First car

The_B_Man

So I'm on a provisional and I've done my 12 EDT lessons, and I was named on my sisters car to practice in.

However, I've moved out so have no access to her car anymore, so figured I'd buy my own to practice with before I do my test. I'm pretty sure I can get a qualified driver to come out with me so that should be fine.

The main thing I'm focusing on now is finding the right car. The 2 types of advice I've been getting have been:
1. Get a cheap yoke,
2. Don't get a cheap yoke.

I suppose my budget will determine what advice I take!

What would be a respectable budget for a first car? I could probably go for 1k-2k. Maybe try get a 2002 Polo or something.

Should I bother looking at older cars, or try get a good price on a new one? I could probably get a loan of the parents and stretch it to about 6k if I must, but I'd rather not.

What are the generally accepted starter cars out there? Should I stick below a 1.6? And should I avoid buying privately? Also, I know carzone and autotrader but are there any other sites I should be looking at?


Cheers.

dgt

NCT Till May 14, 1400

Cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to service, feels nice inside, not a yaris or something insulting

thegreatiam

as a learner driver you will be more prone to accidents. either by misjudging distance and scraping the paint or making a mistake and hitting someone else. Hopefully it will be the former.

That being said you want a cheap car.
You dont want a junk car.
try to find something in the 1.0 ltr-1.4 ltr range, circa 2000-2004. in good repair, that runs well.
just remember this is the car you will learn in, not live with, if its a pink micra so be it.
You dont want this to be something you will love with all your heart, your pride and joy because it will hurt more come the inevitable bumps and scrapes. on the same token you dont want to have invested too much financially.

Insurance will also be an issue, anything more than 1.4 and you will be payng higher.

A 1.4 skoda fabia was my learner car, scraped the side, ripped the bumper off on a fence in the rain but it runs well and is cheap to insure. cost me 750 and another 750 to insure it.

micra, punto, corsa, fiesta etc cheap to run, cheap to insure, cheap to buy. and not a complete shock to the system if you forget to engage reverse and drive into a wall.

discombobulate

The_B_Man wrote: »

What are the generally accepted starter cars out there? Should I stick below a 1.6? And should I avoid buying privately? Also, I know carzone and autotrader but are there any other sites I should be looking at?
Cheers.

For your budget Donedeal is probably the best place to look as you'll be very limited with dealers selling cars for around 1k. Look for something that has had the NCT recently preferably. Its not the best indicator of a cars condition but can help.

If you know somebody that know's a bit about cars or ideally a mechanic bring them along with you to view anything your interested in.

I bought a 1.4 02 Astra when I was learning 3 years ago. Turned out to be a piece of scrap though as I didn't know anything much about what to look out for at the time.

Foxhole Norman

dgt wrote: »

not a yaris or something insulting

Hey! :pac:

I'd go for the fiesta as well, a friend of mine has one and he's on his Learners Permit too and insurance is relatively cheap. It does have slightly more comforts than my Yaris such as a Leather steering wheel which I miss very much.

Mister Jingles

Foxhole Norman wrote: »

Hey! :pac:

I'd go for the fiesta as well, a friend of mine has one and he's on his Learners Permit too and insurance is relatively cheap. It does have slightly more comforts than my Yaris such as a Leather steering wheel which I miss very much.

Which easily peals off.

dgt

Foxhole Norman wrote: »

Hey! :pac:

I'd go for the fiesta as well, a friend of mine has one and he's on his Learners Permit too and insurance is relatively cheap. It does have slightly more comforts than my Yaris such as a Leather steering wheel which I miss very much.

Didn't mean it like that!

The..... Er..... Well..... She has one and it's awful to be in over 100kmh (how she goes down the motorway everyday, for the past 3 years to college, madder than me :eek: though drives at only 80ish kmh....) at motorway speeds it was anything but happy, constantly wandering about, buzzy, loud and felt like it was going to fall apart. Constant handbrake issues. Driving position was awful and uncomfortable for myself (6ft 2). She crashed it one night (back driven in) and we straightened the back of it out, only to find that there were 3 different boot types with different looms and wiper motors. Had to bodgeify the loom to get the heated rear window and shoved a grommet over the wiper hole. Such nasty plastics inside, a miserable job straightening the back with triple skinning in places and awkward narrow passages. It was crashed before too. It constantly clonked over the slightest bump and despite my concerns on changing the top mounts/balljoints it still passed the NCT :rolleyes: noises like that cannot be safe.

