Car for teenage son, advice please

[Leftfield]

The intention was never to have my son as a named driver, his car, his insurance policy, but from reading the posts you will see putting my wife and myself on as named drivers is perceived as a worthwhile exercise.In our case it is not.

Same as black box and pass plus, more money up front which I would prefer to spend on a more reliable form of  transport.

Golf and Civic are getting silly quotes.

Lupo,Fabia,and Corsa are all pretty much the same for insurance, 2 -2.2k but I'm wary of any Corsa.

Clio and 206, I have my own irrational aversion to French cars(my father swears by them.)

For a budget of 3K he can buy a 9 year old Fabia, less than 40 thousand miles, with a service history and only one or two previous owners.

The fact that it looks like its been beat up with an ugly stick is the sticking point in trying to sell it to a 17 year old.

He was interested in a newer mini until his peers told him they were hairdressers cars, I'm going to tell him Chuck Norris drives a Skoda.

[Mid life crisis]

I also don't understand the false economy of..."I'll spend £5k more on a new car than I was willing to spend on an older car in order to save £700 on insurance."

 

 

Hi Gavin

 

Here are the figures

 

I had 4.5 to 5k in mind when I was looking for a car for my lad

 

Fiat had an offer on the Punto Evo 1.4 @ £99.00 deposit, then £139.00 per month over 42 months with a final payment of £4700 and a very low intrest rate

 

42 x £139 = £5.8k

 

Insurance saving circa £2.2k over 42 months

 

Outlay over 42 months = £3.6k including insurance saving

 

Final options

 

Walk away and hand car back

Pay £4.7k and keep the one owner car

Trade it for a new one

 

Lad will have 3 years trouble free motoring with no repair bills, service every 18 months and 3.5 years NCD into his next car at age 20 / 21

 

:)

[alexander72]

Good call MLC .....

[Wile E. Coyote]

For Classic Car  insurance you would need to be over 21 and have a 2nd. car to get the really cheap policies on limited mileage.

 

Is that universal these days?  My first couple of cars were classics insured via specialists for buttons (admittedly a few years back now).  S3 Land Rover came in at £120/pa fully comp, whereas friends with more modern vehicles were looking at that per month.  Were I 17 again, curiosity would get the better of me and I'd have to know what a classic Landy, XJS, or something oddball (like this http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=FSW&action=display&thread=141507) would cost to insure. 

[gavinnn]

Mid life crisis - It isn't too bad with that offer and the insurance saving even if you were to hand the car back. However I don't know of anyone who's done that kind of deal.

 

What I have found with people around my age is that they will have around £2-3k to spend in which you can pick up a trouble free motor if you don't rush into the first thing you buy. The other scenario is their parents will buy them a newish car (say 08 plate) of around £7-8k in order to save on servicing/repair costs, tax, insurance and fuel. The insurance saving for the new car is say £700 at a push, tax is probably £50 cheaper and the fuel isn't even a saving most the time. So over 3 years of motoring the cheaper car still works out thousands of pounds cheaper. Also count in the cost of depreciation and you are losing serious money!

 

My Mini never gets called a girl's car, although it is challenge spec, problem with them is the price tag, a mk2 will probably be too costly? And I wouldn't touch the mk1 with a barge pole.

[Wile E. Coyote]

The other scenario is their parents will buy them a newish car (say 08 plate) of around £7-8k in order to save on servicing/repair costs, tax, insurance and fuel. The insurance saving for the new car is say £700 at a push, tax is probably £50 cheaper and the fuel isn't even a saving most the time. So over 3 years of motoring the cheaper car still works out thousands of pounds cheaper. Also count in the cost of depreciation and you are losing serious money!

 

There's also the issue of damage, that people often like to forget/think won't happen to them: bend a panel on an £8k/PCP car and it's bodyshop time (often I suspect paid for directly to avoid an insurance claim further screwing up the already premiums).  Bend one on something significantly cheaper and it's patina.

 

Also not convinced about servicing/repair savings on newer (but not very new) cars.  My first cars were fixed on the driveway whenever possible, little brother went for something more modern and managed to pour money into the main dealer's pocket on what seemed like a constant basis (it never went in for routine servicing without them finding something else that "needed" to be done).  Admittedly that's partly due to a difference in mentality, but he's managed to spend thousands on servicing and depreciation on a car that is now worth a fraction of what he paid for it.  He's recently been looking at changing but, having checked what they're going for on Auto Trader at present, is still coming to terms with what he's spent vs its residual value...

 

Obviously though, folk view these things differently and for some owning a newer car will appeal.

[boris77]

Is bangernomics an option? On the basis he'll probably stick on dent in it. As mentioned above, dent a banger - who care's. Also it could be an opportunity to learn some basic mechanics. 

 

If going for a newer car, the fabia sounds good. I don't think there is much of an after market for fabia stick on bits so he can't chav it up and reduce it's worth! I had one and a couple of people I know had them, reliable and not too expensive to run.

[alexander72]

i do bangernomics - works a treat - new car whenever I find a bargain (well, new to me) :-)