What first car?

[BillyJ]

Didn't know where else to post other than genral but anyway...

I've been motorcycling since my 17th birthday(I'm 19 and a bit now ), got 3 years NCB, no points and will soon be a full member of the IAM...

What first car would you recommend that would be affordable to insure but not shit?

NONE of these...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/articles/2010/08/cars/top-10-first-cars-for-1500
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Had: '06 CBR125R + '01 GSF600 + '07 SPRINT ST 1050 + '80 CB250 RSA + '93 Ducati 900SS
Have: '13 GSXR-1000 + '01 CB500S
"The aryan confuser"

[krarkol]

Goldwing
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Bandit 600 - deaded

[Teflon-Mike]

Well, I'd be tempted to go classic. You learn a certain 'empathy' driving an old crock with push-rods on cross-ply tyres and unassisted drum brakes Morris Minor? Triumph Herald? 950 Fiesta 'popular'... in beige for added so-uncool its cool points Sell it as the smart kid's Alegro, maybe?

Options are endless; but the thing is you are going to be slammed as a new, and under 25 yo driver for insurance regardless, and as 'main vehicle', you are unlikely to be able to wangle a 'classic' insurance policy to wonderful effect, these days; BUT, if you pick something that is old enough, and quirky enough to slip under the risk assessors radar, you might get lucky, and get something reasonably insurable.

I just spotted on e-bay a one owner, loads of providence, 1989 Rover Montego Estate 1.6, with 10 months MOT for £950... which is probably optimistic, but still; I had one of these about ten years ago; and it was an absolute hoot. 1.6 motor was rather 'busy', so actually liked being thrashed every where... and with the extra weight of the estate body over the back axle was actually rather well balanced and handled quite nicely for a Mr Beige Cordoroy trousers and Jesus sandals family estate car! Bit of a 'sleeper'. Paid I think £250 for mine, way back when, as they were renowned for being rot boxes; but bludy thing refused to die on me for three years of being thrashed and abused mercilessly. Tidy one owner example now? could just be that sort of 'quirky' under the risk assessors radar car that's a bit 'different'.... but that's the 'sort' of away from the main-stream thing I would be investigating.

Just spotted another; Volvo 480 Turbo. It was Volvo's 1980's idea of a 'new' P1800 (The original Roger-Moore "The Saint" TV series car) 'sporting Coupe', and possibly one of the contenders for the worlds MOST ugly cars ever. I had the 440 saloon it was based on for a few months.. probably THE heaviest car I have ever owned.. and I drive Range rover's as a rule! You know they say that a camel could pass through the eye of a needle, if you compressed all the atoms so there was no space between them? I think that Volvo tried this with one of thier trucks and the 440 was the result! But I digress. word 'turbo' in its model name may scare them, but again, could be an under the radar insurance beater; with a bit of 'classic quirkiness' and from my experience with the 440, probably more than a fair bit of 'go' to it.

Other than that; It may just be a case of in for a penny, in for a pound, and if you're gonna get screwed for insurance, take the hit and buy what takes your fancy.
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Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[deadwolf]

https://www.theworldsbestever.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/luxury-sidecar.jpg

https://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/06/laverda_sidecar_lead_1.jpg

It's got 'car' in the name, it's Italian, it's red. Look no further my son...
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Motorsapien Art

[Bikeless]

Insurance will screw you on old cheap cars,the newer the better but they'll still be eyewatering. My lad had quotes for an old 51 plate Micra, they started at £6000,got him a newer Fiesta but still £2000 odd.

[Matt94]

I'm 19 and drive a Lexus IS200, with 0 ncb cost me £800 to insure for a year, for the price I paid (£1300, 85k) the spec is outstanding, in built satnav, heated seats, electric seats, aftermarket DVD player and so on.. I went for the sport model as it has the limited slip diff, to have a go at drifting, great in the wet, hard to get sideways when dry. Could be a bit more livelier, 0-60 is 9.5 seconds, tops out about 140. But such a comfortable car to drive.. I drove a 14 plate hyundai i30 the other day and it doesn't compare to my old Lex.

All depends on what you want though really, personally i'm a big fan of JDM culture so I was always going to go jap.. Looked at civics, MR2's, MX5's, but I found the lexus had that extra road presence so that was a factor for me.

As I bought it:
https://i990.photobucket.com/albums/af28/Maaaaattttt/1233517_10201804752345067_6796229_n_zpse2ef479f.jpg

As it is now:
https://i990.photobucket.com/albums/af28/Maaaaattttt/lex1_zps5a851376.png

https://i990.photobucket.com/albums/af28/Maaaaattttt/lex2_zpse272c4e2.png
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current; beemer 5 series!

[MC]

WTF I got quoted 5k for one of those, and I'm in my mid-twenties Is that on your own policy?

Old cars are expensive to insure for some stupid reason, so you either need to get something truly $hit like a Citroen C1, or pay a little bit more for something decent (like the 90bhp Corsa CDTI).

Only car that was cheaper to insure than expected was the new mini, 1.6, but I'm reliably informed it's a girls car
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Yamaha MT-03 '08 (crashed)
Honda XR-125L '04

[Matt94]

[Slacker24seve...]

