First car under £1500
Discussion
Hello ive been reading the forum for a while and thought i would register and maybe get some advice, i just passed my licence few months ago and havent had a chance to buy a car yet. Ive been looking/asking around and it seems like the same boring cars are recommended (other forums/people)....Micras, Polos, Jazzs, Corsas etc....and i really want something else but would like an opinion from people that actually know what they are talking about instead of other people recommending whatever they just bought or whatever their son/daughter just bought that "does the job".
This car is going to be a temp 1-2 year car to get my insurance down. maybe more if i can work on it later
but i want it to be fun (we almost bought a jazz and i know i would have regretted it)
Something from the 90s, early 00s, big enough for 4 people at times, with hopefully lowish insurance costs.
mk3 golf maybe? i dont know...ive been looking at the bargain basement but dont really know if some of those are good deals to fix up or good to go (dont have any experience yet)
Thing is i dont really know what to look out for and so id like your opinions.
This car is going to be a temp 1-2 year car to get my insurance down. maybe more if i can work on it later
but i want it to be fun (we almost bought a jazz and i know i would have regretted it)
Something from the 90s, early 00s, big enough for 4 people at times, with hopefully lowish insurance costs.
mk3 golf maybe? i dont know...ive been looking at the bargain basement but dont really know if some of those are good deals to fix up or good to go (dont have any experience yet)
Thing is i dont really know what to look out for and so id like your opinions.
Edited by Warz on Friday 6th March 11:37
Edited by Warz on Friday 6th March 11:37
cheap, cheap, cheap, dont waste your money on anything "fun", it will have insurance costs associated. Its not what you want to hear but a bog standard 106, polo, micra etc is exactly what you need to keep costs low such that in a year or two, you can afford to not only buy something more enjoyable but insure, maintain and improve it. To be honest, the Mk1 focus always got good reviews so I'd have a look at those.
thanks for the reply, yea its not something i want to hear but i guess its something i need to hear, especially on a forum like this...Its going to be tuff waiting but will make the 2nd car i get that much more special. I will prob settle on something like a focus/golf (any other options of this class? 206 maybe?)
lol i did look at the suzuki about a day or 2 and actually the insurance was quite good, would be an interesting new car.
lol i did look at the suzuki about a day or 2 and actually the insurance was quite good, would be an interesting new car.
) not far from me with only 47k on the clock...1 owner, full honda service history, working perfectly, recently serviced for £1k....maybe i should just go for that 
Alfa 147 maybe?
Smaller-engined BMW 3-series?
Early 90's Merc (the bulletproof ones - W124)
Anything with an old-man ish image that doesn't get written off by teenagers (Rover 45?)
You'd be surprised at what's affordable to insure and what isn't. You'd think a clio would be cheap, but they get crashed a lot.
Also, add your mum/dad onto the insurance as a named driver can lower it. NOT as the main driver - that's insurance fraud.
Smaller-engined BMW 3-series?
Early 90's Merc (the bulletproof ones - W124)
Anything with an old-man ish image that doesn't get written off by teenagers (Rover 45?)
You'd be surprised at what's affordable to insure and what isn't. You'd think a clio would be cheap, but they get crashed a lot.
Also, add your mum/dad onto the insurance as a named driver can lower it. NOT as the main driver - that's insurance fraud.
ging84 said:
basically avoid the hatch back fixation
they are not cheap to insurer like everyone thinks
What would be your suggestion then? they are not cheap to insurer like everyone thinks
Contrary to the popular belief on PH 17 year olds do not insure old Jags, V6 Vauxhall Omegas or Volvo 850 T5s for £200 a year, they will not qualify for classic car insurance, won't get the insurance half price by adding their 90 year old nan and can't insure a mini for £300 fully comp and drive any other car.
In less the Op is thinking really outside the box and gets a bond bug or Reliant Robin or some other strange old thing a hatchback of some description is the best bet.
crofty1984 said:
Alfa 147 maybe?
Smaller-engined BMW 3-series?
Early 90's Merc (the bulletproof ones - W124)
Anything with an old-man ish image that doesn't get written off by teenagers (Rover 45?)
You'd be surprised at what's affordable to insure and what isn't. You'd think a clio would be cheap, but they get crashed a lot.
