First Car Help?

[Max Quinn]

Disclaimer: Ok so to start with, i know we've had these topics before and i'm sorry. But i need some advice and people come to Trials Forum for all sorts of shit so i figured, with the ammount of car enthusiasts we have on here, advice on a car is fairly relative in comparison . Would be awesome if people could help me and i'm very thankful

Basically, i'm looking for my first car I've been searching on autotrader mainly and after numerous setbacks, and cars being sold from right under my fingers, i've got a little list of cars i like which is here:

1993 RENAULT CLIO RT 1.4

I really love the look of this car and it seems well looked after, but the mileage is putting me off. Do you think it's too high? Are Clio RT's pretty long wearing? Also i reckon i could bargain down but do you think she's asking a bit much?

1999 RENAULT CLIO 1.4 RT

Newer and still just about within my budget, but the main thing about this one is that i kinda hate the boot shape of the newer clios. But do you think the newness of this car would be worth it?

1994 RENAULT CLIO RN 1.4

Pretty similair to the first one but less miles and cheaper. I prefer the RT shape from those pictures but can anyone tell me the proper differences? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

1999 PEUGEOT 106 1.1 XN

More expensive but is the low mileage and relative newness worth it? I like the car.

1997 P Reg CITROEN Saxo 1.1i SX

Cheap and low mileage but no MOT. Am i likely to have to pay an arm and a leg to get it through? What should i look out for when buying a car with no MOT?

FORD FIESTA 1.3

Looks ok but shit listing with no mileage etc.

So basically, could people in the know have a look at them for me, please, and rank them or just say which stand out as good and crap, all things considered?

Or if people just have general opinions on those cars or any dirt on any of them that's gonna put me off?

Thanks soooo much for any help in advance

Edited September 24, 2008 by Max Quinn

[Fish-Finger-er]

first tip, drop autotrader, cheap cars sell easy.unless their from a garage that pays a subscription to autotrader, someones just payed £20-30 to stick their car online, either because there an idiot, or because they cant sell it in the local paper or whatever. so your already taking a chance their

avoid the saxo, its at a garage, and with 12 months mot, its worth a lot more than that, they know that, they could put an mot on it for bugger all. or near enough bugger all. but they wont, got to ask why not. the risk you run with buying an mot failure, is like i always say, if youve got to ask questions, you dont know enough to be touching it, i.e if your saying "what should i be looking out for on a car with no mot", you probably havent got the mechanical knowledge to take on the jobs that will need doing, and youll be paying money just to get it through an mot.

id probably give that 1999 clio a miss, its got aftermarket alloys on, which either scream boy racer, or the original wheels have been damaged. either way its had a thrashing or a crashing.

fiesta looks alright, as do the other, bare in mind the mk1 clios do rust, and they are 14 years old.

rest of its just general stuff to look for when you to look for them, rust on the sills/arches/fuel filler/bottom of boots and doors, tyre condition, (a car thats £150 cheaper than an identical one next to it,is just as expensive, if it needs 4 tyres), find out when the cam belt was changed, condition of the water, colour of the oil, check the glass for matching security markings, check the paint all matches. if you can jack it up, check the wheel bearings, check the clutch aint slipping.

and haggle ta feck, cars arent selling at the moment because no ones got any money, so he probably hasnt had that many people offering decent prices for it, and hes probably desperate to sell, as if its a dealer, the cars depreciating month by month on his forecourt, or if its a private seller, its only a few weeks till the next mortgage payment or the like.

[matt_urban]

ok first of all i will tell you im a car mechanic and have worked and drove all the above cars !

i would say get a german car like a polo or golf there so much better quality that the french and english/american (ford)

you may only get a older or higher milage golf/polo but it will still last longer that a better spec ford/clio

[Max Quinn]

Woah! Thanks very much both of you. Cheers for the in depth info Trials Punk (Kev yer?) Some good stuff to look out for and confirmed stuff about the 2 cars you would knock off the list for me. What you said about autotrader though...where else online is good to look? I scout the car dealers round me but theres never anything and i don't really know how else to find cars to be honest. I can't really just drive to loadsa dealers cos Mum and Dad both work and don't wanna ferry me around non stop haha.

Cheers matt I am searching for them too but they just seem harder to find in this price bracket. Insurance on the Golfs seems higher (due to the generally bigger engines i'm guessing) and polos seem to come up less. I'll bear it in mind though, cheers man.

