Used comfortable car with reasonable insurance?

mankteln

Have been thinking of changing cars so thought I'd see if anyone has any suggestions, have been driving an 05 A4 1.6 since last May. Have done 50k km in it since then I bought it for 1100 so it owes me nothing, have a feeling it might not pass NCT emissions next time though (due in march) and there'll probably be some other jobs that will need looked at over the next while even if it did (bushings, timing belt interval coming up etc) so economically might not be worth putting that money into such an old car.
What I'd love is something from the luxobarge thread (I've got used to the comfort in the Audi, I'm sure it was an expensive car when it rolled off the lot, beautiful interior cream leather etc). My issue is that although I'm in my early 30s and have had my licence for 8 years I've only 2 years no claims bonus as I used to live in Dublin and owning a car didn't make sense, because of this anything with an engine above 1.8 is ridiculously expensive.
Have a few lengthy commutes for work so weekly mileage is between 600km some weeks to 800km+ on others. Diesel would make sense because of this but I'd actually probably prefer petrol, have driven both and despite the extra cost at the pump I prefer driving petrol (also feel slightly that Irish people's obsession with diesel means they're sometimes overpriced).
Because of the insurance new car probably has to be 1.8 or 1.6.
Preferably 08 or up for new tax system (seeing as the insurance is restricting me to smaller engines anyway).
Budget is about 2k, maybe up to 3 at a push (I'm a keen reader of the bangernomics thread lol).
So far a Volvo S40 is what I've been looking at (holding out for a well looked after one with service history and few owners etc). Would love another Audi but realistically don't think I'd get anything but a heap for an 08 at the price range I'm looking at.
Had been considering maybe a Jetta or Passat either, and obviously an Octavia would probably do the job too. No leather interiors in those usually though lol.
Apologies for the long post and any suggestions welcome!

Bigus

You can put the current Audi in 90 days before the test due date eg get it tested in January and if it passes it’ll have test til March 2021, giving you a lot more time and making it more sellable, if it fails in January you have 90 days to drive on on the old test unless it fails dangerous.

mankteln

Bigus wrote: »

You can put the current Audi in 90 days before the test due date eg get it tested in January and if it passes it’ll have test til March 2021, giving you a lot more time and making it more sellable, if it fails in January you have 90 days to drive on on the old test unless it fails dangerous.

Yeah that's my current plan alright, was chatting to my mechanic and he said any other work should hold off until December anyway.
Have a feeling it's a good idea to look into options for the next while and if a bargain comes up to go for it. Jump before being pushed I suppose.

Del2005

If the A4 is still sound I'd spend my money on that then buy a <€3k car when doing your mileage. Every car is a gamble, even new people can have major issues, and the cheaper you get the bigger the gamble.

Stick it in for the NCT and see what it needs to pass. Then get a mechanic to give it a proper inspection to see what else it needs. Then decide if its worth repairing, and getting several more years out of it, or taking a gamble on a cheap car.

I'm not saying that you can't get a good car for your money but it's a risk when you already have a good car that just needs some work.

mankteln

Del2005 wrote: »

If the A4 is still sound I'd spend my money on that then buy a <€3k car when doing your mileage. Every car is a gamble, even new people can have major issues, and the cheaper you get the bigger the gamble.

Stick it in for the NCT and see what it needs to pass. Then get a mechanic to give it a proper inspection to see what else it needs. Then decide if its worth repairing, and getting several more years out of it, or taking a gamble on a cheap car.

I'm not saying that you can't get a good car for your money but it's a risk when you already have a good car that just needs some work.

Yeah I'm half of that mind myself, I suppose it's a cost benefit thing really, the other consideration is that the insurance will go down a bit with a newer car (which is ridiculous really, incredible pressure to get older perfectly good cars off the road) and also that put money in it won't really have much impact on what I'd eventually get for it.

mankteln

Just to update put it in for early NCT and it failed, as predicted emissions was one of the issues: Low idle reading was 0.24 (limit 0.20, my reading had been 0.18 last year so knew it was getting borderline), low idle reading up a little from last year too but still under.
Also a suspension arm that needs replaced and rear brake pads that need doing. Timing belt/water pump interval would be due again too (last changed at 115k km 6 years ago, at 235k km now) so everything is going to add up. Realistically I'd do all the other work but the high emissions is the death knell, there's so many things that could be causing the high reading it's probably not wise economically to try and sort as the risk of failure is pretty high and then any other work would then be money wasted.
Still have few months until NCT is out but I'll keep my eyes open for anything that takes my eye.
Got an insurance quote for a Mercedes 07 C180 that's basically the same as what I'm paying currently, thought it might be a nice change, anyone any experience with them?

