offered a....

cance

My better halfs brother is offloading his skoda as his beamer has been purchased. hes offered me the following for 2k. This would be my first car.

Skoda Octavia 1.6 AMBIENTE.
2001.
80,000 miles.
just been serviced.
glass cracked on rear right light housing but other than that mint condition.
Due NCT next year IIRC.

I'm on my provisional at the moment and have been quoted €2081 fully comp on this car. bringing the grand total to 4k... ish.

I havent a clue about this sort of thing, im a "if it has 4 working wheels and goes, ill drive it" kinda person, but the octavia is a nice looking car with shed loads of space.

whats the concensus?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Sounds like a very good price for a car of that age.

Henry Ford III

Are you mad? €2100 for insurance on a €2000 car?

Buy something with a much smaller engine.

peasant

The car sounds like a very good deal ...insurance on the other hand isn't

Tony Danza

Seems pretty bang on to me. And you're probably going to pay high insurance no matter what car you get. I doubt the difference would be more than a few hundred euro on a 1.0 corsa or something.

cance

Henry Ford III wrote:

Are you mad? €2100 for insurance on a €2000 car?

see thats where i need your advice :P

i havent a clue about this kinda stuff.

I'm 24 and on my first year provisional. Im getting lessons atm, but im being advised to buy and start going out on my own.

i was quoted 2k for the 1.6 which i knew was painful, but i was expecting that.

when i searched for a quote (on a micra for example) valued around 1.5-2k it didnt come up much in the difference... some places wouldnt even quote me on a micra?!?

Jip

At that price it's a steal.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Nice car, nice price.

I got insured on a 1.4l 1999 Almera for €1700 2 years ago at the age of 23, first provisional licence. It actually wouldn't have made things much cheaper for me to insure a Micra I remember.

However you have a pretty large engine there for a learner driver. I think but I could be wrong that most insurance companies don't like to have learner drivers with engines above 1.5l or something like that.

But if you pass your test quickly you will save a pile. Passed my test in December and March this year at 24 I got quoted €730 for the same car and with a refund for having a full licence between late December to the start of March I ended up paying €600.

NOTE: The insurance is third party, fire and theft with FBD.

C_Breeze

Why don't you just get tpf&t instead of full comp if you are paying only 2k for the car.

R.O.R

Insurance is expensive but should come down considerably next year when you are 25 and (I should hope) have your full licence.

Car sounds like a fantastic bargain at that price and €4,000 for a years motoring in a 2001 Skoda 1.6 is very reasonable.

cance

C_Breeze wrote:

Why don't you just get tpf&t instead of full comp if you are paying only 2k for the car.

well i would have thought it would be worth more than 2k, and there is only a 175 euro difference between tp and fully comp.

C_Breeze

ah ok , i thought difference would have been more than 175!

Well you are getting a good deal on the car but being shafted on insurance, so they cancel each other out.

But as previously mentioned , ~4k for 1yr motoring in a 1.6 '01 octavia is good considering its your first car and you have a Prov.

Id say go for it!

yop

great price on the car, BUT, as said u are killing yourself with the insurance. Get a quote on a 1.3 or a 1.4 on a similar aged car and price and see if there is much difference.
If not then go with it, but get a Third party fire and theft quote also.

Fizman

I'd say go for it. I'm 24 and on my first provisional too and driving a Golf 1.4 and insurance is 1850 full comp, so its not like your getting shafted with insurance seeing as it is a 1.6.

2k is a total steal.

gucci

take it, take it!!!
no contest here!! in fairness, if you were to buy a smaller car (1 litre or whatever) you'd pay the same amount and only probably save 2 or 3 hundred on your insurance, everyone has to take a hit the first year or two. good luck with it!!

