Car for student
Discussion
I am a student, and find myself tempted to get a car. However, I do not want something usual, mainly because of the prohibitively expensive cost of insuring "mainstream", popular cars.
While there are several threads on the topic of "What car for a 19 year old?", I have not found any recent threads (most recent is about May 2013).
It is always fun to hear what other people used to have, or currently have, especially if it is a slightly left field choice, so feel free to post stories!
As I understand it, risk is calculated through how many people of certain classes crash certain cars, so it makes sense to go for something outside of the normal Saxos or Fiestas, and pick a car which lower numbers of 19 year olds drive.
My budget is about 1.5k for the car, and I would like the insurance to be a reasonable amount (I am aware that this is unhelpful). Current ideas include:
Jaguar XJ6
Porsche 924
MG Midget
Triumph Spitfire
All of these are classics, but I am not necessarily looking for a classic: it is simply that these are the first things that come to mind where the insurance price is relatively low.
I am aware that the Jag and Porsche would have high running costs, but this would not necessarily discount them entirely. As they are significantly cheaper to insure than, say, an Alfa 147, the annual cost of running them could be shifted from insurance to fuel.
Over to you! Any suggestions?
P.S. Apologies if my OP is a bit all over the place, I wasn't really sure where to start!
While there are several threads on the topic of "What car for a 19 year old?", I have not found any recent threads (most recent is about May 2013).
It is always fun to hear what other people used to have, or currently have, especially if it is a slightly left field choice, so feel free to post stories!
As I understand it, risk is calculated through how many people of certain classes crash certain cars, so it makes sense to go for something outside of the normal Saxos or Fiestas, and pick a car which lower numbers of 19 year olds drive.
My budget is about 1.5k for the car, and I would like the insurance to be a reasonable amount (I am aware that this is unhelpful). Current ideas include:
Jaguar XJ6
Porsche 924
MG Midget
Triumph Spitfire
All of these are classics, but I am not necessarily looking for a classic: it is simply that these are the first things that come to mind where the insurance price is relatively low.
I am aware that the Jag and Porsche would have high running costs, but this would not necessarily discount them entirely. As they are significantly cheaper to insure than, say, an Alfa 147, the annual cost of running them could be shifted from insurance to fuel.
Over to you! Any suggestions?
P.S. Apologies if my OP is a bit all over the place, I wasn't really sure where to start!
I'm a 19 year old student and I've got an XJ6 and an MR2. My version of XJ6 (X350) is out of your budget, although you could pick up one of the older X308 shapes quite easily. Be aware that they will not be cheap to run, although if you know a good mechanic or are handy with a spanner yourself then that'll save you quite a bit.
The MR2 is probably far more like what you're looking for. I bought mine off a PHer for £1000, it's great fun to drive, just passed it's MOT with only two advisories that'll cost me under £50 to fix, and will do 35MPG if driven gently. The turbo models will be tricky to insure, but a Rev 4 2.0 N/A like mine should be fine.
If you're interested, the thread for my Jag is here, and although I never got around to doing a thread about my MR2, Synchromesh, the PHer I bought it from, did a very good one here - he also got the car when he was quite young. I pay £1750 for them both insured on multicar, the Jag is around £1000 and the MR2 £750.
The MR2 is probably far more like what you're looking for. I bought mine off a PHer for £1000, it's great fun to drive, just passed it's MOT with only two advisories that'll cost me under £50 to fix, and will do 35MPG if driven gently. The turbo models will be tricky to insure, but a Rev 4 2.0 N/A like mine should be fine.
If you're interested, the thread for my Jag is here, and although I never got around to doing a thread about my MR2, Synchromesh, the PHer I bought it from, did a very good one here - he also got the car when he was quite young. I pay £1750 for them both insured on multicar, the Jag is around £1000 and the MR2 £750.
Thanks Deltashad, good advice: I will certainly look into it
Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
YoungRestorer said:
Thanks Deltashad, good advice: I will certainly look into it
Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
Glad I could help Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
I did an online quote from their website - sites like confused.com don't offer multicar quotes. My postcode is pretty poor (DA8), I have 1 years NCB and 1 non fault claim.Geekman said:
YoungRestorer said:
Thanks Deltashad, good advice: I will certainly look into it
Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
Glad I could help Geekman: Thanks very much, exactly what I was looking for! Can I just ask: did you phone admiral, or get a web quote? What is your postcode risk like? How many years NCB do you have? Perfect RE. your threads though, they are exactly what I was looking for!
