Buying a new car

Tiexen

Citigo is better Group 1 ins and cheaper than the Fabia

the Citigo is the cheapest of the VW/Seat/Skoda trio in base form, starting from £7630, and of course has the same class-leading cabin and perky drive as its sisters.

gildius

Hmm, I've seen adverts for the Citigo and been quite tempted...

Think I might have to go to some secondhand places and see what they have? If anyone knows of any good places in Bristol (or Cornwall) that would be great!

Tobster86

Ignore all this group 1 insurance assumption nonsense. The price difference in groups is insignificant compared to the initial outlay on any insurance for your age.
Autotrader provide a reasonably good guide to insurance costs if you enable the options and provide your age when searching.

And don't buy a brand new car as your first car, it would be a poor investment. You have too much yet still to learn about driving.

Obviously shop around carefully. I'm 26 and pay £300 a year on a BMW 323i (No points/accidents and 5 years NCD though).

I'd highly recommend diesel Skoda Octavias as being very economical, reliable, practical and I can't imagine them being particularly expensive to insure. They're also very cheap to buy; you'd be looking at around £2k for a good 2004ish one. Lots of high mileage but well maintained fleet cars. 150,000 miles is acceptable on one of these if they start well and don't smoke.

Ranger8

funkycoldribena wrote: »

I wouldnt recommend the 1.0,it'll hardly move-far too small engine for a relatively heavy car.

Obviously its no rocket but speaking from actually experience of driving one (the wifes) they`re not too bad at all.
I can`t speak of the earlier models but this new 64bhp ecoflex model is really quite good.

funkycoldribena

Ranger8 wrote: »

Obviously its no rocket but speaking from actually experience of driving one (the wifes) they`re not too bad at all.
I can`t speak of the earlier models but this new 64bhp ecoflex model is really quite good.

0-62 in 18 seconds must make it one of the slowest cars in the UK,with all due respect to your wife,theres far better cars out there.

Ranger8

funkycoldribena wrote: »

0-62 in 18 seconds must make it one of the slowest cars in the UK,with all due respect to your wife,theres far better cars out there.

Wouldn`t have a clue what the 0-60 time is even if it mattered,
theres more to a car than that.

worried_jim

Ranger8 wrote: »

Wouldn`t have a clue what the 0-60 time is even if it mattered,
theres more to a car than that.

Not when you are overtaking or joining a motorway!

Tobster86

Ranger8 wrote: »

Wouldn`t have a clue what the 0-60 time is even if it mattered,
theres more to a car than that.

Not much more!

Completely suitable for getting around town but so is public transport.
Possibly frustrating on open country roads.
Probably dangerous to join a motorway.

I would advise against any vehicle with a power to weight ratio of less than 80bhp/tonne.

Ranger8

Jeez are you fellas real ? its not that bad :rotfl:
I`ve had many many vehicles in the 40yrs I`ve been driving, big, little, std and chipped/remapped, Jaguar, BMW, Audi, VW,Toyota, Honda, Ford,Vauxhall and can tell you that for its intended purpose its a bloody good little motor.
The wifes a nurse and works some funny shifts at the local hospital so needs her own transport and to go shopping,visit ma-in-law,take grandkids to school etc.
Overtaking,0-60 times and motorways don`t enter into it.
Its horses for courses isn`t it ?

chib

Tobster86 wrote: »

Probably dangerous to join a motorway.

A small engined car dangerous to join a motorway? !!!!!!.

My first car was a 45bhp 1043cc Polo and I had no issues joining motorways or driving on country roads.

For a first car, you will be fine with a 1.0 Corsa/Fabia/Whatever.

As a new young driver you should get some insurance quotes, I think it's the norm to be >£1K/PA now.