Recommend me a winter hack

[stevenotwet]

looking ahead, The aston is coming up for its annual service ,mot etc all around december.
and also the youngest about to start driving lessons.
Any recomndations of a winter hack that i can use , but is also suitable to hand over to the daughter when she passes her test as a first suitable car. I dont know what the cc and HP etc is allowable without crippling insurance for her etc . any ideas ? anything considered.

[Jon39]

I spotted your post on the AM forum.

Whilst at university my son had occasional use of a very old and tatty Vauxhall Cavalier family car.
Later on he secured a job at a so called prestigious firm, so we thought the employer might not be too amused by a 200,000 mile banger arriving at a client's premises, particularly when considering the eye-watering hourly fee being charged.

I went to a BCA auction and bought a 1 year old, 12,000 mile Fiat Punto Grande (importantly one with alloy wheels, which we discovered before bidding, means the car has air conditioning). Insurance for a youngster was reasonable. Compared to an AM, you would probably think the throttle cable has broken.

Seeing the new list price was £10,000, we thought our bid limit should be £7,000.
Imagine our surprise, when the first of about 20 Puntos sold for £4,300. Clearly no need to worry about a bid limit then.
As there were so many being sold, we could choose the colour, and compare condition closely. The manufacturers warranty had almost two years remaining, so minimal risk for us.

That car has now been in daily use for 12 years, with good reliability, and the depreciation cost (if valued at zero) is only about £375 per year. Probably cost more to travel by bus.

It was a lesson to us, that forecourt prices are way above the true vehicle values.
The first owner was Avis, so for bulk purchases they probably only pay a fraction of published new list prices. They certainly could not operate, if their write-down for this car was £5,700 after just 12 months.

Part of motoring economy is being fortunate with reliability, and keeping the vehicle for as long as possible.

Good luck.

[mrbarnett]

This'll be the second time this afternoon that I've recommended this car: Fiat Panda 4x4 or Cross. Decent enough in the bad weather, very cheap to run, and it's a Panda, so cheap to insure, too.

Not sure of budget but the Twin Air engine is fun in a two-cylinder kind of way

[ZX10R NIN]

Another cheap car to insure is the VW Beetle even in 2.0 form they're cheap insurance wise.

[stevenotwet]

Thanks guys , Gives me a starting block