First car...

[Xander]

As you may have seen i made a post about the Theory and Hazard perception. Well i passed them now.

34/35 on my theory
54/75 on my hazard perception.

I have my practical booked for the 18th of this month and am looking at cars. I made a joke to my mum earlier about buying me a Smart Roadster Coupe Targa and she just laughed. Well later on she watched top gear and it was mentioned it would be a good car to start with due to its engine size, 700cc.

Just wanted some opinions on this i know SkyLine is quite good with cars.

Heres what im looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Smart-Roadste...ryZ18276QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for any input.

 

[kud125]

6 grand on a first car?

must be crazy..seriously i'd say about 85% of first cars, either get banged, in accidents, or damaged, you don't wanna be spending mega bucks on a first car, i would spend 3-4k max.

it is a very nice car, but i don't thinkt it would be very suitable to learn the ways of the road in it.

 

[Skyline]

Personally...

Buy a cheap, old car.

Even with that been a 700cc engine, you are still going to get robbed with insurance, and as a first car, you would beb etter having 3rd party F&T insurance. With a chea car you can afford to risk 3rdp arty F&T, but with a £6k car, you cant afford that risk.

Go for a clio or something!

 

[¤]´)÷¤--§îr Äürøñ--¤÷(`[¤]

Unless you live in a place where the roads are perfect, the climate is static, and there are no old people - you WILL write off your first car.

It's practically written in stone (This time, just below "It takes a big dog to weigh a ton").

Go spend a few hundred on a worn old Mini Cooper, spend a few more hundred bringing it up to spec, and enjoy a decent, respectable car.

--

Don't forget the other golden rule. Convertables WILL, and I must stress WILL, at some point, leak.

 

[Elijah]

As you may have seen i made a post about the Theory and Hazard perception. Well i passed them now.

34/35 on my theory
54/75 on my hazard perception.

I have my practical booked for the 18th of this month and am looking at cars. I made a joke to my mum earlier about buying me a Smart Roadster Coupe Targa and she just laughed. Well later on she watched top gear and it was mentioned it would be a good car to start with due to its engine size, 700cc.

Just wanted some opinions on this i know SkyLine is quite good with cars.

Heres what im looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Smart-Roadste...ryZ18276QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for any input.

They look nice and speedy little cars, but as stated befor, the insurance will still be a killer even at the size of the engine.

What im going to do is spend a fair decent amount on a car because i don't want to drive around in some bangy little thing, but not £6,000.

/Ash

 

[chimera]

My first car was MK2 Escort w reg....no the old w lol
Cost £900 and cost me about half that keep it on the road for 2 years. I then switched to brand new cars because of reliability and insurance was free for a year, by which time I had a lot of no-claims discount

My advice, go low insurance bracket for first car and don't buy anything you are going to really get upset over when it gets dented or scratched while driving or parked...IT WILL HAPPEN.

I wrote off my MK2 because a motorcycle came barrelling around a bend on the wrong side of the road, so I swerved my car into a lampost which bent the chasis. No I wasn't speeding it was a 60mph country road. Point is you can drive as safe as you like but there are always some idiots on the road that are going to help you crash. I've also had some blind twit pull out of a junction into the side of my car, a 7.5 ton lorry drive into the back of my car at a give way and someone in a big posh Merc drive into the side of my car while it was parked at B&Q....I was just walking back to the car after doing my shopping and saw it. That is over 21 years of driving though

 

[idaBigA]

A 'W' Reg.. Show off :P

My first car was a Mark II Escort 'T' Reg.. (£300) I had it for 3 months and hit 14 different objects (5 cars and the last 2 intentionally lol). Then came a Mark III Escort 'W' Reg - Same story.. lots of bashing it around, respraying it, taking bumbers off etc ... Capri, Escort Mk 4, Mini, Renault 18 (2 of em), Metro (2 of em), Renault 21, Sierra Estate, Sierra Cosworth, Supra N/A, Supra Turbo, Celica, MR2, Shogun, Voyager, KA, 2 Toyota Master Ace's, Nova, Panda (yeah really.. a Panda), Uno, Punto, Sierra 1.8 Hatch, Citroen 1.9 GTI, Pug 205, Pug 309, Rover 216, Rover 600, Laguna, Granada, Senator, Astra, Cavalier, Carlton, Orion.. Can't remember any more.. but there have been quite a few I have missed lol.

My point being.. buy cheap.. DEAD Cheap..

P.S. I have spent around £63000 on cars in the last 17 Years.. But hell it was fun, never got bored.. and if I did, I sold it (or scrapped it in most cases) and bought another that I thrashed the hell out of.

 

[Colonel]

ok firstly its 6grand starting bid and likely to go atleast a few hundred more, insurance companys dnt only judge the engine size and id advise you to insurance quotes on any car b4 u buy.

tbh id type in modified or something along them lines and find something with a buy it now price and maybe something you can view b4 u buy. personally id buy something atleast 1 litre to a 1.5, and id go for something japanese or german bcoz their just bombproof.

