Opinion between these 3 cars

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Hi all

I'm in the market for a car and I'm hoping someone who is familiar with the Irish car market can give me some direction.

A little bit of background:
We are both 35 years old and have been driving for more than 15 years. We don't have a Irish NCB. We're both from SAfrica and the Insurance companies wont accept our SAfrican NCB.

This makes insurance quotes ridiculous for us but we just have to suck it up I guess.

We've narrowed down our choice of cars to the following three. Edit: They are all automatics for maximum laziness :pac:

(€5450) Suzuki Swift 2010 @ 100k km
(€6650) Mazda 2 / Demio 2010 @ 115k km
(€7950) Opel Corsa 2014 @ 118k km

When we do a insurance quote on these three they average out at €1800.

What I would like help on is which of these three will give me the least troubles and are cheap in parts / labour.

The car will mostly be used for driving the wife to and from work (20km round trip per day) and some trips round the country

I'm currently eyeing the Opel Corsa as that is the newest but it has a lot of KM's for its age and it's the most expensive.

Thank you!

CiniO

Did you check all insurers in relation to accepting your South African NCB?

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

CiniO wrote: »

Did you check all insurers in relation to accepting your South African NCB?

We phoned many insurers and it was always the same story. We haven't checked all of them but the handful we did try have all declined.

We've given up on trying to use our SA NCB. Not worth the hassle and heartache.

CiniO

Russell Mysterious Wintergreen wrote: »

We phoned many insurers and it was always the same story. We haven't checked all of them but the handful we did try have all declined.

We've given up on trying to use our SA NCB. Not worth the hassle and heartache.

Well if you have full ncb from there and you say average premium you get is 1800 then the hassle might be worth about €900.
Definitely worth a try even if you had to ring every single insurer on the market.
Try some brokers as well.

humberklog

Not to get hung up on your insurance problem but it might be worth your while ringing an insurance broker. They're a thing here. It might be worth your while ringing 1 or 2 before throwing in the towel.

I drive an '05 Suzuki (not Swift) and it's by far the most reliable car I've ever had (about 8 manufacturers).

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

CiniO wrote: »

Well if you have full ncb from there and you say average premium you get is 1800 then the hassle might be worth about €900.
Definitely worth a try even if you had to ring every single insurer on the market.
Try some brokers as well.

humberklog wrote: »

Not to get hung up on your insurance problem but it might be worth your while ringing an insurance broker. They're a thing here. It might be worth your while ringing 1 or 2 before throwing in the towel.

I hear you.

We have tried brokers too, Glennon and Campion and the response is the same.

I've spoken with other foreigners and South Africans and it's the same story for them too. We're just banging our head against the wall now.

It's the reality of Irelands disastrous insurance industry unfortunately. Gotta suck it up and tough out one year on a barbaric premium.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

humberklog wrote: »

I drive an '05 Suzuki (not Swift) and it's by far the most reliable car I've ever had (about 8 manufacturers).

Cheers for that. Family in SA is reporting the same.

BuffyBot

Out of those three, I'd probably go for the Swift, followed by the Mazda.

colm_mcm

Not the corsa anyway.

CiniO

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not the corsa anyway.

I've noticed you seem to be very anti-corsa in few different threads.
Are they that bad?

bear1

CiniO wrote: »

I've noticed you seem to be very anti-corsa in few different threads.
Are they that bad?

They are slow overpriced boring ass bastard of a car.
I had a 131 rental ages ago and I thought I was going to burn it down I hated it so much.

colm_mcm

CiniO wrote: »

I've noticed you seem to be very anti-corsa in few different threads.
Are they that bad?

They are compared to the others listed. Also by 2014 it was an 8 year old model. Even in 2006 it was only average.

Now the Swift isn't exactly a spring chicken either, but it makes up for it in other areas.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

colm_mcm wrote: »

They are compared to the others listed. Also by 2014 it was an 8 year old model. Even in 2006 it was only average.

Now the Swift isn't exactly a spring chicken either, but it makes up for it in other areas.

You are going to be disappointed :pac:

In the end I had to acquiesce and give up on my dreams for an automatic. The cost of an automatic with decent extras was beyond our budget and the insurance went too high when trying to get both.

I now have a 2012 Opel Corsa 1.2i SC. The car was cheap and insurance is not barbaric @ €17xx.

colm_mcm

Oh dear.

Well wear anyway.