Buying a first car for my daughter
Posts
Post 771534 by Orca2 on 2015-05-04 23:51:20
I am looking at first cars for my daughter who is 17 this August, Mrs Orca and I have automatics , so I might as well buy a manual for the sprog to learn on, have discounted mini 1275 gt's far too bleedin expensive , I wish I had kept mine. Lol
Looking at Suzuki sj410 or Vitara fatboy , anyone have any suggestions?
I actually quite like the Suzukis, I had a couple of Sj's many years ago and they were quite good fun , and cheap to run.
It has to be about 2 grand , not a fortune to insure, and a bit cool.
And no , she isn't getting a T5, The insurance would be more than the car.
Post 771536 by stribo on 2015-05-04 23:54:59
Sorry mate but first car has to be sensible, Fiesta/Corsa/Polo, why? Well, loads to chose from, cheap insurance, and far easier to drive than a roll over Suzuki.
Post 771537 by Ettienne on 2015-05-04 23:57:51
Were both in the same boat here, I'll be looking at something normal 2001 plus (as most improved safety then) 206, polo, fiesta etc. just something that can be battered.
Post 771541 by AcidicDavey on 2015-05-05 00:07:57
Sometimes thinking outside the box does work, when I was 17 (5 1/2 years ago) I got a BMW E36, it was cheaper to insure than the 'normal first cars', 1.0 Corsas etc. For example, at the same time a Friend had a 90 Rover Metro 1.1, his insurance was £600 more than mine!
Whatever you're looking at though the insurance is likely to be around £2000+ whatever it is!
Post 771542 by Orca2 on 2015-05-05 00:13:19
She is already quite a practised driver , and has a real feel for cars , so I dont want to buy her a boring wee beat box corsa , the Suzukis will cost about a grand to insure in the first year , which is cheaper than I thought.
Post 771546 by Ettienne on 2015-05-05 00:36:04
[QUOTE=AcidicDavey;771541]Sometimes thinking outside the box does work, when I was 17 (5 1/2 years ago) I got a BMW E36, it was cheaper to insure than the 'normal first cars', 1.0 Corsas etc. For example, at the same time a Friend had a 90 Rover Metro 1.1, his insurance was £600 more than mine!
Whatever you're looking at though the insurance is likely to be around £2000+ whatever it is![/QUOTE]
Had a few quotes,for her around £1200-1400, so not terrible.
Post 771553 by Santa on 2015-05-05 07:18:55
I had this last year, opted for a 2007 Ford Fiesta 1.25 Silver. Touch over a grand a year to insure.
Post 771554 by Blackdog on 2015-05-05 07:36:40
My son has just been through this.
He ended up with a Suzuki Swift Sport.
Dirctline for the insurance quoted £1300ish.
A tip on the insurance side is to buy Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday as they are the cheaper days. More people buy cars at the weekends so the company's charge more....
Post 771555 by Rawas on 2015-05-05 07:37:28
Hey Orca,
May, my daughter is really happy with her 2 months old Peugeot 208,
I would seriously consider Citroen, Renault and the likes, the french are really good in subcompact cars.
Post 771568 by stutgart69 on 2015-05-05 11:26:35
Strange choice of first car Orca. Though it doesn't surprise me with you ya madman! lol
Corsas are amoungst the worst to insure I think, boy racers favourite weapon.
Think someone said that they could insure a 1.6 Golf cheaper than a wee Corsa :/
Post 771569 by Orca2 on 2015-05-05 11:31:46
I figure if she gets a car that is a wee bit more individual she will take more interstate in it . She is already a car nut and I don't want to stick her in some boring wee box.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Suzuki jeeps. I had a few when I was much younger .and they were easy to keep. I am trying to avoid cars with lots of sat Nav and. Distracting stuff as I think they rob a young driver of their feel for the car and the road.
Post 771573 by stutgart69 on 2015-05-05 12:03:29
Ahh, there be methods to your madness then :)
Post 771576 by Doingitsideways on 2015-05-05 12:40:26
[QUOTE=stutgart69;771573]Ahh, there be methods to your madness then :)[/QUOTE]
Couldn't agree more.
