I drive a 1.2 Corsa "Breeze" with quinn direct 3rd party and theft i pay £950 and im 18 This is by myself but when i phoned tesco the lady said "Ok the quote is going to be over £2500 do you want to continue" it was no cheaper than that anywhere else! i was shocked how expensive it had gotten i new for first drivers it was but DAMNNNNNi thought the max would be 1k Try something like a 1.2 corsa, micra, ford like the small fiestas and such go around some car places and write down the number plates if its a really decent car (like mine was) put intrest in with the seller then go home and put them into some companies see what it comes up with Corsa is a very economical car aswell got around 160miles out of £20 which i did'nt think was that bad! (could be wrong) but i know some cars that go hardly anything on £20
I Have a 54 plate 1.2L clio Im 19 and my insurance is £900 full comp with me as the main driver. I must have spent a good few hours arguing in an office to get that deal, be persistent and you should get a good deal.
Not really, I've had a year of pretty trouble free driving. MOT passed first time with no advisories, had a couple of times where it didn't start but I've probably had just as many, or even fewer, issues than I would have had with a 10 year old corsa or the like. Done many mini shows in it up and down the country and driving to Wales soon. I service it myself and do it all myself and have no worries with it. Just ask Cerberus, he's just got himself one too!
Try having a look at something other than a hatchback. Small cars such as Clio's, Saxos and especially Corsa's are often viewed by insurance companies as 'boy racer' cars, and as such the insurance prices are often more expensive than other cars. For instance, a Rover could be much cheaper, fo the fact that very few boy racers drive the things. One other thing to think about is what kind of driving you'll be doing. 1.0L cars can be more expensive on petrol if you're doing alot of motorway driving or rural driving (hills etc.), as the engine struggles along at 70mph or up hills. Small cars are also highly sought after, driving their costs up massively, and many of them have niggling faults that can cost lots to repair. I drove my parents Rover when I was 17, and although it's an uncool car, it was a 2.0L TDi, much quicker than what most were driving, yet being a diesel it was economical too. Insurance wasn't much for me though, as we had farm insurance, and I think my parents only payed £400 extra to have me, my brother and my sister insured on both the Rover and a 2.8L TDi Daihatsu Fourtrack 4x4. This may not be true anymore, but it's worth looking into.
Maybe a bit stupid question, but doesn't the ideal car kinda sorta depend on what you need? Cheap enough to insure and cheap to run are ofcourse two factors, but what do you need the car for, how much do you drive, etc?
Nissan Micra is a fantastic car i have owned 2 you could probably pick up a 10 year old one for anywhere from £800 - £2000 then you will havea car that will last you until you need a bigger one
I had a Micra as a courtesy car while mine was in for some work, I bloody hated it I thought is was a real POS couldn't wait to get rid of it.
true, but he has said the over riding factor is insurace and cost and the cheapest cars to insure and run are generally small hatches
Yeah, but Quinn are shysters and a ****ing dodgy operator who I wouldn't trust with a single penny. They'll find a loophole to avoid paying up unless it's an obvious case where there's no way they can ******** out of paying. I got my insurance in January, same time as I got my car. My 18th was in April. I was hoping to get a Volvo 340 1.7, for £300, but apparently it's 'unreliable' even though it's a Volvo. And it's a carb'd engine, so if it goes wrong it's about 5 minutes to fix with a hammer.
BS, the 340 1.7 is pretty dam reliable unless its a variomatic. The 1.7 is a Renault block which isn't the best power wise, but virtually the same as my 1.8 fitted in my 440 except mine is injection. My rad blew out, dumping all the coolant whilst doing 80mph on the motorway. Something like a bolt on the motorway hit and blew a hole in it. Anyway the engine got mentally hot but no damage at all, and has cranked on another 40K miles.
+1 My old Volvo 480es could do 140mph all day long and was great fun to drive, Never let me down. Insurance was dirt cheap too.
Must admit I think that insurance for young drivers is crazy at the moment. If I was that age now I doubt that I would have a car. Have you thought about other older cars that should still be cheap to insure. The small cars such as Fiat Uno and Seciento, Rover Metro, Citreon AX, etc. Obviously they aren't the best cars in the world!
