

Also can someone give me an estimate of running costs in Glasgow.
Service
Brakes
Disks
Clutch
Tyres
.....

Where are you moving from?

Unless it's somewhere like Ulan Bator I don't suspect the running costs will differ in Glasgow from most other UK towns to be honest bud.

I don't see why this post is Glasgow-specific apart from the fact you are moving there!

[glasgowrob]

funnily enough also have a focus albeit a diesel sitting outside the house,

if you want I can certainly put you in touch with the garages I use and recommend same with tyre fitters etc.


a petrol focus is probably one of the easier and cheaper cars to maintain on the road today.

[KCN]

glasgowrob said:

funnily enough also have a focus albeit a diesel sitting outside the house,

if you want I can certainly put you in touch with the garages I use and recommend same with tyre fitters etc.


a petrol focus is probably one of the easier and cheaper cars to maintain on the road today.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you pay for:
Insurance
Services
Wear and tear bits like brakes, clutch and tyres?

thank you

[KCN]

AmiableChimp said:

Where are you moving from?

Unless it's somewhere like Ulan Bator I don't suspect the running costs will differ in Glasgow from most other UK towns to be honest bud.

I don't see why this post is Glasgow-specific apart from the fact you are moving there!

I am moving form South Africa and i am not familiar with running costs in the UK.

I posted in the Scotland sub-forum as i wanted to know the "local" running cost, if that makes any sense.

[BorkFactor]

jith said:

Really? About 6 weeks ago my wife was T boned by a guy in a brand new Focus. She was driving her Audi Cabriolet: it's a '98, or rather it was. He came through a give way sign and pushed her all the way across the road onto the pavement on the opposite side of the road!

The Audi was still driving and both doors opened perfectly. It was written off simply due to its age, but could have been easily repaired. The Focus was smashed all the way up to the screen. Every airbag went off inside the car despite the fact there were no passengers. Both front doors had to be levered open and the whole front of the car was damaged.

I'll stick to my old Audis thanks.

J

What are you getting at exactly?

A Focus of the era we are discussing as a 5 star NCAP rating whereas the B5 Audi A4 got a 3 star rating. Granted I couldn't find anything for the cabriolet (based on the 80 iirc?) but I would imagine there isn't much difference.

As for the insurance, try running a few quotes as there can be a lot of variation depending on which area you are in. My insurance is less than £300 but that is on an old 3 series so fairly irrelevant. I wouldn't have thought a Focus would be any more than that, but there are a lot of factors to consider.

Try comparethemarket.com with details as close to yours as you can get and that should give you a rough idea.

[driver67]

KCN said:

I am moving form South Africa and i am not familiar with running costs in the UK.

I posted in the Scotland sub-forum as i wanted to know the "local" running cost, if that makes any sense.

Independent garage rates vary from around £40-£80 per hour.

Brake pads, discs all round for a focus would be around £250 in decent parts + the labour.

Decent tyres for a focus ? Around £90 per corner ?

If you buy a Haynes manual, join the car owner forums etc you can do the majority of jobs yourself as mentioned above.

[jith]

BorkFactor said:

jith said:

Really? About 6 weeks ago my wife was T boned by a guy in a brand new Focus. She was driving her Audi Cabriolet: it's a '98, or rather it was. He came through a give way sign and pushed her all the way across the road onto the pavement on the opposite side of the road!

The Audi was still driving and both doors opened perfectly. It was written off simply due to its age, but could have been easily repaired. The Focus was smashed all the way up to the screen. Every airbag went off inside the car despite the fact there were no passengers. Both front doors had to be levered open and the whole front of the car was damaged.

I'll stick to my old Audis thanks.

J

What are you getting at exactly?

A Focus of the era we are discussing as a 5 star NCAP rating whereas the B5 Audi A4 got a 3 star rating. Granted I couldn't find anything for the cabriolet (based on the 80 iirc?) but I would imagine there isn't much difference.

As for the insurance, try running a few quotes as there can be a lot of variation depending on which area you are in. My insurance is less than £300 but that is on an old 3 series so fairly irrelevant. I wouldn't have thought a Focus would be any more than that, but there are a lot of factors to consider.

Try comparethemarket.com with details as close to yours as you can get and that should give you a rough idea.

Sorry old son, you appear to have missed the point. In the real world you can have all the Euro ncap ratings you like but it's how cars perform in real world accidents that determine whether or not you come out of it ok. In the wife's accident the Audi was repairable and she was absolutely unharmed. The Focus was a total write off and was seriously damaged. I didn't see the driver but he was taken away in an ambulance.

What does that tell you about the ncap rating. It tells me that I won't buy a Focus from real world experience. Someone else argued that the Focus absorbed all the impact of the accident. I wonder then what would have happened if the wife would have been in another Focus. She might have been injured and the other driver a bit less?

J

[douglasgdmw]

KCN said:

I am moving form South Africa and i am not familiar with running costs in the UK.

I posted in the Scotland sub-forum as i wanted to know the "local" running cost, if that makes any sense.

Maybe worthwhile having a look at AutoExpress website to get an idea of running costs as they often perform comparisons:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/used-car-tests

Car price values can be checked by using Parkers or Glass guides (both have apps which you can use)

Used to work a lot out in South Africa (Cape Town) so you will notice a number of differences compared to SA:
- petrol will be more expensive (think around £1.15/litre for Diesel)
- you will have to put your own petrol in (no attendants to do that for you)
- can reduce your petrol costs by using comparison websites or getting a reduced p/litre from supermarkets (depends on how much you spend in store)

I suspect that your insurance will be reasonably high as you are not a UK resident so they will load your premium. However their are a number of comparison websites which you can use to shop around for insurance costs.

George