Car at 19 years old ? (financial info included)

kteara

sterlingstash wrote: »

Good on you for at least facing this dilemma with some money saved up rather than going down the credit option. Unless someone has just given you that cash, you know that saving £5k is a hell of a lot harder than burning through it.

Still, it is still worth putting it in perspective, as the lure of a shiny car seems to override peoples common sense gene.

I reckon £3,000 is a pretty good ballpark for annual cost of running a car (the above plus depreciation), but probably more like £4,500 for you because of the crazy insurance. That is over £12 a day, including the days you don't use it.

That equates to 900 local £5 taxi trips so more than 2 trips a day. At 19 you should be able to rent a car no problem, so for £50 a day, or a bit more when you've got someone to impress, you could still be looking at nearly 100 days hire - every weekend if needs be, for some brand new wheels.

It depends how much use you reckon you'd get out of it, but if it is just to get you to uni and back, then you may find you can think of better things to do with the money when you get there. And you may regret having a rust bucket instead of a house deposit a couple of years down the line.

the only company I know that allows car hiring for under 21 costs £355 for 3 days (minimum time), do you think that is a waste of money or is that worth it? I also need to give a refundable £750 deposit.

Dave01

kteara wrote: »

I am 19 years old with about £5,000 saved in my ISA account (this is pretty much my life savings). I am going to university in september but I really would like to own a car. its not a necessity but I would thoroughly enjoy having one. My unis will be close to my house (1 hour and a half being the furthest one)

Now, a car would cost me £4-5 thousand pounds (this is the car of my choice which includes insurance and maintenance costs). Is it worth getting a car? the car I am looking at is a Audi A3 or Bmw 3 series which cost around 3-4 thousand second hand and insurance costs around 2500. If i decided to go for a cheaper car the insurance will still be around 1500.

so can anyone help me and maybe help my aim and joy of owning a car or deter me and put me onto a better path? Has anyone been in this situation of being a male, living in london, fed up and desperate to own a nice car?

thanks

An Audi or BMW would be nice to have but in your current situation I would suggest go for an old car costing around £1000 and with a small sized engine 1.4 or less. All cars are sorted into insurance groups, the lower the group the cheaper it is to insure. In 2009 I had a 10 year old Peugeot 206 1.4L engine at aged 20 with zero no claims bonus and it was around £600 to insure.

You can use this website to find out which cars are in various insurance groups. There are 50 insurance groups. Group 1 is cheapest but they're all 1.0L vehicles. Still it might be worth getting a quote for a dirt cheap 1.0L vehicle just out of interest to see how much it would be.

http://www.carpages.co.uk/car-insurance-groups/group-1-1.asp

atrixblue.-MFR-.

the cars you want are rediculous money to maintain and tax so forget them for now.

think out of the box with cars.

just because the engine size is 1.0L and group 1 insurance doesnt mean its the cheapest car to insure for sub 30 year olds.

1 million corsa 1.0l on the road for e.g say 10.000 a day involved in some type of insurance claim puts that car at a high statistic risk of being a claim made against that type of vehicle, then add on age factor sub 21 highest risk, 21-30 medium to high risk, 30+ low to medium risk, then factor in the area post code high-medium risk area's, and then add ontop the vehicl overnight risk (street car park garage) then add on mileage risk say 15k+ a year (more miles = higher risk of being involved in some sort of claim on the insurance) then factor in vehicle security factory alarm easily bypassed = higher risk of being stolen aftermarket thatchem cat 1 or 2 alarm or immobiliser = medium risk thatchem and tracker =low risk then factor in you employment status some are classed as high risk such as unemployed some are low risk such as waterboard employee.

so think of the top 5 manufacturers with small engine vehicles that suits young drivers and are common, and commonly used by young drivers and you end up with a high insurance quote with the above formula.

go left field with a manufacturers model say jaguar x type 2.0 diesel (a posh mondeo as they share same underbody and engines), thatchem rated factory fitted alarm system, not commonly driven by young drivers, relativly powerfull vehicle, with high specs and deisel models give good MPG, put anyone who has a license and over 30 on as a named driver infrequent user (they never have to drive it) not unemployed and had 10 years experience in driving or held a uk license for 10 years plus rather, try and find digs that has a drive or garage to include on policy for overnight parking, include commuting, fully com insurance, and you combat the risk statistics and give yourself a pat on the back for being able to afford such a prestige motor.

Southend1

As a student with a car you will end up being designated driver for all your mates ALL of the time. Don't do it. Save the money towards living costs or even holidays. Or better still, keep it towards a deposit on a house in a few years time.

I know the frustration, as I really wanted a nice car when I was your age but trust me it's not worth having a car while at uni. Oh and I had to wait until 30 before I could buy a (used) BMW.... Even now it's a drain on my finances (£215 a year road tax!).

opinions4u

I was over 40 by the time I got to the BMW3 series. Even then, the firm paid or it!

Look for a 1 litre car in the £1,500 range and price up the insurance from there, checking the savings can stretch for three or four years.

If it's not essential, wait.

Cash-Cow_3

I think it would be an expensive luxury at a time when your priorities should be funding your education and partying.

J_i_m

Oh yes.. Get an x-type, put daddy on the insurance... Well guess what? Posh ford Mondeo or not it's still "kaching!" To the servicing garage. So what have you saved? Not much if anything at all.

And the point about designated driver for friends is valid as well. They would ruin it.

Seriously... Talk yourself out of this nonsense. Your bank balance will thank you when you're in your mid 20s looking to buy a house.

sterlingstash

kteara wrote: »

the only company I know that allows car hiring for under 21 costs £355 for 3 days (minimum time), do you think that is a waste of money or is that worth it? I also need to give a refundable £750 deposit.

I'm not 19 any more so not 100% on this, but it seems like most of the big names offer hire for 19s. Sixt seems to be actively encouraging them with the 25% student special https://www.sixt.co.uk/campaigns/student-offers. Or look at whipcar.com where you can rent a neighbour's car often from £35 upwards. OK, the flashier ones tend to state min age 25 but many don't.

I was mainly just trying to put the cost in context as many people are unable to get their heads round large numbers, it is sometimes useful to relate it to other options.

SliAbhaile

kteara, you've done well to think about it and even better to sit down and ask - most nineteen-year-olds would just go and do it.

But please listen to the weight of advice here. Don't do it. Cars are a money pit and you will be the designated driver for half the university. You might think it would be cool to be the grown-up with the wheels but everyone will take advantage and you'll be left with the ownership costs.

Bicycle and car club membership are the way to go.

And I speak as someone about to drop his car into the garage this morning for its annual service and MoT - I'm dreading the bill.

droopsnoot

Much as I like cars and driving, I don't think I'd want to in London. Your insurance is the biggest problem, being young is the main cause and living in London will just make it worse. The choice of car isn't ideal, but a lot of the A3 parts are the same as similar Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat products, there are lots of non-franchise parts operations now so it's not necessarily the case that it will be expensive to fix, though it probably will be much cheaper to run a Fiesta or similar.

I think in your position I'd be tempted to go, get settled in to Uni using public transport and see if it turns out to be a pain. If it's unbearable, and somehow sitting in London traffic in your own car is better (at least you will be warm and dry), you'll still have the money to buy the car once you know you need it. That sounds much better than blowing the money and finding that the car sits on the side of the road all the time because it's too much of a pain to drive and easier to get the tube.

Obviously 'London' doesn't tell us much, so can't say whether you're going to be within the good public transport routes.