Not driven for 3 years - second car advice
Discussion
Stallzy said:
Oh, I see. Well I wasn't planning on making modifications straight away until I'm familiar with stock power as even 120-150bhp would feel very quick. I see what you're saying about having the better platform, especially when it comes to those things like brakes, suspension, tech.
The throttle works the same if you have 100-200bhp.As an example you can get an Astra GTC in 140/180/200 form.
140:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211211...
180:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208269...
200:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...
Now although they look the same the 180/200 come with the HiPer strut suspension (but not the adjustable dampers & LSD that the full fat version gets) the same as the VXR model & bigger brakes.
So take your time to workout what the key things that you want from your new purchase.
ZX10R NIN said:
The throttle works the same if you have 100-200bhp.
As an example you can get an Astra GTC in 140/180/200 form.
140:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211211...
180:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208269...
200:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...
Now although they look the same the 180/200 come with the HiPer strut suspension (but not the adjustable dampers & LSD that the full fat version gets) the same as the VXR model & bigger brakes.
So take your time to workout what the key things that you want from your new purchase.
Sorry for taking quite a while to reply back. As said before, I don't really feel comfortable perhaps handing a full amount of cash to a very small dealer (low reviews, small forecourt etc) or maybe wishing to have a car in grey so may have to find other examples than those three. Interesting to know there's different levels though. I really don't know much about Vauxhalls nowadays lol. The price of the 200 one though is about £1000 more than this MK5 Golf GTI I found which may priced high itself, but the Astra GTC is a much newer car and maybe I shouldn't be looking at old cars, but at the same time I like them so it is pretty confusing.As an example you can get an Astra GTC in 140/180/200 form.
140:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211211...
180:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208269...
200:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210271...
Now although they look the same the 180/200 come with the HiPer strut suspension (but not the adjustable dampers & LSD that the full fat version gets) the same as the VXR model & bigger brakes.
So take your time to workout what the key things that you want from your new purchase.
Maybe I just need to take some time and do research, read/watch reviews and look through the classifieds a bit more and maybe test drive a few different cars including both manual and auto DSG, but I am leaning more to manual at least for the next car. Budget isn't a huge worry as long as I'm getting good value if that makes sense, and there's bigger obstacles or concerns for me to overcome first as I don't have a car I can physically use to get to places myself and so I may have to restrict my search to more local unless I'm comfortable forking out hundreds just to go on test drives cross country...
December probably isn't the time to do it though even though this is on my mind quite a bit because of weather and not having big problems or issues to deal with right before Christmas. I would guess a lot of stock isn't really going to move over the next few weeks but at the same time, maybe the best time to get a deal is when not much interest is there and dealers still need to move stock or hit annual goals etc.
Sorry if I seem confused, it's because I probably am but just trying to juggle end of month work also before having a day or two as break. Part of me is half tempted to make the journey to a dealer over the next few weeks and maybe try a MK5 GTI or Fiesta ST or some of the other suggestions above plus some lower powered stuff or if they have anything with an auto/DSG, but I'm out of my depth a little lol as this is all first time stuff and it's again, maybe not the right time of year. May just have to wait a few months and use it as an opportunity to build some more savings, but more for maintenance and fuel costs side of things.
I don't have like a daily use case that needs a car as I work from home and as I might have said before, not sure, I've been out probably enough times to count on two hands, if not one hand since early March 2020, so every journey out is pretty significant. Just feel like by the time summer / show season is around that I want to have some confidence back and have a means of travelling around that is somewhat warm but isn't making a huge noise or drawing too much attention.
Eyersey1234 said:
Regarding no claims, I'm sure after 2 years without a policy it gets cancelled, so you may be starting from scratch
Yeah, as said, I plugged in some information from scratch (not sure I have a Comparethemarket account) and got quotes in £1000-1200 range from Admiral (and their derivatives / other owned companies) and also Hastings and Ford Insure and a couple others for a 2.0 200PS MK5 GTI, so doesn't seem too bad.ZX10R NIN said:
Try to test drive some of the alternatives & the GTI, that's when you'll know what car ticks your boxes.
Remember you buy the car on condition, your not buying the dealer.
I know that sound flippant but having been in the industry for a long time a good car is a good car no matter who has it.
Do your checks & buy the best car not an okay car from the nicest dealer.
Yeah, I see. You must have deleted your last comment and then added some extra to make this one, rather than editing it Remember you buy the car on condition, your not buying the dealer.
I know that sound flippant but having been in the industry for a long time a good car is a good car no matter who has it.
Do your checks & buy the best car not an okay car from the nicest dealer.
That's fair enough, just trying to figure out what my list would be, but also got to figure out who has them and how I'm going to get there, as my parents may not be able to take me and so yeah...Try to test drive some of the alternatives & the GTI, that's when you'll know what car ticks your boxes.
Remember you buy the car on condition, your not buying the dealer.
I know that sound flippant but having been in the industry for a long time a good car (I've bought three good cars from Motorhub despite their best efforts to scupper the deals) is a good car no matter who has it.
Do your checks & buy the best car not an okay car from the nicest dealer.
