Tips and advice for a first time buyer

Elessar

I am nearing the stage when I will be able to afford a car for the first time. I'm a guy, 20, with a provisional licence and I'm getting lessons atm from Airport Driving school.

I would like some tips on what a good first car would be in or around €2000 (something in the 1.0L range). Any recommendations? What year should I be looking at? (- things important to me are a nice, comfortable interior, power steering and ideally aircon.)

Also, what would be the best place to buy? Private or dealer? Do dealers haggle? I'd prefere dealer, as they give a limited warranty I believe.

Any tips on what to look for in a second hand car?

How did your first time go? I'd appreciate some advice.

Anan1

If your budget is €2,000 then buy privately. The kind of dealer who sells €2,000 cars is not the kind of person you want to be getting involved with. There are two other big advantages to buying privately; the car will be cheaper and you'll get to meet the previous owner. My best advice to you is to find a friend who knows something about cars and bring them with you. To answer your other question, everyone haggles - just remember, they want as much as possible for the car, but they do want to sell. When I'm buying a used car, condition and service history are always at the top of my list. If you don't know much about cars, looking at the seller can also be instructive. Have they had the car long? Do they appear honest? Fastidious? Polite? Rushed? Is their garden tidy? All these things give clues as to the attitude of the owner to car care.

Little-Devil

I would say if you can buy from a dealer and not private, but if your limit is only €2,000, then i think you will strugle with a dealer asi think there cheapest cars are usually around €4,000 - €5,000. If you were to buy private, then if you know a mechanic, get them to check it out for you and check when it had its last sevice, check the tyres etc. The only thing i wouls say is that if you bought it private, you could always leave it in to get a service to be on the safe side or if you know someone like wise.

I would recommend a VW POLO or Seat Ibiza there, but personally i would go for the VW POLO, my first car was a 98D polo and it was great and very reliable as well, never had any problems. You should have a look on www.carzone.ie and www.CBG.ie for cars to get an idea on the price and as to waht car you would also like. Its your first car so i wouldn't worry about looks to much etc.

Best of Luck with it.

Anan1

Search the boards if you don't believe me, the kind of dealer who sells €2,000 cars will tell you to take a hike if things go wrong. Plus, the money saved by buying privately could pay for a full service (or pay for a better car).

Elessar

Thanks, please keep the advice coming.

I might be able to up my budget to 3k.

Can anyone offer some more car recommendations?

pburns

Is image important? If not:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=445726

Reliable car, but I don't think any self-respecting 20-yr old bloke could possibly be seen in it!

Seat Ibiza 1.0 I reckon. VW Polo under the skin (but without the inflated price).

Elessar

pburns wrote:

Seat Ibiza 1.0 I reckon. VW Polo under the skin (but without the inflated price).

Will you elaborate here?

Yeah a micra is not bad, but i wouldn't mind something just a little bit nicer looking. The new models are really nice though.

I'd really prefere something with 4 doors (or is it 5 they call it?).

PauloMN

Anan1 wrote:

Search the boards if you don't believe me, the kind of dealer who sells €2,000 cars will tell you to take a hike if things go wrong. Plus, the money saved by buying privately could pay for a full service (or pay for a better car).

This is good advice, buy private for that money. A dealer selling a 2k car will have bought it for maybe 1k or less, and will not offer you any sort of warranty. No advantage over a private buy.

What are you looking for in a car? The 1 litre cars you will be looking at will be Micras and the like, and for basic, cheap and reliable A to B city driving, there's little that's better than a Micra. If you are "into" cars though, you'll quickly get bored with them as they're slow and poor handlers, and if you drive on the national roads, they're even more tiresome. If you can afford higher insurance, maybe go for a 1.4 litre - the car itself prob. won't cost any more if you're looking at 9 or 10 year old cars.

For a car at that price, and for a first time buyer, I'd always look Japanese for reliability. At that price, if you want air con, you'll be looking at an old import, and you'll probably get power steering, electric windows and central locking along with the air con.

Skyuser

Get a Ford Fiesta Ghia. It MIGHT have Air Con if ya lucky.

Elessar

Unfortunately I cannot go higher than a 1.0L car. I was quoted €3000 fully comp. to insure a 96 VW polo worth €2000. There is just no way I can afford the higher insurance.

Can I please get some more model names to look at? What japanese 1.0l cars are there PauloMN?

pburns

Elessar wrote:

Can I please get some more model names to look at? What japanese 1.0l cars are there PauloMN?

The Toyota Yaris is out of your price range unfortunetely. The Micra is the only suitable Jap car i can think of. An awful lot of 'small' cars are 1.2/1.3 these days.

I keep coming back to Seats - Arosa or Ibiza...

Or a Peugeot 106:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=432563

5500

Elessar wrote:

What japanese 1.0l cars are there ?

Toyota starlet,suzuki swift,nissan micra,suzuki alto, sure there's even more out there and well within your price backet

Elessar

Ok it seem the Ford fiesta ghia and seat arosa have most of the features I'm looking for. Anyone got opinions on these cars?

Additionally, how do people rate the VW polo?

Skyuser

You don't get air con BUT you do get E/W C/l Sunroof and Mahogony Dash for only €1500 here http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=462382

Anan1

Elessar wrote:

Ok it seem the Ford fiesta ghia and seat arosa have most of the features I'm looking for. Anyone got opinions on these cars?

Additionally, how do people rate the VW polo?

