Any experts out there on cheap cars?

[SalfordQuays]

DS age 19 needs a car. He’s a student but the holidays are long, we live quite rurally, and he needs a car for seeing friends and getting to his holiday job.

DS has a budget of around £3k for the car itself (he has extra money for the insurance etc). I’ve always bought used cars from dealerships for around £10k, so I’m totally out of my comfort zone with the £3k market. No one in the family knows anything about cars.

Is there anyone here who has some helpful hints they can share?

We were going to look at Autotrader, and avoid private sales because I imagine they’d be harder to deal with if something went wrong. But beyond that, I have no idea of the potential pitfalls to look out for, the signs to be wary of, the things to avoid etc.

Buy something that's easy to maintain. Doesn't have loads of computers or electrics. Parts are cheap to buy from either a dealer, car parts shop or ebay. Cheap to run and insure. Have the AA/RAC check it over.
I wouldn't worry to much about a few scratches. He'll do plenty himself. But make sure it is safe. Brakes, chassis, shock absorbers etc.

uncool and funny coloured cars are often cheaper.
Very Granny but Honda Jazz’s are decent cars and usually available with low mileage and a good service history quite cheaply

My dd got herself a second hand Citroen c1, a lot of her friends got similar. They are cheap and cheerful cars, tax is cheap and insurance not too bad.
Personally I’d find a small car dealership that specialise in small cheap cars rather than auto trader, thry should guarantee the car for at least 3 months.
Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 106 are all basically the same car and ideal first cars.

Does he need awd or 4wd for holiday jobs in winter?

I had a great Ford Fiesta that did me well for five or so years, not sure what the second hand ones go for these days. If I didn’t need a bigger car, I’d be doing the same, Aygo looks a good run around

No, normal cars are fine round here.

@mrandmrsrobinson when people say “get the AA to check it”, what does that actually mean? Surely the AA don’t send a mechanic out to a random garage to look at a car? Is it a remote check that they do on the registration, so see if it’s been written off etc? Sorry for being so dense!

@SalfordQuaysyou can pay to have a car assessed I believe.

This ^

Hyundai i10 or i20, Dacia sandero, honda jazz, toyota yaris, suzuki swift, skoda fabia. All somewhat uncool and therefore likely to be cheaper to insure for a 19yr old boy than the classic Ford fiesta or vauxhall corsa. At that price range your looking for as few previous owners as possible, ideally one or two. Low to average mileage (8k a year or less) and a full maintenance/service history.

Of you can find someone selling their grannies 12 year old yaris on marketplace with FSH and a gear box and clutch that feels smooth that's your dream buy.

Hyundai i10 would be a good starter car, reasonably priced and it's a reliable brand.

Thank you everyone. The other thing I’m confused about is insurance. It seems you can’t get an insurance estimate without a car registration. How do people decide if a car they like is going to have affordable insurance? Do we just have to find a car, check we like it, then run a quote through before deciding if it’s affordable?

This is all new to me. I was in my mid 20s before I bought a car, so insurance was pretty standard.

I'd go for a skoda citigo. We've had 2 for 8 years and needed nothing except normal maintenance. Cheap to insure, my boys gave been driving them since 17. Great safety and easy to drive and economical. Great for very tall drivers despite them being small cars.

It's the same car as a seat mii or vw up.

In terms of insurance, often the photos on auto trader will have a reg number so find something similar to what you want to buy and use that reg number.

If you see a car on Autotrader , you can put the reg in GoCompare and tick to say ‘not bought yet’. It will give you the prices. Often cheaper if you add a parent / both on.

I agree. A very popular car for youngsters due to relatively low insurance and reliability.

Anything VW - Polo or Golf. Or Skoda Fabia.

If you research as well, you should be able to find the insurance class for vehicles you are interested in and yoh can use that as a guide, just beware that different models of the same vehicle can have different insurance class (often based on engine size).

Well I'm far from being a granny 🤣 but I second the vote for Honda Jazz. I'm on my second. My first one had no engine issues in 11 years of ownership (although it was serviced regularly.) They're ULEZ compliant, fuel efficient and have great build quality. Also, the cabin has bags of room and you have the 'magic' seating' configuration for shifting stuff. I purchased both of mine with a warranty from reputable dealers, then had my local garage check the cars over for any issues. In both cases, they're were none.
They run on a drive chain rather than a drive belt, this needs replacing at 100k miles. In both cases mine have been the 1.4 litre.
Good alternatives in terms of reliability are Hyundai i10 and Toyota Yaris.

If you use Auto trader, you'll be able to see the vehicle registration in the ads. You can also put the reg into the DVLA site below and see the outcome of all previous MOTs including advisories.

www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

The last courtesy car I borrowed from my regular garage was a Citroën C1, and I was impressed by how nippy it was. The guy said he really recommends them as a starter car.

Personally, I much prefer to buy privately- I don't think the garage markup is worth any warranty or guarantee you get. You can always get the AA to come and check a prospective car over for about £100.

Buying 2nd hand cars is a nightmare but no reason to exclude private sales, look for fewer owners, a full service history, average mileage or slightly below, very low mileage can indicate lots of city driving, which might mean clutch wear or clogged up emission devices...
Avoid a car where the owner hasn't had the car long...

Always take a test drive, on a quiet road, brake hard and make sure the car doesn't make weird noises or pulls hard to one side, or when driving in a straight line, the car isn't pulling to one side - it will slightly due to road camber but nothing extreme, there should be no vibration through the steering wheel..

Check tyre depth and even tyre wear, tyres shouldn't be perished, check lights/indicators work.

If your happy, you could go for a RAC/AA examination, no experience of these.

Private also means you can haggle, a car priced at £3000? i'd be offering 2600 or less if it needs new tyres.
Garages by mainly from auctions, and sell on any old things at your price limit.

A Citroen C1 or its derivatives, pre 2012 cars can have clutch issues unless upgraded.... but its a cheapish fix... are decent cars and relatively simple to work on, an older Fiesta without the "wet cambelt" is good too, as are VW Polo's, Skoda Fabia', Seat Ibiza...
Asian cars can have spares issues and could attract high insurance premiums.

Yeah, they literally send a mechanic out to go over the car and provide you with a checklist and report- it's a great service. The price can mount up if they give the thumbs down to several of your choices in a row though!

For £3k I’d be looking at private sales rather than traders. If you buy from a trader then you’re realistically buying a £2k car. Take a friend who knows about cars then if all seems good get an AA inspection.

In terms of reliability Japanese is the way forward, with a small petrol engine.

I found Suzuki to be reliable but a nightmare for spares even though I took it to a main dealer even getting tyres, they had to be ordered in and waited for.

Nissan now from a local garage and from a mains dealer depending on what I was buying at the time .