Remember you buy the car on condition, your not buying the dealer.
I know that sound flippant but having been in the industry for a long time a good car (I've bought three good cars from Motorhub despite their best efforts to scupper the deals) is a good car no matter who has it.
Do your checks & buy the best car not an okay car from the nicest dealer.
sherman said:
If a few £20 taxi rides is too much to spend to check out a £10 000 purchase. I would say you need to check if you can afford the £10k.
Theres half a chance the dealer will run you home if your a serious buyer.
Yeah, fair enough. I mean, as I've said before, because of the previous write-off, I may get some help so that I really only need to worry about insurance, maintenance, fuel etc, but the cost of travelling around to do test drives is also coming completely out of my pocket and my time, which will of course take longer / more individual trips than if I already had a car etc and could travel around myself, if that makes sense.Theres half a chance the dealer will run you home if your a serious buyer.
Seems ZX10R redid his post again after I quoted one lol, interesting to hear about Motorhub experience as yeah, I've heard interesting things years back about them lol and confused how they're still operating. They actually have a Edition 30 below 10k perhaps, but mileage is slightly high.
Like I said, I also found a nice Volvo C30 example, basically the only one of those I could find within 50 miles of me and the dealer's social media didn't really fill me with much hope.
It's difficult to draw the line between posting stuff here and giving too much information away, but I live in the North West and not like close to the big cities. Manchester is a 50 min or so train ride, which I did for 4 years most days for University, however a taxi for such distance (25 miles or so) can cost £40 or more one-way.
I don't think I've found more than 5 examples (heck, even 3) within 50 miles of each car I'm looking at which are any decent, and that's double the distance I just mentioned above, so yeah, I'm not too sure about the travel costs involved and also whether the test drives will be given or be useful since i'm driving on unfamiliar roads.
I did wonder if it's possible to have cars moved down to Evans Halshaw still, but I can't really see anything instantly about that anymore. That could've been an option as there's maybe a few of those near rail links.
ZX10R NIN said:
Do you have a car supermarket near you? As this may be the easiest way to try multiple cars (be ready for the hard sell) & get a feel for what you do & don't like.
I'm very new to this so what exactly do you mean by a "car supermarket"? You mean the brand CarSupermarket.com or just a place / dealership that has a lot of cars? There's Fords of Winsford maybe or various Evans Halshaw / Arnold Clark dealers, but maybe you can let me know a bit more what you meant.Seriously, like it seems difficult to find places that have examples of MK5 GTI, Volvo C30, Fiesta ST mk7 (under 50k miles), Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.75 TBi etc in my local area lol. They're all in opposite directions and would likely have to be done on separate days or separate weeks. The dealer that has the MK5 GTI I was looking at has a range of other hatchbacks, not so many sporty ones but a variety of others.
Sorry if I'm overthinking this but it does feel challenging and part of me wonders whether I should just get something boring or settle for one of the examples I've found already to put this to an end
Time to sleep soon, been up since 3am.
ZX10R NIN said:
I mean like Arnold Clarke/Motorpoint/Car Giant etc if any are near, you can check on what stock they have.
Just did Arnold Clark, 1.6 engine and up, hatchback, within 20 miles of me and only 21 cars came up like sub £14k in that range. Two of them were 208 GTIs though which are on this list, but not much else of any desirability. Both in kind of out of the way places perhaps unless I get a taxi to those locations as don't think rail links are there.If you’re finding it difficult to pinpoint specific models near you, then maybe trying looking for the same car but with a different engine (or even trim) just to see if you like the interior/exterior/driving position etc first. It might help you knock off some of your choices straight away based purely on that. A car supermarket (or any dealer that stocks 100+ cars) would be ideal as ZX suggested.
jam_up said:
If you’re finding it difficult to pinpoint specific models near you, then maybe trying looking for the same car but with a different engine (or even trim) just to see if you like the interior/exterior/driving position etc first. It might help you knock off some of your choices straight away based purely on that. A car supermarket (or any dealer that stocks 100+ cars) would be ideal as ZX suggested.
Just heading to sleep but saw the email notification. Think you're right yeah, or I found one or the local dealers has an interesting range. It seems you can enquire about test drives through a form but may just ring them up about doing multiple in one day and not sure which day that will be yet.If you have you heart set on looking across the country for the best deal you can get, and test driving a whole series of cars, you need to be mobile.
So either go and buy something cheap and easy that's close, (C1 or any other shed), and use that to spend the next 3 or 4 months looking for you dream car,
OR,
Go and buy something that ticks most of the boxes, that might be a little outside the price range, or a little outside the mileage or trim requirements.
There's not going to be a 'bad' car in the list of things people have suggested (Though I would always avoid the German / VAG stuff), so whatever you buy, it will drive nicely, go well, and be safe and comfortable. Even if you do make a sub optimal choice, it's not going to be particularly disastrous.
Don't forget that if / when you modify it, it's likely to lose a load of value, as no-one wants to buy it after.
So either go and buy something cheap and easy that's close, (C1 or any other shed), and use that to spend the next 3 or 4 months looking for you dream car,
OR,
Go and buy something that ticks most of the boxes, that might be a little outside the price range, or a little outside the mileage or trim requirements.
