Need car suggestions

[kasavien]

Hi all,

Hopefully some of you can advise me on what cars I should be looking for in the future, because I know very little when it comes to car.

The car will mainly be for my girlfriend to commute to work in, roughly 22miles each way. I will probably use it at weekends as well. My girlfriend is 21 and had a license for nearly a year, but not insured on anything as the main driver yet. I have 5 years no claims.

What we're looking for is something that's reliable and has good mpg and comfortable over distance, as we'll be using it to drive home up north to visit people now and again, which will be roughly 200miles each way.

Budget wise, we can pay up to around £4000, or if it warrants it, more with finance, but we want a car which will be cheap ish to insure (given the drivers above, i realise it's not going to be cheap!) I think this means we need to look at second hand cars, unless we buy new wih finance.

My only thoughts have been a skoda fabia, diesel but if anyone has any other recommendations I'd be very greatful.

Thanks in anticipation

Edit: forgot to mention, I don't mind a smaller / low emissions engine, low car tax would be good. Also it would be nice to have something which doesn't need an mot for a few years, but I'm not sure if that's possible second hand.

[kalniel]

Mondeo tdci. Comfy, good mpg. Actually quite nice to drive. Only problems are size if you're only used to small hatches (but anyone will very quickly adjust on the kind of mileage you will be doing). Insurance and servicing are low. Don't worry about whether you'll need MOTs or not - an annual MOT costs peanuts compared to the other costs of running a car! Certainly not worth buying new to avoid as depreciation costs more than make up for the lack of MOT!

Fabia diesel is nice, but I would expect you get a lot more for your money with a mondeo, especially at that budget. Servicing is also likely to be more for the Fabia.

Focus diesel would be an option if you want a smaller car, but I suspect they'd actually cost more than the equivalent mondeo. Astra diesel is worth if if you don't mind the interiors and electro-steering.

Ford and Vaux are quite hard to beat at that budget due to availability and cheap servicing.

You might find a Punto diesel within budget - they're better for reliability than they used to be and you might be able to find a good example. A Panda might be an even better find, however I'm not sure they'd really suit the longer journeys. Same applies to SEAT diesels - you can find lots of Ibiza's within that budget and they're good to drive, but they're not good over British roads for comfort.

[finlay666]

Mondeo tdci +1 for me

Fabia (even the VRS (diesel)) when I was looking was pretty dire inside on the ones up to about a 54 plate (didn't look any newer)

[roachcoach]

Would I start some sort of "THAT'S <XXXX>ISM YOU PIG!!!!" flamewar if I suggested that the mondeo is pretty big & powerful for someone that young and new at driving? I'd have said something like a fiesta/clio/corsa (not been in one of those for eons though).

Even for the longer drive you mentioned, I used to have a wee clio and me and the Mrs regularly did 150 mile trips in that and never found it too uncomfortable, likewise in her fiesta at the time (old G plate, new ones would likely be better ).

Other pluses for a smaller car are the insurance would be lower and likely buying cost lower too. Fuel economy can go either way, there's some bad small cars and some great big cars and vice versa.


Edit: ymmv, however I had excellent findings with the network Q warranty, if you're worried about MOT's etc. It may have changed now but depending on the age of the vehicle you got either a 12 month warranty (which was awesome, they didnt even bother looking at stuff, if I said it was iffy, they just ripped it out and replaced it) or a guarantee it would pass the first MOT.

No, I don't work there, picked my second car up there about...oh...5-6 years ago and both myself and a friend found the after sales to be awesome. We're up in Edin though, as I said - ymmv big time.

[kalniel]

Would I start some sort of "THAT'S <XXXX>ISM YOU PIG!!!!" flamewar if I suggested that the mondeo is pretty big & powerful for someone that young and new at driving? I'd have said something like a fiesta/clio/corsa (not been in one of those for eons though).

Not ism IMHO, just inaccurate They're not scary powerful, and the power is delivered smoothly and without any encouragement to rev, being a diesel. It's more about torque and it just enables you to drive more safely rather than less. Being big isn't really an issue - it's only the newest gen that are big enough you have to take care with them, the previous gen cars that are in the OP's budget are just normal family car sized, and again they're probably more stable and easier to drive than a fiest/clio/corsa, not to mention safer in the event of an accident. As a comparison, I found a mondeo 2l easier to drive at 18 than I did my golf GTI at 25.

