Recommendations for a good little first time car?

Kitschy_Cat

Hi,

I'm 25 and looking to buy my first car in the price range of 2.5k..

Does anyone have any good advice on what kind of car to go for? Also, I don't want my insurance to be sky high so I'm looking at 1.4 to 1.6 engines...

I've heard Audi A3's are reliable cars.. originally was looking at 2002/2003 VW Golfs but I've heard they're not that dependable..

Any suggestions on what I should be looking at and also basic checks I should do before buying a particular car? Does mileage say a lot about a car's reliability?

I'm a bit clueless when it comes to these things..

P.S- I'm not a huge fan of Micra's/Yaris/Fiat Puntos.

tmboy95

A nice corolla might suit you , very reliable providing the car is in good shape. Also parts should be handy to get and they are nice looking and inside your price range. The newer shape corolla even like 02 upwards.
Mileage is important enough too and when timing belt was done last. Also any receipts for servicing etc. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice here , I always have

bazz26

Have a look at the Ford Focus, 1.4 litre will not win any races but given it's your first car it should do you fine. Focus is a solid car once you can find an un-abused example.

dh0011

corolla focus mazda 3 would be what i would look at

Max Power1

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

Hi,

I'm 25 and looking to buy my first car in the price range of 2.5k..

Does anyone have any good advice on what kind of car to go for? Also, I don't want my insurance to be sky high so I'm looking at 1.4 to 1.6 engines...

I've heard Audi A3's are reliable cars.. originally was looking at 2002/2003 VW Golfs but I've heard they're not that dependable..

Any suggestions on what I should be looking at and also basic checks I should do before buying a particular car? Does mileage say a lot about a car's reliability?

I'm a bit clueless when it comes to these things..

P.S- I'm not a huge fan of Micra's/Yaris/Fiat Puntos.

Same company makes both

Karl Stein

Mazda 323
2002
1.3 litre
100,000 M
tax and NCT till end of year
four new tyres just put on it.
Price: € 1,500



http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/mazda-323f-for-sale/5282919

Kitschy_Cat

Thanks guys, I'll expand the search to include these cars!

active1234

Honda Civic 1.7 Diesel, think the 02-06 shape roughly, cheap to insure, easy to run, very reliable, plus great on snow!

BGozIE

The Audi A3 wouldn't be the most reliable car, particularly taking into account its price compared to similar cars. Then you have slightly higher maintenance costs.

I would look at the Ford Focus personally. Failing that, have a look at the mazda 3

Kitschy_Cat

Any thoughts on a Peugot 206?

Woofstuff

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

Any thoughts on a Peugot 206?

You'd be better off with a dark horse of a car... Check out mitsubishi colt. You'd probably might get a decent 2005 at or near your budget on done deal . 5 door version looks horrible you want the 3 door one.

Only 1.1 but very nippy and fuel efficient.. Spacious inside and versatile

BGozIE

Very clean focus. He wants 2500, could get it for closer to 2100-2200 with cash. Mileage might be a tad high for you.

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/03-ford-focus-ghia-new-nct-fsh/5281064

Regarding the 206, I think there OK. Not particularly good in any sense. I don't know much about them though.

I suppose for 2.5k your priority should be to find a good clean example of a car. Rather then the actual brand/make, as sometimes you end up paying for just that...the "name" e.g (VW, Audi etc)

I don't know if you would consider this, but these are a fine car. Quite quick for the size of the car. I had one as my first car for 3 years. Never gave me an ounce of trouble, only the usual wear and tear items, and some ignition coils. But, as with a lot of earlier fiat stuff, the electrical components wouldn't be faultless

I really couldn't rate them enough. The Fiat Stilo. Some may disagree

There is an 05 one with low mileage, they come with a lot of extras as standard and in 3 door they look nice.

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/05-fiat-stilo-1-4-16v/5228745

It is a fiat though, so I'm sure its not ideal for everyone.

Kitschy_Cat

That focus is nice but I don't think I could learn to love the Fiat Stilo!

Anyone know if there's some sort of basic course you can take for common problems that can go wrong with cars?

I don't want to be that stereotypical woman who needs help changing a tire/oil etc!

BGozIE

Fair point on the old Stilo worth a shout. There a better car then the 206 IMO.

If you like the 206 here is a nice clean one, with long NCT and low mileage (providing its genuine)

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/peugeot-206-2005-nct-to-july-2015-/5317080

3 door would be very small if size is an issue for you. But there are plenty of 206's on DD and carzone in your price range.

You don't need a course to learn to change a tire. I'm sure a youtube video will suffice.

Changing the oil will require some tools, but again not very difficult. You should at least be able to check the oil levels and top it up, again a youtube video will suffice.

As far as stereotypical problems, I don't think there is any real common stuff that would be worth learning, unless your guna replace disks/brake pads and general wear and tear stuff yourself.

