For a car that has to be cheap, suggesting a car whereby any example under £800 or so will be complete bollocks, probably isn't too helpful. Not to mention the 1.4 is hugely underpowered in those. Although they feel suprisingly nice with the diesels. They're nice enough cars, but if you try to get one on a budget odds are your going home with a car on its last legs or that needs cash throwing at it. Added to that a 306 1.4 is not cheaper than any number of smaller cars to insure/tax/put fuel in.
My insurance on the 106 1.4 was around £650 TFTP from what I can recall. Thats with mods declared - twin carb setup, new exhaust, enclosed induction etc.
For the sort of money a decent phase 2/3 costs anyway, you can do better. I testdrove a couple before I took a Focus out, and they were just wobbly in comparison, nowhere near as nice to drive. I was going to get one when I decided driving a 106 when your 6ft5 is just uncool, but preferred the feel of the Focus.
Your right though, putting a parent on the insurance helps. Sticking my mother on there brings it down ~£100.
sell it , buy a 1.0 turbo diahatsu charade turbo for 200 quid ( 91-94 )
50 mpg, dirt cheap insurance, they make Toyota's parts so yeah there virtually unbreakable once you do the usual up-keep, even then you'll have to drive it into the ground and burn it before it stops....
Good god the irish noob has sprung back out of nowhere. The only person on my ignor list, yet I still feel compelled to read his posts, purely for comedy value.
I'd probably sell the Proton unless you particularly like it, but I wouldn't try and buy a 15 year old car for £200 and expect 50mpg, dirt cheap insurance as a new driver, or reliability, it's a cheaply built undesirable car and it isn't a Toyota
Is the insurance expensive in the UK? Because i went to silverstone this weekend and on the road CONSTANTLY boy racers with Evo, Scooby's, FTO's, Supra's, Skyline's. It was JDM heaven lol. Or do you need lots of cash to have it insured?
It's very expensive for the first few years, after the age of 25 though it is generally pretty cheap, which is why you'll find most people driving Evos etc in the 25-40 age bracket.
It is, but it also depends where you live. Insurance is pretty ridicoulous in the UK. But it goes sky high if you try to insure a 2dr car. For example, i done a quote on my brothers impreza. It turned out to £4300 a year full comp. Then, i done a quote on a 2003 renault clio 2dr 1.2. £5100!
OT: Nathan just been through your photobucket gallery, those cartoon pics labeled 'My first attempt at tooning' etc, you didn't do those did you :P As I happen to know the guy who did actually do them.
Also the number of doors barely has any bearing on insurance price. If you quotes were from the same company with exactly the same cover then I'd be suprised, but I very much doubt they are.
This is exactly what I'm planning to do. I've been dreaming about those cars for as long as I can remember, and my LFS experience with RWD cars just put more fuel on the fire. (I was hoping LFS would help fight my desire for a car, but it seems to work opposite. ) However I'm only 21, so insurance would be pretty expensive.
In Norway the insurance companies offer either "full coverage" (which covers everything, even if it's obviously your fault) and "partial coverage" (which covers stuff like fires and theft). The latter is of course much cheaper. In my case full coverage would cost about £1900 a year, while partial coverage is about half that. So if I get partial coverage and drive without error for 5-6 years the money I'd have saved would be about the same as the value of the car.. which is pretty silly.
I think it's all about finding the "sweet spot" in terms of car value vs insurance cost. But I think in general you'd be better off the sooner you start paying for your own insurance instead of using your parents' insurance. If you don't, you might be facing some ridiculously expensive insurance once you're 26 or whatever and want to buy a brand new car.
Yer I thought that, but then thought screw it, I'll drive a better, faster car AND save over £1800 a year on insurance. The price drops considerably when you're over 21 regardless of a no claims discount, and I bet the difference in 5 years NCB and 0 isn't more than £1800*4 or 5 years.
Over here the full coverage often only covers car younger than 5 years.
My ex-girlfriend's dad had trouble with this. Iirc, the car was fully covered, they paid for it at least. Then it got stolen, and reading the fine print, it became clear it would only cover cars younger than 5 years. So they got nothing back from it.