Mooooo

mankteln wrote: »

Just to update put it in for early NCT and it failed, as predicted emissions was one of the issues: Low idle reading was 0.24 (limit 0.20, my reading had been 0.18 last year so knew it was getting borderline), low idle reading up a little from last year too but still under.
Also a suspension arm that needs replaced and rear brake pads that need doing. Timing belt/water pump interval would be due again too (last changed at 115k km 6 years ago, at 235k km now) so everything is going to add up. Realistically I'd do all the other work but the high emissions is the death knell, there's so many things that could be causing the high reading it's probably not wise economically to try and sort as the risk of failure is pretty high and then any other work would then be money wasted.
Still have few months until NCT is out but I'll keep my eyes open for anything that takes my eye.
Got an insurance quote for a Mercedes 07 C180 that's basically the same as what I'm paying currently, thought it might be a nice change, anyone any experience with them?

Find with the older passats we've had here driving to the nct centre in second gear would help it pass the emissions part, blow her out before the test essentially. Same engines in the audis. Anything you buy of that vintage is likely to have similar work required anyway. BIL bought older cars rel cheap for a few years but eventually bought "newer", still 7 years old, car to keep for a bit longer

U_Fig

Just one thing , insurance is not always correlated to the engine / power of the car, much more variables , for exmple before I bought my current car, I was looking at a few different models, 3 being a 1.4 petrol golf, a 1.6 diesel Civic and an Audi S3 2.0 petrol, out of the 3 the golf was cheapest then the S3 then the Civic , even though the S3 was older and had twice the power than both the golf and civic it was only slightly more than the golf and a few hundred less than the civic. I wouldn't write off cars with larger engines, but I would get quotes on them before committing. I have always found Audi A4s to be the largest quotes I've gotten. I am a similar age and have slightly less experience , and a couple more no claims than you

mankteln

Mooooo wrote: »

Find with the older passats we've had here driving to the nct centre in second gear would help it pass the emissions part, blow her out before the test essentially. Same engines in the audis. Anything you buy of that vintage is likely to have similar work required anyway. BIL bought older cars rel cheap for a few years but eventually bought "newer", still 7 years old, car to keep for a bit longer

Yeah I gave it a good half an hour in third gear up and down dual carriageway, had put dipetane in the day before and driven 1/3 of a tank to empty then half filled again and put in another dose. Half wondering if the dipetane might've made it run a little rich and pushed the reading up? Toying with the idea of running another bottle through (over a longer period) and doing full retest.

mankteln

U_Fig wrote: »

Just one thing , insurance is not always correlated to the engine / power of the car, much more variables , for exmple before I bought my current car, I was looking at a few different models, 3 being a 1.4 petrol golf, a 1.6 diesel Civic and an Audi S3 2.0 petrol, out of the 3 the golf was cheapest then the S3 then the Civic , even though the S3 was older and had twice the power than both the golf and civic it was only slightly more than the golf and a few hundred less than the civic. I wouldn't write off cars with larger engines, but I would get quotes on them before committing. I have always found Audi A4s to be the largest quotes I've gotten. I am a similar age and have slightly less experience , and a couple more no claims than you

Yeah got a few quotes the other day, huge one for a Saab (guy thought it was probably due to possible difficulty with parts due to discontinuation) and Mercedes e200, both had an extra fee attached due to insurance group/me only having 2 years no claims.
Mercedes c180 was only marginally more and VW Passat (1.4 petrol) was exactly the same. 2l ford Mondeo (inspired by the bargain that was posted in the bangernomics thread a few days ago lol) would actually see me get some money back.
All food for thought anyway, as you say only way to know how much insurance is is to check with them, will probably check others if I see different stuff come up.