Wanted: A Little 'First Car' for my Lad.

[Stuart Mitchell]

Long shot, I know.

I am looking round at the minute but thought I'd ask here too, someone might have something sat on a a drive or in garage that isn't seeing any use.

First car so nothing sparkling, I am thinking £1,500/2,000, small engine, 1.0/1.2, you all know the type of thing.

Let me know if you know of anything please, thank you.

 

[hendrix's rifle]

Im sure @thevanyard had a small run about up for sale not long ago? Struggling to find the post with limited Internet though!

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Im sure @thevanyard had a small run about up for sale not long ago? Struggling to find the post with limited Internet though!

And he owes me a favour

 

[markyw]

Would be worth looking at the insurance costs first and what they regard as low risk cars. Can make a HUGE difference.

Regards

Mark

 

[The Burpster]

I to go with this^ honestly just search for cars with group 1 insurance. With luck uour lad will pass his test and start his own insurance so he can start accruing NCB which makes a MASSIVE difference at any age.
Bought both my stepson and daughter Skoda Citigos. GOOD Solid relaible car that woll see them right and are good in a crash (daughter wrote her 1st one off 10days after passing her test) replacement lasted 4 years and 60k miles.
Citigo, Up and Mii are all the same car (some trim changes). Maybe a wee bit more than your amount but if they keep it straight upu will probably get your money back!

 

[Rake Aboot]

Engine size doesn’t reflect insurance costs.

Have a play on a comparison website with his details and a variety of vehicles

 

[long_range_rob]

Agreed, you’ll have to flog a fair few knives to insure anything.

 

[enfieldspares]

Engine size doesn’t reflect insurance costs.

Have a play on a comparison website with his details and a variety of vehicles

I did two years freelance work call handling people wanting vehicle cover for a nationally known vehicle insurers. There are a number of misbeliefs that prople have about insurance. 1) Parked in a driveway is less risk to an insurer that if the car is parked on the street. 2) Someone just retired from full time work is less risk that someone still in full time work. 3) Cheap cars for young drivers mean cheap insurance.

1) If a thief wants to steal the car they know that its keys will be inside the house on which driveway it is parked. So can be stolen or cloned. On the street its keys could be in any house that is on that street. 2) Someone just retired can now drive about the whole day going here or there or everywhere whereas the person in full time work won't be using their car at all during the whole nine hours they are in their workplace and usaully too knackered to drive much when work finishes as they just want to get home and put their feet up and relax in front of the television, reloading bench, fly tying vice or whatever. 3) As the young driver has a cheap car that cost say one month's wages they don't then care if it gets written off and so will drive less carefully than if they had a more expensive car as they know that they can just buy a replacement out of the next month's pay packet.

Remember the risk the underwriter covers is not only the risk of replacing the insured's car but the risk of making good the damage that the driver of that car has caused to a third party and their car. The more likely your are to be using your car more often as 2) or the less you care if it gets written off as 3) is why what seems odd isn't.

 

[Scuffy]

Long shot, I know.

I am looking round at the minute but thought I'd ask here too, someone might have something sat on a a drive or in garage that isn't seeing any use.

First car so nothing sparkling, I am thinking £1,500/2,000, small engine, 1.0/1.2, you all know the type of thing.

Let me know if you know of anything please, thank you.

My god Stu, it doesn’t seem that long ago that he was charging around on my playground !!

 

[jall55]

And he owes me a favour

Only thing we have at moment Stuart is a 10 plate polo that we took in px
On our website - seems to be a good runner etc as we have leant it to one of the ladies from our shoot as her 4x4 had engine issues and as she bought it private she had to have it repaired herself and its taking a while

Got some room to move on price for you if it is of interest

 

[jall55]

@thevanyard

Matt - please keep an eye on this thread and if @Stuart Mitchell needs anything please help him out

 

[markyw]

Another tip is to put them on the insurance from the off. They can have insurance in their name as a learner and the car is in their name too, so starting as early as possible. My daughter's was £240 for the year when she was a learner (obviously she cannot drive by herself at that point) and when she came to renew when passing she already had a period in her name to work from.

Regards

Mark

 

[enfieldspares]

Regarding telematics aka "black boxes" these can be either good or bad. For the plus and minus side you'll need to do some searching on the internet as it wasn't something that I did as "black box" policies were dealt with by others but you did hear at coffee break some horror stories of massive premium increases when fitted and massive premium increases when removed. Both ways. So I can't give any useful informed comment.

