1st Car for Son

strawb_shortcake

I've been to look at 2 cars for my Son to learn to drive in today

1 Vauxhall corsa, 55 plate, 122k miles £850 
MOT history looks pretty good. 

2 Fiat 500 08 plate, 84k miles £1150. 

Both from a local small time dealer that's been in the trade for years, in fact now retired just does it for a bit of extra cash. 

Gut feeling was for the Fiat but I've never had one, had plenty of Vauxhall's and a bit tired of them to be honest, but only really had issues when I've not been that good an owner.

But, I looked at the MOT history, no problems this year, advisories were brakes which we'd replace before he drives.
But last year and there is no mention of it this year was this...

• Nearside Rear Direction indicator slightly discoloured (4.4.3 (a))
• Offside Rear Direction indicator slightly discoloured (4.4.3 (a))
• Front Registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread (0.1 (b))
• Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))
• Rear Sub-frame corroded but not seriously weakened (5.3.3 (b) (i))
• Nearside Rear Upper Shock absorbers has a slightly worn bush (5.3.2 (c))
• Exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases (6.1.2

Bit worried about the sub frame and absorbers but admittedly I don't know that much about car maintenance. 
I will ask for any service history to see if this has been done and not just ignored on the latest MOT.

So should I be concerned? Am I just an over anxious Mum? 

We aren't necessarily in a rush to buy a car so not an issue to go for neither. 

Insurance is dearer on the Corsa, so taking into account Tax and insurance there isn't much difference in initial outlay.

Conscious the Corsa is likely to be closer to end of life 

Didn't have time to look over fully, but any tips on what to look out for or just to avoid much appreciated.

TY

flashg67

The MOT history is a good pointer as you've found and the corrosion would worry me too - if he intended to keep the car long. Cars at this level are only likely to have a couple of years left without needing major expense anyway, unless you're lucky, so it's possible something else costly will fail anyway. I know plenty of people who've had Fiat 500s with no issues, but some have had gearbox failures at higher mileages.
Family & friends have had good success with the Aygo/C1/107 family -  cheap to run & insure and loads around - find one with some service record if you can. My SD has a Nissan Pixo (aka Suzuki Alto) which has been very reliable. Not particularly 'cool' for a young lad I guess though, but cheap to run & great on fuel. 
If at all possible, can you increase the budget? I've found (to my cost sometimes) that spending £2k will (generally) get you a much better car than £1k will.

SaverRate

Having had family members own both in all honestly I wouldn't buy the Fiat. Corsa is probably towards the end of its life. Have you looked at the Volkswagen family? - Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT etc? or a Renault Clio - family member had one of those and never had issues with then. 

Flight3287462

Nothing on that would worry me apart from the sub-frame.    Although it wouldn't cost a fortune too replace it begs the question what other rot there may be.   You will need to get under the car for a closer look.

strawb_shortcake

flashg67 said:

The MOT history is a good pointer as you've found and the corrosion would worry me too - if he intended to keep the car long. Cars at this level are only likely to have a couple of years left without needing major expense anyway, unless you're lucky, so it's possible something else costly will fail anyway. I know plenty of people who've had Fiat 500s with no issues, but some have had gearbox failures at higher mileages.
Family & friends have had good success with the Aygo/C1/107 family -  cheap to run & insure and loads around - find one with some service record if you can. My SD has a Nissan Pixo (aka Suzuki Alto) which has been very reliable. Not particularly 'cool' for a young lad I guess though, but cheap to run & great on fuel. 
If at all possible, can you increase the budget? I've found (to my cost sometimes) that spending £2k will (generally) get you a much better car than £1k will.

Thank you, yes we can increase the budget, I don't think he'd keep the car long term, but we would be looking to use it next year to get his Sister driving. 

Our initial thoughts was to look for a Nissan or Suzuki. He wouldn't be impressed with the Fiat in bright yellow, but we don't need to worry about the "cool" factor as he's quite pragmatic, and his dream car would be more Dads Army than fast and furious.

In our local area there seems to nothing between the prices of these two and the £4-5k cars. Just need to convince my Husband to keep looking now...

strawb_shortcake

HarryDavies01 said:

Having had family members own both in all honestly I wouldn't buy the Fiat. Corsa is probably towards the end of its life. Have you looked at the Volkswagen family? - Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT etc? or a Renault Clio - family member had one of those and never had issues with then. 

I'd be happy with either, though my OH won't go French, no idea why? 
I do like the look of the 500 so think my initial keenness was more to do with that.

strawb_shortcake

Flight3287462 said:

Nothing on that would worry me apart from the sub-frame.    Although it wouldn't cost a fortune too replace it begs the question what other rot there may be.   You will need to get under the car for a closer look.

Might have to get my Dad to tag along then, he was a welder many moons ago and has a good idea what he'd be looking for 

Flight3287462

A Panda is probably a slightly more bomb proof car than the 500.  The kids will moan it isn't cool, but then when do they get any say.

Car_54

Don’t forget to look at insurance quotes for the cars. Corsas used to be pricey as the archetypal “newly-passed boy racer” car.

facade

I assume the advisories are for the Fiat?

The corroded subframe will actually be the axle beam, this is a piece of thick angle iron that Fiat didn't paint properly, it just needs a wirebrush to remove the surface rust and painting with stonechip, or Aldi black metal paint.

They literally are "all like that" (unless someone has repainted it), so some testers flag as advisories, others don't as it is just cosmetic rust.

Son can do that himself.

The shock absorber upper bushes go all the time (again they are "all like that" These are what we use to call void bushes and they deteriorate very quickly), less than an hour for a garage to do, and about £20 the pair, at home you'd change the shock absorbers for about £50 the pair. They could have been changed, or they might not be very bad.

Advisories are subjective, and depend on the whim of the tester, failure points are prescribed, and should be the same no matter who tests it.

forgotmyname

Every 500 I looked at had the rusty subframe as mentioned above and evidence of repairs or lots of parking
damage.  Overpriced for what they were. Rust was only cosmetic.

Purchased a KA that was 3 years newer and £500 - £1000 less than the 500's, even though the KA is the same engine etc.
Ford did improve the suspension on the KA compared to the 500 though.

4 years later the KA needed one £12 drop link for the MOT.  3 basic services and one cambelt service.  Belt service interval
is fairly short on these engines.