 

[Robert]

Unless you live in a place where the roads are perfect, the climate is static, and there are no old people - you WILL write off your first car.

It's practically written in stone (This time, just below "It takes a big dog to weigh a ton").

Go spend a few hundred on a worn old Mini Cooper, spend a few more hundred bringing it up to spec, and enjoy a decent, respectable car.

--

Don't forget the other golden rule. Convertables WILL, and I must stress WILL, at some point, leak.

The thing is decent condition minis are hard to come by, and if you get an old one with damage/rust (as most old minis are prone to) you will find yourself forking out quite a bit.

Also as of 2000 when the last mini was produced parts became rarer and thus forth more expensive. Obviously problems are simple to fix as theres not a lot to the car but again parts can be a problem.

Bringing up to spec again can be dodgy, it depends if its carb or not. Carbs are hard and crap to tune and when its tuned it limits its potential to be super charged. A supercharger will cost about £2000 but 0-60 in 7 seconds is a reward :P.

PLUS its a cooper they are more expensive just for the name.

Yes i know a bit about minis i just went to Hop Farm mini show best weekend of my life .

 

[Floyd]

Go spend a few hundred on a worn old Mini Cooper, spend a few more hundred bringing it up to spec, and enjoy a decent, respectable car.
.

this made me laff lol,

1st, coopers r quite hard to insure cos of the branding

2nd, a few hundred quid would get u something that resembles that dodgy cheese then a car.

3rd, i think if he was to buy 1, he would end up keeping it/ buying others all the time lol, got me hooked.

 

[Skyline]

Step brother is 22, hes had around 24 cars.

All cheapish cars, but nice.

Like 3 Fiesta XR2's, mint condition.
Escort XR2 (Currently has, mind condition, soft top, about H reg with only 44k miles)
Couple of Golf GTI Mk1 and Mk2
Pug 106 GTI
Astras
Tigra
Smart Cars

Buys them, plays with them, and some how manages to sell them on for more than he bought them for!!

 

[¤]´)÷¤--§îr Äürøñ--¤÷(`[¤]

this made me laff lol,

1st, coopers r quite hard to insure cos of the branding

2nd, a few hundred quid would get u something that resembles that dodgy cheese then a car.

3rd, i think if he was to buy 1, he would end up keeping it/ buying others all the time lol, got me hooked.

1 & 2 - Tell that to my lovely little project sat in my garage

3 - Only a petrolhead does that :P

Hopefully Xander has better things to spend monies on :P

 

[Floyd]

1 & 2 - Tell that to my lovely little project sat in my garage

3 - Only a petrolhead does that :P

Hopefully Xander has better things to spend monies on :P

pics, spec, plans etc.

Yes i Hijack'd

 

[Xander]

Ah yes just got a quote for the car shown: £2,811.17

Thought it would be alot cheaper than this -.-

Well back of into the books to find a nice little car, i would love a mini but as said by someone i just really want to get something i can buy and run straight away. I do not know much about cars etc. so buying one to repair would be hell for me.

Any suggestions on cars would be great, i looked at a 206 1.6 and that came in at £1,400.

 

[Skyline]

1,400, that fully compe or 3rd F&T? Not abad price to say the least.

Look at clios, there not bad little cars for a little run around.

i miss mine

 

[Floyd]

try a mk3 polo.

 

[Skyline]

Polo's
Golfs
Toyota Yaris
Fiesta?
Focus
Seat Ibiza

If your happy to spend around £6k on a Smart, then some of the above may be ok for you.

 

[lifco]

if you want cheap ins they is a way around this

you need to find a mate etc with a crap car (sorry m8) something very low cc like a 1000 if the worse come to the worst you could buy a crap car (i would do this its best to find one)

and all you need to do is get that car full comp that lets you drive any car third party fire theft all you need to do now is when you buy the car you want get the owner to put 12months tax on the car

why ?

coz you need ins of that car and yours only lets you drive it...

this means you have the car nps at all for 12months

its just a loop hole we all use

lif

 

[Skyline]

I dont see how it would work, using your mate.

YOU still need to be insured fully comp on one car, whilst the other can be insured 3rd party.

So

You buy a ****ty little fiat panda with a 900cc engine. You insure on this fully comp at lets say... £1000 a year

You then buy your own car... you still need to insure this 3rd party, at what... £1400 a year.

Explain more please?

Because if your fully comp, and allowed to drive others cars 3rd party, you need the owners permission, and that car still needs insurance by someone else.

 

[Floyd]

wat he is saying is of ur fully comp on 1 policy u can drive as a 3rd party driver on another.

i kno some insurance companies do this, but not all + there is usualy an age limmit like 25+ on it 2, so id be weary.