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What car do you suggest I get? needs to be able to carry a bike easily in the back. preferably :[list=1]3 doors
Cheap to insure so low insurance group
Cheap to run and reliable
Not be rediculsy slow for getting onto the motor way as most of my driving will probably be this sort
Cost around £3k
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I have been looking at:
1.2/1.4 Renault Clio 2002>
1.2/1.4 Ford Fiesta 2003>
1.4 Volkswagen Polo
Citroen C2 but it seems to small for a bike
I would think that at the grand old age of 18 the cost of insurance will dictate what you choose.
Yep thats why the above cars are no higher than group 4. Insurance I expect to cost about £2000 😥
Ford Ka
I bought one for my lad but he paid the insurance £1200 fully comp
1.0 Yaris? Economical, fairly cheap to insure, and not too bad for fitting bikes in (if a japanese built one the rear seats come out in about 5 minutes with 4 bolts :))
how about the previous shape Suzuki Swift? 3 door hatch? I've hung 3 bikes off a rack on one of them before....
Can fit 2 in the back of it too. Great fun to drive, cheap as hell to run, servicing is easy and cheap etc etc etc
Nissan Almera; lasts for ever, cheap to run and insure, fits stuff in, is 'cool'!
got a 05 plate clio 1.4 dci 80bhp (100bhp/ton)
pretty quick, well cheap to run. 70mpg/ £35 year tax. cheapish insurance. bike goes in the back with 2 wheels off.
You can get a bike in the back of a C2, but the insurance won't be cheap!! just have to check which seats the C2 has as they have different types, mine has the adjustable back/forwards so they can be push down and forward to allow the bike in. Wheels off though!
I tend to use roof bars instead now as more practical.
insurance groups aren't you're best guide, my group 7 nissan bluebird was cheaper to insure than my mates group 2 fiesta at 18.
look for undesirable, dull, not driven by every other 18 year old - so Jap hatchback for people who wear beige
others found pug 306's cheaper to insure than the smaller pugs
http://www.thatcham.org/abigrouprating/
aim for anything between 1-3 in groups.
Fiat punto recommended here! (2002 onwards)
Agree with timber.
I had an 'E' plate 1.0 Polo estate that would happily sit at 70 on the motorway all day long. Simple straight forward mechanics although nout needed doing to it in the 14-months I had it - nor for the next owner (I sold it to a friend).
Banger with Third Party Fire and Theft insurance is the young persons friend.
I agree 100% with Alwyn, Nissan Almera. Bigger in capacity than the cars mentioned but you'll not regret it and it should be among the cheaper to insure. It's a supremely reliable machine, nippy and capable, plus engines are less stressed on the motorways than ka-sized cars.
I would basically drive a shed for the 1st year just to get that years NCB under your belt. I am in the same position as you, albeit 30, but going for a 2001 Fiesta with the older Endura-E engine over the newer Zetecs saved me a couple of hundred quid.
...but then saying that the poorer mpg will probably balance that out 😉
....incidentally a dialled alpine with wheels off fits easily in the back with the rears seats folded.
I had one of these on holiday. I don't see whats wrong with them.
Just an example:
The problem with Polo's and Yaris's is they are over-inflated on price due to their popularity. Get something not as popular IMO.
[u]Avoid the Ford Ka.[/u] Fantastic little car ruined by Ford making them with shite rust protection on the steel. Various rust problems but one terminal one that comes through after a few years is rust developing in the sills (MOT failure).
Pity. I almost bloody bought one as a run around 🙁
My advice as for anyone starting out in motoring is to consider the car as a package - the cost of the car is what you have to spend to buy it and insure it. It's very easy to get a few ballpark figures with confused.com for a range of 10 or 20 cars. Some of the stuff is bizarre - 106s tend to be cheaper to insure than mechanically identical Saxos. Same goes for ZX / Xsara against 306s. A larger car that's faster and will do more damage in an accident is often cheaper to insure than a small group 1 car.
The other thing to remember is that insurance groups are based on how expensive that car is to repair. But your TPFT insurance is based on the damage you're likely to do to other people's vehicles. The result is that insurance groups have almost no bearing on the premium (unless you're fully comp, and even then it's not massive), but the likelihood of that car being driven by a div has a huge bearing on the premium.
I dont want a Ka just a bit too girly for me 😉 As for the rust my mate has just had to weld his girlfriends Ka up as the rust had got to that and failed its MOT
Add bottom end Saxo or Pug 106 to the list, can fit 1 or 2 bikes in those with rear seats folded. Will have been soundly thrashed by previous teenage owners though. No better or worse than your other choices, but insurance may be the issue, chavs still seem drawn to saxo/106 for some reasons
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I'd get a Fiesta - they handle really well and are cheap to run. The 1.25 litre (I think) zetec is the one to have.
+1 for the Fiesta. I struggled to find a decent first car for my ex GF. The fiesta drove nicely, (better than any of the half dozen or so driving school cars I had been in) was much better spec'ed and put together than the Ka. This was a '99 1.25
Seat Ibiza TDI is my favorite 'small' car though