First car advice.

[CammRobb]

Hi all,
Looking to purchase my first car within 6-8 weeks.
I'm 24 (25 in June), live in Scotland, and I'm looking to finance a nearly-new car, probably a 13/14 plate.
I have £2,000 to put down as a deposit to bring the monthly repayments down a little bit, but I'm stuck as to what car to actually buy.
I don't want to pay over £1000 a year in insurance, so I'm looking at a 1.6l engine or smaller.
Right now I'm leaning heavily towards a 1.6l SRi Astra, as this is the cheapest car to insure that I've found. I have only used to Compare the Market for insurance, but will be shopping around closer to the time.
Looking to spend a maximum of £150 per month on finance, other requirements are that it needs to be a 5 door, as I'm planning on keeping this car for the full term, and will probably knock the wife up at some point along the way, so 5 doors is a must.
Other cars I've been looking at include the Focus, Civic, Golf, Mazda 3, Pug 308 and possible a 1-Series Beemer.
I'm looking at several factors:
Monthly repayments
Insurance costs
How good the car is to drive.
Can anyone give me any pointers? If you own one of the above cars I'd love to hear from you, and anyone else that has advice is more than welcome.

[ZX10R NIN]

Hi Rob here are a couple of options why not get a brand new car & lease it something like a Clio will be a good bet.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

http://eu.hlserve.com/Delivery/Delivery.aspx?hm_CI...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

[anonymous-user]

Do not get the 1.6 Astra, it's so gutless it's borderline dangerous and is very frustrating to drive.

[kiethton]

If be looking at the skoda octavia also - very cheap to lease them and drive/ride well...should hit the space requirement.

Also if kids are on the horizon how about a nissan quashki (spelling) plentiful, reliable and cheap

[andy118run]

charltjr said:

Do not get the 1.6 Astra, it's so gutless it's borderline dangerous and is very frustrating to drive.

+ 1. If you enjoy driving you will soon become frustrated by the 1.6.

The 1.6 turbo has around 180bhp and may be a bit better but I guess insurance will reflect this.

Most on here will probably argue there are better options than the Astra.

I once had a brand new 12 plate 5 door Astra 1.7CDTI (SE spec I think) as a lease car for a couple of weeks, used it for my 80 mile commute to work each day on the M1/M25. It really wasn't a bad car, being a diesel it had a decent amount of mid-range acceleration. Would not spend my own money on it, but for a sensible first car it would not be the worst option.

[lewisf182]

Went car shopping with my mate other day as hes looking and i suggested we go the seat dealership. After talking with the salesmen it turns out brand new 15 plate ibiza fr's are around £12k! They have a very decent spec too as standard and the 1.2tsi is very nippy and should be very cheap to insure, alternatively you could plump for the 1.4tsi for 140hp but not sure how much that raises the cost.
I thought it was a cracker of a deal for a new car tbh, i guess due to the replacement coming soon?

[ajb85]

BMW 760iL
Jag XJS V12

Something like that. More poke than the Astra.

[maxdb]

It's not always the engine size that affects insurance premiums. My Mazda 3 mps is about £50 cheaper a year to insure than my old 2.0 Alfa 156 TS. I'm not sure why this is the case when the Mazda is newer, more expensive and has around 110bhp or so extra.

For £150 a month I would get a bank loan and get an older car. I would try and think out the box for a car thats cheap to insure. Anything like Bmw, Ford and Vauxhall us usually costs a bit more to insure when compared to other models.

[Rowley92]

Borderline dangerous for a 1.6 astra? Admittedly it will never set the world alight but its not dangerous by any means lol.

[samj2014]

Skodas are always cheap to insure - octavia is a very good car, nice and big, handles well and lots of room, fabia estates are cool too. You might even be able to go for a VRS given how little you can insure them for.