[Fish-Finger-er]

and ive worked on enough polos with knackered gear boxes, and dodgy idle control valves, to tell you that vw's aint all their cracked up to be. the 8v tu, pug/citreon lumps (the 1.1 and 1.4's basically) are bomb proof, and that saxos/106's dont rot unless theyve had accident repair, and are generally reliable, especially if you get a model with manual windows etc.

also bear in mind, no matter how good a car is, a car thats done 120k will be getting tired, sure the engine may be good, but on a 10 year old polo/golf, youll need to be looking at bottom ball joints, shock absorbers, arb links,track rod ends, bottom arm bushes etc. sure you would on a clio as well, but if your getting a lower mileage clio/106, theres less chance of it,

What you said about autotrader though...where else online is good to look?

dont neccesarily need to look online, yellow pages, local garages "hello there, im looking for a cheap runaround to get me from a to b "(dont mention its your first car on the phone, or even when you get there if you can help it). if they got a few, take the details, get insurance quotes, if they got a website go on it, see if theres any pics on there.

bonus of doing this is you get the stuff theyve took as trade in, that they may of just shipped out to the auction, and generally anything above auction price is a bonus to them, and auction price is about feck all, you may end up having to give it a valet yourself when you get it, but if anything, thats a bonus, as they wont have had chance to cover up anything by washing the leaking oil off the engine etc.

failing that, classifieds in local papers is always a good one.

and dont forget pistonheads, although its more performance orientated, its free to advertise, so you get a lot of people sticking cars up there,and generally not a lot of people looking at them, so you can find some right bargains, which havent sold, and the people cant work out why, so are willing to lower the price further still.

[matt_urban]

my mate just got a 2002 clio 1.2 16v its done about 30,000 miles and sounds like some one has put mashed up spanners inside the head it rattles like a bitch and its been back to the dealer twice with a toxic gas light on ! nice ! ive had about 15 vws since ive been driving and never had a box problem but vw did have a problem 1999-2002 1.6s golfs

a good all round car to get is a vauxhall astra cheap to insure and dont seem to have much trouble

oh yer one last thing dont look at any chaved up cars

[Hendrix]

My first car was a 1993/1994 Renault Clio 1.2.

Bought it for £150 in the end, with a brand new clutch and gearbox. Brand new tyres, and the interior was pretty good. Was an amazing car too, the amount you could fit in with the back seats down was just crazy, and in all fairness with some tuning they really go some!

[Mark W]

the amount you could fit in with the back seats down was just crazy,

First person to make a Boxx joke wins!*

*A week long suspension

[Clownbike]

A great place to look is in the supermarkets, as they have those "Wanted/for sale" walls - this way you know the area as the adverts are local. I'd also recommend a ford as you can always pick up cheep parts, reliable.....i loved my lil fiesta - could not fault it!

Neil

[forteh]

My 1st car was a 1.3 mk2 polo breadwagon, it was awesome, really reliable with minimal servicing

Fits a couple of bikes in the back too

[Pashley26]

I was just going to mention Polo's. There great first cars

I personally would go for something like this - http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/646918.htm I know it's a 1600 but insurance is quite cheap on Driver models.

Or a 1300 Mk2 Golf.

[Balman]

As someone already posted a link to www.pistonheads.com is a really good website for buying cars i managed to pick up a 1999 mk5 fiesta zetec for £400 with engine problems so simply got anougher engine for cheap droped it in and its happ as larry cost well under a grand for the hole car got a nice cd player and speakers very nippy little car and it pretty good condition so id advidce for personaly.

[Papa Manual]

My 1st car was a 1.3 mk2 polo breadwagon, it was awesome, really reliable with minimal servicing

Fits a couple of bikes in the back too

I had one of these and it was indestructable. It even went in the sea and survived.

[Ash-Kennard]

find a polo or ibiza

try pistonheads too

Edited September 25, 2008 by Ash-Kennard

[Fish-Finger-er]

my mate just got a 2002 clio 1.2 16v its done about 30,000 miles and sounds like some one has put mashed up spanners inside the head it rattles like a bitch and its been back to the dealer twice with a toxic gas light on ! nice ! ive had about 15 vws since ive been driving and never had a box problem but vw did have a problem 1999-2002 1.6s golfs

a good all round car to get is a vauxhall astra cheap to insure and dont seem to have much trouble

oh yer one last thing dont look at any chaved up cars

i know of 2 year old vauxhall corsas that have been worse than that, i know of people whove returned audis with similar problems, there is bad examples of every cars (clarksons ford gt anyone?) likewise theres probably hyundia accents on 200k with no problems.

cant argue about astras, although the mk3's are all starting to attract rust now.

considered a focus, theres plenty of focaye with between 70 and 120k on, in a variety of engine sizes, hanging round for £750-£900.