Stick most young drivers in a car with no parking sensors/satnav/over assisted power steering and they physically wouldn't be able to drive it. Even if they could, they'd soon get lost!
I cut my teeth on a Vauxhall Chevette that I bought for £25.
Taught me to steer from the rear (hense the username) and use all of those rampaging 1256cc's to their full potential ;)
Post 771580 by The Flying Banana on 2015-05-05 12:53:28
a guy came to look at my Supra , he was 20 and drove a 1.2 Fiesta ...he wanted to keep his Fiesta and run the Supra too , clean licence , 2yrs NCB and lives in Edinburgh ..what do you think ?
Supra is a 92 MK 3 3.0 NA Manual
Post 771581 by Orca2 on 2015-05-05 12:57:23
I read an article that compared the original mr2 with the latest version,and theySaid that many more of the new ones have been crashed. The original ones had a gearstick and a few gauges the latest one looked like the space shuttle dashboard,and they reckoned all the fancy pants equipment made drivers less aware and more easily distracted.
I learned on and drove minis for the first few years and I think it makes for a better young driver if there is less stuff going on.
Post 771583 by Doingitsideways on 2015-05-05 13:12:35
[QUOTE=The Flying Banana;771580]a guy came to look at my Supra , he was 20 and drove a 1.2 Fiesta ...he wanted to keep his Fiesta and run the Supra too , clean licence , 2yrs NCB and lives in Edinburgh ..what do you think ?
Supra is a 92 MK 3 3.0 NA Manual[/QUOTE]
Not a chance, unless he's made of money. Even then though, a lot of companies would point blank refuse him insurance.
A Supra, even "Just" a 24v would have been at least group 18 or something in old money, the Fiesta would be something like group 3 or 4.
He's too young for classic insurance too.
Post 771585 by The Flying Banana on 2015-05-05 13:19:27
[QUOTE=Doingitsideways;771583]Not a chance, unless he's made of money. Even then though, a lot of companies would point blank refuse him insurance.
A Supra, even "Just" a 24v would have been at least group 18 or something in old money, the Fiesta would be something like group 3 or 4.
He's too young for classic insurance too.[/QUOTE]
So ..as he stood there looking he called admiral ...it meant a multicar policy , low expected mileage as its a second car , he is only a couple of months in to his policy so this is pro rata ...an extra 900 on top of Fiesta which he wanted to keep for work
He was delighted and bought it ..20 years old , 2 cars , on a 3.0 , for under £2000 !
Post 771586 by Gold 'N' Brown on 2015-05-05 13:23:11
[QUOTE=Orca2;771569]I figure if she gets a car that is a wee bit more individual she will take more interstate in it . She is already a car nut and I don't want to stick her in some boring wee box.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Suzuki jeeps. I had a few when I was much younger .and they were easy to keep. I am trying to avoid cars with lots of sat Nav and. Distracting stuff as I think they rob a young driver of their feel for the car and the road.[/QUOTE]
Good man.
You seem a bit like this guy:
http://www.petrolicious.com/learning-to-drive-in-a-porsche-speedster-replica
“I want her to learn proper driving. This [Speedster] is the most immediate, analogue, no-frills car. Once you know how to drive this, it’s downward compatible with everything else,” he said. “I want her to be an active driver, not like in a half coma like everyone else.”
Bit difficult for most people to have access to the sort of cars that would fulfil this, but if more kids learnt to drive in this way than being taught in comfort blankets on wheels then our driving standards might be better than they are!
Post 771588 by Gold 'N' Brown on 2015-05-05 13:30:01
[QUOTE=Doingitsideways;771583]Not a chance, unless he's made of money. Even then though, a lot of companies would point blank refuse him insurance.
A Supra, even "Just" a 24v would have been at least group 18 or something in old money, the Fiesta would be something like group 3 or 4.