I did an online quote from their website - sites like confused.com don't offer multicar quotes. My postcode is pretty poor (DA8), I have 1 years NCB and 1 non fault claim.YoungRestorer said:
Mr Tom: thanks for the reply. Who did you insure with, and through which medium? What year is your jag?
I insured through direct line. I had the no claims through a named driver policy on another policy. It was a 1996 (p reg) I bought it at Uni at the end of the summer term and then drove it back to home (Somerset) from liverpool! It was quite an adventure. I paid £500 for it and it only let me down once not too bad I sold it on at the end of the summer! If you have any more questions ask away! Mr Tom said:
I insured through direct line. I had the no claims through a named driver policy on another policy. It was a 1996 (p reg) I bought it at Uni at the end of the summer term and then drove it back to home (Somerset) from liverpool! It was quite an adventure. I paid £500 for it and it only let me down once not too bad I sold it on at the end of the summer! If you have any more questions ask away!
Sounds absolutely what one wants from a £500 Jag right?! If I may, can I ask you some more questions closer to the time of actually purchasing it, at the moment I am simply researching what would be viable for me? Thanks very much for the help! not too bad I sold it on at the end of the summer! If you have any more questions ask away! Hooli said:
If you go for the Jag get a straight six not the V8, much more bullet proof & cheaper to maintain. My XJ40 costs peanuts in parts but makes up for it with 19mpg. Oh & have a search for Jaguar Steve's buyers guides to X300s & X308s to see why from someone who really knows the cars.
I had also heard that the straight six was more reliable: the term "bulletproof" was thrown aroung, but I think that might be the later 4.0, rather than the 3.2. Thanks for the literature recommendation, will get on that YoungRestorer said:
Mr Tom said:
I insured through direct line. I had the no claims through a named driver policy on another policy. It was a 1996 (p reg) I bought it at Uni at the end of the summer term and then drove it back to home (Somerset) from liverpool! It was quite an adventure. I paid £500 for it and it only let me down once not too bad I sold it on at the end of the summer! If you have any more questions ask away!
Sounds absolutely what one wants from a £500 Jag right?! If I may, can I ask you some more questions closer to the time of actually purchasing it, at the moment I am simply researching what would be viable for me? Thanks very much for the help! not too bad I sold it on at the end of the summer! If you have any more questions ask away! He had his for about 3 years & to be honest it was pretty reliable. Be prepared to hunt on Ebay / scrapyards etc for some spares as something will go wrong at some point. Parts like exhausts etc will cost a fortune from the obvious places, but they are the sort of thing people have in the garage at home, forget about then flog on Gumtree years later when they clean up (ok, just me then
).I think it would be a very cool car at your age - comically bad on fuel, but considering the mileage you'll likely be doing I wouldn't be concerned. I'd recommend a battery conditioner - maybe even a solar one - cars like this don't particularly like being sat for a week without being run & you don't want to be pissing about jump-starting because the battery has gone flat.
If you get chance, look up a BBC programme from a few years back on YouTube. It was called "A-Z of Modern Motoring" or something like that. The episode you'll like is the "First Car" one. Don't end up like the Beetle lad......
Best of luck & I wish I was 18 again
YoungRestorer said:
Hooli said:
If you go for the Jag get a straight six not the V8, much more bullet proof & cheaper to maintain. My XJ40 costs peanuts in parts but makes up for it with 19mpg. Oh & have a search for Jaguar Steve's buyers guides to X300s & X308s to see why from someone who really knows the cars.
I had also heard that the straight six was more reliable: the term "bulletproof" was thrown aroung, but I think that might be the later 4.0, rather than the 3.2. Thanks for the literature recommendation, will get on that BTW I paid £500 for mine 18months ago. So far repairs are one wheel bearing, a couple of ABS sensors & a thermostat. Plus normal stuff like cleaning all the callipers to free the brakes (added 3mpg!).
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff