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Son passed his driving test on Friday which is wonderful but understandably he’s desperate to have his own car.
Ideally I’m looking for a 1.2 vw polo but willing to consider anything half decent for under £1.5k (I know that’s probably a big ask!)
Trying to negotiate the nightmare of Facebook which just appears to be full of either idiots, non responders, rip off merchants, car thieves is driving me mad!
Anyone have any suggestions of where else I can try (or ideally even know something suitable…preferably in midlands!) then welcome any advice.
I used to check gumtree regular (every few hours) also keep mind open regards car (didn't fancy a clio but ended up with one, better a decent clio than a crap polo) buy on condition and don't travel too far, also if you know what to look for I would be buying private at that price. Most small cars are much of a muchness regards price for parts and reliability.
For that budget look at less desirable brands e.g. Hyundai i20. Used car market is a completely different place than 4 years ago, and 1.5k won’t go far.
If he’s mature enough to be the owner of a car, he’s mature enough to do the hard work! By all means support him to make sure he doesn’t get scammed, and I guess find it if you wish, but they need to understand that buying, taxing, insuring, repairing etc cars is time consuming….
When my son passed a 1.4 Golf was cheaper to insure than a polo. Most smaller cars seemed to be more expensive than the medium sized ones.
Ideally I’m looking for a 1.2 vw polo but willing to consider anything half decent for under £1.5k (I know that’s probably a big ask!)
As others are saying, look to other things, less desirable, perhaps go more on what comes up locally and consider.
We've an 2012 1.4 16v Ibiza Estate on 120k miles. It's got no turbo, no DMF or any trait faffy things to go wrong. It's so far had standard servicing and a couple of wear and tear items (new springs and shocks, a new alternator). That's it.
It's a great wee thing to drive and it's valued around £1-1.5k.
But - we've had it since 2015/25k, we've looked after it, my wife needs a reliable car and so we stay on top of things it needs on servicing. I can't say that's how many people approach a cheap car...
just bought (6w ago) a Citroen C1 for my learner son - needed one as my car's a big one and wife's is a lease / no under 25's so something for him to learn in.
I bought private and budgeted the surplus for mechanical fixes, wasn't tied to a C1 but the 107/C1/Aygo was a definite option for searches, as was Mitsu Colt - mainly because they are all small chain cam engines so as long as oil and filters is done, less likely to have broken cambelt of death failure.
There was plenty sub £1500, but agree lots of non-responders, old adverts, etc. Needed to log on regularly and look (the car in the end came from FB) and jump on them quick as they appeared. And not be overly fussed on colour, etc., although we ended up with black anyway.
Honda jazz near Blackburn for 1k.
Sold a 1.2 polo 07plate on Gummers for 2.5k, last year, guy didn't try to haggle as there was a queue behind him. I was shocked but the market was daft and probably still is
We bought a 60 plate Aygo a couple of years ago. Its been ok but has needed jobs to get it spot on. Totally crusty exhaust incl cat, new discs and pads, airbag controller fault, sealed rear hatch, lights etc (car bone dry), new battery and alternator, 4 new tyres, one coil pack, aux drive belt.
All pretty cheap to buy parts and easy to work on. Son tends to drive it most as his car is now a 'track car' and thirsty.
Previous owner just drove it, hence the maintenace over the last two years. Daughter has now passed so will be using it a bit too.
Double check insurance as well.
Yep having a number of 17-21 year old children and nephews, polos seem expensive to insure. Son got a 1.4 civic which was cheap to insure, as are Puntos I believe.
When we were in the same position we bagged a 2002 Polo with a genuine 32k miles from eBay and paid £1500. We did do some minor cosmetic repair work to it.
..... insurance was £1800....!!!
65 plate aygo here, only had routine services and no advisory mots, tax free. Looking on AutoTrader the market knows this, going for c5k for hi miles to 8k low. Picantos of similar age are cheaper, c4k. If I were buying I d stretch the budget if poss and get a later one.
Looking out on roads loads of older aygos, yaris, picantos about. Aygo has loads of interior space, nippy round town.
I'm trawling the sites for a run around in the £3-£5k bracket. Facebook market place just doesn't seem usable. Sellers with 30+ cars all with the same description... what's the scam?... mugging when you turn up to view in the hope you've brought cash? have to send money before viewing?
You can save a lot of hassle by getting him to buy his own car (or at least find it if you want to give him it as a present).
Check Autotrader. Tick "Private sales only". It's the first port of call for many people when selling a car.
Nice people sell nice cars!
Selling a car may be the last thing on peoples' minds at Christmas time, but so is buying one. There are bargains to be had.