Yeah, I know. My dad wasn't really being sensible there. Luckily, I live near to a Volvo scrapyard, so I can ask them to look out for a reasonable nick Volvo and not have them scrap it, but keep it so I can buy it road-legal off them. I'm looking to a Volvo 240 as a second motor, just so I can put the b230ft engine in it and make it into a project rocket sleeper... but that's an unrelated project thread one day...
If your handy with a spanner, then a mini can be reliable. Even if your not, if you buy a decent one then you shouldn't have any problems. I can see your dads point though. I wanted a mini as my first car, but as after the first one I tried, I had real trouble getting in, I decided to go for something easier to drive for learning/starting out. I got a 1999 Fiesta 1.25, which was an excellent car, it drove really well, better than my 53plate Fiesta IMO. But yes, I've now got a mini now that I'm 20, and I had some money, and insurance has gotten cheaper with 3 years NCB. I can't really comment on reliability yet, as I've not had it long, but it got me home from Lincs to Leicestershire without any problems, so that's got to be a good sign. No matter what car you buy, you could end up with an unreliable one. Just make sure to do some homework and find out the common faults about cars that your interested in and then have a good look over any car. £1000 budget IMO, kind of eliminates a Mini. I think you'd be lucky to find a 'good' Mini for that much. I mean, mine cost me £3k, and I've spent the weekend treating rust, which if I hadn't, then after this winter, it could have been a lot worse. Had to buy new tyres, and will be needing new shocks. All depends on what you want from the car. Sorry for text wall
your best bet is a vauxhall corsa 1.0-1.2L or maybe a Ford Ka 1.0-1.3L the vauxhall corsa is one of the cheapest cars to insure and insurance groupings are not entirely determined by engine size. fiesta may also be worth considering but that is slightly higher on the group than Ka or corsa but a 1.0-1.25L should be nearly as cheap.
Old fords are quite cheap, a 1l fiesta would be around the £1000 mark with a parent on i think, a 1.2 comes in around £4,000 for just me and £2,000 ish i think it was with a parent on it too
Don't think I'd have ever bothered with a car if the insurance was over £1000. I'm only now planning on buying my own car at the age of 25 when I can afford a decent car (gonna get a BMW 320d) with decent insurance cost (gonna cost ~ £730 with no no-clims-bonus). Of course I was lucky that I had access to my parents cars untill this point, but I think I could have done without if necessary. Saving £2000 a year instead of paying insurance quickly adds up, not to mention fuel costs and Road TAX. I personally think insurance rules should change. Every person's insurance should only cover their car, paying out wheather it was their fault or not (with only the person at faults insurance premium rising in an accident). This would mean that maximum payouts would be the worth of the car, and of course personal injury claims. At the moment everyones insurance premiums are going up to cover accidents involving expensive cars, and that's unfair imo. I know young driver are more likely to have accidents, but paying 2-3 times the car's cost is rediculous, surely it would be safter if more money was spent on newer cars with better brakes etc. than shelling out thousands for insurance for a £100 clapped out banger!
3rd party insurance should be covered by road tax, really, I think that's the system in Australia. Anything else would require a private policy that would add on to your tax-based insurance.
There's a little insurance twist - landrover defenders are in low groups. The best insurance deal I got on my Defender was £550, age 20, 2yr NCB. Before that it was £800, age 19, 1yr NCB. In comparison, my corsa was £1200, age 18, 0yr NCB. Both have their pros + cons to drive of course. PS I live in the countryside...with city postcode it was like +£200.
I don't get why anyone would want to pay as much for insurance, as what the car is worth And to pay more for insurance, than what the car is worth, is mind boggling When buying a cheap car, i'd say it's obviously a good idea, to just get third party fire & theft cover. If you write off your car, buy another cheap one, salvage any worthwhile spares from the old one, and sell or dump it off at a wrecker, or scrap metal, or a tip. So in this worst case scenario, you're out of pocket just as much or less, than if you had gone for full comp. The other factor, is that when you replace or repair your car with the money saved on insurance, you aren't negatively affecting your insurance history, or future insurance premiums or claim costs. If you aren't the world's worst driver, and you don't write off your car every year, or if you aren't the unluckiest person in the world to have a tree fall on your car every year while it's parked, then instead of breaking even or better, you'll save hundreds of pounds a year.
