New driver - 31- what car?

steve-L

As already mentioned there is an extra premium for typical 'new driver' cars that might well make the purchase price only a small art of your costs.

Autotrader has usually a good selection.....

Remember buying a car is always a liability, things do go wrong and do need fixing. Finding a local reliable garage should be high on the list of priorities.

You will likely get confusing and contradictory advice, anyone who has a bad experience with one car often then is quite vocal... reality wise, older car will likely cost you ....

A suggestion is look at the Rover 214 and similar, these tend to be 'old people's cars' and if you buy from the time they were owned by BMW then they as as reliable as anything else.

I have an old Honda with 175,000 miles but its a big 2.2TD so insurance would be out of your range, my partner is mid 30's and had just passed her test and it was about £650 to insure with me as a named driver, more expensive without!!! (I have full no claims, no points ever and no accident in 20 years so my insurance is as cheap as it gets and this makes it cheaper)

TRY going through a Broker .... it's just a suggestion but they can often get a better quote by knowing how to fill in details and still be honest!

In my case they found something cheaper than the comparison websites, for my partner they didn't.... so I just took the one for me.
Even when they don't you can learn from how they approached getting the cheapest quote and there is no obligation to use them.

You could also do with a mate who is used to buying cars, in your price range its likely that whatever you buy will have needed some work.... and if it hasn't then will soon. There is a bit of practice and experience to reading the previous service history and work carried out.
That is sometimes it's good (change of timing belt) and sometimes it might be bad (half of suspension replaced meaning other half might be on its way out).... and sometimes its just a pattern....

In general and daft as it sounds electrical faults can be the most uneconomic to fix! At your price point I'd avoid cars that are 'too clever' and have many electronic bells and whistles ... the more sensors the can go wrong and be hard to pinpoint. Avoid anything with stability control type electronics (infortunately each manufacturer has its own name) if I were you but that should be less of a issue on smaller/older cars.