4/5 door cars seem to be cheaper to insure than 3 door cars.
….. insurance was
£1800….nothing to do with the value of the car
£1500 is an ask and you'll be in an older-shaped car with fewer features
The problem is that pre-2011 you might be short of some safety systems like ESC
We managed; my first car was without ABS and had drums all-round with asbestos linings 🙂
Ask at local indy servicing garages, someone will know of something
Insurance for learners/passers seems to NOT be massively related to the car/engine/power we’ve found…
My 17 year old ‘step daughter’ is quoted £3k for a 1.6L petrol beetle convertible…
a mate said a smaller car would be cheaper… i played about with insuring a 900cc aged micro.. still £2.8k!!!
DrP
A £1500 1.2 Polo will have one of the worst engines ever produced. They are hateful and will have worse oil consumption than petrol (someone will be along to say theirs was great, but why roll the dice when almost anything is less risk).
C1/107/Aygo are good tough cars, but suffer from a lack of maintenance. ideally buy something from someone older. Young drivers do not treat cars well. A Honda Jazz is a great option, but not cool.
Need to look outside of the box as the saying goes. Been a few years now but it was cheaper for my son to own/insure a VW Jetta 1.3 as opposed to a Polo 1.1 When daughter started to look at cars a Kia Pride was the best / cheapest insurance available(20+yrs ago now). All depends on where you live/postcode etc...
Insurance for learners/passers seems to NOT be massively related to the car/engine/power we’ve found…
More related to the cost of life changing injuries
Similar situation here, we ended up with a 2010 Honda Jazz at 95K miles. It’s OK, few issues, but not bad (fingers crossed!). Also had to do full exhaust and cat, that was not cheap! I absolutely love the thing, so well designed. Back seat folding is a thing of genius.
Not sure how useful it is or much it can really tell you, but the MOT history checker thing seemed a good way to get a feel for a cars history, and i did use the AA car history investigation too. Facebook marketplaces seemed to have the biggest selection and overlapped with Autotrader, and I think we have done OK (again, fingers crossed). Was 2.4K though, not 1.5K.
Insurance was comically erratic in pricing, small things made a huge swinging differences in price. In the end, adding it to our LV policy was by far the cheapest, only 700quid, which was a surprise. Investigating just about any other vehicle with meerkats, or even marmalade with black box, was all about 3K. Mental.
Aygo- saw someone crash on black ice at 70 in one of these.
They got out without a scratch.
They had spun into the barriers at 70 spun accross two lanes shedding bumper bits and slammed into the banking on the othe side.
I stopped expecting them to be dead/ screaming in agony. She got out her car on the phone to her dad
Very impressive!
Can you go to an auction and get one from there?
A £1500 1.2 Polo will have one of the worst engines ever produced. They are hateful and will have worse oil consumption than petrol (someone will be along to say theirs was great, but why roll the dice when almost anything is less risk).
That 1.2 is terrible but the 1.4 golf suggested above is equally as terrible. Infact the small engines vw from the era that are 1500 uid are some of the worse engines out there.
+1 for aygo and their brethren are impressive for cost/size/insurance costs . I've a 108 and for what I've paid I've been more than happy with it for what it is. Only 4 seats too so kids can't haul too many people.
My 1.4 Golf from 2007 is a great car, nearly 120k and has cost next to nothing to run .
For that budget look at less desirable brands e.g. Hyundai i20. Used car market is a completely different place than 4 years ago, and 1.5k won’t go far.
The used car market is a completely different place than 4 MONTHS ago.
The covid supply chain issue and demand for extra cars has passed, and people either don't have the money or are tightening their belts a bit in anticipation of mortgages going up.
We went to look at one the on Saturday, checked online and it had been at the dealer 250+ days and was reduced from ~£18k to £12k. And I wouldn't have said ~£18k was unrealistic 6 months ago (Transit 350, only done 40,000 miles).
Same with small/cheap cars. Last year WBAC was offering me more than I paid for my Berlingo, it's since been scrapped but the WBAC valuation had dropped back to the usual £50.
Can you go to an auction and get one from there?
Not usually anymore, BCA only allow businesses to bid.
I’m trawling the sites for a run around in the £3-£5k bracket. Facebook market place just doesn’t seem usable. Sellers with 30+ cars all with the same description… what’s the scam?… mugging when you turn up to view in the hope you’ve brought cash? have to send money before viewing?
Money before viewing, they're always too cheap to be true and Facebooks filtering makes it difficult to avoid them, e.g. you go looking for £1500 2006 Golf's, and it shows you a 2012 Golf for the same price, you're probably going to click on it. Usually the response is "I've got 20+ people messaging me, I'm away for a few days, if you send me £££ as a deposit you can come and look at it on Monday".