There's not going to be a 'bad' car in the list of things people have suggested (Though I would always avoid the German / VAG stuff), so whatever you buy, it will drive nicely, go well, and be safe and comfortable. Even if you do make a sub optimal choice, it's not going to be particularly disastrous.
Don't forget that if / when you modify it, it's likely to lose a load of value, as no-one wants to buy it after.
bearman68 said:
If you have you heart set on looking across the country for the best deal you can get, and test driving a whole series of cars, you need to be mobile.
So either go and buy something cheap and easy that's close, (C1 or any other shed), and use that to spend the next 3 or 4 months looking for you dream car,
OR,
Go and buy something that ticks most of the boxes, that might be a little outside the price range, or a little outside the mileage or trim requirements.
There's not going to be a 'bad' car in the list of things people have suggested (Though I would always avoid the German / VAG stuff), so whatever you buy, it will drive nicely, go well, and be safe and comfortable. Even if you do make a sub optimal choice, it's not going to be particularly disastrous.
Don't forget that if / when you modify it, it's likely to lose a load of value, as no-one wants to buy it after.
Hey! Thanks for your comment as not heard anything from anyone for a bit, but I guess it's not been that long haha. Solid advice. MK5 GTI honestly seems pretty solid to me but it seems like a project and also I'm not fully sure on when certain parts were done on this example I found. Timing belt + water pump was done less than 20k miles ago, but says it needs to be done every 4 years/40k miles and it was last done just over 5 years ago so surely I'd want that doing, plus PCV valve, diverter valve, cam follower all at the same time for reliabiity.So either go and buy something cheap and easy that's close, (C1 or any other shed), and use that to spend the next 3 or 4 months looking for you dream car,
OR,
Go and buy something that ticks most of the boxes, that might be a little outside the price range, or a little outside the mileage or trim requirements.
There's not going to be a 'bad' car in the list of things people have suggested (Though I would always avoid the German / VAG stuff), so whatever you buy, it will drive nicely, go well, and be safe and comfortable. Even if you do make a sub optimal choice, it's not going to be particularly disastrous.
Don't forget that if / when you modify it, it's likely to lose a load of value, as no-one wants to buy it after.
The same place that has that has a few sheds, but they're on some literal random tyres that I've never heard of where the GTI already has Eagle F1s all round. I think previous owner must've done that because not sure they would've given what rubber they've put on the rest. There's a few places I can visit which have stock of a few things, but I might take a few refresher lessons before test driving anything.
As for no one wanting to buy something that's been modified, at least with Fiesta STs, stage 2 and stage 3 cars are actually bought in by some dealers, and there is a bit of demand to buy a car that's already had the work done at least for stage 3 because it's usually more expensive to buy a stock car and do it yourself, and time involved.
As said before, I'm not in a huge rush to get anything but it's on my mind quite a bit at the moment. I don't know how easy it is to get something and then part with it in less than a year, but I suppose it's not too difficult if you pay insurance monthly for example as opposed to annually, which would probably the case for me anyway. If the shed has some random name brand tyres though, I might have to change those ASAP because I just don't believe in having cheap tyres.
A couple of very general points:
AGE: A well looked after 10 year old car will not be unreliable, so don't discount a car just because it's a bit older.
POWER: You, yes, you, are in control of the power, not the car. Just because a car has 300bhp, doesn't mean you have to use all that power all the time. It's quite possible to drive a high powered car like a granny. So don't be scared of it, just learn to control your right foot!
AGE: A well looked after 10 year old car will not be unreliable, so don't discount a car just because it's a bit older.
POWER: You, yes, you, are in control of the power, not the car. Just because a car has 300bhp, doesn't mean you have to use all that power all the time. It's quite possible to drive a high powered car like a granny. So don't be scared of it, just learn to control your right foot!
Olivergt said:
A couple of very general points:
AGE: A well looked after 10 year old car will not be unreliable, so don't discount a car just because it's a bit older.
POWER: You, yes, you, are in control of the power, not the car. Just because a car has 300bhp, doesn't mean you have to use all that power all the time. It's quite possible to drive a high powered car like a granny. So don't be scared of it, just learn to control your right foot!
Fair points here, and as far as age and reliability, that's not so much what I mean. I mean the MK5 GTI for example being what I've been researching a bit over the last few days, there's quite a few things you need to keep on top of as opposed to say a Honda or Ford.AGE: A well looked after 10 year old car will not be unreliable, so don't discount a car just because it's a bit older.
POWER: You, yes, you, are in control of the power, not the car. Just because a car has 300bhp, doesn't mean you have to use all that power all the time. It's quite possible to drive a high powered car like a granny. So don't be scared of it, just learn to control your right foot!
In terms of power, I think 200-250 hp is the max I'd want to go at least stock because that is, from a lot of reading over the last 5 years or so and watching reviews etc or seeing how higher power cars perform, perhaps the best power for B oad driving etc / British roads. Any higher then you're doing silly speeds or too much power for just FWD unless you don't mind
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