Good First Car for a Family.

TBagpuss

As others have said, look at insurance rates as that will be a big expense.

What sort of budget do you have?
A Toyota Yaris, Honda Jazz, Ford Ka or Citroen C1 are all smallish and with low insurance rates. I would start by looking on autotrader at what is available in your price range, then get a couple of insurance estimates on some of those vehicles to get a feel for how much that will cost you.

Herzlos

Ronneh wrote: »

Herzlos, that's not really true at all. Compare leasing price against financing the car and you will be surprised. In terms of the insurance that is grossly misguided - insurance is not really affected AT ALL by being leased. I can confirm this as I lease a Citroen C1 and the quote for being under lease / owning were exactly the same.

When it comes to the cost of damage of course you should pay for it, but where you get it fixed is up to you. If you owned the car would you just leave the damage on a brand new car?

I mean more in terms of paying for the car, and with leasing you're stuck in a contract for the worst of the depreciation of a new car. For a new driver, you want to be buying an older car, which will work out cheaper than leasing. For instance, you can get a 2007 Citroen C1 from about £1,900 or about £150/month over a year, which you'll never match with a lease. Also at 7 years old any minor bodywork damage won't impact the resale value, and you won't have to pay the leasing company any fees for said damage.

If you were a more experienced driver wanting a new car then leasing is worth looking into, but for a 19 year old who's just passed their test, it's not a good idea.

I also don't believe the overall cost was lower with leasing than purchasing, otherwise how would the leasing company make any money?

CKhalvashi

Herzlos wrote: »

I also don't believe the overall cost was lower with leasing than purchasing, otherwise how would the leasing company make any money?

Because a leasing company can get big siscounts off a new car.

I've got a '62' plate Jag XF Sportbrake at £716 a month (£2148 deposit), so £18616, plus a £26k balloon payment when I have option to purchase in September, so about £45000 all in.

List price was £54k, and I'd say there's probably £10k in it for the finance company, before their expenses.

CK

Herzlos

Wouldn't you get at least as good a deal going through a broker?
I can't see a £54k list price XF but I can see a 3.0d V6 S Portfolio for £52k list, which I can get from a drivethedeal for £42342.

Maybe in some cases the leasing company can get the better deal, and the finance may work out better though. But we're in a thread about recommendations for a first car for a 19 year old learner driver, and I don't think anyone can seriously recommend a brand new car over one that's 3+ (and more likely 6+) year old.

CKhalvashi

Herzlos wrote: »

Wouldn't you get at least as good a deal going through a broker?
I can't see a £54k list price XF but I can see a 3.0d V6 S Portfolio for £52k list, which I can get from a drivethedeal for £42342.

Mine has a few options on it (radar guided cruise control, adaptive lights, IVR etc), which is why the list is higher.

I was answering the question as it came up in the thread, not recommending this to the OP.

DTD etc could match that with the car specified how I wanted it, but still worked around £100 more expensive than the leasing option, and it's better financially to stooze the remainder in the bank, meaning I'm around £600 better off over 2 years in interest.

Maybe in some cases the leasing company can get the better deal, and the finance may work out better though. But we're in a thread about recommendations for a first car for a 19 year old learner driver, and I don't think anyone can seriously recommend a brand new car over one that's 3+ (and more likely 6+) year old.

My recommendation for a young driver would be the typical low-risk insurance cars; Honda Jazz, Skoda Fabia etc. There are also anomolies with some cars, such as the Mercedes CL. All three are low-risk (and in at least one case, surprisingly, a CL420 was cheaper than a Focus 1.6 to insure for a 19yr old) as they tend to be favoured by older drivers.

CK

Tilt

Something like this;

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201402071634979/sort/default/usedcars/model/panda/postcode/wv46hg/radius/1501/make/fiat/page/1/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/price-to/1000/quicksearch/true?logcode=p

jimjames

Building_Surveyor wrote: »

With one child I doubt you need a family size car. But preference should be 5 doors and a decent size boot for a pushchair etc.

At your age and being a new driver when you get there be prepared for insurance to be over 1k more than likely.

Golf TDI maybe!

F1F93

I'd recommend a Honda Jazz, surprisingly spacious due to the clever rear seats that fold flat, or the base lifts up for tall items.
Insurance is generally quite cheap too as they're fairly "old person" cars.

OP, definitely get quotes for cars that your mates would make fun of you for! Typical "old person" cars, like rovers, people carriers etc. Insurers will see a car like that and think "family" and then "sensible".

The more mature you seem, the lower risk you are. Proposing to my fiancee actually saved us £300 on our car insurance as we were seen to be lower risk!