Hi all,
I was wondering what people would suggest for the above - a total budget of £5k (preferably including insurance) for my 22yr old sister who will be commuting 60 miles a day.
I'm thinking it'll need decent fuel economy, she's never had her own car so has no NCD (so insurance will be painful) and it'll need to be reliable.
Any sensible suggestions would be appreciated and considered!
Thanks,
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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My first thoughts were a peugeot 306 or citreon Xsara Hdi - 50mpg, fairly low insurance and can be bought for under your budget.
Skoda Fabia Tdi is another contender but is slightly more expensive and not as many of them on the market
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For a 60 mile commute your 1 litre petrol engine would do and would be nearly as cheap as a diesel. Pick something with the lowest insurance group possible. I know the suzuki swift can be had for c 5k brand new so if you can find a dealer doing a deal for one of those with free insurance then she'd be quids in. Or a cheap pre-reg with some good insurance offer. It might work out cheaper to go brand new with a petrol engine & insurance offer than go for a second hand diesel and pay for the insurance separately including likely depreciation and servicing costs. Definitely worth shopping around :-)
teabelly
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I'd suggest a Yaris, Micra or Fabia on the grounds of reliability: £5k should get somethong about 2 years old. One that's been part-exchanged for the same make is always a good best, implying that the previous owner has been happy with it.
A Ford Ka is another possibility - they are surprisingly good on long journeys and quite relaxed at 70 mph. Cheap to insure as well: you might even get an ex-demonstrator for £5k.
Good luck!
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Considered a 1.0ltr Lupo or Arosa? Good NCAP crash results, my daughter gets 45mpg from her T reg Lupo with a lot of short journeys. We did a 200 mile round trip recently - at the end, my back was much better than if I'd been in my Golf with 'sports' seats, and my daughter reported that it had gone a lot further on that tank of fuel than normal... A noisy boom at 70 mph is the one annoying thing; normally it is suprisingly refined. The Lupo doesn't have power steering, but after a new set of tyres and re-tracking it is not a problem.
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...and make sure she shops around well for insurance, may well give her an extra few £00 to spend on the car. My daughter will be 17 next week and will be "inheriting" the Fiesta which has appeared in technical so many times :-).
Got a quote the other day from Direct Line for her insurance (TPFT) which was less than £600 - not bad for a provisional licence holder, and £450 less than a neighbour paid for very similar cover for his daughter with a different insurer.
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I think that a decent diesel will make the commute a more relaxed affair. If it is mainly A road then diesel will have more grunt for any overtaking that is required and on dual carriage way and motorway the engine will be doing less revs and less stressed than a 1.0 litre sounding like a sewing machine on overdrive.
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A company to have a look at for insurance would be Quinn Direct. They have a website. My boyfriend has just got insurance with them on a 1.4 S reg Corsa, fully comp with no no-claims, me as a named driver for just over £1000. My mum also just got a quote from them for protected no claims on a 1.2 '03 Punto for just short of £200. Its just a thought.
They claim to be specialising in younger, inexperienced drivers and appear to be able to undercut almost everyone else in the market.
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If I was doing 60 miles a day I'd want something comfortable, not small.
Nice 406 or C5 HDi, for example.
Mk3 Mondeo 2.0?
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BH - I'd agree that a diesel would be better - but small diesels are pretty rare (and unless they are a VAG diesel, their economy advantage is not so great). I just am impressed by the (relative!) refinement of the little Lupo!
Looking at the NCAP results, I'd prefer the 306 to the Xsara...
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Doesn't have to be a small diesel - something like a 306/xsara/astra can be picked up for sensible money and is not too big a car for a first time driver.
If she does want a slightly smaller car i'd say have a look at the Saxo/106 diesel - 60mpg all day long although not the quickest ever car! If she is feeling brave/patriotic she could also look at a rover 100 diesel which uses the same engine!
Just done a quick search on autotrader and it appears a 3 or 4 year old 106 diesel is about the same money as a 306 diesel but slower and less well equipped. I know which i would choose
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Just a couple of thoughts:
It's easy to become obsessed by fuel economy, and in the process forget that you've (eg) just spent 4k on a car that will be worth 1.5k in a year's time. BTDTGTTS.
Depending on the time of day and type of roads, that kind of commute can be seriously hard work. After 18mo of 55miles/day round-trip to work I was utterly exhausted. I had little driving experience before I took the job, and so didn't really understand what I was letting myself in for.
I'd suggest about 2k worth of petrol-engined big japanese saloon (you get a lot of Primera/Carina-E/etc for 2000) or perhaps Mondeo. A bigger car is a much less stressful place to spend 2 hours a day than some buzzy little tin-can, and gives a better chance of surviving the inevitable accident. Leaves plenty of cash spare for insurance.
Back of a fag packet says 60 miles and 80p/litre means 50mpg is 22 quid/week. Each 10mpg less costs an extra fiver a week. Bearing in mind that diesel fuel costs a bit extra, and diesels tend to need more frequent servicing, and cost more to buy and to mend when they break, I wouldn't go for a diesel on cost grounds alone.
Hope there's at least something to ponder there.
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>>bh Xsara/306 Hdi
I like the idea of the Xsara I'll have a look at autotrader. The fabia TDi (we have the TDi) will be a lot more than £5k for a decent one - the insurance would make it impossible...
