Help an under-informed 21 year old

fredd97

Original Poster

5 posts

60 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Good Afternoon All,

This is a plea for help from a young man with very limited knowledge when it comes to cars! A good dose of expertise from all of you extremely knowledgeable people would be highly appreciated!

Anyway lets cut to the chase, Im looking to buy my first car. I hate going in to debt so I am wanting to pay cash preferably around 4k but anywhere up to 5.5k if I was able to find something that would last. Thats the main criteria really, I want this car to last so it has to be reliable and I anticipate running it into the ground (i'm wanting to make it last at least 5 years+).

I'm also 21, so I have that age old desire to go fast while not bankrupting myself in insurance and petrol! The kind of things I like are Abarths (cheap to insure but unreliable?, also bit too expensive), Mini Cooper S (hard to determine whether these are reliable or not but insurance is reasonable), Ford fiesta ST (crazy expensive insurance, but seems a good all rounder), BMW 1 series, old 3 series convertibles etc. Im leaning towards a Mini at the moment and have found examples around 10 years old with 50,000 odd miles on the clock below 4 grand. Any other suggestions would be very much welcomed?

You get the drift, something fast, low mileage so I can get many more years out of it, probably looking at something in and around 10 years old with not many miles on the clock. I fully accept that buying a car of this age means it will need some work doing on it at some point but thats all good with me as I wont be paying for it by the month on some finance deal in the first place. Therefore repair/servicing costs will influence my decision.

Quite a large set of criteria I know, and any help and advice would be forever appreciated!

Cheers,
Freddie

ilikejam

1,089 posts

116 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Just wanted to be first to say Suzuki Swift Sport

Frimley111R

15,649 posts

234 months

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Wednesday 24th April 2019

I wouldn't worry too much about mileage. Modern cars are very well built and as long as looked after will last more years than you will ever need

r56jack

4 posts

65 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

If you're looking at Mini cooper S' around the 10yr mark, I'd make sure you get an LCI version. Later models (from 2010) have the N18 engine, and don't suffer from the timing chain issues of the pre-LCI models.

Jamescrs

4,479 posts

65 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

If running costs are an issue I'd avoid the BMW and Mini's neither are overly reliable and costly when things go wrong.

I'd be looking at the Ford personally, maybe not an ST model though, no experience of the Fiat so can't comment on that.

Summit_Detailing

1,889 posts

193 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

The first car that came to mind was a last of the mk1's (c.2007) Skoda Fabia VRS 1.9TDI - decent day2day performance, bulletproof mechanical's, cheap to insure/tax, economical, can be easily tuned if wanting more performance.
Also well under budget!

cheers,

Chris

A500leroy

5,125 posts

118 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

hi Freddie

Insurance is your main issue at 21 so get loads of quotes before you buy a car.
Forget anything super quick as the above wont touch you. Also unless you like finiancal pain forget the MINI!

Look for japanese and one model down from the sporty fast one.Something like

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Aiming at a 3 grand purchase will leave money in the kitty for higher insurance/if anything goes wrong with the car.

Vanordinaire

3,701 posts

162 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Much underrated sporty version of the K12 Micra, the SR160. Little cockroach of a car, built like a brick s

thouse and impossible to kill.
Ridiculously cheap to buy, run, insure etc.
My son got a 2005 one 3 years ago for £1000, 3 years and 45000 hard pushed miles later, its still like a 3 year old car underneath.

Chris32345

2,086 posts

62 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Your 21 you can forget any hope of anything sporty and fast
No luck with a st unless you want to paying stupid money for insurance

At your age your are really looking a a sub 100hp hatchback insurance wise

M4cruiser

3,630 posts

150 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Chris32345 said:

Your 21 you can forget any hope of anything sporty and fast
No luck with a st unless you want to paying stupid money for insurance

At your age your are really looking a a sub 100hp hatchback insurance wise

^^ This!! Check out your insurance quotes first.

Not uncommon to get quotes of £4,000 per year for a £4,000 car, unless you already have 3 years NCD and a good driving record.?

Some cars feel faster than they are, maybe that would suit. e.g. Peugeot 207.
Some cars feel slower than they are. e.g. Polo 1.6.

fredd97

Original Poster

5 posts

60 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Some top answers and all very helpful, much appreciated smile

shake n bake

2,221 posts

207 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Twingo Renault sport.

fredd97

Original Poster

5 posts

60 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

M4cruiser said:

^^ This!! Check out your insurance quotes first.

Not uncommon to get quotes of £4,000 per year for a £4,000 car, unless you already have 3 years NCD and a good driving record.?

Some cars feel faster than they are, maybe that would suit. e.g. Peugeot 207.
Some cars feel slower than they are. e.g. Polo 1.6.

I don't have any NCD, but i did pass 4 years my test 4 years ago and i've got 2 years named driver experience and live in a good area it seems... anything under a grand a year on insurance and i'm happy (which most of the things i'm interested in are in fairness)

ZX10R NIN

27,594 posts

125 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

fredd97

Original Poster

5 posts

60 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

ZX10R NIN said:

Most helpful cheers always thought you were supposed to stay away from alfas

nadger

1,411 posts

140 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Mitsubishi colt czt or ralliart (more expensive) are a good bet. My colt has been utterly bulletproof and they’re a hoot to drive!
A bit older than the others, but much cheaper!
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

roadsmash

2,622 posts

70 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

fredd97 said:

I wont be paying for it by the month on some finance deal in the first place.

No but you’ll need to finance the insurance by the sounds of it so it’s a moot point. It will probably be more than half the value of the car.

ZX10R NIN

27,594 posts

125 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

fredd97 said:

Most helpful cheers always thought you were supposed to stay away from alfas

No that's an old adage modern Alfa's are as reliable & robust as their competitors.

JP18

109 posts

61 months

[report]

[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

fredd97 said:

M4cruiser said:

^^ This!! Check out your insurance quotes first.

Not uncommon to get quotes of £4,000 per year for a £4,000 car, unless you already have 3 years NCD and a good driving record.?

Some cars feel faster than they are, maybe that would suit. e.g. Peugeot 207.
Some cars feel slower than they are. e.g. Polo 1.6.

I don't have any NCD, but i did pass 4 years my test 4 years ago and i've got 2 years named driver experience and live in a good area it seems... anything under a grand a year on insurance and i'm happy (which most of the things i'm interested in are in fairness)

I’m paying just over a grand for a 120hp golf. 18 with no NCD but a good area which does seem to count for a lot. Insurers don’t usually consider named driver experience. Try adding your parents as named drivers to your policy - made a pretty big impact on my premium and could make accessing a few more powerful cars possible.

Mr Tidy

22,310 posts

127 months

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[news]

Wednesday 24th April 2019

I read your list and immediately thought "BMW 130i", but then remembered your age - I think insurance might rule that out! rolleyes

Mrs Tidy has an R56 Mini Cooper that is great to drive, but I've also read good things about the Suzuki Swift Sport and the 2 litre Fiesta ST. All are naturally aspirated, so should be fun to drive when you chase the red line!

I'm not a fan of turbo engines - plenty of mid-range, but they seem to get breathless at higher revs IME.

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