Advice on purchasing and insuring a secondhand car please!

chudleyette

I've been left £1500 by my recently-deceased grandparents and want to use it to get a car. I'm currently a named driver on my husband's insurance but have never held any insurance of my own.

Firstly I would like some advice on what sort of price range to go for. I am thinking that I need to hold some of the money back for tax and insurance so would be looking at spending up to £1200. However, someone has suggested to me that it might be better to buy a car for around £600-750 with as long an MOT on as possible, run it into the ground and then still have money left over to do it again, rather than spend the full £1200 on one car.

Is there a massive amount of difference in spending £750 and spending £1200? Or are both just as likely to pack up one day without notice? I realise that if I buy a really cheap car that I will be limiting myself to just using it for supermarket/local trips, but if I spent £1200 I would be hoping to do the odd 100-mile round trip to visit friends for the weekend, etc. My third alternative would be to borrow another £1500 and try and buy a 'proper' secondhand car for around £3k - is this a much safer bet??

If anyone can offer advice on this it would be much appreciated as I have no experience of cars whatsoever. And any more reliable makes and models I should look out for??

Secondly, in terms of insurance, I have only been a driver for 4 years (am female, mid-30s) and a named driver on my husband's insurance, so I don't have any no-claims. That insurance is fully comp. Should I be looking for my own insurance so as to build up my own no-claims or check with his insurers first to see if they can cover me as part of that policy?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Quentin

Check with your current insurer - they may let you have the equivalent of a NCD to reflect your named driver claim free history with them. (Also they may have a scheme whereby they mirror existing NCD if you insure another car with them, some do)

If not, then see if a local broker can get you an introductory discount.

chudleyette

Thanks, I will try them first then.

KillerWatt

chudleyette wrote: »

Is there a massive amount of difference in spending £750 and spending £1200? Or are both just as likely to pack up one day without notice? I realise that if I buy a really cheap car that I will be limiting myself to just using it for supermarket/local trips, but if I spent £1200 I would be hoping to do the odd 100-mile round trip to visit friends for the weekend, etc.

Don't believe for one minute that buying something for £1200 is going to be more reliable or any better at distance than something costing half the money, what you get for your money is dependant on quite a few factors (and the selling price isn't one of them).

You can spend £2000 on a car and simply end up with £2000 worth of grief, and by the same token you can have a £50 shed given to you that is still running sweet after it's racked up 350,000 miles.

Take someone with you who has more than a self appointed qualification in motor vehicle engineering and you shouldn't go far wrong.

chudleyette

KillerWatt wrote: »

Don't believe for one minute that buying something for £1200 is going to be more reliable or any better at distance than something costing half the money, what you get for your money is dependant on quite a few factors (and the selling price isn't one of them).

You can spend £2000 on a car and simply end up with £2000 worth of grief, and by the same token you can have a £50 shed given to you that is still running sweet after it's racked up 350,000 miles.

Take someone with you who has more than a self appointed qualification in motor vehicle engineering and you shouldn't go far wrong.

If I knew someone like that I wouldn't be on here!

optimus_primera

You need to decide on what type of car you want,then go and look at a few examples.
See what you can get for your money, then decide on how you want to progress.
You may find that what you want is not obtainable for your budget, or you may find that you can get loads.

As for reliability, as said previous, price has no bearing on reliability ......