Daughters first car

[kevlo]

Hi guys and girls, in the process of looking for a first car for our daughter. It has to be cheap to insure, good mpg and most importantly reliable. I'm thinking Nissan Micra 1.0S like the picture.

 

 

any experience of these? anything to look out for?

[EH 370z]

To be fair they lack the kids street cred, as with a Corsa or Saxo, but for the age and mileage, probably the most reliable and cheap to run cars out there, good choice

 

T

[Railgun]

I had a pal in the marines who used one of these as a little work horse for about 10 years, and other than general wear and tear, he said it never missed a beat!

[EH 370z]

Sorry missed the bit at the bottom

The guys here say that if the car has a good MOT. It’s really rust and signs of accident damage to look out for as the engines and gearboxes are fairly bullet proof. The main areas or concern from a corrosion point of view would be the back suspension arms and the front cross member (under the radiator)

 

Hope this helps

T

[varley16]

If you opt for Saxo corsa sort of car, it would be more expensive to insure as there known to be a boy racer car.

 

Ford ka are cheap and cheerful car, old shape, not much to go wrong on them. Wishbone bushes are common but easy enough to replace.

 

Ford fusion r ok, diesels r known for injectors blowing passed the seals, but when I was at ford, we hardly had them coming in.

[coldel]

My dad being a mechanic always goes on about repair prices when looking at cars, BMW alternator you are looking at £300 for a Vauxhall probably £125. If you want a little run around which she will invariably bump it into and is cheap to repair I would suggest one of the mainstream brands like Ford or Vauxhall.

 

As for being cool, I remember at 17 simply having a car was cool, rocked up in my Y reg burgundy polo mk II one day and my mates went touring to places previously inaccessible.

[Pimm]

My lad has a £600 pug 106, very cheap to insure and parts are so easy to get.

[coldel]

I know a lot of people that look back at their teen years and remember owning a Pug and have very fond memories, you could do a lot worse!

[philb1965]

I ran one of these as a shed for 20000miles in a year, paid 1800 for it and sold it a year later for 1400. Did absolutely nothing to it and it was faultless...and I gave it a fair old thrashing. Cheapest motoring I've ever had.

 

Only sold it as I'd be doing less miles and the zed was gathering dust so started using that again as my daily driver.

 

Has a cam chain so no worry about belts, I'd go for one of these over a saxo/corsa any day.

 

Just normal checks for buying a used car needed

 

I'm pretty sure these were found to be the cheapest used car to run 2 or 3 years ago.

[kevlo]

thanks for all your feedback guys. might go and have a look at a couple over the weekend. didnt even think about rust with it being japanese and under 10 years old

[Pimm]

Forgot to add that I insured my boy last december on his £600 car and it cost me £2200 and that had to be paid in one go.

 

That was also the cheapest i could find, we had quotes of over £3500

[kevlo]

Forgot to add that I insured my boy last december on his £600 car and it cost me £2200 and that had to be paid in one go.

 

That was also the cheapest i could find, we had quotes of over £3500

 

fook me! forgive me but i take it you shopped around? that is ludicrous. my first year of insurance 8 years ago was on a vw golf (high insurance group) and it was £1350.

[rabbitstew]

Forgot to add that I insured my boy last december on his £600 car and it cost me £2200 and that had to be paid in one go.

 

That was also the cheapest i could find, we had quotes of over £3500

 

Thats very kind of you! I was made to save up for my insurance myself!

 

Ive had a couple of nissan micras which girlfriends have had. We had the older shape 1990 one for a while, 1litre. Very cheap motoring, then bought a bubble shape one like in the photo. On a L plate if I remember rightly. Cost about 1100 at the time, we had it 2 years and sold it for about 800. Only thing which went wrong was the window wiper motor packed up one of the brake calipers was a bit sticky and the front cross member under the radiator got very rotten. Strange as the rest of the car was in very good nick. We drove all over the shop in it - incl 3hour drive to wales, then touring around south wales in it. Nice little runner.

 

As someone else said, the insurance on a micra should be cheap. Whilst cars like 106`s, saxo`s and corsa`s are cheaper now, they are classed more as "boy racer" cars and therefore the insurance is high.

[Pimm]

Forgot to add that I insured my boy last december on his £600 car and it cost me £2200 and that had to be paid in one go.

 

That was also the cheapest i could find, we had quotes of over £3500

 

fook me! forgive me but i take it you shopped around? that is ludicrous. my first year of insurance 8 years ago was on a vw golf (high insurance group) and it was £1350.

