First car

RememberMe

Hi everyone!

Firstly I hope this is in the right place.

I passed my test yesterday (yay!) and am looking to get onto the road ASAP.

I am looking to spend £4000 - £5000 on my first car, preferably a 1 litre engine for insurance purposes and nothing too big.

I have had a look around and a VW Up seems to fit the bill (a bit different to the beautiful A3 I learned in :rotfl: ). There seems to be a few of these at around 3 years old with < 30k mileage, and apparently VW have quite a good rep?

I have also thought about other manufacturers, I don't particularly want to go near any French cars as I know three people who have had bad experiences with electrics! But apart from that I'm not too fussy.

So a few questions:

1) Does anyone have experience of a VW Up? Or VWs in general? Good/bad?

2) Could anyone recommend any other small cars that may fit the criteria? (Preferably nothing older than a 12 reg or above 40k miles)

3) When I go out to buy one of these cars, what should I be looking out for? I want to seem like I know what I'm talking about, even if I don't! (I'm a 22 year old female who genuinely has no idea about cars!)

Thank you for all of your help!

Rain_Shadow

1. VWs reliability record is modest.
2. Anything Japanese would be better.
3. Try not to say 'that one goes perfectly with my favourite handbag'


Give us an idea of the sort of miles and journey lengths and journey conditions you will be doing.

worried_jim

The Skoda or Seat version (all three the same car) may give you better value as may be cheaper to buy. Well done on passing your test!

RememberMe

Thank you for replying!

@ Rain Shadow - Apologies, I'm looking to use it to commute to/from work everyday which is around 3 miles from where I live. I would also like to use it on the weekends to go into the city (about 15 miles down the M6) and maybe a few longer journeys throughout the year but it wouldn't be too much really. Absolute 5k a year max I'd say.

Do you think a Toyota may be the way to go? I believe they do the Aygo which is a small car.

Also, what is the general consensus about Cat C and D write offs? Are they too much of a risk?

GwylimT

Jazz, reliable, nice to drive, low insurance.

Cat C and D, depends on the age of the car, a car awarded cat D at eight years old no problem, at 1-4 years old that means a hell of a lot of work done, so ideally it would all need inspecting.

iolanthe07

If you're only doing a three mile commute each way you should probably avoid a diesel. The Hyundai i10 and its sister the Kia Picanto are reliable little cars with long warranties. They should be cheap to insure and run.

oldhand

With the greatest of respect you would be better spending £1000 on your first car until you have a lot more miles under your belt.You will likely pick up some scratches or bumps and its better having them on a one grand car than a 5 grand one.......

Strider590

RememberMe wrote: »

apparently VW have quite a good rep?

Will this 1980's based myth ever die off?

Carrot007

RememberMe wrote: »

preferably a 1 litre engine for insurance purposes and nothing too big.

Because you want to pay a lot for insurance?

All the new people tend to go for 1 litres and they have more accidents so you will pay more.

Want cheap insurance get a nice estate or something else that new car users and boy racers tend to avoid.

Save

ratrace

oldhand wrote: »

With the greatest of respect you would be better spending £1000 on your first car until you have a lot more miles under your belt.You will likely pick up some scratches or bumps and its better having them on a one grand car than a 5 grand one.......

Good advice
Op, buy a mk1 skoda fabia like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Fabia-1-2-HTP-CLASSIC-5-DOOR-2004-54-REG-7-MONTHS-MOT-/201658996863?hash=item2ef3d0187f:g:vS8AAOSwOdpXyaYT

Great first car, we had 1 in the family for 9 years then upgraded to the fabia mk2,

Low insurance group (group 2 or 3 i think) which will help you as a new driver
Very cheap to service
easy to drive for a new driver
simple engines 3 cylinder chain driven

a polo really for skoda money

RememberMe

@ worried jim - thank you for pointing out the Skoda Citigo! Will definitely have a browse around.

@ Gwylim T - I have had a look at the Honda Jazz but I'm not too keen on what's available within my price range at the moment, will definitely keep my eyes peeled for further listings on AT - thank you.

@ iolanthe07 - are they decent enough cars? Someone had warned me against KIA but I was always under the impression that they were good enough for the sort of thing I need.

@ ratrace & oldhand - I very much appreciate the suggestions but it's not really something I am looking to do. Thank you though!

@Carrott07 - Not really within my price range or what I'd feel comfortable driving for a first car.

Thanks for all of the helpful replies.