First Time Car Buyer - Automatic - Any Help Appreciated

DinkyStars

Thought I would give you an update. I took the helpful advice from here and this week once I acquired my contact lenses, I test drove a couple of automatics including the Toyota Yaris, VW Polo, Golf, and a Suzuki Swift. I loved the Yaris as well as the Golf and Polo but the Yaris being newer was more expensive and pushing above my budget, so I opted for a 67 plate VW Polo 1.2 TSI Match Edition 5dr and with just over £12,300 miles on the clock and one owner I got a pretty good deal with them being extra nice and knocking off some money, so it came in at just under £14,600, my budget was £15,000.

I did use the motability named driver route with a few insurance companies earlier and only one would take my word for it without ‘paperwork or evidence’ they were happy to have a copy of the insurance document from Motability showing I was a named driver and called me back sometime later which lower the quote online I got, so for my first insurance premium living in a rubbish crime ridden area, I am paying £828 for insurance the other quotes came in at £900+ with one company wanting £1600, this is better than when I first tried six years ago where the cheapest quote was £4000 – I kid you not and that was for a Hyundai i10 Automatic which was only £5600!

Hopefully ‘Helena’ will be ready to pick up on Monday, so it is just a case of Car Tax which I believe I get discounted because I am currently on standard rate PIP for Mobility.

Helena is dark blue in case your interested!

I'm happy, thanks for the help!  

DB1904

DinkyStars said:

Thought I would give you an update. I took the helpful advice from here and this week once I acquired my contact lenses, I test drove a couple of automatics including the Toyota Yaris, VW Polo, Golf, and a Suzuki Swift. I loved the Yaris as well as the Golf and Polo but the Yaris being newer was more expensive and pushing above my budget, so I opted for a 67 plate VW Polo 1.2 TSI Match Edition 5dr and with just over £12,300 miles on the clock and one owner I got a pretty good deal with them being extra nice and knocking off some money, so it came in at just under £14,600, my budget was £15,000.

I did use the motability named driver route with a few insurance companies earlier and only one would take my word for it without ‘paperwork or evidence’ they were happy to have a copy of the insurance document from Motability showing I was a named driver and called me back sometime later which lower the quote online I got, so for my first insurance premium living in a rubbish crime ridden area, I am paying £828 for insurance the other quotes came in at £900+ with one company wanting £1600, this is better than when I first tried six years ago where the cheapest quote was £4000 – I kid you not and that was for a Hyundai i10 Automatic which was only £5600!

Hopefully ‘Helena’ will be ready to pick up on Monday, so it is just a case of Car Tax which I believe I get discounted because I am currently on standard rate PIP for Mobility.

Helena is dark blue in case your interested!

I'm happy, thanks for the help!  

Yes 50%.

https://www.gov.uk/financial-help-disabled/vehicles-and-transport

cymruchris

DinkyStars said:

It will only be me using it, alongside a small dog.

I hope the dog has a full license! The VW DSG boxes of late have appeared to be quite reliable. I think you've made a decent choice. Did it come with any servicing package? If not - try and remember to budget in the servicing at a reputable garage. If you're only pootling around town locally driving fairly low mileages, then changing the oil as per the service schedule based on 'time' rather than 'mileage' will be important. If you're doing lots of miles - the reverse would apply - service on mileage rather than time. (Usually the service schedule will say something like 12 months/12,000 miles or something like that - and you service it when you reach whichever of the two first).

I had a DSG Golf a few years ago - and it was a really decent car. It did me for 80,000 miles totally trouble free over 3 years - except for ONE breakdown at 000235 miles with a DSG fault (I still remember the mileage - as it was my second day of ownership). They diagnosed it as 'dust in the gearbox' but never happened again. I'm sure you won't have any such problems