buying a car

[DoctorGilbertson]

Hello,

Any ideas ...

I would like to buy something cheap, that I can do an 18 mile round trip commute each day in and that I can put two child seats in the back of.

It needs to be cheap.

And cheap to insure.

And cheap to maintain.

And cheap on petrol.

I have had a driving license for 10 ish years I think now and have done a bit of driving but not much and have never been insured on any car before.

Thanks.

Do you need pushchair space? Toddler stuff?

I'd suggest something like a VW Polo 1.0, which is small, has a small engine and is a low insurance group. On the downside, on a long journey and on motorways it may struggle a bit.

Or a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2, which is a similar size, similar insurance grouping but will be more responsive.

Hopefully somebody with knowledge will be along soon.

A couple of things to bear in mind:

A smaller engine does not always mean more MPG, probably because they have to be worked harder to get anywhere; 1.4 to 1.6 can sometimes return higher MPG that 1.0/1.2 sort of size.

However, a smaller engine usually means lower insurance group, thus lower insurance premium.

I'd probably go for something like a Skoda Fabia - half decent since owned by VAG, but parts should be a bit cheaper than its VW brethren.

Thanks. Really helpful. How about age? How old can I go?

As old as you like - buy on condition, not age. Has it been looked after by previous owners? Lots of service receipts? Serviced on time? Large bills for things like clutches, cambelts or whatever is not a problem, it's a reassurance that the engine is now running new(ish) components ready to do another 80,000 miles.

A badly looked after, abused 3 year old car could well be worse than a well looked after 20 year old car.

How much are you looking to spend?

Thanks. Helpful points.

Re: how much. Well ... I have some savings so if you convinced me that a new bottom of the range car (at about 7000GBP?) would recoup the extra money I might do that. But if I would be able to get something equivalent for about 2000 GBP (i.e. with the same low running costs) this would be great.

I don't know much about cars so just thinking really.

Thanks again

I love my Yaris . It's a 53 and they are about £2k tops now so you could get a more recent one for 3-7k. V reliable, good mpg, versatile.

A new car will not recoup the extra money, end of.

(Unless you keep cars for 7-10 years or more.)

Polo. Any day. Fits all your requirements and benefits from German engineering. They last forever. Could get one that's ten years old and get plenty of mileage out of it.

I've always heard from mechanics I've used have all said ( or driven ) German or Japanesse. They tend to be reliable and thus cheap to run.

I'd echo all the good advice above.

Do your homework before you finally buy. There is plenty of info on t'internet to give you a good idea of what to look for.

Personally if I were you I'd certainly include a VW Golf in your list, I think the used car Market is pretty stagnant ATM so you could haggle down if yr lucky.

thanks