Reply With QuoteHave a loot at Honda Jazz and Honda Civic's as well. They are low cost, durable, nice and fits your filters.
Hi All,
I have convinced myself to, at the age of 31, finally get myself a car. I live in central London so I plan to use it mainly on weekends to visit friends living far away and do weekend trips, go hiking etc where a car makes life easier. See a bit more of the UK before May kicks me out essentially. As I have never had a car on my own, this is a bit of an experiment as I don't know how much I will actually use it, so don't want to splash out too much money.
What I am looking for
* 4 seats and preferably 5 doors so I can bring friends along
* Low running costs
* Ok for longer trips
* £5-6k range
* Would love to say "fun" but I will restrict myself to "not boring"
I have been looking at the VW Up! which seem to fit my needs and is also quite stylish, any other recommendations or experiences owning the Up ? Also Volvo V40 but at this price it would be 100k+ miles whereas you can get a low milage Up. Still fairly new cars so not sure how worried I should be about miles as long as it has been properly maintained.
Thanks in advance
Jonas
Have a loot at Honda Jazz and Honda Civic's as well. They are low cost, durable, nice and fits your filters.
Not sure I would want something as small as an up for long journeys.
A Honda jazz or Toyota yaris might be a better bet.
Personally I would be looking at something like a Honda civic.
I think you are looking at the right car already with the Up, but consider it's triplet brothers also, the Skoda Citygo and Seat Mii. Also consider the other City car triplets; Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108. A friend has an Aygo and its a cracking little car, been on some golf breaks with him all around the UK doing some 5 hour stints and its nippy and surprisingly refined and comfy even doing big distances.
Good luck.
We have an Up which we use as our runaround and for short journeys.
Bought it it in March this year and absolutely love it. It is such fun to drive and uses very little petrol
We opted for the Move Up model, as wanted air con and Bluetooth.
Usually use the Golf for longer journeys but my wife has done a couple of 300 mile round trips in it and says it's just fine.
Petrol Japanese hatchbacks like those already mentioned are probably your best bet. Generally thought of as being reliable yet possibly not the most exciting to drive, practical size yet not too big for a new driver, and there should be plenty in that price bracket. Avoid diesel if you're not doing that many miles, there's more to go wrong on them (turbos, particulate filters etc).
The VW Up! would make a great city car however with a few passengers in it don't expect to break any speed limits, should be OK though to travel further afield though they're not designed to spend their life on the motorway. As for mileage, if a vehicle has a full documented service history then you should be fine, and when buying check for when the next service and MOT are due as well as things like tyre condition, they'll give you an idea as to if there'll be much money to spend sooner rather than later.
MOT histories can be checked online if you have the reg number. Take note of what it may have failed on, what advisories have been noted and if there's any documented evidence of these issues being resolved.
https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/
Honda Civic 1.8S or similar. Bullet proof, reasonably quick, reliable, decent MPG. Although you may want an auto for London. Anything Japanese, Toyota etc.
As above Honda Jazz Toyota Yaris or my choice Mazda 2
Honda Civic, petrol.
How about a Ferrari FXX K
Sorry, read that as fast car.
Fiat Panda. Five doors, economical, lovely to drive, comfortable ride, plenty of leg room for adults in the back even with the front seats in sensible positions. Pick a higher spec and you'll get aircon and electric mirrors.
We have a 2004 which we could replace for £1000 and it still all works and is fine. Slightly newer will see you get one in the the £30 tax category, at your stated price range you'll get a super one but frankly I wouldn't run a car that nice in the city, if you don't dent it, others will. I'd save my money, spend £2-3000 on the car and the rest on those trips.
Test drove the Up and Skoda version. Thought they were really very nice. The automatic version was awful though with dreadful lag.
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I can't believe I'm the first to say MX5!!
Seriously, lots of good advice. I'd say do get a test drive. I recently was looking after a Yaris for a relative and hated the way it drove, so it's a personal thing.
I've got to concur with the Honda Civic brigade. Comfortable, reliable, can't go wrong really
I have got to agree with the above messages...I do a 100 mile motorway round trip 3 days a week in a 2012 1.8 petrol civic...50k miles in nothing has gone wrong...nice and nippy when you need it to go, comfy interior, good cruiser and it nudges close to 50mpg...oh and the 1.8 has chain cam engine...avoid diesels and you really can't go wrong with a Japanese engine
The VW will be fine.Originally Posted by jonasy
Honestly, do some members need to visit specsavers? A Honda Jazz, my 90 year old grandad got bored of that one, and an MX 5 - which model has 4 seats and 5 doors?
