First car

fjon

I'm going to be buying my first car in the next few months and I am looking for some advice on what to get...

I intend to spend up to €3,000. I would like something reliable and something that will not cost me a fortune to run. Three cars I have heard that would be good are a VW Polo, Micra and a Peugeot 106 or 206

Has anyone here got any recommendations?

herbie747

Get Polo or a 206. Have you thought about a Fiesta?

The Mitsubishi Colts are good cars too.

Quigs Snr

You won't get a 206 for 3000.

DivX

Saw this ad in the Buy & Sell and was surprised at the price...

Peugeot 206 '98. Silver, full bodykit, 4 spoke alloys, e/w, s/r, p/s, CD player, bass box, full blue interior, NCT '04, tax 09/03, for quick sale, Price: €2,700 Contact: 086-3379526

Think Colt's could be expensive for a first insurance, the newest polo for under €3K would be around '95.. Micra, hate them, probably cheap and reliable though...

Gmodified

3000 will get you high mileage POLO which will probably become pain in the ar$e where you can buy cars like micra e.g B&S

Nissan Micra '97. 36k mls, 5 dr, NCT, black, Price: €2,995 which maybe looks not as good as a POLO but will give you trouble free motoring for longer specially when has 36k on the clock.

MojoMaker

Originally posted by DivX
Saw this ad in the Buy & Sell and was surprised at the price...

Peugeot 206 '98. Silver, full bodykit, 4 spoke alloys, e/w, s/r, p/s, CD player, bass box, full blue interior, NCT '04, tax 09/03, for quick sale, Price: €2,700 Contact: 086-3379526

That's a typo, should be a 106. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure first 206s into this country were 99's.

fjon

Tried to get an online quote for a Colt, and failed. I guess they are quite expensive to insure.
Polos are quite pricey, so for €3,000 what I'm getting probably won't be great.
So far it looks like a Micra or a Fiesta are the best options (even though I don't particularly like either of them...).
Anyone have one of these cars? Are they any good?

DivX

Originally posted by MojoMaker
That's a typo, should be a 106. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure first 206s into this country were 99's.

Actually saw 4 '98 206's in the Buy&Sell ranging in price of €2.7K - €8.3K

Granted it sounds very cheap for the year but could be due to the value added modding that was done to the car usually puts ppl off if their looking for a clean car that wasn't driven to death...

flyz

Originally posted by fwk
Tried to get an online quote for a Colt, and failed. I guess they are quite expensive to insure.
Polos are quite pricey, so for €3,000 what I'm getting probably won't be great.
So far it looks like a Micra or a Fiesta are the best options (even though I don't particularly like either of them...).
Anyone have one of these cars? Are they any good?

Get a Starlet
Extremely reliable, never had any problems with them

commuterised

Originally posted by fwk
Tried to get an online quote for a Colt, and failed. I guess they are quite expensive to insure.
Polos are quite pricey, so for €3,000 what I'm getting probably won't be great.
So far it looks like a Micra or a Fiesta are the best options (even though I don't particularly like either of them...).
Anyone have one of these cars? Are they any good?

I had a micra a few cars ago. It was extremely reliable and fairly cheap to buy and insure. Only thing, I got pissed off with getting no respect on the road and as my mileage increased so did my engine size needs. That aside I had the micra for 3 years and never had a days trouble with it.

DMC

If you are starting out, and you've never insured before, its best to get your foot on the ladder by staying small.

I started driving around 15 months ago, got an 9 year old Corsa, and it is an ideal car for beginners. Ideal to learn in and ideal insurance wise.

Kali

You'll probably pick up a 106 for around that much as well.. its bigger than it looks, basic though.

mike65

As someone who drives a Corsa (my third) I can say that they're
pretty bullet proof post 1993. You can pick up a '96 1.0 or 1.2
for around €3,000 maybe less.

Mike.

fjon

Thanks for your replies everyone. I wonder would any recommend getting a Fiat Punto? I have been offered one fo €2,650, '97, with 26k on the clock. Seems like a bargain, no?

Seth Brundle

I assume you are young so get insurance quotes for the types of cars also as you could find that it may be far cheaper to insure one over the other. Then use that info to help decide which car.
Contact both brokers (e.g. AA) and the companies themselves. Also when contacting brokers, be sure to find out if the quote they tell you is the cheapest on offer (not always) and what the policy comes with (excess etc.)

tinofapples

Stay away from the Peugeot 206 , there was a thread here not so long ago with loads of ppl sharing their not so pleasant experiences with them .

Polo is probably your best bet over all when you take into account everything including image . I actually had the "pleasure" of driving a '96 Micra on Monday for about half an hour , not as nice as my Accord but you have to start somewhere