Ray Singh
Posted a lot
More German exotica in my garage now
Posts: 1,984
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Nov 19, 2019 22:50:27 GMT
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I am finally of that age, where i am helping my daughter to buy her first car. Insurance and reliability are high on my list of items to consider. She loves the E30 BMW, but i cant afford these now. So what ideas have you got? What is cool and what is trash? Can this be made to be cool: The Dihatsu Copen: The Honda Beat: The Suzuki Cappachino: What about this Smart Roadster? I quite like:
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2019 22:50:56 GMT by Ray Singh
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Nov 19, 2019 22:57:49 GMT
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How many friends does she do stuff with? And most importantly, what's the budget?
What about a e36 cabriolet?
All the stuff you posted is great though, have a soft spot for the Smart. I know nothing about them though.
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2019 22:59:46 GMT by joem83
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Nov 19, 2019 23:17:03 GMT
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Honda Beats are amazing little things but finding one at a decent price might be tricky...
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Nov 19, 2019 23:17:25 GMT
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Driven an iq and a roadster, enjoyed both but the roadster gearbox is a bit dopey
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Bicycle x1 Alfa Giulietta (now wife's) Alfa 156 BMW 630i Honda rc36
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moglite
Part of things
Posts: 815
Club RR Member Number: 144
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Nov 19, 2019 23:28:50 GMT
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Smart Roadsters leak when left outside, I believe with the amount of electrics in them, it is quite an issue - shame pretty things.
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1967 Morris Oxford Traveller 1979 Toyota LandCruiser BJ40 1993 Daimler Double Six 2007 Volvo XC70 2.4D
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Nov 19, 2019 23:29:40 GMT
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Nov 19, 2019 23:30:25 GMT
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What are her interests? This may dictate car size or type to some extent. For example while it is possible to transport our daughter's seven foot surfboard in my wife's wee Laser sedan at a pinch it is much easier and safer to use my Falcon wagon.
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Nov 19, 2019 23:33:28 GMT
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As I see it the most realistic option you have there is the Toyota iq, or 'tooth' as is known round this way. The other 4 would all be fun, I know nothing about any of them but I have driven a smart coupe and they are wicked little things, a real hoot to drive. But by little and I mean LITTLE. I couldn't get out of it without crawling out of it. Had you thought about a Nissan Figaro? they're based on a Micra, and seeing as ive owned a micra, its a car I can recommend.
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awoo
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,504
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Nov 19, 2019 23:35:12 GMT
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cheapest to buy and run reliably are Nissan micras and Toyota aygos. only my experience having helped a few people out with first cars, these were the two that I could find matching low cost and reliable for a first car. both pretty boring though. depends how much money you're chucking around I guess.
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Nov 19, 2019 23:51:12 GMT
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Your (her) problem will be, as it always is, insurance. Most of those cars you've listed might be small, slow, even cheap(ish) to buy - but they are also imports, easily stolen and outside of the insurance safety zone (i.e. into the unknown realm, where they just make up numbers). Find something you wont cry over when she inevitably bumps it off something - hopefully a post, not another car - and in the lower groups of insurance. Also check out "boring" cars, grandad cars, as they will be low risk and insurance might be favourable. Old Volvos tend to fall in to this area.
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Your (her) problem will be, as it always is, insurance. Most of those cars you've listed might be small, slow, even cheap(ish) to buy - but they are also imports, easily stolen and outside of the insurance safety zone (i.e. into the unknown realm, where they just make up numbers). Find something you wont cry over when she inevitably bumps it off something - hopefully a post, not another car - and in the lower groups of insurance. Also check out "boring" cars, grandad cars, as they will be low risk and insurance might be favourable. Old Volvos tend to fall in to this area. I have a lot of respect for Volvo as a manufacturer, that said, I think if I had bought any of my nieces or god-daughter an 'old Volvo' as a first car I might have spent some time in A&E having the keys retrieved by the on-call proctologist!
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2019 0:24:47 GMT by MkX
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,840
Club RR Member Number: 174
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In order of the photos
Rust , engine issues
Rare, expensive
Rot rot rot
curse word engines. curse word gearboxes. All seem to be falling to bits now.