Other pluses for a smaller car are the insurance would be lower and likely buying cost lower too.

Wrong on both counts really - insurance might be lower if you go for a small petrol small car, sure. But for diesels the small cars often have more expensive parts than mass produced cars like mondeo, which in turn affects the insurance price. Buying costs are especially wrong - small cars often cost a lot more second hand than larger cars like the mondeo, despite the initial buying costs being higher - the demand for second hand small cars really pushes prices up.

[roachcoach]

I realise it might not be right for everyone, but I figure most of the driving school companies can't all be mad Both the wife and I find it way easier to go faster by accident in a more powerful car than a lower powered one, you need to try to go fast in a weaker one whereas the more powerful ones you need to try to keep it slow; everyone is different though. Granted the bottom end diesel mondeos aren't that powerful.

You'll get used to anything in time



Didn't expect them to cost more to buy, varies I guess. Insurance groups are surely lower due to much lower power, smaller engines? A 1.4 diesel fiesta is (old school) group 3 and the 1.8 tdci mondeo is (old school) group 7. Both also have identical NCAP ratings.

[kalniel]

Didn't expect them to cost more to buy, varies I guess. Insurance groups are surely lower due to much lower power, smaller engines? A 1.4 diesel fiesta is (old school) group 3 and the 1.8 tdci mondeo is (old school) group 7. Both also have identical NCAP ratings.

NCAP ratings aren't comparable, as they are different classes of car (stars are only comparable within the same class).

I might be wrong about insurance then, for me larger cars were cheaper, despite supposedly being in a higher group. Probably just a local variation.

[roachcoach]

About NCAP...this I did not know, thanks.

Insurance is probably just one of these things, there's no explaining some quotes. I tend to look at groupings as my first port of call for an initial comparison between cars on the assumption that with all other things being equal (which for the same driver i.e. me, they are) the higher group will cost more. It is an assumption though and lets face it, you'll get two different quotes with identical data on two different days.

[digit]

Personally I'd get a Saab 9-3 150 diesel over the 130 tdci mondeo, far better engine and arguably a far nicer car inside to. Also a convertible option isavailable with a 9-3 which your girlfriend might like? I believe its slightly smaller in size then a mondeo if thats a potential issue to, its very easy to pick up driving saloons over small hatchbacks

[kasavien]

Thanks for the responses, I need to look into insurance because that's probably my biggest concern. If my girlfriend is using it for the daily commute and I use it at weekends that means I can't be the main driver i presume?

Maybe i'm being pessimistic but I'm expecting insureance to be well over £1000

[roachcoach]

Yup that's right.

And I think it'll be over that too (Fully comp anyway). Sorry, not much point getting your hopes up. Assume extortion and if its not...it's a bonus.

[digit]

Thanks for the responses, I need to look into insurance because that's probably my biggest concern. If my girlfriend is using it for the daily commute and I use it at weekends that means I can't be the main driver i presume?

Maybe i'm being pessimistic but I'm expecting insureance to be well over £1000

As your girlfriend as main driver that will really help out with insurance the other way round and you'd be paying a lot more. Your amount of no claims will really help you out so I'd hit the comparison sites asap to check out a rough lay of the land! You'd be surprised quite what you can get insured for a sensible amount Think vectra, mondeo, saab 9-3 and compare against smaller cars like fiesta, corsa, fabia etc

[1stRaven]

The mondeo tdci is an ok car but watch out for the higher mileage models. Injectors and flywheels are not cheap replacements.

[DanceswithUnix]

What does that work out as, 10K miles per year? Not enough mileage to make diesel a clear winner I would say.

I would suggest a Punto. Plenty of them around so cheap to buy, cheap to run and fun to drive.

[danroyle]

Ford Fiesta?

cheap pretty reliable. The missus sister just picked a second hand one up well in your price range. Insurance will be a little lower and there not bad cars these days.

[finlay666]

What does that work out as, 10K miles per year? Not enough mileage to make diesel a clear winner I would say.

Pretty much, i'd say > 15-20k is worth it

I'm doing about 300 a week in commuting (around 15k a year) and I don't see the point having owned a diesel (the costs were higher on servicing), especially considering the premium in cost to start with