Quote from pb32000 :

Rubbish. If you don't know what you are talking about, don't make it up. I know plenty of people who had old minis as their first cars, some modified and all correctly insured.

Two good mates of mine have Minis and I have looked into one as a first car so I do have an idea of what I'm talking about. One of my mates found that he couldn't get anybody to insure him on a Mini registered before the cut off for standard insurance companies (normally some date in the '80s), this restricts you to newer cars which are typically in better shape and more desirable than the
rougher older examples. Insuring a Mini is not that cheap either, I know my mate was paying £2000 for an 850 at 17 and was paying the same again when he added a few (non-performance enhancing) modifications to it at 19. My other mate bought a '70s example for £50 has spent over £1000 on parts to do a shell up restoration on it and having realised the issue with insurance he obtained a log book from a newer car so he could get round it (even though he'll now have to pay tax on it) in the end he has decided to put the project on hold because he doesn't want to build a standard 850 and anything else would be too expensive to insure so he has bought an old banger for now.

Insuring a Mini isn't that expensive but you'll need to be looking for a late 850 that is completely standard (relatively few are) and purchase price isn't that cheap either. If someone wants a Mini they'll get a Mini but as a cheap first car a Mini isn't a terribly good option. I wouldn't bother trying to find insurance for a classic at 17, I had no luck trying to find someone who would insure a standard 1959 Morris Minor 1000, a car that is far less likely end up in a ditch than a Mini or most small hatch backs...

Quote from ajp71 :

I had no luck trying to find someone who would insure a standard 1959 Morris Minor 1000, a car that is far less likely end up in a ditch than a Mini or most small hatch backs...

Ha funny you should say that, as I friend of mine had a slightly modified minor as his first car. Absolute awful condition but still fun for sliding around in the wet. He sadly put it head first into a tree, it was either that or an oncoming truck in the middle of the road

He's had other ones since, good laugh.

Agree though, Minis aren't cheap as a first car, but still possible.

Prices you guy are saying I could buy a different car every month. The cheapest car around here, which I'd trust to buy, is a MK3 Fiesta for 250 Euros.

Quote from ajp71 :

ROFL



Ignore the purchase price (Minis aren't that cheap anyway), first cars are bought on insurance, insuring a Mini isn't cheap for a new driver and you will be restricted to the newer ones (and more expensive purchase price) unless you can negotiate a conventional insurance company to ignore its car age cut off or a classic insurer to insure a young driver, both very unlikely to happen.

he lives in the uk if the car is older than about 1968 you do not have to pay road tax

Quote from Alistair :

he lives in the uk if the car is older than about 1968 you do not have to pay road tax

The cut off is 1973. That has very little bearing on suitability as a first car because it only costs £120 to tax a pre-2001 <1549cc car. Like I said though you will not be able to get straight forward insurance for a pre-1973 car as a young driver, to do so you'll have to talk very nicely and are likely to pay considerably more than £120 extra.

well they did make the old style mini till 1999

Question - 1998 Skoda Felicia, good or bad?

That skoda won a JD award for highest satisfaction so I guess it's pretty good. Plus it's a 4 door which I don't know if you care but that is a selling point for me. Tiny engine tho, 1.6L maximum I think.

1.3L is the one I was looking at.

"Tiny" for an American with his V8 but fine for a First Car.

Quote from Jakg :

1.3L is the one I was looking at.

"Tiny" for an American with his V8 but fine for a First Car.

1.3 is enough for your first car.

Since I passed my driving license in September last year, I've been driving a Kia Picanto 1.0. Even though it's quite slow, it's great fun at the same time, you don't need more for your first car.

Any thoughts on getting a diesel?

BTW - Still deciding whether getting a car is worth it...

with diesel a newer car is better, not had time to read all the thread (just passed my test ) but older diesels seem to be somewhat unrefined.

atm a diesel is not really worth it fuel cost wise, i dunno bout insurance but diesels will be in excess of 1.6litre to be anywere near effective tbh, anything smaller is stupid, i would also stay away from the cars that are often done up cos they cost more to insure even if not modded, i know someone who paid less to insure him, at 17, on a 3.5litre v8 range rover than a 1 litre nova, if you do get a cheap car try it on a policy with a fixed value etc, may effect it may not depends ont he insurer.

edit: have a look at a mini, can tremember how tall you are but im nearly 6ft and have driven a mini(private land) was a little uncomfortable but its not hard work to mount the seats further back, i think you v=cna get kits to do it

ATM the cheapest quote of got is £850 on a Skoda whcih i've been using for comparison to find a decent insurer - now I need to try and get better quotes.

tbh people may mock a skoda but because its not a common young driver car the insurance will be alot cheaper

I had an S reg Skoda Felicia 1.9D, it was an OK car, but the engine is real old tech stuff, noisy, slow etc etc.

Build quality wasn't great, and it will be expensive to tax.

On the plus side, you could get away with running it on vegetable oil

I have no intention of buying the thing really, it's just my "benchmark car" to get quotes against...

lol my attitude would be it may be a skoda but atleast i can afford to buy something other than insurance lol, im probably gona have either a land rover or a mini as my first car,

Quote from Jakg :

I have no intention of buying the thing really, it's just my "benchmark car" to get quotes against...

Ahh ok.

TBH, not sure if anyone has suggested it or not, but I would suggest a Fiat Cinqucento (sp).

I had one a while back for just over a year as a "work hack", insurance is silly cheap, cost me £70 a year F/C, cheap to run, plus it was a hoot to drive.

actually dan that is again a good one, older, not really modded by people etc

edit:just had a thought, something like a dahwoo nexia

Pretty sure even the sporting one is group 1 or 2 insurance, you ain't gonna get any lower than that.

Sure they ain't comfy, or cool, but they are really fun to drive, the engine is pretty zingy for what it is, and you can use it to rack up a couple of years NCB.

So it's yellow

lol there is also this to consider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto

(evil grin)

had 2 of these on different holidays, my mum calls them little fart boxes lol

edit2:now this really is an option, but i suggest you get down the gym and do a bit of weight lifting, no pas you see, a real mans car
http://search.autotrader.co.uk ... _pr=1000&max_mileage=

I wonder why people say a diesel isn't cost effective at the gas station. Prices for diesel and petrol are going up pretty equal here, and diesel is still cheaper, and diesel cars have better economy. So even if diesel would be more expensive then petrol, at the pump it'll still be cheaper than a petrol (not keeping in mind a diesel is more expensive to maintain).

Its getting close to the price difference making the savings negelagible here, almost 15p a litre difference now.

The price of diesel is about £0.20 more expensive than petrol here at the moment. Over a tank that definitely will add up. Petrol companies obviously caught on that diesels weren't filling up as much so decided to make it hurt more when they do.

I recently decided against picking up a diesel for two reasons. The first being that I don't think it'd be as useful for the distances I'd be driving. Did I hear something about diesels being less efficient over shorter distances or something? I can't remember.
And of course nitrogen oxide emissions are far more harmful to the world than CO2.

That's not even including the extra cost to buy a diesel in the first place, or the cost to maintain.