[Pashley26]

Have you been watching Dave within the last 2 hours Kev ?

I think so....

[Fish-Finger-er]

Have you been watching Dave within the last 2 hours Kev ?

I think so....

no, actually i havent, im intrigued now, i played on my trials bike, then came on here, then cod4, if thats any use to you

[RobinJI]

If your not bothered about going quick then I'd go for a 1.3l mk2 golf.

Good points:

Fit 2 stocks in a 3 door without taking any wheels off

Bompproof chassis designed to take abuse from engines with over double the power.

Easy and cheep to retro fit modern extras too if your bothered about that kinda thing.

the 1.3 engines are the same as in the polos and to be fair they just never seem to dye.

Look after it and you'll probably be able to sell it for more than you bought it.

Icon looks that never seem to age and a good image.

Mine used to get 45-50mpg comuting on steep backroads.

Great handling.

Stupidly cheep parts. (Ball joints = £7 each, Wheel bearings about £10, break discs £8 each ect)

Downsides:

Getting on a bit, with production engine around 92 as far as I remember

Suffer from carb icing a bit, but that's easily sorted, just keep the warm air feed in decent condition.

Ridiculously easy to work on yourself. Really cant stress how accessible and unbelievably simple everything is.

Headgaskets tend to need changing before 100k, but a change needs about £50 worth of parts at the most

Same goes for cambelts, but again, I did one in a tesco car park with nout but a socket set and a jack.

Not exactly quick, similar to a 1.1 saxo, until you find a corner where you'll leave them easy

Majority have 4 speed box's, but meh, still sit on the motorway fine.

[Max Quinn]

Cheers for all the help people Particularly PistonHeads, found a few cars on there that look allright, opens it up a bit at least.

Didn't think of Focuses either, cheers. I'll keep you all updated haha.

[Pashley26]

Didn't think of Focuses either, cheers. I'll keep you all updated haha.

foci' are quite expensive to insure

[Tony Harrison]

For secondhand cars, you really want at least 10 months MOT, unless you're absolutely sure it's ok.

Personally I'd avoid trade purchases unless you have to - try and look for a genuine private seller. Also eBay isn't so bad, but check the car properly first. Don't commit to buy before you've seen/driven. View the car at the house, and if you have doubts about it's authenticity, bin it (or HPI check).

Unless you're particularly bothered, avoid GTi/SRi/etc, and anything with a big engine - my first car was a 1.1 Fiesta, and I never got stopped by the law, never had to worry too much about the cost of fuel (well, it was half the price it is now) and with a little bit of TLC every 6-10k ticked along fine. I agree, the mk3 Astras are good cars, and mine was comfortable to drive - I had a 1.7 diesel and it was really good on fuel. Newer ones are turbo diesel. Yes, Focuses are usually said to be a good drive, again there's the diesel option although it probably doesn't make that much difference (in fact, I'm looking at getting a Focus next month).

As trials punk says, aftermarket alloys, etc, are a sign that it's been thrashed or curbed badly. Avoid them if you can. On the whole you'll get what you pay for - if something seems stupidly cheap, then there's probably something wrong with it!

[RobinJI]

If you just want something cheep and solid then to be fair your best bet is to go for something that normally sells stupidly cheep.

for instance metros, nothing special, but a bese model could be in near enough show room condition and it'd still sell for £600, Broomer just got a tidy early carbed 1.1 k-series model for £250 in really tidy condition on 47000 miles with 8 months MOT and it looks like it should sail straight through another.

Same goes for mk3 polo breadvans, even a completely mint low mileage model will struggle to sell in 4 figures. (excluding GT's)

[Pashley26]

Get this -

http://www.vwgolfmk2.co.uk/modules.php?nam...opic&t=2707

You'll smash it up anyway so it dosen't matter about the body being untidy.

The blokes realyy sound too, I know him well

[Ollie Histon]

while we're on this subject, wheres the best for insurance!? im nearly 18 just passed in septemeber and getting rediculous prices from 2000 to 3000, surely theres somewhere out there that doesnt cost an arm and a leg!?

[Pashley26]

while we're on this subject, wheres the best for insurance!? im nearly 18 just passed in septemeber and getting rediculous prices from 2000 to 3000, surely theres somewhere out there that doesnt cost an arm and a leg!?

Adrian Flux

They are great.

They only charged me £140 a month fully comp for a Golf GTI when I had 1 years no claims ! Seems alot, but elsewhere it was £300 a month !