New Driver Questions

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keram

keram

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I have only just started learning but am thinking about getting a car soon so...

I was looking into getting a VW golf diesel (~£500) the insurance (cheapest) i was quoted was £1700 for third party fire and theft (as opposed to comprehensive could someone explain the difference?)

The other car was a VW polo petrol (~£900) insurance £1200

The insurance seems about right but would it be better to get the golf with more expensive insurance at the cheaper initial price bearing in mind i'll only keep the car for 2 years before selling it for university or something??

Im not looking at any particular golf or polo but that seems to be the general trend of the ones i have looked at on autotrader.co.uk

Also suggest any other cars that might be worth looking at. Something similar thats fairly spacious coz i dont wanna be in some tiny fiat (im over 6ft) but it needs to be reliable and fuel efficient


P.S. i have no idea what im looking for and am just going by freinds suggestions and what other people own - VWs seem to be good :P

Thanks
 
Insurance:
Third Party Only - Any damage caused to anybody else or their vehicle is covered by your insurer. Damage to your vehicle is not.
Third Part, Fire and Theft (TPFT) - As above, but you ARE covered if your vehicle (or any part of it) is damaged by way of fire or theft.
Fully Comprehensive - Any damage to your vehicle or anybody else's is covered by your insurer.


Insurance quotes are based on a number of factors - the driver, where it's stored and how fast the car is being just three. Amongst the others are likelihood of that model of vehicle to be involved in an accident (more hatchbacks are crashed than saloons because more kids drive hatchbacks and all kids crash in the first 3 years), likely severity of that accident (crashing at 70mph in a saloon results in severe damage, crashing at 70mph in a decade old hatchback results in severe damage and loss of body parts/life) and likely cost of the likeliest accident (this is where VWs fall down - repair costs are high because parts costs are high, though parts availability is good as many are shared across the range. Hatchbacks tend to be binned into fields - because of the kid thing. MPVs tend to get bumped in car parks - lower cost of accident = lower insurance).


Go for the Polo.
 
I'd agree with that, the Polo will be the better buy over 2 years. As for insurance, your better off with fully comp insurance too, if your car get's written off in an crash that's a lot of money gone. Also check as many insurance quotes as you possible can, check online and call around. For my 306 I've had quotes ranging from £1200 to £680, the difference can be huge. Your quote of £1200 for the Polo sounds like a good one though, I don't think you'll get much better than that, but it's worth checking as many quotes as you can.
 
K thanks thats explained quite a bit

I think i am going to go for a comprehensive cover for the extra hundred pounds or so its seems worth it.

As for what car to get are saloons really that much safer then hatchbacks? could you recommend any in particular suitable for me. the first thing that comes to mind is a ford mondeo but they seem expensive i'll check that out in a minute though.

Thanks
 
Couple of others for you to consider:

Late model Renault 19 1.4 petrol. We had one for a couple of years. Paid £500 for it, and it cost us almost nothing to run. Insurance was reasonable, and the car was much faster than it should have been. Was used daily, did 6,000 miles per year, and only required a new exhaust in that time. Sold it on eBay for £250. This is cheap motoring folks...

Ford Fiestas are good cars because you can usually buy them cheaply and if they require maintenance it tends to be cheap since there is excellent availability of non-Ford parts. Plus there's always the scrapyards! Similarly with late Escorts, although they really were rubbish to drive. The diesels are very hard to get hold of, because the good ones sell almost immediately.

If you can get a non-Turbo diesel Peugeot it will reward you with cheap motoring too. The turbos are expensive to get replacement parts for.

Actually, generally speaking, I would countenance against getting a diesel. Someone may be able to corrct me on this, but to my knowledge, they start to get really quite expensive to run as they get older. They need less maintenance, although the price of that maintenance is much higher. And will you be driving it enough to save enough on fuel? Probably not, since our beloved Chancellor is eroding the economies argument for diesels.
 
GilesGuthrie
Actually, generally speaking, I would countenance against getting a diesel. Someone may be able to corrct me on this, but to my knowledge, they start to get really quite expensive to run as they get older. They need less maintenance, although the price of that maintenance is much higher. And will you be driving it enough to save enough on fuel? Probably not, since our beloved Chancellor is eroding the economies argument for diesels.
Click to expand...


Thats quite interesting as i was inclined to get a diesel as my dad has always been looking out for them but he has a very high mileage.

there dont seem to be many renault 19s on the auto trader site but they are all under £500! is quite tempting

The Ford seems like a good choice (fiesta) I know someone else with one but they have less space then a polo it seems that might be coz when i was in it i got squashed by a huge friend :scared:

What kind of peugot were you thinking of a 206?
 
keram
Thats quite interesting as i was inclined to get a diesel as my dad has always been looking out for them but he has a very high mileage.

there dont seem to be many renault 19s on the auto trader site but they are all under £500! is quite tempting

The Ford seems like a good choice (fiesta) I know someone else with one but they have less space then a polo it seems that might be coz when i was in it i got squashed by a huge friend :scared:

What kind of peugot were you thinking of a 206?
Click to expand...

Actually, it was the 306 that I had in my head when I wrote that.
 
I've never had any problems with the cost of running a deisel, I don't think they're the better buy all the time, the model of car you get is the biggest factor. But I've had a couple of diesel's and never had any high costs for services or problems ect.

Another cheap car is the Renault 5, you can get them cheap but in all honesty I'd go for something like the Polo which is less likely to have reliability issues. Check the history ect on whatever you go for though.

As for Peugeot's, I've got a diesel 306 1.9, but that's probably cost too much for you, but you can get a 306 with a smaller engine or 106 diesel for a decent price, check them out.
 
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