I think I'll have to go with a NA too. Probably a 1,6 liter 1991 model. In fact I was thinking that maybe tomorrow after my final exam I'll pop by a car dealer to take one for a spin. (i've seen they have one for sale).
But insurance is not the only thing that costs money.. there's annual services, fuel +++. I think that in total I'd probably be looking at close to £3000 a year, which is a lot for a poor student like me. So for now it's only day dreaming. But when I finally do get a car, whenever that might be, it will be an MX-5.
I don't know where you're getting the quote for the Clio, I checked with confused and got a quote of £1200 for a 2002 2 door Renault Clio Expression 1.2.
A quote of £4000 to ensure a car that may be boring but is still very fast for a driver with almost no experience isn't ridiculous at all. The reason why insurance is so high for young males with little driving experience is they are more likely to be involved in an accident and when they do crash they tend to be caused by hugely excessive speed for the conditions and are more likely to result in massive personal injury claims, which is why insurance companies have to charge so much.
Personally I don't think you should be allowed to drive an M3 or Impreza at 17 regardless of how much money you're Dad's got.
My brother has a 124 spider in black, with beige leather and a white/beige top. It's one of the nicer cars i've seen so far in my life, and really awesome fun to drive... but still a FIAT!
If you can have a Fiat as a second car, which you only use at weekends... nice weather... when you have time... then it's a nice car! However, as a daily driver, stay away from them! It's still a Fiat, and stuff will break eventually (read as: quite frequently).
He's been to italy with that car a few times. Me aswell one time. Usually a way of about 700km one way. And there was not a single time when something didn't break.
Modern Fiats are not better. I had a Punto (2004 IIRC) as a business car, and after 20'000km it was fixed about 3 times already (electricity and engine problems), there was rust, and the left rear door squeeked terribly when opening it. Keep in mind... a new car, with only 20'000km!
Fiats are crap! That's pretty much a fact.
They are fun to drive, but only if they don't break down again.
Sayings like "Fix It Again Tony" are not just jokes when it comes to Fiat.
This is very true, when you get into the bike world you are limited to what you can ride until you're 21, the same system needs to be put in place for cars too, because although cars are safer, the bigger your [dads] wallet size doesn't mean you're any better at driving.
I'd never let any child of mine drive anything with a large engine until they have been driving for a few years, hell even the grease monkey at the Vauxhall garage said he was surprised I had driven a 2 litre four pop Omega in my late teens (about 19) because he though it was it had too much power for me.
I know this post doesn't add anything, but thankyou - Your all really helping.
I'm bumping this purely to increase discussion so that I get a "oh and i'm sure your using the elephant-dinbat-wotsit insurance loophole to get cheap insurance" etc...
Talking of insurance, for every car I've had Quinn Direct have worked out cheapest. Have phoned them a few times to update details, transfer to new car etc, and really can't fault them. Their 3rd party cover gives you the ability to drive other peoples vehicles as well, with permission and such, normally only fully comp gives that option. Maybe I'm just lucky though, last time I phoned them I spent 30 secs updating my policy, and 10 mins talking about what to do on a weeks uni break with the rather nice sounding girl on the other end
One other peice of advice that goes when buying a small car, if it has a big exhaust bolted on the back or has had a cutout in the bumper made for one, avoid it, odds are the engines naff, in my experience. So many cars I've seen locally have been driven by fools who think bouncing off a revlimit with the handbrake on asswiggling around a carpark is cool, have ended up stripping the bits they brought off the car, and sticking it on Ebay "well looked after, used mostly for commuting, a brilliant example". Pfft.
does your future insurance company have any deals to be made? Maybe this doesn't fly over there but I'm 17 I pay $1200 a year for my (red) 1973 camaro with 400 HP. The only reason it is that low is because my grades are good (deal one) and I can only drive it 5,000 miles a year (deal two). Could a UK insurance company give you a discount for grades and limited driving?
Not to brag like Harjun, but my family pays $5,000 a year for all the insurance on all 7 of our cars. Sounds like its time for a revolution against your insurance companies.
P.S. Go for the Ford. It'll be almost like a party when you drive it...it'll be a fiesta.