>>tb Swift
Saw one of these on the back of a transporter yesterday, looked pretty good, think I'll suggest it to her. I'm thinking bombproof reliability with it being Japanese too. Good call
>>Avant
The Ka is probably the most likely out of the four you suggest - bit worried about the mpg on a 1.3 pushrod but they do look cool, which would be important to her...
>>PU Fabia
It would be my choice but not sure the texting generation is ready for a Fabia just yet!
>>JohnM Arosa/Lupo
That's a great suggestion - rare & funky, low insurance & high mpg. I think she'd like that
>>loopyjen Insurance
Eeek! I knew it would be bad for the insurance but I guess that's how much it costs now
>>Michael Rodgers - 406/C5
As it happens, our Dad has just got rid of his 406 2.1TD, nice car but the insurance for my sister would be eyewatering...
Continues
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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>>JohnM Small diesel
306 to Xsara? I think it'd be more likely to get a Xsara with ABS than a 306. Do they do a diesel Lupo/Arosa? Could the answer.
>>Strowger
Thanks for the considered response. My inclination is to advise a small car, and perhaps a diesel to get the most mpg/coolness for the money. I know a bigger cars would make the commute easier but the conversations I'm having at the moment with her go along the lines of
- "I think the Clio looks really cool"
- "Yes, but they're expensive and have poor mpg"
- "Say what? But it's got a CD player...."
- etc, etc.
so
I really like the idea of a small diesel, and especially the lupo/arosa. It'd be unusual enough to be interesting for her yet frugal enough to be sensible. I'm going to have a look at the CBC breakdown and autotrader to see if I can find anything suitable for her, or even a Suzuki swift.
Initially I was thinking of a C2, especially with free insurance. But most of these insurance deals require you to buy the car using finance. Complicated process, this buying a car!!
Thanks for everyone's input, much appreciated.
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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Daewoo Leganza? You can pick up a nice model for about £2k. You get cruise, leather, climate, full electrics, autobox etc for that. My dad has done 70,000 miles in his and it still runs perfectly - only problem was corroding alloys (fixed with weird black paint) and a dodgy earth on the climate control (took us about 30 minutes to put a new one in.)
Big car though, and insurance might not be cheap. (Mind you, I'm insured to drive it, so it can't be that bad.) Also very easy to drive, quiet, and very much at home on the motorway. If this is a first car, you will have to learn to take into account that the bonnet sticks out, but at that price, a scrape along the front won't be too painful a lesson!
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Insurance for a 22 year old girl, regardless of NCB, will not be expensive.
Hell, I insured a Xantia TD and Mondeo 2.0 16v at 19 with no worries.
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My sister's 23 and thinking of buying a car some time after graduation. Depending on where she chooses to live, with no NCB, a Xsara 1.9 TD comes in between £600 (low risk Cambridge) and £1k (high risk central London). A 306 or Ka would be £200ish cheaper, albeit 306s go for more second hand for the equivalent spec/condition than the Xsara.
Try Tesco; incidentally I noted Quinn Direct come up in another thread on another site at the same time and I tried a couple of example quotes. For me (26, hopefully soon to be 2 years' NCD, 406 1.9), they were nearly double what I'm paying through Elephant, and around £400 more than Tesco for a 17 year old I know of on a 1.0 Corsa.
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Incidentally there's an 02 plate Clio 1.5 dci with 94k up for £3,295. Knock him down to £3k, get 70 mpg (I did when I rented one), run it up to 140k in 2 years and still sell it on eBay for £1,800.
Meanwhile over those 48k you've spent £1,400 less on fuel than you wuold with a 45 mpg petrol Ka, bought with lowish mileage at the same money and age, so high mileage motoring makes a lot of sense. It seems wrong to talk about bangernomics with a 3-year-old car, but this is essentially what it is.
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I agree that Quinn Direct aren't necessarily cheap for everyone but they have come amongst some of the lowest quotes for the people I've mentioned it to who have had a look. Incidentally they aren't anywhere near as cheap for me and I'd be paying about £150 more than I am now. Still worth giving them a look though.
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Lee - there are simple Lupo and Arosa diesels, but they are pretty rare. VW official figures are 48.7 vs 64.2 mpg - for you to decide if a diesel makes sense... Originally Arosas came with power steering as std (but not the Lupo, though that's not a big problem), whereas the Lupo had a passenger airbag. New Lupos have ABS/PAS/twin bags as std (don't know about new Arosas). Just don't expect to burn rubber with the 1.0 or diesel...!
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Thanks John,
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a Lupo/Arosa. Not burning rubber will hopefully keep her out of trouble with Gatsos...
I'll post back what she goes for, will be interesting to see if she listens to the collected advice of the learned folk here and her big brother....
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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I'll post back what she goes for, will be interesting to see if she listens to the collected advice of the learned folk here and her big brother....
Unless sibling relationships in your family are unusually simple, I suspect that big bro's advice may not be entirely welcome.
On the other hand, if you tell her that a Lupo is pile of girly junk and that no bloke would be seen dead in one ...
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Well, I said I'd get back when it's sorted.
Citroën C2 1.1LX, brand new. Really lovely car, I'll post again when she's had it for a while to give her views on it.
They're doing some excellent deals on Citroëns at the moment!
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time.
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