Which car to buy - newbie

bluedrop

Hello everyone,
We plan to buy a car in the next couple of months. We are totally confused about what to buy, how much to spend etc. I did search through the forum, but couldn't find anything suiting my needs/circumstances.

Here is our situation:
Newly qualified driver - first car
We'll use it for local travel and long distance holidays - all together max 2000 miles a year
We have a 4 yr old child
We don't want to spends loads on maintainnce and repairs
We are looking for a 5 door car that has cheap insurance, safe reliable and just serves the purpose

Given this,
1. Which car would you recommend?
2. How old is okay?
3. Where do you recommend to buy from? (gumtree/eBay/local dealer showroom?

Any relevant advice is gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks.

Weird_Nev

Max 2000 miles a year? If you'e over 25 I'd look at hiring for when you're on holiday, and getting around by other means locally. It WILL work out cheaper to hire a car for 3-4 weeks a year and pay for a few bus tickets and taxis than to run your own year round. Are you sure your estimated milage is accurate? It's eaasy to do 200-300 miles a month without trying, just pootling about - plus a couple of big trips is 5-6k miles a year. I'd be amazed if you do end up doing just 2k miles a year.

You also haven't stated a budget. Start wit hthat or else you'll end up with "price creep" and you'll spend more than you wanted to or more than you can afford. Are you completely against the idea of buying new on finance for example?

How old is too old? If a cars been well kept age shouldn't be an issue but many cheap town runabouts are looking tired at ten years old.

For such low milage you need a petrol car, diesel cars don't respond well to low milage and you don't get the value out of them in fuel savings.
To keep insurance down and if you're not spending much time on motorways a 1.2 -1.4 engine or thereabouts will be fine.
Without a budget I can't really offer more advice.
As a general suggestion, what do you think about Ford focuses? Big enough for a child in the back (+car seat etc) and stuff to take away, loads about so lots of choice, parts are cheap and they're simple to work on and there's one to suit pretty much every budget as they've been selling them for years.

bluedrop

Sorry, I said two thousand miles a year?..

Budget max 5k...

BlueC

You need to decide how much you want to spend first. Otherwise it is almost impossible to recommend one.

But, going off the vague information you gave:

1) A 5 door petrol engined Ford Fiesta, or Focus if you want something bigger.
2) Up to 10 years old; preferably less than 5 if budget allows
3) Depends on budget and whether you know what you're doing. Based on your questions I'd probably suggest you go to a dealer and try and buy something with 12 months warranty

BlueC

bluedrop wrote: »

Sorry, I said two thousand miles a year?..

Budget max 5k...

For £5k you'll easily get a 2007 Ford Focus from a reputable dealer. If you want something smaller you'd get an even newer Fiesta. These cars would both fit your criteria.

Weird_Nev

£5k budget?

Spend £3k on a fabia or something like that, keeping £2k in pocket for unforseen expense, breakdown and insurance and tax.
If there is a car you like then pay for independant mechanical inspection - AA do them for aroung £150 which will be money well spent as any faults they pick up on can be used to haggle or walk away if it looks like a deal breaker.

getmore4less

I just potter into town etc. with the odd longer run and think we will do around 3k per year.

For a 2+1 and kids stuff, a small estate would do the job.

Older diesels(pre DPF) will be fine we run 2 on low mileage no problem,

Most cars can be variable service so every 2 years(ish) on this mileage.

you can save a bit go newer by looking at a higher mileage vehicle.

depending on the holiday/longer trips hire might be an option and go for a small super economical daily use car.

If flying then parking costs offset hire cars(£50ish one way)

Weird_Nev

Examples below are ONLY examples if what £3k-£4k could get. I am NOT recommending any particular car or example of a car!

I just did an autotrader search for £3k-£4 (no sense in burning your whole budget), Hatchback 5 doors (for getting kids in and out), 1 litre -1.4 litre, less tha n7 years old, manual transmission (for fuel economy and so you don't forget how to drive a proper car so soon after passing), and up to 60k miles so hopefully not too tired. You get:

Results like this <click link

Fiat Pandas are nice to drive, got good write ups, low insurance and would be a good all rounder.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201220471285569

Skoda Fabia 1.2 petrols < Click link
We ran a 1.4 diesel fabia for 4 years and 50k miles, it was excellent. Very low running costs with only 2 tyres and a set of brake pads needed in that time, totally reliable and a nice place to be.

Ford Fiestas are a good bet too as stated above.

There are also tonnes of fiats which can make very good second hand purchases

And the place is awash with daewoo matiz's (I don't like them, too small, unpleasant to drive but they do seem to be reliable and cheap to run) and Kia PIcantos... agian, I'm not a fan personally but they offer low cost motoring.


As for how to buy: Avoid gumtree, its a cess pit of scammers and rip off merchants. Use autotrader and possibly ebay and check local garage forecourts. Don't be too scared of private purchases, you can get good cars for good money and actually speak to someone who's owned and run the car for a while. THe "warranty" offered by most small motor dealers isn't worth much to be honest. It won't cover consumables like shock absorbers, brakes, tyres, or clutches and most cars at that age should be free of major mechanical defects such as faulty gearboxes or engines.

Finally, make sure you HPI check and online MOT check any car you intend to buy to ensure that the milage is correct as far as possible, it's not stolen or crashed, and you should be able to pick up a decent first car.

allan673

Have a look at 1.2 vw polos
For 3 grand you can get a mint low mileage 54 reg.
Very reliable

Tobster86

Weird_Nev wrote: »

£5k budget?

Spend £3k on a fabia or something like that, keeping £2k in pocket for unforseen expense, breakdown and insurance and tax.
If there is a car you like then pay for independant mechanical inspection - AA do them for aroung £150 which will be money well spent as any faults they pick up on can be used to haggle or walk away if it looks like a deal breaker.

Favourite post so far. 5-10 year old diesel Skodas are about the cheapest to buy & run + most reliable cars you can get at the moment.
Remember Skoda are VW group. The Octavia is the same chassis and parts bin as the Golf, Likewise with the Fabia/Polo.

Ultrasonic

bluedrop wrote: »

Sorry, I said two thousand miles a year?..

You did, but the point being made is that this would be extremely low mileage. As you've only just passed your test I would suggest you are very probably underestimating the mileage you'll end up doing. This shouldn't impact on your choice of car too much (other than avoiding diesels) though. But I would suggest you go for a rather higher estimate when sorting out car insurance (they'll ask you to estimate annual mileage).

At the risk of stating the obvious, if you've only just passed your test insurance costs are going to be very high. This may well therefore be a major factor in your choice of car. Have you tried using a price comparison website like say Go Compare or MoneySupermarket.com to get an idea of the insurance costs for different cars you've been looking at?