Outkast_IRE

My first car I bought was a 01 ford focus 1.4 in 2006, I still have it to this day to be fair it was in mint condition when I bought it and since then bar the usual maintenance I have only had to have two minor things done to it
1. Coil pack.
2. Speed Sensor.
both are known to go on the focus and both are relatively cheap jobs to fix.

So I also chip in with focus, as long as you can get a good one that hasn't been abused.

Kitschy_Cat

That is a nice little car. Size isn't really an issue.. I don't have kids or anything. Just need something for getting around in that won't cause me too much hassle! I suppose insurance is a major thing I should be considering too :-s

I'm definitely leaning more towards the Focus and Peugeot 206 now

Is there any way of telling if a car's mileage has been fixed? I'm pretty skeptical of the older models on car sites with low mileage!

Woofstuff

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

Is there any way of telling if a car's mileage has been fixed? I'm pretty skeptical of the older models on car sites with low mileage!

You can do a car history check, recently they began checking against NCT records, but I wouldn`t trust this to be honest as I doubt they have it sorted and I think it is a recent thing altogether.

If the seller kept all previous NCT certs it would be good, the mileage on the clock at the time of the test will be indicated on them.

kupus

Just bear in mind that you pay 2500 for a car, but thats only the start of your payments. then comes petrol/diesel tax insurance getting ready for nct, always leave a bit extra in your budget for breakdowns or some other emergency.

Other cars you should consider: renault modus, nissan note, honda jazz, suzuki ignis. All are relatively cheap to run, great little run arounds. Look here for the reviews of used cars.
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/
and
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/

BGozIE

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

Is there any way of telling if a car's mileage has been fixed? I'm pretty skeptical of the older models on car sites with low mileage!

There is a few things you can check;

1. Past and present NCT certs. They al have the mileage recorded on them at time of test. So you need to compare the certs and see if it makes logical sense.

2. Over wear on the inside of the car. e.g overly worn gear knob. Worn out carpet on the driver side. Worn out seats etc. Not always a garuntee but a good sign.

3. Ideally you want too see a service history, the garages, who carried out the service, should stamp the service book with a record of the mileage and when the next service is due.

4. Not very common, but if you look for strange marks around the dial/speedometer eg where the mileage is displayed. This could show the instrument had been tampered with.

BGozIE

kupus wrote: »

Just bear in mind that you pay 2500 for a car, but thats only the start of your payments. then comes petrol/diesel tax insurance getting ready for nct, always leave a bit extra in your budget for breakdowns or some other emergency.

Other cars you should consider: renault modus, nissan note, honda jazz, suzuki ignis. All are relatively cheap to run, great little run arounds. Look here for the reviews of used cars.
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/
and
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/

Honda Jazz in particular is a good shout there. Along with the suzuki ignis. There will be slightly less of those then 206's/focus's tho, therefore it might be harder to find a good nice one, but definetly worht our consideration.

Katunga

Ford fiesta very reliable car. Perfect for a first car.

Systemic Risk

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

Any thoughts on a Peugot 206?

My girlfriend has a 04 206 1.1l with only about 40,000 miles and while its fine to drive around town there always seems to be something wrong with it. Small enough things usually but clutch just had to be replaced.

It seems every few months it needs to go to the garage for something, maybe it just seems like that though because there were a few things recently that required attention. Also the bulbs are constantly going and are difficult enough to replace.

As I said nice enough car to drive around town but for overtaking a car travelling at 80kph would need a good long clear stretch as the acceleration is crap at higher speeds. She had a 1.4l 206 previously and she said it was quite nippy.

holdmybeer

Don't spend 2.5k on a first car. I started with a MkIV Astra 00 for 700e. Get a **** box you can bang, scrape and not care about if you make a mistake in it. Corolla '97, Corsa '98, Fiesta '99 are all good h/backs.

H3llR4iser

Kitschy_Cat wrote: »

That is a nice little car. Size isn't really an issue.. I don't have kids or anything. Just need something for getting around in that won't cause me too much hassle! I suppose insurance is a major thing I should be considering too :-s

You're dead right. Unless you have some kind of NCD you can claim (e.g. named driver on an existing policy), be ready for a shocker. My insurance was 1.200 Euro/year on a 1.4 last October (32, full EU license since 1999, didn't have a car for 4 years so my previous EU NCD had expired). Not only, the insurer I went with was actually the only one offering me a quote; All the others refused flat out - as soon as they heard "no NCD".

An old(ish) 1.4, maybe 10 years old, will be very pricey for a new customer to insure; A 1.6...very likely, not going to happen...maybe the small engined 206 is your best bet, if you like it.

I don't want to scare you, but you DEFINITELY want to run a few quotes through insurance companies websites; some people here will tell you to ring around, in my experience it's wasted time - all the operators I spoke with ran the exact same quote and came back with the exact same result as the website. A broker, however, might help you sort the thing out.