2x cars 2x budgets buying advice sought
Discussion
Evening all,
I’m involved with two Ukrainian women, ooer. Joking aside, I help out at an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class, and through this have become friendly with two sisters. The younger is a woman of 28 who is a proper old car fan, which is how we became friends. We had a couple of great chats (they are both excellent English speakers) and she really seems to know about the stuff from the ‘90s. (I’m 68 and happily married and there is absolutely nothing untoward going on, do please believe me
).
She has an older sister (34) who is a (great) mum to two little girls. All four of them came to the UK after the invasion, and after some ups and downs are now all living in a nice little terraced house. The two children are at school and doing well. I feel both women are putting down roots and want to get on with life as best they can.
Younger sister was averse to claiming off the state so took a dead-end job in a factory. She has a driving licence (and has successfully obtained a UK licence) and has been working overtime and has been saving for a car. She has told me she has saved £7k.
Older sister, being a mum, hasn’t had the same work opportunities. She worked part-time at the same factory as her sister, but unfortunately the business decided to drop it’s part-time workers. She does voluntary stuff at places like the ESOL class etc. She has no interest in cars but has learnt to drive here in UK, paying for many lessons, and passed her test first time last month (in an automatic), which delighted all of us who know her. Both strike me as capable women.
Both now want a car. Good sense suggests that they should share a car, but older sister tells me that once younger sister begins driving her own car, older sister will never get her out of it. I’m sure us car-nuts can understand that.
Older sister has told me she has a budget of £3k, and just wants a small car for her and her girls. It must be automatic though, and it’ll only be doing short journeys which I think precludes diesel. I recognise that this will really restrict her choice. She has asked me about leasing, but again, I know very little about it, I’ve never leased a car myself, I haven’t remotely kept up to speed with where that market is nowadays.
Younger sister has a manual licence. I’ve advised her that she doesn’t need to spend £7k and could get a perfectly good car for £5k and use the surplus for insurance etc (which I imagine won’t be cheap for either). I think she should buy an ordinary family four-door car for when they all travel together, (and probably nothing from the 1990’s, which I know she’d prefer). I feel they need low tax and lowest insurance as poss.
Thing is, I know little about modern or modern-ish cars. I’m not up to speed with what has wet-belts or not or which Peugeots and Minis were fitted with chocolate engines, and such like. I’d love to help these two women but at the moment I really don’t feel I can properly advise, I’ve been playing around with Autotrader but the results are full of cars I know little about.
Can you help me guys? 2x budgets of £3k and £5k, must be boringly reliable imo with cheap running costs. The £3k car must be an automatic. £5k car should be four-door, boring, reliable family thing imo. I really would appreciate any help in sorting out the wheat from the chaff.
Thanks very much indeed in advance.
I’m involved with two Ukrainian women, ooer. Joking aside, I help out at an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class, and through this have become friendly with two sisters. The younger is a woman of 28 who is a proper old car fan, which is how we became friends. We had a couple of great chats (they are both excellent English speakers) and she really seems to know about the stuff from the ‘90s. (I’m 68 and happily married and there is absolutely nothing untoward going on, do please believe me
). She has an older sister (34) who is a (great) mum to two little girls. All four of them came to the UK after the invasion, and after some ups and downs are now all living in a nice little terraced house. The two children are at school and doing well. I feel both women are putting down roots and want to get on with life as best they can.
Younger sister was averse to claiming off the state so took a dead-end job in a factory. She has a driving licence (and has successfully obtained a UK licence) and has been working overtime and has been saving for a car. She has told me she has saved £7k.
Older sister, being a mum, hasn’t had the same work opportunities. She worked part-time at the same factory as her sister, but unfortunately the business decided to drop it’s part-time workers. She does voluntary stuff at places like the ESOL class etc. She has no interest in cars but has learnt to drive here in UK, paying for many lessons, and passed her test first time last month (in an automatic), which delighted all of us who know her. Both strike me as capable women.
Both now want a car. Good sense suggests that they should share a car, but older sister tells me that once younger sister begins driving her own car, older sister will never get her out of it. I’m sure us car-nuts can understand that.
Older sister has told me she has a budget of £3k, and just wants a small car for her and her girls. It must be automatic though, and it’ll only be doing short journeys which I think precludes diesel. I recognise that this will really restrict her choice. She has asked me about leasing, but again, I know very little about it, I’ve never leased a car myself, I haven’t remotely kept up to speed with where that market is nowadays.
Younger sister has a manual licence. I’ve advised her that she doesn’t need to spend £7k and could get a perfectly good car for £5k and use the surplus for insurance etc (which I imagine won’t be cheap for either). I think she should buy an ordinary family four-door car for when they all travel together, (and probably nothing from the 1990’s, which I know she’d prefer). I feel they need low tax and lowest insurance as poss.
Thing is, I know little about modern or modern-ish cars. I’m not up to speed with what has wet-belts or not or which Peugeots and Minis were fitted with chocolate engines, and such like. I’d love to help these two women but at the moment I really don’t feel I can properly advise, I’ve been playing around with Autotrader but the results are full of cars I know little about.
Can you help me guys? 2x budgets of £3k and £5k, must be boringly reliable imo with cheap running costs. The £3k car must be an automatic. £5k car should be four-door, boring, reliable family thing imo. I really would appreciate any help in sorting out the wheat from the chaff.
Thanks very much indeed in advance.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff