new car (well, new to me)

[ninebob]

Even if my citroen link didn't turn you on, it's worth doing the maths and not worrying too much about insurance costs if you have £8k to spend.

Assuming you're keeping the car for 3 years:

Option 1: low insurance car, say (at your age) £600pa insurance, total £1800.
That leaves you £6200 with which you can buy an almost brand new Punto, Fiesta, etc. Fair enough if that's what you want.

Option 2: daft insurance car - let's budget for a whole grand more per year: £1600, total £4800 for insurance.
That still leaves you £3200 for the car, you'd have to start looking at 5-6 year old models but essentially you can have anything you want.... Vectra Turbo Estate? I'll take it! etc etc... you get the idea.

 

[david and julie]

Andrew, I have a 1 year old Astra CDTI diesel estate, not the new shape though. It as now done 17K with no problems. There is very little difference in carrying capacity between Vectra and Astra in estate form. However there are many more Astra estates on the road, so they are cheaper and you have more choice. Mine is the Club model which basically means air con,alloys, met paint, twin air bags ABS etc, I paid 9K for it at 4 months(6K miles) old and would expect to pay around 6K to 7K now for the same thing. They are relatively low on insurance( I think about group 4 but not sure) and are OK to drive. On a positive note the road tax is low (£115 I think) and I get around 53 to the gallon, although I am not a fast driver and don't usually go over 70mph.

The main downside with Vauxhalls is the depreciation but as long as you don't by them new, this won't effect you much.

If you do go Vauxhall diesel avoid the older DTI (as in Astra/Vectra and Zafira 2 litre) although they are lazier(much more torque) to drive, many have oil consumption problems and are not as good as the 1.7 Izuzu engines. The only advantage being they have a cam chain, instead of a belt.

 

[andy]

Andrew, I have a 1 year old Astra CDTI diesel estate, not the new shape though.....

thanx for that. was thinkin of gettin a car the same way as you got yours (few miles on, few month old). gonna try and have a look around later this week

 

[david and julie]

Andrew, I got mine from here,

http://www.fow.co.uk/

Its an easy site to use and will give you an idea what you will get for your budget.

 

[fallingoverdrunk]

recommend Second hand Fabia / Octavia Estate in diesel..usually unbreakable and with VW parts

 

[andy]

right people... heres the situation...

have found a car with virgin cars. 04 plate, astra estate. so thats now gettin ordered. would be so much easier if i could just go there, sign a few papers then come home, but no. other stuff has to be done etc etc. so ill prob get it in a week

 

[AdamW]

recommend Second hand Fabia / Octavia Estate in diesel..usually unbreakable and with VW parts

Wanna bet? I've got a hammer... but that's enough about improving the Czech styling.

I know Skoda's are rebodied VWs now, but I was behind a Skoda Fellatio (spelling?) yesterday and it had a rear window sticker saying "Yes, it's a Skoda!"... I had ample time to appreciate the irony of the sticker as I followed it at 25mph in the outside lane of a dual carriageway.