Might as well throw in a 911 before somebody says it!
31
no NCB
first car
Central London
I'd be looking at insurance costs and seeing what I can afford; it may not be your first choice.
this!!!
If you get change out of £1500 to insure a 1.2 corsa I would be amazed (that's at 5k miles per year with one of those "behaviour" boxes fitted to make sure you're not speeding).
1.2 corsa or 1.2 polo for 12 months, then with a year's no claims your premium should drop by 50% and you can start looking for something with more street cred. :)
It will almost certainly be cheaper just to hire a car for weekends away and zipcar in London. That said I bought my first car at the same age whilst living in Islington. It was a few years ago now (12!) but insurance was surprisingly cheap (under £400 for a Punto)
Thanks all ! Looks like the up is worth checking out. Am sure the Japanese cars are great but I have ... issues with the design (sorry). Hehe would love a mx5 but a two seater is just not practical.
Fair point. Can it be cheaper than up's 1l 60hp engine with modern safety features? Does it count as having a lot of street cred haha. Had a look at insurance quotes and the admiral related companies charges about 600 gbp and then its a huge gap to 1500. V40 was another 100 or so. Admiral might have crappy reviews but perhaps worth it for the first years to build up NCB? I live in w10 btw. Would an older car be cheaper to insure just for third party plus fire/theft? I would hate a box even though Captain slow will overtake me.
Expected this reply and you are of course right. I've tried before and doesn't work for me in practice as 1) loose the freedom as certain planning is required 2) every time you ask yourself "is this trip worth £xx" rather than have it as a sunk cost where you want to drive as much as possible to get value for your large fixed costs. I'm super pro car sharing but this is more about luxury than sheer need ...
MX-5.
Skoda Fabia - the 1.6 or 1.9 TDI engine 105bhp version.
Takes 4 adults comfortably, 4 door and pulls like a train.
50+ to the gallon and reliable.
I have had a few Panda's but the standout ones for me are the 100hp's, they are so much fun and still cheap to run. Admittedly they are getting a bit old now, but there are a few low mileage/well looked after ones out there and they seem to be holding their money well too. With the 100hp you will get electric windows/mirrors, Bluetooth and aircon. You can get a very good one for £3-3.5k, the ride is a bit firmer than the standard Panda, but this adds to the experience of driving a little pocket rocket.
+1 for the panda. A friend has just gone from an audi tt to a panda to save money (he bought the panda for £400) and he loves it.
Also +1 for check insurance on whatever you look at as it's probably going to hurt.
You can buy a new dacia sandero for your budget. 5 year warranty, and a dealer to shout at if you need to. As well as brand new brakes, tyres, no one else has parped on the seats, and cheap servicing. Buy one of the junksters being suggested and you are gambling.
Dealers may have some higher spec models (6K is rock bottom) pre-registered within budget too.
Or.... Lease. Why? If you don't like it / use it as expected, you can hand whatever new car you wish to try out back in 2 or 3 years without thinking "how do I sell it?" or "do I pay the [Pcp] bubble?"
If you're looking at longer journeys I wouldn't consider the VW Up!. I had one as a courtesy car for a week and found it to be a bit gutless. Allied to that the gearlever seemed to have a long throw and the overall driving position wasn't that comfy - given all the positive comments on it I was a bit disappointed.
Fiat Panda 100hp..great little cars..my friend has one but it has rock hard suspension which would put me off living in London with it's multitude of speed humps.
My recommendation? Like you I live in London and wanted a cheap car that was reliable and fairly inconspicuos given most of the time it would be parked on the street and not driven from weekend to weekend
In the end I went for a 2008 polo bluemotion. It has turned out to be nothing short of fantastic. I paid £2650 three years ago for it . I pay zero roadtax, get a free Richmond upon Thames parking permit because of less than 100g Co2 and 70 + mpg. Being the eco variant it has 14 inch wheels which means I can fit four brand new michelin eco tyres for £240..only slightly more than a rear on my SLK55
As it's also a turbo diesel you get a mountain of torque which makes overtaking and longer journeys a breeze. It will happily cruise all day at 100 and top out a 110.
You could easily get a 60k miler for £3k
Last edited by Pubdweller; 20th September 2017 at 20:58.
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