BeardyGit

Have a look at my recent thread - Link's in my signature. For €175, don't even think about skimping on the insurance..... BTW - Great price for the car, as long as it's been maintained. Don't forget to consider the extra you'll spend on road tax too....

ptashka

paid €2200 insurance on 1.1 punto worth €1000. was 19 and on provisional.

so insurance isn't gonna be that different on a smaller car for you. infact, your quote is really good

It BeeMee

R.O.R wrote:

Car sounds like a fantastic bargain at that price and €4,000 for a years motoring in a 2001 Skoda 1.6 is very reasonable.

It's even cheaper that that: the car should be still worth at least the €2,000 you pay for it this time next year - I know someone recently bought a 2000 1.6 for €4,500 which was the cheapest that could be found at the time.

On that basis, OP, you should go for it. It'll only cost you the tax and insurance for the year, you're not going to get better than that.

ballooba

Take his arm off!!! That's a steal. WRT to the rear light, it's a €90 part and a 10 minute job (3 nuts AFAIR), I'll even fit it for you myself if your worried about it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SKODA-OCTAVIA-OFF-SIDE-REAR-LIGHT-BREAKING-SPARE-PARTS_W0QQitemZ200141758626QQihZ010QQcategoryZ100919QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OFFSIDE-REAR-LAMP-LIGHT-NEW-MODEL-SKODA-OCTAVIA_W0QQitemZ230163441142QQihZ013QQcategoryZ100919QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Skoda-Octavia-rear-lights_W0QQitemZ260151776534QQihZ016QQcategoryZ100919QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ciarsd

Cance, a bit of shopping around on the phone should yield a better quote than that surely?

layke

If insurance id a prob, buy the car and sell it for more.

In fairness if your on a provisional and under 25 that insurance is quite reasonable. If your over 25 and on a provo the insurance company is having a laugh with you.

ballooba

ciarsd wrote:

Cance, a bit of shopping around on the phone should yield a better quote than that surely?

I agree. Get a broker on the case too. My quote at a similar age on similar car was €1800 with a bit of leverage.

cance

after some ringing around, 2 out of 5 well known insurance companies pretty much told me to piss off with my 1.6 on first license.

anyway, quinn came back with

1,841.80 fully comp
1,397.39 for TPF&T

which is the clear winner. fully comp vs TP... hmmmm.

ciarsd

amazing what 5 mins of your time & 20c on a telephone call can do

Fey!

The car sounds like a very good deal.

As for the insurance tpf&t v comp, bear in mind that you'll be insuring the car for a value of €4,750 - €5,950, if the figures on carzone mean anything.
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=search&MakeID=28&xMakeID=28&ColourID=&xColourID=&ModelID=248&xModelID=248&Doors=4&BodyID=4248&Engine_Min=1500&Year_Min=2000&Engine_Max=1700&Year_Max=2000&Price_Min=&Price_Min_integer=Minimum+price+entered+was+not+an+integer.&CountyID=&xCountyID=&Price_Max=&Price_Max_integer=Maximum+price+entered+was+not+an+integer.&BusinessID=&xBusinessID=&IsPrivateSale=&FuelID=&Mileage_Max=&Mileage_Max_integer=Max+mileage+entered+was+not+an+integer.&SortBy=MakeAsc&MaxRows=100&InsertPeriod=&ResultFormat=&submit=Find+%3E%3E
There are a few other 1.6 2000's there for up to €6,500. The car isn't available on the VRT calculator for some reason.

Shop around for insurance. If your parents use one company, then have them ring that company and say "will you better or match our sons' lowest quote, or do we change insurers?". Always worth a try.

Try a broker, AA, and FBD.

cance

ballooba wrote:

€90 part and a 10 minute job (3 nuts AFAIR)

legend, thanks for the help with that.

ref TP or fully comp, jaysus gill. Im so sorry to hear what happened, may the drivers genitals get caught in a freak harpooning accident.

ballooba

If you don't want to be insured with Quinn you can go back to the other insurers and tell them what Quinn quoted you. See if they will beat it. €1800 sounds about right though.

Stark

Go for it. You'll be screwed one way or another if you're 24/provisional/no NCB. Hopefully your insurance will come down an awful lot next year and you'll have a nice car to go with it. My insurance went from 1600 (same as yourself 24/prov/no NCB) to 750 in one year (25/full/1 years).

