A Good First Car?

[Ferricks]

Maddriver - briliant post.... stick with the sentiment and keep up with the walking as a good fitness level is the most important prep we can do!

Our car is costing us a fortune, but we've lost so much through depreciation on it (it was a heart purchase rather than a head purchase) that we simply can't trade in or sell. Although a lot of people comment on how odd it is to see a luxury car with all the allotment stuff messing up the classy leather interior! Currently there's a mud covered hoe, rake and a trowel messing up my buttersoft leather, electric seats...... Posh or not - for us it still boils down to a way to get from a to b and support our way of life

my next car's gonna be an old, mechanical, nothing to go wrong with defender or similar (by then I hope to be working from or near home!)

[Triple_sod]

Fair point triffid,

I’ve just turned 22 so been putting it off now for best part of 5 years and in that time I have saved a lot of money.
On the other hand, when it does become an inconvenience it’s usually an absolute pain in the arse.

Take prepping, been loads of things I've had the time and money to do, but couldn’t though lack of transport.

As for public transport…less said the better really.
I live about 5-6 mile out of town, 30-40 minutes on the bus and about £1.80 and at least that particular service runs regular and’s quite reliable

Plus in the process of stopping smoking so that extra 2500 a year should about cover my insurance.

[Le Mouse]

Very interesting thread.

I'm about to start learning to drive (provisional licence arrived Friday, now working out which driving school) and I'm rather older than young Triple Sod at *ahem* 34. I've never needed to bother with driving seeing as I grew up in a small city where I could walk everywhere and now live in London where one generally doesn't need a car. In fact, I've been quite anti-driving and feel like I'm somehow going over to the 'dark side'! I'm primarily learning because it's a useful skill to have and I feel that if I don't learn now, I never will.

I had planned not to buy a car, and only hire them. I've looked at car hire places and they all have age restrictions, which for me isn't an issue. But they also won't let you hire until you've been driving for at least a year. So now I'm looking at buying an old banger / small, cheap car when/if I pass my test.

I've suprised myself: I keep coming up with really good reasons to own a car! One of the main ones is that prepping will be easier if I have a boot I can load up. Also with train fares going up, I may find it cheaper to drive - I go home to my family regularly and I think driving would work out cheaper than the train, with the added bonus that I'd be able to drive my Mum to my Nan's house rather than us spending money on upsettingly high bus fares. And if I needed to get out of London quickly, I'd do better in a car than on a pushbike (my current escape option). It won't get used for commuting because I work in central London, but it will get used to give me an improved quality of life.

I have my heart set on an old VW Polo because they seem to be like work horses and repairs would be fairly easy.

[tigs]

vw polo or golf is a good choice but so is a Vauxhall Astra 1.7 DTi the astra will deliver a rather excellent 58.9 mpg or even a seat arosa 1.4 TDi has an overall economy figure of 64.2mpg.

[Le Mouse]

vw polo or golf is a good choice but so is a Vauxhall Astra 1.7 DTi the astra will deliver a rather excellent 58.9 mpg or even a seat arosa 1.4 TDi has an overall economy figure of 64.2mpg.

Ooh cheers! *adds to list*

[Technik]

I remember when I was around 20/21 I bought my first car on a part loan. It was a BMW 320i Coupe - it drunk fuel like Homer Simpson, insurance has cost and arm and a half and then the loan... after a year I had to sell it because I couldn't keep up with all the payments. Would I do it again? Absolutely Loved every minute in that car and when you're that young you're allowed to act, well... young (the opposite of mature) and spend all of your hard earned money on toys. Sooner or later you will grow up and start to count every penny but these sweet memories will last forever

Hope that helps

[skippy]

For a first car . . definatly something easily maintained and repaired, diesel (think fuel storage here and easier engines to work on), and something you will find dozens of on the roads so good for spares.
Ford focus
Ford fiesta
VW polo
Renault clio

there are loads of others but those are the ones that spring to mind

Skippy

[JOE90]

Older diesels are better. Pre common rail stuff is too complicated, lots of sensors and electronics that you need a fault code reader to and hand book to decifer. I currently drive a VW Bora tdi 130 auto and while its very good i still carry a fault code reader in the boot. Its my 3rd German car, the first 2 were Audis and very unreliable and expensive to fix. Everyone said to me to leave french cars as they were crap. But my experiance of french cars were great. I did a total of 500,000 miles across a number of french cars and only had to replace 1 brake caliper and a wiper motor on 2 of them. The first Audi cost me nearly £2000 in 6 months, the 2nd broke down the day i got it to the tune of £180.

My list of french cars were.
Peugeot 106 XND 1.5 diesel 60+mpg easy and very simple.
Peugeot 205 turboD 1.7 very quick and very frugal 55mpg.
Peugeot 306 xnd 1.9 diesel slow but frugal 55mpg.
Peugeot 306 Dturbo this car was perfection in a definition of transport. 50,000 miles in one year with not one grumble.
Peugeot 306 Dturbo HDi 60mpg and quite nippy, loved this motor.

Citroen Ax 1400 diesel light plastic fantastic, very simple car that would not die...until a bus finished it off. But the engine lived on in another for 30,000 miles more.
Citroen BX 1700 diesel the slowest car I've had but by far the most comfortable. And don't be scared of the suspension, i never had trouble with it.

Renault sport 172 clio. Not an economy car, however i did get 50mpg from it. It did 139mph 0-60 in 6.2 sec. 100% reliable.

All these cars i would have again no problem, with the exception of the renault as it cost a fortune to insure group 15 you see.