The smallest engine available in the Fiesta Ghia was a 1.25 ZETEC - I'd say you may have insurance problems with that. The 95 on Polo is a good solid car. It's not even remotely fast in 1.0 form, and most 1.0s don't have power steering but it does feel very solid. I'd recommend it. The Seat Arosa, AFAIK, is a variant of the VW Lupo, which is smaller than the Polo. By the way, how much would you save on your insurance by going for TP F&T?

Elessar

On the fiesta maybe 1-200, a bit more on the polo iirc.

I got a 3k quote fully comp on the fiesta aswell, though I might get a bit off if I shop around.

It's looking like the fiesta is a good option, though the polo has my eye aswell (I think they have power steering, e/w, etc. from 98 onwards..)

Please keep the advice coming, the more the better. Thanks all.

Anan1

The Fiesta is a great car in 1.25 form if you can insure it. It's much nippier than a 1.0 Polo, it handles pretty well, and it has enough of a big-car feel to make even long journies quite enjoyable. Build quality isn't perhaps quite as good as the Polo, but on the other hand parts & servicing are cheap & plentiful. Specification will be far better than a Polo too.

bazz26

Elessar wrote:

It's looking like the fiesta is a good option, though the polo has my eye aswell (I think they have power steering, e/w, etc. from 98 onwards..)

You will be hard pressed to find a Polo with electric windows, central locking or power steering before 2000. VW used prices tend to be over inflated for what you get.

The Fiesta 1.25 litre is a sweet little motor, that engine was designed by Yamaha and has about 75bhp. The Ghia model can be bought for the same as the basic model at this stage. You will have power steering, electric windows, central locking, sunroof or air conditioning and possibly a cd player.

I doubt a 1.25 litre 16 valve Fiesta will cost much more to insure than a 1.0 Polo as both cars are the same size and tend to be classed the same by insurance companies.

If you must stick to a 1.0 litre then take a look at a Jap import NissanMicra or they are better known as the March. The March will have a higher spec than Irish Micras. You will get electric windows, air conditioning, etc even on the 1.0 litre version.

alastair

Nissan March or Suzuki Cultus.

Buy privately and buy a Japanese import. Best cared for, and best specced options for a 1 litre motor.

I've just brought this Nissan Pao, which is basically a retro bodied Micra made for the Japanese maarket (like the Figaro), in from the UK. It provides all the practicalities of a basic Micra as a city car, with a bit more character. You avoid looking like a skanger, or a granny, but risk looking like a hairdresser. Not everyone's cup of tea.

Villaricos

if your still deciding between a fiesta and a polo, id recommend the fiesta. ive driven both cars and the fiesta is a much nicer machine to drive, even my mother who knows next to nothing about cars was complaining about the lack of life in the polo.
i would recommend a Jap car too though, theyre reliable and nice to drive. I have a Daihatsu at the mo, great little car. bought it second hand a year ago and havent had a day of trouble with it.

judesherry

Don't Know if it's what your looking for but I'm selling my 01 ford KA. Its perfect for your first car as it's a 1.3 but really nippy beacuse of its size. Its also easy to handle and has power stering. Its also really cheap to run. The best thing to do with insurance is to shop around as much as possible. I got really cheap insurance with insure.ie when I rang them. They got me cheaper insurance through my dads policy somehow. I had to send in his details but he wasnt on my policy it was just me. But than I am a 25 year old female.

Elessar

Ok so apart from the fiesta, polo or a seat, what other mainstream cars could I look at? How do people rate the fiats? I hear they're less reliable than most.

The fiesta is still on top for me atm, but certainly doesn't look as nice as pretty much everything else; beggars can't be choosers though I guess.

cantdecide

elessar, i know i'll be drawing the wrath of the rest of 'em by saying this for the gazillionth time but here goes. 1.6ltr insurance is not 1.6 times that of a 1.0 ltr, provided it is not an over-powered hot hatch. i also try to tell people not to buy a car to "learn to drive in" when you could just buy a car you can keep and not have to think about replacing in 6 months. if you're on a buget, and value for money is important. you won't wring more value out of a €3k mondeo/ vectra/ 626/ primera.

i would be very surprised if your insurance would be far greater. and they're a big hunk of car for a pittance. your usage is the most important thing when selecting a car IMO. difference in running costs is basically academic in all cars up to 1.8 in reality. so don't fall for the oul' cliches.....

Fey!

A lot of people will disagree, but I'd HAVE to go for this... http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=466230.
A bit spartan, but soooo cool!!! Probably doesn't have ac/ew/ps/cl..!!!

Here's a list of cars up to 1.1 litre between €2,000 to €3,000. http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=search&MakeID=&xMakeID=&ColourID=&xColourID=&xModelID=&Doors=&BodyID=&Engine_Min=&Year_Min=&Engine_Max=1100&Year_Max=&Price_Min=2000&Price_Min_integer=Minimum+price+entered+was+not+an+integer.&CountyID=&xCountyID=&Price_Max=3000&Price_Max_integer=Maximum+price+entered+was+not+an+integer.&BusinessID=&xBusinessID=&IsPrivateSale=&FuelID=&SortBy=MakeAsc&MaxRows=100&InsertPeriod=&ResultFormat=&submit=Find+%3E%3E
Some of them are terrible, but a lot have photos so you can rule out what you don't like the look of. Some aren't too bad.

Good luck with the hunt.