Choice of car

kitchpoo

missmom wrote: »

also i am looking for a 3dr.
was also wondering the argument is for automatic vs manual.
cos i kind of want an automatic but not sure.

An automatic will increase the CO2 and fuel consumption, and may take it to the next tax band on some cars. If you can bear a Corsa the easytronic semi-auto is a good option as you have the best of both worlds.

you do have another pm..

cyclonebri1

missmom wrote: »

Thanks guys for all the input,
i was advised against the Vauxhall and Peugoet because of their resale value (depreciates quickly),

was wondering, anyone knows much about ford fiestas and toyota corollas. Economy? Depreciating rate and all.

Will also start looking into renault clios
Apart from autotrader, any other good used car sale website?

Well I don't think thats actually true but even if it was at the price you are looking to pay, it would be working to your advantage not disadvantage as the greatest depreciation would have already taken place:money: :T

AdrianHi

Depreciation is less of a concern at the age your buying though it would still add may be £100 to £200 a year more to your long term costs.
Look up cars on www.whatcar.com, look for the running costs section and you find information about % value at 3 years and 36 months which is an indicator.
Also look up values of cars on "whats it worth" at www.parkers.co.uk. Here you can look up prices of cars you are considering and check the prices when say 2 years older to get an idea of how much value they are loosing.

A Clio is just as bad as a Corsa for depreciation unless you by the hot hatch version which holds it's value quite well.

Both of the above web sites are pretty good for comparing all cars you are thinking of. Adding the automatic option in most cases adds a lot to costs.

When it comes to money saving and cars a point often not understood is that, it's not what you pay for it, it's what you loose on it and what it costs you to have cash tied up in it or finance charges in loan payments on it that counts. The funding element of the formula is basically a finance charge. If you pay out on a loan the finance charge is going to be something like 8-9% APR, if funded from your savings it's something like 5% AER lost interest. Add that cost to the depreciation and that's what purchasing and depreciation is really costing you. The cars you are looking at don't "cost" £3000, they cost £3000 minus what you sell it for later plus all the other expenses.

missmom

Thank you.....still making a decision

Kez100

You must consider the road fund licence cost and miles per gallon in your final decision.

kitchpoo

Kez100 wrote: »

You must consider the road fund licence cost and miles per gallon in your final decision.

Along with servicing intervals and servicing prices.

AdrianHi

Kez100 wrote: »

You must consider the road fund licence cost and miles per gallon in your final decision.

Worth knowing, something many people are getting sensitive about with recent increases, but keep this cost in perspective. The difference between a £120 tax disk and a £240 tax disk is only £10 a month on a car which will take around £350 a month on average out of your income in the long run assuming an average 10,000 miles a year. It really is not that significant and those £0 road fund licence cars you can buy now come with purchase prices quite high compared to other small cars that will cost less all in.
On a £3,000 car the rising cost of fuel rapidily increases it's monthly cost in % of total terms. On bigger younger cars in the say £18K to £30K range it's not such a big impact.

www.parker.co.uk details on cars will tell you about tax disk costs today and the rises up to 2011.

cyclonebri1

OP, all good advise you've received so far and to summarise;

You have £3k to spend, most depreciation will already have happened so don't get hung up on that.

There are no real bad brands in the category you are looking at so don't dismiss any one out of hand.

There are rogue/monday morning cars of every brand so judge carefully

There are rogue traders out there so .............................................

Most importantly, this is to be your 1st car, you will remember this over all others so try them all and chose the one that gives the best balance of everything people have suggeseted, but above all chose the one that you find is the most enjoyable/fun to drive.

Good luck

:money:

goldspanners

the suzuki swift past and present models have always had good write ups,on here and the motoring press.

alastairq

For a novice/new driver , I would recommend looking at the Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 106 range.

These are basically the same car, built on the same production line, but with detail differences.
[I feel the Citroen C1 range offers the best of options]

Although small on the outside, they do seat 4 grownups without hassle.

But, from a NEW driver's point of view, I feel this range offers far more, in terms of keeping said driver safe and out of trouble.

They come equipped as standard, not just with ABS, but with what I believe is called, ESP...ie, if the driver does go round a corner a bit too fast...a common trait amongst new drivers, not being able to judge appropriate speed in a lot of situations.....then the individual brakes operate to prevent an sort of skid or loss of control.

the range comes equipped with airbags all round, a special steel passenger safety cell, etc etc.

Since statistically a new driver is one heck of a lot more likely to crash in their first 3 years of driving, than at any other time...any attempt to mitigate what may be the inevitable is, in my eyes, a good thing.

However, more important than any of the above stuff, is that they all come as standard, with an Ipod connection!

and they're cheap to boot.