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if she is a petrol head what does SHE like? other than a bm cab (unlikely candidate for a new driver) , she must have tastes/fancies that would assist in the search. certainly wouldnt poo-poo a smart fortwo cab , my mum had one and it was a great thing (barring the slowest gearbox in the world). saw one once with a 2 seater sofa hanging out the top..and a tin top with 5 occupants up...3 in the front , 2 in the back!!
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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You don't mention your daughters age range and if she is looking for her first car I'm going assume that she's in her late teens / early 20's and she is not going hold any no claims history - Therefore forget anything cool / trendy / convertible or unusual has the insurance will be of excessive amount - just ask johnthesparky on here who insured his daughters first car a few days ago - unless you / your daughter has several £k to throw into the insurance pot for the next few years you need to look for something dull / boring and of a low engine capacity - has already been mentioned / highlighted in the above posts
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2019 7:02:23 GMT by Deleted
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Car insurance and first time drivers isn’t all doom and gloom. Going through the motions with my son at the moment. It’s yielded some interesting results. You need to find cars that are not generally used by first time drivers and aren’t high on the agenda of thieves. It doesn’t necessarily mean boring. Never thought an Audi or BMW could be cheaper to insure than a Corsa 🤣🤣
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Insurance for 17 year olds is very strange. A 9n Polo 1.2 is significantly cheaper to insure than a Fiesta 1.2. The Fiesta is much cheaper to insure than a Corsa 1.2. A Skoda Fabia is also very cheap but a bit drab and utilitarian. Anything interesting is always going to be a struggle.
My daughter passed her test at 17 but didn't have a car, or drive, until she was 21. At which point, despite having zero experience, the price had tumbled.
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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Car insurance and first time drivers isn’t all doom and gloom. Going through the motions with my son at the moment. It’s yielded some interesting results. You need to find cars that are not generally used by first time drivers and aren’t high on the agenda of thieves. It doesn’t necessarily mean boring. Never thought an Audi or BMW could be cheaper to insure than a Corsa 🤣🤣 It all goes on stats, most people (wrongly) assume a 1.0 corsa with its gutless engine, low insurance group, and terrible build quality will be really cheap to insure. But all the first time drives get something like that and (generally) put it in a ditch. Where as very few get something like a 5 series, which is much bigger, faster, and heavier but can sometimes be cheaper to insure because less 17-25 year olds have crashed them. Find a load of cars on ebay, do an insurance quote on comparethemeercat, then run the reg number through for each different car - its dead quick when you have done 1 quote as you just click back to the beginning, change reg and click quote again.
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2019 8:19:04 GMT by joem83
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,961
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Volvo C30?
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Echoing the insurance issue and Volvos. Going back a decade my boys all learned to drive on Rover 820's as insurance was less than their school friends' Saxos, Corsas etc. When I replaced an 820 Si with an 820 Sterling the insurance company send a refund cheque for £20 because the Sterling was a lower risk and one year older at ten years old, which was a break point for that insurer. Eldest insured his own Series III Land Rover at 17. Then at 18 fitted a Rover T-Series Turbo engine and got a refund because of the reduced capacity from 2.3 to 2 litres! So my advice is spend a day comparing the meerkat on larger cars that are not typical first driver fodder. Older larger Hyundais, Skodas, Fords, Vauxhalls, Peugeots in diesel estate shape?
Edit: Street Cred. Whenever the 'gang' was going out the 6th form girls always wanted to ride in the big old Rovers because there was so much space in the back and they were so much more comfortable than the little shopping trolleys the others were reduced to. Everyone knew which car was our boys'! So all is not lost for unfashionable grandad cars. They always had tow-bars as well which came in useful.
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2019 8:35:07 GMT by theoldman
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Probably not unusual enough but a nice clean k10 micra or k11 micra?
I guess the tricky thing really is what your daughter's tastes in cars is (excluding the bmw e30 obviously) ! i remember my older brother blankly refusing my mom's 1989 metro when he was 17/18 in 1995 and i wouldn't have wanted a micra when i was late teens (although i did desire a bedford rascal van)
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