To ask you which car

[PeteWicksSexyPirate]

Hiya
What do you recommend as a good first car?
I’m currently looking at Fiestas, Clios and Polos, which do you think is the best for mileage, expense, reliability etc?
Or do you have any other recommendations?
I’m still learning btw but it’s so expensive I’m just going to bite the bullet and buy a car thanks!

Both me and my husband drive high group cars, plus both are modified. Insurance is peanuts. which is totally irrelevant for a new driver.

but everyone tells me petrol is more fun to drive Should you be looking for "fun to drive" in your first car after passing your test, bearing in mind the test basically says "now you are safe enough to start learning to drive on your own".

Also re insurance get quotes as the main driver for you as a learner and then newly passed as some companies are reasonable for learners and then expensive once passed. We bit the bullet and insuranced our DD as main driver, learner, and added me (DM) as an additional driver which reduced the cost. Left off DH as price went up! I did all the comparison sites but went with Marmalade with a black box. Our normal insurers weren't helpful or competitive at all. Hopefully this route means that insurance will be cheaper next year.

I had a 2001 1.4 TDI VW Polo for four years and it was brilliant. I can't fault that little car. Incredible on fuel and £30 a year road tax. I've had seven VW's

I (eventually) passed my driving test aged 27 and it was in my own car too! A VW Golf. My 2nd car was also a VW Golf. Bloody loved that car. Only got a new one as had dd1 and wanted a bigger car. Went to Vauxhall. Recently downsized again and have gone for a Nissan.

My recommendations would be German or Japanese. Not French or Spanish or Italian. Although Seat do have VW engines nowadays.

Toyota is excellent from what I've heard. Also, Skoda, Hyundai and Kia too like pp have already mentioned.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply, you’ve all given me some really useful info

My son has a VW Up! as his first car - I'm seriously thinking of buying it off him when he buys his next car.
It's nippy, efficient and like a Tardis inside (he's 6ft 2)

@LizB62A there’s a lot of VW love on the thread and that’s good to hear as I’m very tall myself!

@PeteWicksSexyPirate

My friend was teased mercilessly for his Skoda about 10 years ago but he says they’re basically a VW under the bonnet?

Yes, VW own the Skoda brand but would use cheaper parts.

I've got a Nissan Juke and love it! It sits quite high up but is small inside. It has a reverse camera which may help with reverse/parallel parking at the start.

Err hardly. They are still workhorse cars, robust and reliable. You clearly don't know what you're talking about.

I know exactly what I’m talking about. VAG cars are nowhere near the quality they used to be, the same as all the German stuff. The Japanese stuff and more recently Korean kicks its arse all over the shop. VW come 25th out of 40 manufactures for reliability, we’ll below average.

Toyota Aygo every day of the week. Loved mine: unbelievably reliable and economical, extraordinarily tight turning circle and fitted through the tiniest of gaps. I still miss it

My first car is (still is) a Land Rover Freelander 2. Insurance is surprisingly cheap for such a large engine. I found some much smaller cars were more expensive. It’s also incredibly easy to drive, although I am very selective about parking spaces as it’s quite a wide car.

Keep your options open!

Honda Civic. Had a focus before and much prefer the Honda. Much better put together.

Mazdas are very reliable cars but not that cheap second hand, all depends on your budget. Do a dummy insurance quote to check you can afford insurance

Yes, VW own the Skoda brand but would use cheaper parts.

The parts are exactly the same. VW, SEAT and Skoda cars share the same components. The different brands are aimed at different sectors of the market.

I have a mini thats proved very reliable (touches wood!), cute & easy to park. My family have had quite a few Seats, found them very reliable. Sister currently has a 1.4 ibiza which she loves. Personally I wouldn't touch a French car with a bargepole. Fiat 500's are nice to look at but underpowered.

Vauxhall Corsa. I have had two, one for ten years and one for 5 years.

It was cheap to run, cheap to insure, cheap to service and was bloody brilliant.

I miss my Corsas.

Honda Jazz, easy handling, very good visibility, reliable, very spacious yet still small, generally cheap to insure and easy to find with low mileage.

@PeteWicksSexyPirate

Really good to hear everyone’s feedback, I’ve already mentally knocked Clio off the list!

Aww I had a Clio for 12 years. It was 17 when I got £2k off a new car for in a scrappage scheme. I loved that car.

I've got a fiesta, love it. Nippy little thing, no tax, insurance is pretty cheap, nice little runner.

I see you say a mate was teased mercilessly for his skoda about 10 years ago...tbh I hated the idea of a skoda until a few years ago. I very nearly bought a skoda a few months ago... the newer ones definitely have a charm about them, a BMW narrowly won. When the fiesta stops working in a few years time (its 6 yrs old now, 100,000 on the clock, and it's never really had a problem) I'll get myself a skoda kodiaq. Love them so much!

@Osirus

My first car is (still is) a Land Rover Freelander 2. Insurance is surprisingly cheap for such a large engine. I found some much smaller cars were more expensive. It’s also incredibly easy to drive, although I am very selective about parking spaces as it’s quite a wide car.

Keep your options open!

My first car was a massive old Volvo estate. I absolutely loved it.

My dad bought my DDs a Kia Rio when DD1 was learning to drive. It's a great little car. It has 5 doors and comfortably fits 5 of us in it. It regularly returns 50mpg on mixed driving and best of all came with a 7 year warranty. The amount of kit on it compared with a polo was amazing. When the DDs are at uni and the Kia is here, I drive it to work once a week. I normally drive a big VW. The Kia is fun to drive and it's not a bad car to be driven in either. The boot it pretty generous - we fitted DD's stuff in when we collected it from uni in June.

If you are looking for a second hand car you are unlikely to be able to specify the make and model (unless willing to travel a long way). For 1000 you are looking at something at least 10 years old. Decide what size you want, and go from there. Diesel might be cheaper to insure, and a small engine size is also likely to be cheaper. Then go for something with a full service history, that has a full years mot, and that has had a timing belt change done fairly recently. You don't want low mileage as that implies lots of short journeys which are worse for the car. A 10 year old car is always a bit of a gamble but one that has been maintained properly hugely reduces the risk.
If I had a choice of cars in the right price range I would look at the safety ratings before other considerations.

If I had a choice of cars in the right price range I would look at the safety ratings before other considerations.

Assuming you’re a woman, it’s worth bearing in mind that the safety rating are based on the safety of men, not women, and what might be a high safety rating for a man can be very poor for a woman.

Volkeswagen Lupo.