First car help please!!

fishlips

My 19 year old son is looking to buy his first car and as neither of us have had a car before we have no idea on what we should be asking sellers/garage?
I think he should buy something cheap(ish) about £1500 until he gets his confidence up so basically an older car. He's thinking £5000.
What should i be checking apart from mot date and history check?
Any help or advice would be great, thanks.:think:

facade

If you are paying £5000 and you know nothing about cars you must get it independently inspected.

The best way to buy a car is from a trusted friend or relative, who has had it from new and can vouch for its history. If they are trustworthy, they won't sell it you if there is an expensive fault.

What you want to know is

Has it been repaired/sprayed (any bodywork repair done "on the cheap" will start to show after 12 months)
Are there any mechanical defects? Any electrical faults? Any water leaks?
Service history- check that it has been serviced about once a year, some people never even get the oil changed from new for 5 years.

Then more practical:
How much is it to tax?
How much to insure?
What does it do to the gallon?
What are the price of consumables like tyres & exhaust?

Pessimistically, there is always something wrong with a second hand car, you need to be satisfied what it is.
If you are lucky, the registration letter is too old, or the car is just too small for the New Baby.

bluenoseam

Insurance cost - because as he's 19 and inexperienced you'll probably find that the cost of that will be as much as the car, with certain cars it will exceed the price of the car.

facade

When I said water leaks I meant rain getting inside the car!

Do check for oil and water leaks under the bonnet, but these are easy to clean off and won't show for a few miles.

GAZ237

As above. I would be looking at insurance costs and then opt for a car that you can afford the insurance on.

It sounds like neither of you can be added to his policy to get the premium down.

Depending on your postcode. Don't be surprized at premiums being £2000+

I agree with getting a £1500 car at first to build his NCB up.

Strider590

Get a cheap car, forget ins groupings, an old motorway rep mobile barge will be cheaper to insure than a "cool for kids" small hatchback.

Rolandtheroadie

Sons 17 next month, I tried a few quotes for learning and just passed his test (thought about trying to get him started on his own NCB right away)

The one think that it showed was that a 1.0 Corsa was cheaper than my (at that time) 1.9 TDI Audi 80. (4k cheaper)


Tried a couple of older cars too, the difference wasnt worth bothering about really.

He'll be learning in a Passat, we'll do some more quotes when he's passed his test and can afford a car.

Bettingmad

This is a very useful tool for checking the mot history of a car. It will identify previous failure points, advisories etc.

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history-vehicle

Rain_Shadow

My elder son is 18 (19 next week). He passed his test in Feb 2012. We recently decided to buy him a car. We set ouselves a budget of £4k for car and insurance having read about the likely cost of insurance we anticipated that car and insurance would cost roughly half the budget each. However, in May we bought him an 06 plate Peugeot 307 1.6 petrol. The car cost £2800, insurance was £950 (in his name but with myself and OH as named drivers). RFL was £200 and we still had enough in our budget for a tank of petrol.

fishlips

Audi A3 1.6 Sport. MOT March 2014. Tax end December. Mileage 108k. Full long life service history. Bodywork and interior in vgc. £1700 ono.

GAZ237

fishlips wrote: »

Audi A3 1.6 Sport. MOT March 2014. Tax end December. Mileage 108k. Full long life service history. Bodywork and interior in vgc. £1700 ono.

What year?.

More importantly, What was the insurance quote?