Good 1st car?

tomstickland

https://www.migweb.co.uk/forums for loads of Vauxhall info.
In 1996 I bought an A reg 1.1 Escort for £300 and ran that for 2 years, then I bought an F reg Astra 1.3 and ran than for 2 years. Both were cheap cars that did what they needed to do. The Astra was streets ahead of the Ford in terms of reliability, comfort and performance. Then I bought an H reg Astra GTE 2.0 8v which was a whole new world of fun at the time.

sxi-kenny

id agree that vauxhalls are way ahead of fords, im biased tho !!

astra gte is a great car, really fun to drive

so is the mk4 gsi

tomstickland

I went a bid mad with mine. Ended up with roll cage, no interior, seam welded, twin 40s, the list goes on. Was fun. BUT, my totally standard E30 BMW (old shape 1990) is just as much fun to drive. Vauxhall-Ford hmm, Ford probably make better cars nowadays, though the Vauxhall engines are better, apart from the mid 90s when they cut costs too far. I wouldn't buy a new Vauxhall ever. If VX220s ever drop down below £8K then I could be tempted.

Dodgybloke

Also try www.autotrader.co.uk.. They'll have reviews and can point you in the direction of the best bargains.

Also, try whatcar and jamjar. Search via google.

Aletank

Ford Ka is a excellent first car , I'd personally go for a second hand one, check out the Autotrader web site https://www.autotrader.co.uk
If you are after a new one go to a car supermarket, here's a couple of sites from the main ones, they do nearly new too, so well worth checkin them out anyway - Always a great price!!
https://www.trade-sales.co.uk
https://www.motorpoint.co.uk
https://www.fow.co.uk

jjames_3

sxi-kenny wrote:

id agree that vauxhalls are way ahead of fords, im biased tho !!

astra gte is a great car, really fun to drive

so is the mk4 gsi

I think they probably used to be. Not any more though, the newer Focusses are streets ahead of the Astra. Same goes for Fiesta and Mondeo vs Corsa and Vectra.

Don't buy a Saxo or 106, if you have a crash they'll be scraping you off the road -- safety not good.

gizmoleeds

jjames wrote:

Don't buy a Saxo or 106, if you have a crash they'll be scraping you off the road -- safety not good.

And French cars are famously unreliable. Japanese cars rule on Customer Satisfaction.

jjames_3

Can't argue there gizmoleeds.

As for the Ford Ka, good 1st car/runabout BUT there are things to be aware of. Firstly these cars are prone to severe rotting around the sills and other structural areas, if buying a second-hand one get it checked very carefully. Secondly I wouldn't recommend a pre-02 example, the old pushrod engine was the last of the old-school Ford engines which were of another age; basically robust but prone to tappet noise, spark-plugs rusting into the head (an expensive job to fix), oil-burning and a whole load of other problems typical for an almost 50-year-old engine design. The newer ones are a lot better in this regard, although I do wish they'd put the 1.25 Zetec engine in them.

But, at the end of the day, for mechanical durability no-one beats the Japanese.