Recommend a car

Kayl06

Looking to buy a car in March
Got about 4k to spend but ideally less
Something small, but not too small as will be used for work
Will be doing 100+ miles per week
Not yet passed my test (will have when i buy it) so low insurance
Not bothered about petrol or diesel

Don't like fiestas, learning to drive in one and it is useless, parents and brother also had one and both said how useless they are.
Open to other cars though
Thanks

greebowarrior

I've had a 1999 VW Polo for 4 years, nice and reliable, and not made of recycled tin cans like a Ford

Hintza

Fiat Panda

KeithP

greebowarrior wrote: »

I've had a 1999 VW Polo for 4 years, nice and reliable, and not made of recycled tin cans like a Ford

Are you sure about that?

Where do they get their steel from then?

flyingscotno1

Hintza wrote: »

Fiat Panda

Yep, good and cheap to run and insure. Wouldn't be a bad choice.

TR4

No, No, No!

In the trade FIAT stands for:

Fix It Again Tomorrow!

I assume that insurance will be also a major factor, so I would recommend something German (Polo, Lupo, smaller engined Golfs), Japanese - though some are assembled in the UK (Micras in particular are well thought of).

If image is not a problem to you, you could consider Hyundai and Kia, but be warned, some things are cheap for a reason!

My 19 year old and my 17 year old have a 2002 Beetle, and a 2001 Lupo. Both cars stand in the drive all weathers, and always start first time, every time. From a parent's perspective, I like to know that my kids are in well made, well engineered cars, with better than average safety features.

Inactive

Kayl06 wrote: »

Not yet passed my test (will have when i buy it) so low insurance

Whilst I admire your confidence, I would wait until you have passed your test before buying a car.

It will be very frustrating if you buy one and then fail.;)

d77_2

Maybe look at the Seat Ibiza? It's made from volkswagen and audi parts, so is reliable, costs less, and looks pretty good.

Looking at insurance costs first would be the best idea. Also, unless the car you're going to get has really low CO2 emmissons, I'd look at cars registered no newer than February 2001, otherwise the road tax costs could be pretty high.

buglawton

Toyota Aygo or the Peugot/Citroen identical equivalents. I hired one last year in France, very short car yet 5 door and from driver's seat, feels spacious and easy to drive. Very low insurance grade and madly economical.

webmasterpolo

Hi

You need to balance reliability and the cost to insure as your main issues.

For reliability you should look to Jap and Korean cars like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia. Hyundai offer the 5 year warranty, are very reliable and cheap to insure. They depreciate massively so for £4K you would get a pretty new one, with new car warranty.

I'd recommend looking at Hyundai first then comparing it in terms of insurance cost and like for like cars. I think it will be hard to find a car that's as cheap to insure and as new with a full warranty for the same money as a Hyundai.

The Getz was a best buy on Which magazine.

Eg. right now non autotrader I've found:


Hyundai Getz 1.1 GSI for £2,400, 58K miles, 56 reg (new car warranty until Sept 2011)


Hyundai Amica 1.1 CDX for £2,400, 13K miles, 57 reg (new car warranty until Sept 2012)


-Web

PS the Fiat featured in Which too with several "Don't Buy" results for terrible reliability, I wouldn't buy one. Found one for £2,500 80K miles 05 reg no new car warranty. For that money it would have to much much cheaper to insure than the Getz to make it attractive, and it's not.

Hintza

TR4 wrote: »

No, No, No!

In the trade FIAT stands for:

Fix It Again Tomorrow!

Have you driven one?

One thing Fiat have always been good at are small cars. The Panda is also one of the lower depreciating cars around just now.

As for VW are you not just buying the hype perhaps?

By the way my OH and my daughter both have a Panda. We got rid of the Golf to replace it with a Panda.