We went to a small dealer that mainly specialised in small used cars. Had about six Aygos in to look at.
That 1.2 is terrible but the 1.4 golf suggested above is equally as terrible. Infact the small engines vw from the era that are 1500 uid are some of the worse engines out there.
Can we be clear about *which* 1.2 or 1.4 you are speaking about here?
Pre tsi's asfound in majority of cars selling for >1500 quid
Nikasil pistons much.
Have a look at Fiat Panda as well, I looked after my sister in law's 11plate (1xbattery, timing belt, alternator and general servicing).
Was a good little robust car for the 11years she abused drove carefully for including an annual trip to Spain and back on her own.
Tried and tested 1.2 four pot engine has been around forever. Only issue is the sump rusts.
Check Autotrader. Tick “Private sales only”. It’s the first port of call for many people when selling a car.
Nice people sell nice cars!
Selling a car may be the last thing on peoples’ minds at Christmas time, but so is buying one. There are bargains to be had.
+1
And Gumtree is good because you can filter by private + price and see everything in your area in the order it was posted.
Some sneaky traders pretending to be private sellers, but nothing like the scam-fest that is FB Marketplace.
I can't speak to the insurance, but the Fiesta from around 2007 was a great car and there are loads of those in your budget. Corsas are decent enough too. Yaris reputedly very reliable. Definitely check insurance on some less obvious and actively uncool vehicles as Trekster says.
Even at the bottom end of the used car market there's still a bit of an unjustifiable premium on VWs, IME.
Pre tsi’s asfound in majority of cars selling for >1500 quid
Nikasil pistons much.
In English?
Not usually anymore, BCA only allow businesses to bid.
Interesting. I bought a car maybe 10 years ago from BCA as a private individual, and wasn't aware the rules had changed.
To be honest though unless you know fairly well what you're doing (and possibly have the wherewithal to make auction purchases in a portfolio style to distribute the risk of the odd lemon) I'm not sure I'd bother. The people you're bidding against do this day in day out -- it feels like a fair bit of risk for marginal gains to me these days.
The other place to hunt would be in a ULEZ area, do you know anyone in that London?
Work colleague selling an MOT failed 3.2 Porsche Cayenne for £500 (blowing exhaust), would that suit your lad......🤣
It's £700 road tax (yes I know it doesn't exist) which is why I haven't bought it
I’d be looking at a 107 / C1 / Aygo I think. Had one as a hire car for a few months and it was unbelievably cheap to run on petrol.
Not very fast so for a new driver they shouldn’t get into too many issues with it (I was a nightmare driver as a newly qualified lad) .
Not too many electrical systems to go wrong.
Looking on auto trader there at a number of Suzuki Altos around that price - no idea what they’re like but I ran a Suzuki Swift Sport for a couple of years and it was 100% reliable and not a bad little car to drive. Not very refined on the motorway but other than that I enjoyed it.
Just go and look at a few locally and try to get a feel for if they have been cared for / services properly.
VW’s come with the VW tax; a Seat or Skoda don’t, but dig around behind the dash and you’ll find connectors with Audi logos on. A Citigo or Mii would be every bit as good as a VW.
Looking out on roads loads of older aygos, yaris, picantos about. Aygo has loads of interior space, nippy round town.
Absolutely. I’ve driven all of the above, frequently over individual distances far higher than many first-time drivers will be driving, like over 200 miles on motorways, and in a fair degree of comfort for small cars, and I’m the best part of six foot with fairly long arms and legs. Even a Smart fourtwo was perfectly comfortable for well over a hundred miles or so on the M5/M4.
I loved the Aygo, it’s a great looking little car, and the auto is fun in ‘Sport’ mode using the paddles… 😁
Looking on auto trader there at a number of Suzuki Altos around that price – no idea what they’re like but I ran a Suzuki Swift Sport for a couple of years and it was 100% reliable and not a bad little car to drive. Not very refined on the motorway but other than that I enjoyed it.
The Alto is not unlike the little Hyundai and Kia compacts, pretty reliable, and easy to drive. The Ignis is a sort of micro SUV in a way, compact but slightly taller. As far as unrefined on motorways is concerned, 150 miles in a Jimni can get a bit wearing after the first 60 or so miles…
Fiesta from around 2007 was a great car
my neighbour has a 2006 fiesta with 70k, very clean inside, 1.2petrol wants £1200, northants
@alric that would’ve been perfect,,,,, but actually managed to find him a polo now so all sorted.