Motors Spec me a car for under £600

Im looking to buy a bargain motor for my girlfriend, she like the look of Rover 200's, fiestas and puntos so the theme would seem to be a small hatchback

Im buying the car as an xmas present and its a suprise

Has to be cheap to insure as she is still a learner not far from her test and has to be cheap to run. Petrol preferably but a diesel would be ok as long as its not a right old bone shaker of a diesel.


Any recomendatons, things to look out for ?

Thanks
Rich T

 

You can get a nice 205 for less than that

 

205 XS as it will be fun for you when you want to drive it as well!

For best insurance / economy, go for a 106 1.5 diesel.

 

Just try ebay or autotrader, but search for things within a small radius of where you live so you can go round and take a look. I run a 12 year old Clio 1.2 and it's pretty economical and great for a first car. My insurance dropped 50% this year on it.

 

I've got a Punto 1.2 S60, and it is honestly one of the best cars my family have ever had. Well worth a look if you find a good one for that money. As long as it's got a good service history, it should be pretty reasonable too, the reliability horror stories aren't all true.

 

I forgot to mention it absoloutely must have power steering for my girlfriend because shes a petite little thing and would struggle without it. Also I would rather it had an airbag which im not sure a 205 would have ?

Thaks for the suggestion

 

try a rover 211 you cant get much cheaper to run, it wont be quick like but as a first car it'll do. youll get an airbag and power steering too. plus its a bit bigger than most for the money

 

Man you guys are lucky you can drive dinky little cars that may not even require power steering we call that suicide here...50-60mph on a city streets. And cars start at 2900$ US for well worn cars.

 

why not get a micra? i'm sure you can get one with p/s and an airbag for that money. same goes for 106's.

OR if she doesn't mind something a little bigger, you could look at an Escort, or even a Cavalier - great cars and very well equipped, insurance is supposedly cheap-ish. If I was buying a car for my girlfriend I'd rather she had something that kind of size as her first car, it's a lot safer.

hydro_electric: p/s isn't needed when you're doing 50-60mph, it's when parking that it becomes a pain not having it (my little 205 doesn't have it and it's very strange going from a car with it to a car without...still at least it's excercise )

 

We have this one on our ebay watch list and is currently the idela car for her for just those reasons mentioned above:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1999-ROVER-211I-BLUE-ONE-LADY-OWNER-LOW-MILLAGE-38-000_W0QQitemZ330059254953QQihZ014QQcategoryZ18262QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Micra is a defiate no no.... we dont want a tiny car, we want something fiesta sized at minimum

 

Eh? Micra's and Fiesta's are practically the same size.

 

Not the ones ive been in lol
The fiesta is bigger and not to mention more comfortable

 

ARGH those efing "Bidder #" piss me off no end. They just jack up the price and run a script to bid at the very last second to get the best deals. That's why ebay is a POS

 

actually what is that? ive never seen it before. every bid is just bidder# and when you click on them theres no feedback info..

 

Dunno then if there's no feedback info, but there's about 30 of them and they can't be up to any good

 

My dad's a mechanic (for the last 25-30 years) and rates Micra's (and Nissan in general) very highly, fwiw.

 

I think all of the ebay motors auctions disguise the bidders username, nothing dodgy there

 

It's totally legit, ebay have changed the way it displays bidders.
I noticed it last week some time.

 

How about a Mk2 Golf Driver? You should be able to get a very decent condition example for that sort of money.

 

I don't think you're going to be able to get better than a Micra. It may be dull, but it'll be cheap (to buy, to run and to insure) and it'll last forever. I've driven plenty of Micras, and they may not be fast, but they do the job well.

You could get a larger, older car, but it'll be much more costly to insure (and to run).

Not much in different in size to a Fiesta either, depending on which version of each car you're comparing.