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a mini blatently. the clubmans are cheap to buy espesh a project car. insurance is pretty much free. tax is free on pre 73 cars. girls love them. which is pretty damn important when your 17.
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1994 Mazda 323f 1.6i 16v GLX
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Retro First Car?arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Don't listen to the h8rZ!! ;D
You can have an old car which is 'totally rubbish' in the views of your peers, but YOU know different, and if you really had to could PROVE different*.
When I were a lad [sniff] I had a horrible Skoda Estelle that had come off the local 'bombsite' dealers lot for a pittance. It looked vile, and caused much mirth. But some simple spanner-twirling soon had it pushing out far more ponies than originally bestowed with, meaning that it could out-run and certainly out-handle a whole heap of newer, flasher 'bank of mum & dad' type stuff.
And pick the 'right' retro and not only will you not lose money in depreciation, you might even make a few bob.
Suggestions so far are good. I'd maybe rule out a mini on account of anything vaguely MoT able being eleventy million quid, and unless you have a climate controlled garage it will be rotten in a year anyway. Volvo 340, yes, Skoda Estelle/Rabid, sure. How's about a Triumph Dolomite/Toledo, start at the 1300 flava and work from there? Or anything with the 1275 A-series for easy tuning (and turbo-ing) pleasure... Maestro / Rover 213 / Allegro or a Marina if you want l33t RWD drift skills (not!)
NB: * Don't actually every try to prove you 'the man' at driving when you've only just got your license. You WILL crash. I mean it. I did, quite alot.
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clio any day cheap to run insure and parts on every corner becoming retro and williams the one to have eventually easy to keep on road should steer you away from bad incidents and time to save up for a nice retro later
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how can you rule out a mini then recommend a maestro or 213? all three are extremely suseptable to rust and the 213 uses a honda engine not an a series.
also like to add my mini was parked outside for 98% of the year with only very minor/cosmetic rust problems.
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1994 Mazda 323f 1.6i 16v GLX
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Retro First Car?arthurbrown
@GUEST
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'Cause you can buy a Maestro for £4.38! Who cares if it rusts then ;D
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I'm 19 and I drive a Morris minor, very cheap to insure, almost every part is still manufactured, surprisingly good handling, teaches you car control.
Once the moggie is finished, I will be looking for something else for weekends but I'll still keep the morris as a daily. It's the only car I have owned that I can see still sitting on my drive when I'm 40.
It's probably not up your street judging by what you have been looking at but if you can, go and have a look at one. You might be surprised.
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Mike
East Midlands
Posts: 3,387
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How about a Mk1 Astra 1.2? Surprisingly nippy, but perhaps hard to find. Not overtly expensive if you find one though. I had this one. Other than that, I'd go for a Maestro 1.3 or a Mk2 Polo.
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Don't discount the Marina (despite what sez....) - the 1.3's are still reasonably cheap, handle better than the big engined cars, if you want to learn about understeer/oversteer they are very good on 145 tyres for that (fit cheap TR7 alloys and 175+section for grip....), a bloody great boot for stowing bodies of those you hit away in, and they will transport up to four mates in vomit-proof (vinyl seat) surroundings. Also, if (sorry, when) you hit something, you can bash the dents out and carry on regardless.... Parts aren't too much of a problem and everything is easily spannerable.
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2009 13:46:51 GMT by marinanut
Rover Metro - The TARDIS - brake problems.....Stored Rover 75 - Barge MGZTT Cdti 160+ - Winter Hack and Audi botherer... MGF - The Golden Shot...Stored Project Minion........ Can you see the theme?
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My first car: Mk2 Polo makes sense. Cheap, loads of bits to personalise them, go for it.
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2009 14:02:19 GMT by Adam
1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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bootsy75hst
Part of things
"scrap the caddy clyde"
Posts: 229
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i got a metro for 50 quid 2 years ago and all it needed for a test was a rear brake cylinder. reliant rialto t&t for 300 notes last month, rwd 850 engine and cheap to insure. Remember you would have alot more laffs in a slow rwd car than you would a slow fwd car! i had a 1.1 mk 1 golf and it was a real slug.
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"when the going turns weird, the weird turn pro" hst
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Retro First Car?arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Hey! I ain't dissing no Marinaz! ;D Just that you're never going to be OMG RWD D1 DRFT champ in one. LOL.
Oh and what Mike said about those Astras is troo. Lovely whizzy little things they are. I owned that one too. Finding one that's not a pile of ferrous oxide is going to be tricky but not impossible though.
