Thinking of getting a car.some advice please~

bluefirefly

Hi. im a learner driver,couldnt practice on either of my parents car.mom drives an auto control,and dad drives a jeep. so my dad said he'll get a manual car so i could practice.not only for me.it'll be pass on to my brother and sister when they start to drive too.
so i want to get something that would be good for the next 4 years or so.
looking up at loads of posts. This is what i wish for. Japanese make car.small.around 1.0L ,1.2L .perhaps 00 and onwards?
Im learning to drive in a 06 micra.not too bad.and i've always loved the sivler blue..but dont think its fair on my bro..:P
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=571067 a black one with 3 doors.

Was looking at a Yaris as well.looks nice too
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=698566

the yaris is abit cheaper.and has 4 doors.(i prefer 4 doors.cos might need to drive my bro and sis to school some times.4 door is more convience for them ^.^ ) or any other sugestions? thanks
you~~

P.S. i really dont have much clues on cars....or what to look in a used cars..thanks

colm_mcm

That Yaris is a good price, and it's the rare Sol model. No ABS though

bluefirefly

i just presumed it has ABS as it's not a very old car. most cars have ABSs yeah?

bazz26

bluefirefly wrote:

i just presumed it has ABS as it's not a very old car. most cars have ABSs yeah?

ABS was only made standard on new cars sold in the EU from 2004/2005 afaik.

Most cars similar to the Yaris before then would not have had ABS as standard. It would have either been an expensive optional extra or only available on the top spec model.

cantdecide

if you haven't driven before, i'd recommend learning on your mums auto, gear changes are only a big deal when you have everything else to learn as well. if you are comfortable on the road with everything else, you could quickly add gear changes into the mix late on.

i'd recommend skoda octavia 1.4. very good, practical and affordable and easy to drive- most of the city cars are more difficult to drive i find. this probably has more saftey features and defintely are far more comfortable and definitely better value in my opinion and there's no point in having a learners car for 4 years when you can have a CAR car.

http://www.usedcars.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=698923

bluefirefly

might sound silly.but is there a big difference if a car has or has not ABS?

@cantdecide -but if i learn to drive in auto gear.i wouldnt manage to do the "clutch work" .in auto gear is more easier to drive in..but auto cars are quite hard to get in ireland. the gearbox on my moms car wasnt working.and it took the garage(merc) a LONG time to sort it out.which is ridiculous...
is there much of a dif between a 1L car and 1.4L ?

colm_mcm

The Yaris got ABS as standard in 2003 with the mid-year facelift, these models have an all red rear light cluster and have a CD player with square buttons rather than oval ones (they're the easist things to spot!)

I'd hold out for something with ABS, very useful if you miscalculate your stopping distace, easy to do when learning.