first time car advice

ArsenalFC

A nissan micra or the fiesta 1.25 is a good choice.

You will not get abs with a budget of £1000 for a small car.

Mookfish

You are a new driver, so before discounting larger cars due to insurance costs get some quotes, I found the difference to be negligable. After one year of driving I had to get a new car 2 weeks before my insurance renewal, so got quotes for both my old car and the new one. turns out a larger faster car only cost £50 more than the old one, (ie £750 instead of £700) although other insureres were a bit ridiculouse (old car £900, new car £1450) so shop around for insurance prices before you decide what you can afford to insure.

ericthekidstoner

checkout the 4car website. for each category (family, supermini etc.) they have a budget recommendation.

http://www.channel4.com/4car/best-in-class/used/index.html

Best Used In Class: Superminis
1. Fiat Panda
2. Toyota Yaris
3. Honda Jazz
Banger Option: Nissan Micra

millwalll

i do plan to shop around for my insurance i plan to do everythink i can to get it as cheep as possible by using martins insurance trick and also doing that plus course for motoways also i used to drive a motobike in london for 4 years without a crash dont know if that help but goona try get it down my mates insurance was only 400 full com what i think is really good

AirportParkingHenry

Just thought I'd put this idea, out there.
What we've done for years is buy ex-police cars from car auctions.
We've being do this 20 odd years now, and they've been fine.
They do tend to have high milages, but they seem to be well maintained.
The ex patrol cars are a bit rougher, but my current one was used to take people to court, so is completely normal.
I normally go to the auction with a mate who's a mechanic, just to give them the once over.
If your not really fussy about what you drive, you can end up with a good car at a good price.
The best deal we had was quite a few years ago, but we got a cavailer for £2200. I wrote it off 5 years later, (was car number 9 out of 10 in a motorway pile up) and got £2000 back from the insurance company.

Just an idea, although auctions might be a bit to risky for a first timer.

H

xxMandyxx

i have an L reg nissan micra, which as my first car has been great, the low insurance is a real bonus. (im 21 - insurance was around £600 in first year but dropped to £304 after building up one years no claims)

I dont have power steering but i dont miss it as the steerings light anyway.
So i would recommend buying an old car to begin with, although the luxury of a new car would be nice i must admit lol!

ericthekidstoner

£600 to £304 is pretty good!

the micra is good a first car