Also try valuing the car for what it's worth rather than what you paid for it when obtaining insurance. You might think a higher valued car would cost more to insure, but in actual fact, insurers look at low valued cars and think "rusted deathtraps".

ballooba

Fey! wrote:

Shop around for insurance. If your parents use one company, then have them ring that company and say "will you better or match our sons' lowest quote, or do we change insurers?". Always worth a try.

Good advice.

GB15

gucci wrote:

take it, take it!!!

I agree - go for it.

bazz26

Putting a girlfriend or parent on the insurance policy as a named driver might actually reduce the premium too.

Fey!

OT; isn't it unusual for everyone to agree on boards?

fletch

Fey! wrote:

OT; isn't it unusual for everyone to agree on boards?

And an Octavia thread where nobody has mentioned the size of its boot.

BeardyGit

fletch wrote:

And an Octavia thread where nobody has mentioned the size of its boot.

Yeah....It's incredible. 'cos they have such a big boot. In fairness, the OP wrote: "I havent a clue about this sort of thing, im a "if it has 4 working wheels and goes, ill drive it" kinda person, but the octavia is a nice looking car with shed loads of space."

unkel

Buy the Octavia for €2k. Sell it for €5k. Buy a late 90s small car (micra / fiesta) for €2k. That leaves plenty to pay for tax, insurance, driving lessons and a lot of petrol!

In two years time, with two years NCB, buy a nice car...

ballooba

His gf's brother is not giving him the car so that he can sell it to make a profit. It's a kind offer, don't rip him off.

Vikings

Take the car definitely. The savings you make on the car will far outweigh the 'expensive' insurance you will have to pay on it for a year or two plus when it comes to resale time you will find you have not lost any money on it either! Win win.

unkel

ballooba wrote:

His gf's brother is not giving him the car so that he can sell it to make a profit. It's a kind offer, don't rip him off.

OP used the word "offloading" which doesn't sound like almost giving a present. But you're probably right, the gf's brother might not be impressed to hear it's been sold on for a (big) profit

In that case, buy the car and get the cheapest insurance. The €1,400 sounds like a pretty good deal. This will probably drop to below a grand after a years NCB and with a full license

cance

ballooba wrote:

His gf's brother is not giving him the car so that he can sell it to make a profit. It's a kind offer, don't rip him off.

exactly, i'd be divorced before marriage!

cance

anyone any hates for the octavia?
whats this about the boot?
any known problems?

hes off in america atm, he gets back on monday so i have till then to make my mind up.

ballooba

The only people you will find on here who 'hate' the Octavia are only doing so to counteract those who 'love' it. It's a Passat without the Passat price tag, there's not much to not like. The Octavia was a hot topic here for months. Thankfully not so much of late. Check out what Honest John has to say.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=369&

unkel

ballooba wrote:

It's a Passat without the Passat price tag

Even better. It's a Golf without the Golf price tag

It's also much bigger than a Golf and as mentioned it has a huge boot (same size as in my BMW 7-series, but much more practical). But make no mistake. It is utterly boring. It is a means to transport a few people and a some stuff cheaply and reliably from A to B

Like a Toyota, but much cheaper

ballooba

Forgot that it is actually a Golf. I hear you on the boring, but it's not as boring as a Micra or a Starlet.

craichoe

Go for it, 1.6 is a decent size, you get a 1 Litre and 6 months down the road you'll be wishing you went for the Octavia.

Why is it that people driving micras are all over the place when their driving !

Oh .. BTW .. go for the ignition test and get your full license asap to bring the price down

cance

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted a reply and helped out an ignorant motorist.

I have decided to take the car, Thank you all so much. its refreshing to find a board that is as helpful as this one.

Rowley Birkin QC

Best of luck with it. I learned how to drive on a 1.5 petrol, found it gave me a bit of confidence when overtaking.