Lastly avoid...search on the internet...frequently stolen vehicle models. Or models listed as most likely to be involved in accidents.

Insurance is really no more than a posh version of what bookies do. But it uses language like "risk" rather than "odds" to make it seem respectable! It is the underwriter betting on the odds that vehicle and that driver not having a crash or suffering a non-recovered theft and just as horses have "form" that bookies take account of so do certain makes and models of vehicle have "form".

Thus the wise words of RAKE ABOOT that engine size isn't any longer a major factor in determining premium size as cars are lighter in weight and most 1 litre two cylinder engines now have far greater horse power to weight ratio than did the 1.6 litre straight six cylinder engine in my old Triumph Vitesse I had as a student in the late 1970s. A 2025 Fiat 500 1 litre straight two cylinder = 69hp a 1965 Triumph Vitesse 6 straight six cylinder 1.6 litre = 70hp.

 

[gixer1]

Having recently gone through this and done a fair bit of research, have a look at a Skoda Citigo (same as a VW up and Seat Mi), picked up one for our son, they are a 3 cyl, 1.0lt and are one of the cheapest to ensure, they also have a really good spec - sat nav, Bluetooth, electric windows, AC, alloy wheels, sports trim….it is a pretty well rated car for safety, well built and fast enough to be good fun, it also handles really well and I can get 60mpg out of it!! We were just over 3k for a 12 year old one with 70k miles, but it’s a well looked after example with a good service history.

They had a 5 star NCAP rating although it was lowered to 3 due to stricter testing and “vulnerable road users” rating - which is how the car effects people it hits such as pedestrians and cyclists - and with all due respect I’m more concerned with the occupant safety rating which is 81%.

The boot is enormous for the size of car and it seats 4 adults comfortably.

We ended up getting him his own insurance with me and the Mrs as named drivers, for the period while he is learning to drive it is £195 per year, so he’s earning his own no claims.

 

[wytonpjs]

Donated my 2006 Smart ForTwo cabriolet Passion () to my youngest (22) when to my great surprise he passed his test first time after a short intensive course a year last August. He only does local running and this is the perfect tool for driving in Bristol (and the CAZ). The first year comprehensive insurance in his name with me as a named driver was well North of £1K (car is only worth £500 at best) but that halved on renewal this year and he loves it. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting him up the insurance ladder and adding NCD.

 

[gixer1]

..

 

[HonestJohn]

They drive them fast and they’re not that safe these little toasters.

Better buy him an old Volvo mate

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Donated my 2006 Smart ForTwo cabriolet Passion () to my youngest (22) when to my great surprise he passed his test first time after a short intensive course a year last August. He only does local running and this is the perfect tool for driving in Bristol (and the CAZ). The first year comprehensive insurance in his name with me as a named driver was well North of £1K (car is only worth £500 at best) but that halved on renewal this year and he loves it. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting him up the insurance ladder and adding NCD.

Back around 2000 Mercedes did a frontal crash test with their Smart against one of their limos I was in Sindelfingen at the time so heard the story. The limo had much more damage to the body crumple etc. The reason was the Smart body panels on assembly go into a special jig for welding where they are slightly compressed and welded in this condition so that when the pressure is relieved and the shell removed the panels have an internal tension and are not just dead metal as on normal cars kind of springlike. As a body engineer that snippet stuck in my brain.

 

[wytonpjs]

Back around 2000 Mercedes did a frontal crash test with their Smart against one of their limos I was in Sindelfingen at the time so heard the story. The limo had much more damage to the body crumple etc. The reason was the Smart body panels on assembly go into a special jig for welding where they are slightly compressed and welded in this condition so that when the pressure is relieved and the shell removed the panels have an internal tension and are not just dead metal as on normal cars kind of springlike. As a body engineer that snippet stuck in my brain.

As a CEng, I have been particularly impressed with many of the unique engineering design issues - it is to me a remarkable little car

 

[Bavarianbrit]

As a CEng, I have been particularly impressed with many of the unique engineering design issues - it is to me a remarkable little car

I managed to do a lot of original work on the Panther Solo II body but then they only sold 15 units.
Is it me?