Car at 19 years old ? (financial info included)

kteara

sterlingstash wrote: »

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 ww.sixt.co.k/campaigns/student-offer 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.

Sixt offer car rentals to a "minimum age of 21". Whipcar has shut down

shortcrust

Get a car, but get a cheaper one! It great to be aspirational but I'd leave the Audis and the BMWs until you've got more cash sloshing about. Get a decent cheap 1.0l and you might be able to spend money at the places you drive to!

There are drawbacks to having a car at uni and at 19, but I think for most people the benefits outweigh them. It's socially useful to have one and you can explore your new home much more easily. I also find having a car helps to make you feel more at home in a new place.

Alex92_2

Why does it seem that everyone my age insists on trying to live the luxury/playboy lifestyle without the salary or savings to back it up and feed it?

I will try and give you the best advice I can possibly give you, from someone a similar age to you (20).

How long have you been driving for? How many years NCB do you have?

If I was attending university, I would want a cheap run around car. Why? Because if you get a car around 1.0 litre (you wont need anything higher even on motorways), it will be cheap road tax, cheap to insure, cheap petrol (good fuel consumption) and if youre parking it in a university area, you wont car when it inevitably gets people jumping on it or drink driving and crashing into it.

You may want an audi or bmw, but it is completely impractical for where you are in your life. You will be wasting money on high tax (my range rover was £475 road tax per year last year, luckily sold it before I had to pay for that! :O ), high insurance costs, poor fuel consumption providing its something sporty and a petrol.

If you want a Audi/BMW to fit in or be the "cool guy" with the nice car, I think you'd be better off spending far less on some nice clothes or new pair of shoes that people will actually see.

Why not get a motorbike? I spent £2400 on a motorbike when I was 18 or 19 (cant remember), ended up selling £1300 worth of spares it came with, so price of it went down to £1100. Fuel consumption even when I was racing it was around 55mpg, top speed (on clock) read 175mph, 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds and insurance (best part) was only £300 fully comp. Road tax was around £85 for the year too. Although, i guess transporting anything more than clothes and books would be out of the question.

I think it would be a much wiser choice to get a more economical and practical car. Build up your NCB so that your insurance becomes much cheaper and then once you are out of uni, paid of your debt and got a well paying job, getting something decent then

Hope this helps you, but i'm not holding my breathe that you will take my advice. Goodluck.

gadgetmind

opinions4u wrote: »

I was over 40 by the time I got to the BMW3 series.

Before age 30, I had a Mazda MX-5, a Toyota Celica, and a several BMWs cumulating in a 540i.

However, I didn't bother learning to drive until my mid 20s as I simply didn't need the expense when I was a student.

Derivative

Alex92 wrote: »

Why not get a motorbike? I spent £2400 on a motorbike when I was 18 or 19 (cant remember), ended up selling £1300 worth of spares it came with, so price of it went down to £1100. Fuel consumption even when I was racing it was around 55mpg, top speed (on clock) read 175mph, 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds and insurance (best part) was only £300 fully comp. Road tax was around £85 for the year too. Although, i guess transporting anything more than clothes and books would be out of the question

I take all of my belongings to/from University (other than the odd bit of cookerware that I leave there) via motorcycle. Halfway across the country, 200+ miles.



You don't really even _need_ panniers, it's just more peace of mind (I wouldn't want a soft bag to split open far away from home...)

bigadaj

gadgetmind wrote: »

Before age 30, I had a Mazda MX-5, a Toyota Celica, and a several BMWs cumulating in a 540i.

However, I didn't bother learning to drive until my mid 20s as I simply didn't need the expense when I was a student.

The money from the hairdressing that came with the first two on your list must have come in handy though gadget?

theoretica

kteara wrote: »

Now, a car would cost me £4-5 thousand pounds (this is the car of my choice which includes insurance and maintenance costs). I


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.

Before you make any decision do please be absolutely sure your numbers are in order, and less optimistically added. I really can't add £3-4 thousand and £2500 and come up with an answer as low as £4-5k.

My personal suggestion would be not to buy anything until you have finished your first term at university and have a better idea how much and for what you would use your own vehicle.

Alex92_2

Derivative wrote: »

I take all of my belongings to/from University (other than the odd bit of cookerware that I leave there) via motorcycle. Halfway across the country, 200+ miles.



You don't really even _need_ panniers, it's just more peace of mind (I wouldn't want a soft bag to split open far away from home...)

Reminds me a bit of my first bike, Honda Varadero 125 That was a beauty, 115mpg and good fun!

These were my last two beauties/pride and joys!

Honda Hornet 900, previous owner spent about 3-4K on extras on this and bought on extremely low miles. This is the one I sold for £3995 after effectively buying it for £1300!

And second, Kawasaki ZX10R, again very, very high spec bike with thousands of pounds of extras on it.

*sigh* making me want to get another one now

thegirlintheattic

Really not worth it.

kteara

To the bike owners, is an R1 or R6 relatively cheap to run? Insurance ? I would only enjoy purchasing those tbh. Not a big fan of other models of bikes.