He's too young for classic insurance too.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=The Flying Banana;771585]So ..as he stood there looking he called admiral ...it meant a multicar policy , low expected mileage as its a second car , he is only a couple of months in to his policy so this is pro rata ...an extra 900 on top of Fiesta which he wanted to keep for work
He was delighted and bought it ..20 years old , 2 cars , on a 3.0 , for under £2000 ![/QUOTE]
Not really surprising to me. People make so many assumptions about insurance. They assume that just because some stranger on a forum with vaguely similar circumstances pays xxx for a policy that they must get a policy for the same sort of premium. Nuh-uh. So many variables. Insurance for young drivers is insane, it's inescapable, but it doesn't always follow that a powerful car makes a young driver's policy many times more expensive. When I was learning in the late 90s, I would flick through the autotrader and pick some right random beasts and got insurance quotes on them - e.g. stuff like a ~15 year old BMW 635i (or something along those lines, it's a long time ago), which as a brand new driver I would have been able to insure for around ~1k, when at that time, insuring something like a Mini or a Metro would have been about £600.
Post 771593 by Bones on 2015-05-05 14:32:57
I had a mk2 golf for my first car, 1.3,no power steering, 4 gears, so low that you couldn't get a pack of 10 lambert under the front bumper and loved it.
Only had it since I was15 then only had it for about 4 months after passing my test then got a calibra 4x4 turbo with just over 300bhp. This is going back 10 years ago when I was 17 and my insurance went from £1600 on the golf to £4400 tpft on the calibra. And that was before the monthly payment mark up!
Loved it though! And when your mates are all kicking about in 1.0 and 1.2's showing off was always easy!lol
Post 771594 by stutgart69 on 2015-05-05 14:35:16
[QUOTE=Doingitsideways;771576
I cut my teeth on a Vauxhall Chevette that I bought for £25.
Taught me to steer from the rear (hense the username) and use all of those rampaging 1256cc's to their full potential ;)[/QUOTE]
I also had a Vauxhall Shuvit for my first car.
Went round a corner in it and managed to get it sideways alright.
I promptly landed in a field!
Hated Vauxhalls ever since lol
Post 771599 by Biff on 2015-05-05 15:23:35
My first car was a Nova Sr. filpped it & taught myself a valuable lesson, if in doubt flat out!
my nephew is 18 & been driving 8 months. he has a saxo 1.1 which he's pimped with wide 13's & a sump bashing stance. the insurance on that is relatively sensible & under £700 in his second year.
Post 771601 by Doingitsideways on 2015-05-05 15:42:22
[QUOTE=Gold 'N' Brown;771588]Not really surprising to me. People make so many assumptions about insurance. They assume that just because some stranger on a forum with vaguely similar circumstances pays xxx for a policy that they must get a policy for the same sort of premium. Nuh-uh. So many variables. Insurance for young drivers is insane, it's inescapable, but it doesn't always follow that a powerful car makes a young driver's policy many times more expensive. When I was learning in the late 90s, I would flick through the autotrader and pick some right random beasts and got insurance quotes on them - e.g. stuff like a ~15 year old BMW 635i (or something along those lines, it's a long time ago), which as a brand new driver I would have been able to insure for around ~1k, when at that time, insuring something like a Mini or a Metro would have been about £600.[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
I am pretty well rehearsed in playing the insurance game, having so many to insure, but that with the Supra did surprise me in this day and age.
I learnt to play the game as a new driver bombing about in fast Fords.
Example: Had a rake of XR3is, but insurance was stupid, so bought an Orion 1.6i Ghia.
4 insurance groups lower 'cos it had a boot and not so much of a boy racer image = £600 cheaper. Identical running gear as the 3i, even handled a little better with the weight over the back wheels.
Glad you sold the Supra though, TFB. Would have loved that one myself if I had the money.
Post 771675 by DAN@ADRIAN FLUX on 2015-05-05 21:46:32
Hi,
If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.
Post 771679 by Orca2 on 2015-05-05 22:00:27
Thanks Dan, tbh you guys came out quite competitively on the Go compare thingy, maybe I just need to twist your arm a wee bit eh.
Post 771745 by LeeT5 on 2015-05-06 10:53:24
Doesn't matter what you get them, in their first year there gonna crash or prang it somehow, major or minor.
What ever I get my daughter when she learns to drive I will make sure it won't matter if we scrap it.
Post 771747 by Orca2 on 2015-05-06 10:56:54
Never a truer word was spoken. I can't wait to hear the reason why it wasn't really her fault.
'Twas ever so.