Which Car (now i have insurance prices!)

[drummerian]

Hey Guys,

So i have done some insurance quotes on the following cars and all 3 come to around £800 - 900 for 12 months, not bad for a 21 year old i thought, so here we go, which would you choose and why. Hoping to buy in the next couple of weeks.

BMW 330d - good mpg, good power, bit un-original
Alfa 156 2.4JTD - good mpg, ok power, fwd (i am ready for a change)
Mazda RX8 - terrrible mpg, good power, nice and different, but i am worried that even with few miles i will feel like i am constantly filling it up!

Will be a vehicle i plan to keep for a good few years, budget 3k-5k.

Thanks for reading

Ian

[Jimmy No Hands]

I got the Mazda when I was 21 and I constantly didn't feel like I was filling it up. I constantly was. Real world MPG for majority of my driving was probably 18-22 mpg. And the performance didn't really match the MPG. Be prepared to budget a-lot for some new coil packs too if they havn't been done yet. And finding a good one won't be easy.

[soad]

Perhaps i'd choose a beemer

[thebigmacmoomin]

An odd choice of 3 cars, 2 diesels then something totally different in the RX8. Do you realy need a diesel?

[richyb]

If you are not fussed about MPG then get a bargain v8.

[drummerian]

i thought the decision would be made by insurance, but now they all come out around the same i'm not sure what to do...even threw an aston martin db7 in and that came to £2.4K not bad at all imo!

[drummerian]

thebigmacmoomin said:

An odd choice of 3 cars, 2 diesels then something totally different in the RX8. Do you realy need a diesel?

they seem much cheaper on the insurance quotes i have done

i agree it is an odd range, never been good at making my mind up!

[Jw Vw]

BMW for me, the Mazda is an unreliable heap of st, needing an engine rebuild circa 60K miles if im correct, I wouldn't touch the Alfa either.

[Deluded]

My opinion -

BMW - Boring, typical diesel rep mobile. No idea why you would want one tbh. Nice places to be in but otherwise just a boring motorway cruiser.

Alfa - Nice looker and another nice place to be, but from experience, will need a lot of looking after. The Fiat JTD block is very solid but the parts surrounding it could be better. Not as slow as you seem to think. The 16v is fairly rapid, even more so with a remap. Nowt wrong with the 8v though. As above though really, it's a diesel, not going to be exciting really.

RX-8 - Lovely looking cars but wouldn't personally touch one because of the engine. Not powerful enough to justify the fuel consumption.

In all honesty, you will probably have more fun in something like a Leon and be able to save your money for something quicker in a few years when your insurance goes down.

[antspants]

If mpg isn't a major issue why not a 330i. I used to have one and thought it was a good motor, jack of all trades almost. Good looking, nice cabin, lovely engine - decent combination of economy (I averaged 28mpg over 18 months), performance and sound - and handled very nicely.

Not sure what the values are like but I'd expect the petrol 330 to be cheaper than the diesel.

However if this option has already been ruled out by the insurance then of the 3 I'd go for the 330d, but I've had 3 BMW's on the trot so slightly biased

[H_Kan]

I'd be very surprised if you can find a decent 330d for under £5k. A nice 330i or ci for £5k would be do-able though and that's where I'd be looking.

The Alfa and RX8 will be worth practically nothing in 3 or 4 years, I reckon the Beemer will still fetch a couple of grand though.

[drummerian]

thanks for the valuable advice, will have a look!

[drummerian]

anything non diesel seems to push the insurance up a fair bit

[GreatGranny]

Have you tried something like a Clio 182 for insurance or do you want something a little more grown up?

As said above £5k will get you a 330d but it will probably have had a hard life and be high mileage.

[drummerian]

GreatGranny said:

Have you tried something like a Clio 182 for insurance or do you want something a little more grown up?

As said above £5k will get you a 330d but it will probably have had a hard life and be high mileage.

ideally something a little more grown up!

is the 320d even worth considering? the insurance didn't seem much if any cheaper..

[drummerian]

cheeky bump

[H_Kan]

I may be talking out of my ass here, but I seem to recall the 2.0 derv unit had a few issues. As I said, this may be complete bks though.

I have actually driven a 320d a few years back and thought it went quite well, though my usual car at the time was a 1.4 Cavalier, so I didn't have much point for reference.

Does the 325i make much difference to the price of insurance? If not, a few other choices which you may want to consider (these were decent on insurance for me, hence I looked into them):

- Jag X type 3.0 awd sport. Easily get one in budget and a nice looking car in sport spec imo. In the end, I thought the mpg was a little too low for the town driving which makes up 80% of my time in the car.

- Civic type R, not the latest shape, one before is in budget and a decent drive by all accounts. Never really looked further into this, as the TT and 330ci I was considering were a step above the CTR in my mind.

- R53 Mini Cooper S, decided that it wasn't practical enough for me and mpg is pretty bad for what is a 1.6.

- mk1 Audi TT 225bhp, came down to a choice between this and my 330ci. Lovely interior and well put together, some common faults though.

I did consider the RX8 as like the look of them but tbh I quickly discounted it, I simply didn't have the balls to take on something with its fuel consumption and something that had the very real potential of needing a rebuild or other costly work done.

Out of the original list, I'd try and stretch your budget for the 330d a little more and get a decent one. I think it's the best from your original options (assuming my new suggestions are not insurable) and will hold its money reasonable well imo.

[drummerian]

the jag and 325i are both models i have looked at insuring, but this pushes the insurance up much more than the 3.0L diesel! Shame the initial cost on these is so much more

perhaps i should look into the 5 series, i am told it is much better built...i just don't want a massive car!

[H_Kan]

Dunno about you OP, but when I was looking, the 3 and 5's were practically identical in insurance costs, the determining factor was the engine.

Derv unfortunately does command a significant premium, especially second hand. But as I posted, I reckon you'd recover most of the extra outlay at re-sale time.

[dabofoppo]

Out of your original list id have the rx8. Have you tried an audi s3/4? I found the 2.7 biturbo to be very reasonable to insure. (im 21)

Edited by dabofoppo on Thursday 9th June 02:53