Any recommendations?

Taiko

Hi all,

Just looking to get a new car, which would be the 2nd car I've owned. I turn 24 next month, male, currently drive a 1l Micra (not stylish, but wanted to keep costs down). It's an R reg, 33,000miles on the clock. Good condition, and has flown through all MOT's since I brought it 4 years ago. I also have 4 years NCB.

Looking something a bit more powerful and stylish, that's also going to not cost a bomb to run/insure. To be honest, this car hasn't ever let me down, so I'd also be looking at something pretty reliable. That said, I don't really have anyone I'd be happy to ask advice on around right now.

My budget on this is going to be around about the £9000 mark. I've got over double that in my account at the moment, no debts, but don't really want to go OTT.

Inactive

You will struggle to find anything as reliable as your old Micra, great old cars, totally bullet proof.

I would keep it.;)

funkycoldribena

Inactive wrote: »

You will struggle to find anything as reliable as your old Micra, great old cars, totally bullet proof.

I would keep it.;)

Agreed,run it into the ground.

Hintza

The only problem with a Micra, if you ever come up aginst a slow moving line of raffic on an A road the chances are high that the car at the front will be a Micra.

Sorry I'll get my coat

10JH

Your insurance is likely to rocket whatever you get, considering you have a 1 litre car at the moment.

What kind of driving do you do? City, motorway?

Inactive

Hintza wrote: »

The only problem with a Micra, if you ever come up aginst a slow moving line of raffic on an A road the chances are high that the car at the front will be a Micra.

Sorry I'll get my coat

Even if that were true, at least the old Micra would be still moving, unlike some of the Euro Trash.;)

kwaks

Come on now guys, he is 24, he doesn't want to drive a micra. The money in his bank proves he is single, the micra may be the cause

OP, can you wait till turning 25 for insurance purposes? If not you have a good choice in that budget. I would consider something along the lines of a Mazda 3, but hard to say as don't know what you want/need/like.

Katie-Kat-Kins

I used to have the old micra, and mine was R reg too! It was a smashing little car. The only time I noticed lack of power really was acceleration at higher speeds, but once up to motorway speed it coped fine. Cheap to run too, I'd be inclined to keep it until reliability becomes an issue.

If you REALLY want to change it I have a Renault Clio Eco2 DCI at the moment and in terms of running costs it is brilliant, easily manages 58mpg without trying, and 65mpg if I try, and it only costs £35 on tax! You'd get a pretty new one for £9k still under warrenty and everything because I know renault don't have the best reputation for reliability.

I looked at all sorts of small to mid size hatches before I bought this and couldn't find anything else to touch it for the money. I would have much prefered "something japanese" but their economical cars were very much tiny city run arounds and I do a long motorway commute. Then there is a big jump up to small family cars. I found the clio a brilliant size, a bit bigger than your average small hatch, with good load space and head room but not as big or as expensive as something the the Ford Focus Vauxhall Astra bracket. Oh and there are a couple of fairly "hot" models that are sporty to look at and quick despite the small diesel engine! The 106bhp model doesn't get the £35 tax, but the 86bhp horsepower model does, and you can still get the flaired wheel arches, sports interior, alloys etc

I'd hang onto the micra though, with a low mileage like that it will go on for years more!

Taiko

Thanks for the replies.

Contrary to the guesses, I'm in a relationship and have been for the last 4 years. I'm just in a well paid job in local government, having worked my way up. Part of the money saved has been for a house deposit, which is why I wanted to cap expenditure.

I know the Micra gets teased a bit when it's a bloke driving. But I've always believed it's more a function thing.

I do mainly city driving, although make journeys often from the south coast to Cardiff, Lancashire and other places so it does involve motorway driving.

I'm near enough teetotal, although we both go out. The girlfriend is earning £19,000 and I'm on £23,000, and we keep our finances in check.

Thank you for the comments though, much appreciated. Maybe I should just stick with things a bit longer.

Inactive

Put the money towards your house, it will eventually make a profit, cars are money pits.

Your Micra will last you for years yet,, as long as you have it serviced.

Good luck with whatever you decide.:)

Indout96

With a budget of £9000 I would say you could not do better than a Toyota Celica GT, good looks, superb handling with the TTE pack fitted as standard (so no insurance loading) 190 BHP but with a great handling chassis however there are not that many for sale so maybe drop down to a T-sport and put the extra money in the bank
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201033366130707/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/model/celica/make/toyota/radius/1500/page/8/postcode/bd47tt?logcode=p

I ran one for 7 years, and drove like my hair was on fire LOL nothing ever gave way or broke, not even a light bulb

Wish I could say the same about my new car LOL