Another car recommendation thread...but a bit different

[MSIC]

Its for my mother-in-law.
She's in her late 50's, recently recovering from a hip operation, and has (until the operation) been driving Ford Focus' through a lease company. (She was paying way over the odds BTW, short-term contracts in total for 3 years!!!). The problem is that she has no No Claims Bonus, since insurance was part of the lease sceme.

Also to round out the picture, i'll tell you a little about her. She has a cash budget of £5000, but hopefully in the next 6 months will be selling her second property for good money. In her eyes, she belongs in Jaguar, although says that she really likes the new Range Rover Evoque.

My advice to her has been to consider getting a smaller car for at least 1 year, get some NCB, and then look at finances when she sells the property.

Requirements then:
- I have to sell it to her (figuratively)! I imagine if I were to mention 'Fiat Panda' she'd shout me down (although I will still actually try this one).
- Auto box. (Recent hip operation, although she'll probably be fine for a manual next year).
- £5k budget. more or less anyway.
- Motorway cruising. She regularly does Wolverhampton to London journeys. The Focus has always been good enough though, to give perspective.
- Low insurance. Let's say (old) band 7 maximum. She has age & off-street parking on her side, but the whole deal here is to generate cheap NCB.
- She'll almost certainly be buying from either a dealer, or a car supermarket. Definitely not privately (doesnt trust people - dont blame her).
- Most likely only be keeping it for 1 year, maybe possibly 2, before getting her desired car. As long as its reliable enough for this time, longer term build issues are not a worry. So i'm thinking something that is max 3 years old.
- I think the idea of a taller car is better for access for her, in the shorter term, although she hasnt expressed this.

Some ideas so far
Chevrolet Lacetti
Citroen C4
Vauxhall Astra
Vauxhall Meriva.
I've seen all of these for sale at a car supermarket for under £6k today, at under 20k miles.
Is there anything else that i should be thinking about?
Also, any direct links to actual sites would be welcomed. Cheers all

[finlay666]

Honda Accord?

Apparently the 2.2cdti is a very good engine (Dave87 has the same in his Civic and my mum has the same in her CR-V) and they should do an automatic, insurance isn't bad and will be reliable

EDIT: Maybe not the Accord, the auto diesel only came in last year so you are looking at 17k plus

A Saab 9-3 seems in budget with the 1.9tid engine for an 05 model, little bit older but they are the next rung up in terms of comfort

[Flibb]

My wife has just handed back a company lease car, the insurance for it was covered by a fleet policy, so she wasnt named on the policy. Egg (amongst others) appears to accept a letter from the company running the scheme as proof of no claims. Might be worth phoning them to see if they extend this to private lease schemes.

[MSIC]

Thanks guys. Finlay666, those cars don't appear to be cheap insurance cars. Sorry dude.

[scaryjim]

I ended up with a hire Meriva this summer for the hols, and I found it very comfortable to drive. And to put that in context, I did 700 miles in the week and a day that we were away. I'd give it a thumbs up.

[Biscuit]

What about a Skoda? The insurance on them is usually pretty cheap and the diesel engines are really nice. The Octavia is basically just a re-badged Passat and i think the 1.9tdi is group 7

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/...px?deriv=28228

Have a go with parkers car choosing tool, its not great but it gives you some ideas.
http://www.parkers.co.uk/choose/

[finlay666]

Thanks guys. Finlay666, those cars don't appear to be cheap insurance cars. Sorry dude.

Really? Those cars are cheaper to insure than my '97 Honda Accord as a (fairly) young driver

For a cheaper one maybe a Passat/Octavia or a nice condition BMW? All those cars when I was looking at insurance were cheaper than my accord also (only one that was a little bit more was a BMW 330d)

[Biscuit]

What are you using to check the insurance? Personally i use moneysupermarket.com

[kalniel]

Honda Jazz
Fiat Panda (great car)
Hyundai i10 or i30 (just won jdpower survey for manufacturers)

[finlay666]

What are you using to check the insurance? Personally i use moneysupermarket.com

My current quote, as my situation is a bit different (got an accident but didn't affect my no claims) I find confused/moneysupermarket don't give an accurate quote. I can change my policy online and get info on the price before I have to commit so I can see how much cheaper it was e.g. adding my gf to my policy saved me £7 over the year

[mycarsavw]

What about a Skoda? The insurance on them is usually pretty cheap and the diesel engines are really nice. The Octavia is basically just a re-badged Passat and i think the 1.9tdi is group 7

Fabia = Polo
Octavia = Golf/Bora/Jetta
Superb = LWB Passat

Don't rule out the "van" versions of cars too, they seem popular with people who don't like having to fall into a car rather than climb up into.

Citroen Berlingo for example.

[kalniel]

Superb = LWB Passat

Are you sure? I thought I remembered reading an article where they said it was (surprisingly) a LWB golf platform. Pretty sure skoda were the source of the article as well

[mycarsavw]

100% sure

The first gen was based on the Chinese market Passat called the Lingyu which uses the VW B5 platform.

The second gen uses the B6 platform.

[Biscuit]

no i think hes right actually, its the other way round

[MSIC]

Really? Those cars are cheaper to insure than my '97 Honda Accord as a (fairly) young driver

For a cheaper one maybe a Passat/Octavia or a nice condition BMW?

I agree that she would like to see herself in something like this, at least as a starter car (and I do appreciate the suggestions), but they just arent cheap to insure (without any NCB at least - again, the whole purpose of this car).

Honda Jazz
Fiat Panda (great car)
Hyundai i10 or i30 (just won jdpower survey for manufacturers)

Now these are more the correct insurance bracket. Selling them to her however is gonna take a whole bucket of talk.

The Octavia is basically just a re-badged Passat and i think the 1.9tdi is group 7

This might well end up being the very best choice of all - and since I own a Yeti, i can play the whole 'its quite similar to mine' card. (She likes the Yeti - and who wouldnt? )

Ok chaps, thanks for the ideas. Nice one.

[Dareos]

Would mention the Jazz as well, seen lots of them around lately,was very tempted before i bought my Civic (still under lock and key atm).

If its only for a year or so before a bigger better car then something like this would be ideal, especially as with NCB not bieng involved, its gonna hurt when she moves to something bigger