Also, add your mum/dad onto the insurance as a named driver can lower it. NOT as the main driver - that's insurance fraud.
will that affect his insurance/no claims at all? or affect him in any way? Smaller-engined BMW 3-series?
Early 90's Merc (the bulletproof ones - W124)
Anything with an old-man ish image that doesn't get written off by teenagers (Rover 45?)
You'd be surprised at what's affordable to insure and what isn't. You'd think a clio would be cheap, but they get crashed a lot.
Also, add your mum/dad onto the insurance as a named driver can lower it. NOT as the main driver - that's insurance fraud.
I don't know if it's still the same now, but when I bought my first car 5ish years ago, a more 'unusual' choice was much much cheaper.
I ended up with a 1.4 Clio (mum bought it, so I had no choice) which was £1800 to insure.
When I was looking for cars myself, stuff like old Jags, BMW 7's and Mercedes S's with the bigger engines where coming up at £1200 to insure!
Like I said, no idea if that's still true.
I ended up with a 1.4 Clio (mum bought it, so I had no choice) which was £1800 to insure.
When I was looking for cars myself, stuff like old Jags, BMW 7's and Mercedes S's with the bigger engines where coming up at £1200 to insure!
Like I said, no idea if that's still true.
I have just picked up a little run around C3 good condition, loads history new clutch service just been done as well. Its done 100K miles clean tidy, it is what it is cheap and cheerful car nothing special.
Less mile on my classic's so good for me.
It has nine months MOT it will do the job school run etc.
I paid less than 900 pounds 03 plate. Cheap to run, insure,tax so happy with that.
Less mile on my classic's so good for me.
It has nine months MOT it will do the job school run etc.
I paid less than 900 pounds 03 plate. Cheap to run, insure,tax so happy with that.
justanother5tar said:
I don't know if it's still the same now, but when I bought my first car 5ish years ago, a more 'unusual' choice was much much cheaper.
I ended up with a 1.4 Clio (mum bought it, so I had no choice) which was £1800 to insure.
When I was looking for cars myself, stuff like old Jags, BMW 7's and Mercedes S's with the bigger engines where coming up at £1200 to insure!
Like I said, no idea if that's still true.
It is actually, was surprised.I ended up with a 1.4 Clio (mum bought it, so I had no choice) which was £1800 to insure.
When I was looking for cars myself, stuff like old Jags, BMW 7's and Mercedes S's with the bigger engines where coming up at £1200 to insure!
Like I said, no idea if that's still true.
Im 25 so dont know if that makes a difference to insurance costs, everything so far has been around £1300-1600 to insure (apart from a beatle that came out at £900)
I'd agree that something a little off-beat can bring the costs down. My first car was a Celica 190, insured it for £800 as I recall, versus quotes for mundane stuff like Corsas, Polos and so on for £1000+. I could only assume that Corsas and the like were simply crashed a lot by young blokes, whereas Celicas weren't, despite it being a faster, fancier and more expensive car.
Warz said:
will that affect his insurance/no claims at all? or affect him in any way?
No, you don't use his no claims or anything. Obviously if he has a crash he'd be affected because he's crashed a vehicle. But the act of being insured on yours won't affect his*. It's you insuring your car that you own in your name, but also, he's allowed to drive it too. Works on the principle that if it's just you insured on it, the assumption is that the car's being driven by a high-risk person 100% of the time. If you add your dad as a named driver to your policy, then perhaps the car's spending 5-10% of its time being driven by a lower risk person. It's also legal.I can't stress enough that having him insure it in his name as his car with him as a main driver when it's really yours is a very, very bad idea. The result is that you feel very clever for a couple of months that you beat the system, right up to the point you get a conviction for driving without insurance and your premiums skyrocket until you're in an old folks home.
It's not going to bring a £1,800 policy down to £500, but it might save you 50 or 100 quid. At 17 (and at 30!) £50's a lot of money I'd rather have in my pocket than someone else's.
Also, to reply to the other poster, an unusual car might not knock you down on insurance enormously again, but it might get you into a more interesting car you hadn't considered before because you thought you couldn't insure it.
*now I think about it, maybe it would knock a little of his renewal when they ask "do you own or have access to any other cars".
But if an insurance specialist tells you otherwise, listen to them!
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