Not cheap to buy, most command a pretty penny for the same year as the festy I put up

On the plus side it was surprisingly zippy, it always (somewhat) started and spent naff all on service bits. Rear seats moved forewards and back, nice touch useful tray under the front seat for scraper/blanket etc. Front seats folded back flat, plenty of room for...... Ladders

But there are better cars out there. Honestly op if you do any kind of long distance driving then don't get one. That is a rather unbiased experience of one, 2 and a bit years in the making.... No more making!

dh0011

I think 1-2 K will do fine. Have a look on donedeal for whats available. For that money and given your on a provisional i would be thinking something like a yaris. Worth realising that the more reliabile the car the cheaper it will be. When i was a young lad a lot of my buddies bought fiats cheap to buy but expensive to own(some say they are more reliable nowadays).

You could pick up a decent fiat panda.
I would probably buy something like
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4744309 - looks good value
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/5025077 - nice but you would have to pay VRT
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4877245 - boring but ok
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4981163 - a vw underneath but cheap
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4896318 - i think this has had its engine changed - be careful of this sort of thing

Also there is a thread here that might be useful. Cars poster here dont hang around for long though
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056924921&page=40

I have to say that when you pick a car get it checked by a mechanic before buying. There are so many ****ers out there who will see a young lad coming and try to pull a fast one. I could have got caught only my old fellah kept an eye on what I was doing.

By the way where abouts in the country are you? Post back with what you think of those cars. If you dont like any of them i wont get upset but if people have an idea of what you like til be easier to help you.

discombobulate

dh0011 wrote: »

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4744309 - looks good value
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/5025077 - nice but you would have to pay VRT
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4877245 - boring but ok
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4981163 - a vw underneath but cheap
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/4896318 - i think this has had its engine changed - be careful of this sort of thing

I'd disagree with Corsa's and Astra's of that era both on my experience with an Astra and a couple of friends that had Corsa's. The fiesta's, Yaris's, civics etc. would be better buys in my opinion.

dh0011

What trouble had you - will be good for the OP to hear the problems you had.

discombobulate

dh0011 wrote: »

What trouble had you - will be good for the OP to hear the problems you had.

Head gasket. Their well known for it from what i've heard in the 1.4 at least. Might be different for the 1.2. If you type opel head gasket into the search on the site here you'll find a lot of examples.

A lot of other small things went wrong but that was the main one. Can't imagine the same car in a 1.2 either judging by how slow my 1.4 was.

Foxhole Norman

dgt wrote: »

Didn't mean it like that!

The..... Er..... Well..... She has one and it's awful to be in over 100kmh (how she goes down the motorway everyday, for the past 3 years to college, madder than me :eek: though drives at only 80ish kmh....) at motorway speeds it was anything but happy, constantly wandering about, buzzy, loud and felt like it was going to fall apart. Constant handbrake issues. Driving position was awful and uncomfortable for myself (6ft 2). She crashed it one night (back driven in) and we straightened the back of it out, only to find that there were 3 different boot types with different looms and wiper motors. Had to bodgeify the loom to get the heated rear window and shoved a grommet over the wiper hole. Such nasty plastics inside, a miserable job straightening the back with triple skinning in places and awkward narrow passages. It was crashed before too. It constantly clonked over the slightest bump and despite my concerns on changing the top mounts/balljoints it still passed the NCT :rolleyes: noises like that cannot be safe.

You're right with it not being 100+ KPH friendly but it does the job fine, it does feel a bit wobbly but it is a tiny car on tiny wheels.

dh0011

ouch - if there is head gasket trouble then OP ignore the links to those opels

dh0011

pity my driving instructor had one and if i was to get a small car I would have gone for one of them

dgt

Foxhole Norman wrote: »

You're right with it not being 100+ KPH friendly but it does the job fine, it does feel a bit wobbly but it is a tiny car on tiny wheels.

I ran my van for 5k miles on Transpeed 2's: 165/70r14s, felt fine at motorway speeds.....

Yaris more suited to low miles/urban town driving methinks

Foxhole Norman

dgt wrote: »

I ran my van for 5k miles on Transpeed 2's: 165/70r14s, felt fine at motorway speeds.....

Yaris more suited to low miles/urban town driving methinks

No doubt about it. It wants to be run around at 50-60.