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i had a mk1 astra van years ago ,it was great ,nippy ,raspy,and it was the 1300 so cheap to run/insure ,also don't ignore sunny,s ,civics ,some j tin hatches are still cheap and can be made to look nice [will always start and get you to work to pay for insurance/petrol/tax etc ]
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yes ,it started badly ,petered off in the middle and the least said about the end the better!!!
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Lex
South East
日本車 <3
Posts: 2,404
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Renault 5
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Resto-UKal
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Post-1967 VW Beetle. Something of a stereotypical first classic I know, but assuming you avoid "scene" classifieds, the 70s Bugs are still cheap enough, and there's occasional bargains to be had. Good parts backup and decent insurance prices too. Choose from a 1302 or 1303 version for better handling, or a 1200 or 1300 if you prefer the looks.
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ezzysi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,189
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My first car (many years ago ) was a 1500 dolomite.. bought with no reverse gear and a stoved in wing... aah the joys of youth. loved it to bits, all my mates had escorts but as has been said there trillions of pounds for a rotbox these days so best to look outside the box! 340 sounds like an idea or maybe a skoda for cheap rwd laughs... stuff what your mates say, have fun.
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1991 Mk2 Golf Gti 8v 2005 Passat tdi (daily) 1971 Mk1 Escort 2004 Touran (her's)
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Has gotta be an imp!!! Cheap insurance, tax and loads of fun to drive (RWD) engine at the back. and fun, easy to work on!!
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Some great suggestions..
I've just bought an absolute beauty of a Herald 13/60 for £850, its tax exempt, insurance is cheap (I joined TSSC because they have very good insurance link things with footman james, adrian flux etc.). It's not fast, but its cheap, cool, reliable, relatively efficient for a 40 year old car.
Using the same train of thought.. A Morris Minor, Triumph Toledo, dolomite or (if you like it ugly) Acclaim, Hillman Imp, a 1302/3 beetle.
I reckon, if you can handle old men coming up to you daily telling you about how they used to have one like that, an unfashionable old british car is a winner. Pay over a grand and look over it properly and you may well find a bit of a hidden gem.
One last point. Insurance. For an older car, its better to call them rather than using the online things and try the more specialist insurers/brokers. Don't go down the 'in my dad's name' route, as it invalidates the policy if they find out...
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...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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Joshy
Part of things
Posts: 73
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Some very interesting suggestions here indeed A quick question about insurance, does anybody know of any young driver friendly insurance providers for older cars. As Ben mentioned above, online quotes are stupid with older cars, but I have tried calling into a few specialist brokers and basically got told the computer says no until I'm at least 21 . Most annoying of all, the insurance company that I had hoped to go with (£500 cheaper than anywhere else on a similar car, it's cheap to declare mods and (believe it or not) offer Third Party cover on other cars, even at my age!) won't insure anything that is older than 20 years old
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Some very interesting suggestions here indeed A quick question about insurance, does anybody know of any young driver friendly insurance providers for older cars. As Ben mentioned above, online quotes are stupid with older cars, but I have tried calling into a few specialist brokers and basically got told the computer says no until I'm at least 21 . Most annoying of all, the insurance company that I had hoped to go with (£500 cheaper than anywhere else on a similar car, it's cheap to declare mods and (believe it or not) offer Third Party cover on other cars, even at my age!) won't insure anything that is older than 20 years old In the end I gave up looking, they all wanted me to be over 21 and the ones that would insure me were more expensive. I went with what www.moneysupermarket.com car insurance search engine brought up as the cheapest.
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Triumph Herald, Morris Minor, Renault 5, Mk1 or II Fiesta, Metro, Mini, A30/35, A40, Kia Pride, Datsun Sunny, Cherry...the options are virtually endless.
Be careful with all your 'learning RWD skills' stuff - unless you're being a bit of a knob or have an empty (and that means empty...trolley parks/signposts/bollards and kerbs are everywhere when you're going sideways!) wet car park or field then you shouldn't even know what wheels are driven most of the time! I think some people overestimate the 'legend of RWD', most RWD cars won't exaclty slide their tail without a loose/wet surface, a lot of power or some idiotic steering/braking combinations. It wasn't so long ago that RWD cars were the norm and people drove around all day, everyday with it being a drift-fest. When you first get out on the road you WILL drive like an idiot - just knowing that and confining it to suitable moments will make a huge difference!
Crikey, that was all a bit grown up! ;D ;D
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