[MC]

[dodsi]

Do tell, im in my early twenties still (28) but only had a car licence for just over 2 years and 0 NCD as have been a named driver on my better halfs policy. Bought a BMW 323ci last week and that cost me just over £800 with the added super premium breakdown cover (nearly £90). !

[Fisty]

The only advice I can give for a first car is NEVER EVER BUY A FIAT PUNTO!!!!!
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[chickenstrip]

[Grimeric]

You can't go wrong with a fiesta. I had my 03 plate for 8 years from a year or two old. Cheap to tax and insure and great economy. They don't look too bad and are fairly roomy inside. Mine was a 1.25 16v. It wasn't fast by any means but it would happily sit at 90 all day when on the motorway.
In the eight years of ownership I serviced it once not long after I bought it and it still ran as sweet as a nut the day I sold it.
It let me down only one time during my ownership when the starter failed and that was it. Bought it for £4k and sold it for £1k eight years later. Great little cars in my opinion.
I'd have another tomorrow if I didn't have children and dogs.

[stevo as b4]

I'd like to know why none from the list too?

Some of those are popular, cheap and easy to look after hatchbacks that will do a good job of getting you around for a few years to build up some NCB.

Also what is your definition of not shit?

Are you looking for an everyday generic small hatchback, or do you want a saloon, estate, 2seater, or a coupe?

Don't buy a convertible, as premiums are loaded for rag top cars.

Many reasons why older cars are a lot more expensive for new/young driver's to insure. Some of them include:

Poorer security/easier to steal.
Cost of parts for older cars and parts availability being worse for some 10year old+ cars etc.
Also car's of that era were not designed to be cheaply repairable where as some modern cars use fewer parts or parts that do more than one function, to save costs and fewer parts to replace.
Modern small cars have very low insurance groups compared to older small car's and this matters a lot! Something like a Daihatsui charade from the 90's is about group5, where as a Citroen C1 is group1.
Modern cars have much more safety features, and this also helps reduce insurance groups, along with careful branding and avoiding GT and sport in the naming of the car etc.

My advice would be to get a fairly new 4-5year old small car like a C1, 107, Agyo, or similar such as a Kia picante, Hyundai Amica, Suzuki Alto. All these kinds of cars will be cheap to insure, and to run. That matters more as a new driver on a budget than if you like the car or want something stylish etc.

I'd say with bikes you have a lot more choice of what to buy within a budget and insurance bracket than you do with cars.

Those that say get a classic, well for a first car I think it's not the best idea IMO. If your just wanting to drive and not do renovation/project and keep working on the car, then getting a stylish head turning old classic is not the way to go. Yes you can get specialist classic insurance on many 20year old+ cars, but you often need to be a certain age or have some NCB before you can. Other than the insurance a classic will ruin you financially more often that not. I also think classic car's should not be brought as a dodge to get a young person rolling around in something different that they will run into the ground.

Classics should be left to those with the time, money and inclination to restore and preserve them.

Tl;dr I'd get a Citroen C1 etc. Cheap to own small and fun to drive.

[Matt94]

[jjdugen]

F*ck the cars, what the hell is that combo?!! I'm pretty sure thats a Laverda engine poking out of the bodywork.... I NEED to KNOW!!
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra. Room in the back for a bike.

https://www.roofbox.co.uk/carbox/05/main_17.jpg
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[Clutchy]

Mk 4 is a very good looking car with tonnes of different mods that you can do, however, go on any mk4 forum there is a myriad of problems now that they have ticked over 10 years, loads of door lock module issues and many others, the 1.4 engine is the worst one that they do by far and the majority tap massively.

I wouldn't have one because I think they're a bit boring but the 1.4 focus has a very good/strong engine that seems to have a lot more torque, and has a better gear set up.

5th gear in the 1.4 golf at 70mph is like 3.8k rpm, the car absolutely drinks fuel around 28-35 mpg for a car that is very slow.

I seem to have to fix 1 problem every month on my golf, my friends focus has never had any problems.


Both cheap on insurance and a lot better than most cliche first cars.
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Malaguti F12 Phantom-Dead, Suzuki AY50- Dead, NRG power DD LQ, CBR125.
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[DMCpro]

[NooBish-AbbZ]

By the time I'm looking to buy a car, i'll hopefully be able to afford a new Fiesta ST :p
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XJ6N- Apr '19 -Present

[Dave500]

Vauxhall corsa 1.2 (05)is what I had when I was 17 (6 years ago) and it's great to learn in, cheap to buy, run and relatively fun to drive. Insurance was £2500 for the first year then about £2000 when I was 18.
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Bye bye Z hello Versys

[Dave500]

Vauxhall corsa 1.2 (05)is what I had when I was 17 (6 years ago) and it's great to learn in, cheap to buy, run and relatively fun to drive. Insurance was £2500 for the first year then about £2000 when I was 18.
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Bye bye Z hello Versys

[wodge]

A slightly left of field idea.. A classic camper..

Cheaper insurance due to non existent 0-60 times, cheap getaways with the lads or lass and you can put a bike in the back!!
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nolidge iz pouwur.
Yamaha RXS100 RS100

[krarkol]