 

yes we did shop around and that was the best we could get also putting me and the wife as named drivers helped a little. There was this issue about girls getting much cheaper insurance than boys but a believe this has leveled out know.

[geoff-r]

My girlfriend had one of these as a first car, it was an M reg but it was great, never missed a beat. It really isn't about street cred with a first car, it's more about learning the road. I don't remember what she paid on insurance but my first car which would have been over 8 years ago was a P reg Corsa and that cost a tad over £1k to insure, seems insurance has sky rocketed for younger drivers these days.

[waltzinblack]

Awesome cars... it's no surprise to me that I see so many of them about. My nan owned several and never had major problems with any of them. (didn't have any problems speeding in them either, crazy lady!)

 

Definitely a good first car. The only other thing I'd really trust is a fiesta. A mate has an old S reg fiesta with only 30000 odd miles on the clock and the only problem he has had was a bit of rust. I think the only bit he has had changed was the battery which was the 13 year old original!

 

NEVER even consider a Saxo. The VTRs are actually relatively cheap insurance for how powerful (I use that word lightly, haha) they are, and much MUCH cheaper than the VTS which only has 20 more bhp. But they are both still high of course - quick, and known boy racer cars! I wouldn't buy any other Saxo though as only the VTR/S look any good! The 1.1 is probably stupidly cheap to insure though. And they do a 1.4D which must get crazy mpg. My old VTR was a 1.6i and I reckon it was easily doing in the high 40s on the motorway. However, for all their economical virtues.. after 50k miles or so Saxos fall apart. The engines and gearboxes are generally alright, but the Axles and CV joints and other wheel stuff tend to just start to fall off. I have easily spent £3000 replacing those sort of parts on all different wheels on the car. I only bought the thing for £2800! It was bloody fun for a first car though!

[kevlo]

ive done a bit of searching on insurance and the micra seems quite high... well higher than the options my daughter has given me

 

she really wants a corsa 1.0 litre which will cost £1500 to insure whereas the micra will cost £1800

 

i would rather have nissan reliability but she wants a corsa because it appears cheaper and looks cooler.

[rabbitstew]

I wouldn't buy any other Saxo though as only the VTR/S look any good! The 1.1 is probably stupidly cheap to insure though. And they do a 1.4D which must get crazy mpg. My old VTR was a 1.6i and I reckon it was easily doing in the high 40s on the motorway. However, for all their economical virtues.. after 50k miles or so Saxos fall apart. The engines and gearboxes are generally alright, but the Axles and CV joints and other wheel stuff tend to just start to fall off. I have easily spent £3000 replacing those sort of parts on all different wheels on the car. I only bought the thing for £2800! It was bloody fun for a first car though!

 

The Diesels are good but noisey. I had a Peugeot 106 (same as a saxo) 1.5D which was widely regarded as being a better engine than the older 1.4D. It was a 1996 M plater, cost me £850 to buy. I did about 80,000 miles in it and it always gave me 55mpg->58mpg regardless of how i thrashed it. I had to fit new wishbones/ball joints when it got to 120,000 miles and the bearings in the back axle went at about 160,000miles. That wasnt a problem, i just fitted an entire back axle of a saxo which cost me £50 off ebay. I replaced the worn out seats with the full interior out of a mk2 106 Gti which cost me £30 off ebay. Ended up selling the car for £900 (£50 more than what i paid for it) after about 3 years of motoring. All in all a cheap car!

 

ive done a bit of searching on insurance and the micra seems quite high... well higher than the options my daughter has given me

 

she really wants a corsa 1.0 litre which will cost £1500 to insure whereas the micra will cost £1800

 

i would rather have nissan reliability but she wants a corsa because it appears cheaper and looks cooler.

 

All in all £1500 isnt bad. A guy at work has just passed his test and he paid more than that to insure a grandad type Renault Laguna.

 

The only alternative is for her to wait a couple of years. You normally find insurance drops drastically after the first year of having a license as its assumed if you are going to crash you will do in the first year.

[coldel]

Good advice on the first year issue - most people have a bump or scrape of some description - stick her in something you dont mind seeing dented, scratched or bumped for a year which has lowest insurance then treat her to an upgrade a year later.

 

I had my little VW Polo MkII 1.0 which was insured for £650 in my first year (aye Im old) second year I moved onto a 1.1 Fiesta which was four years newer and insurance dropped to £450 or something similar for a newer and faster car.

[rabbitstew]

I think Polos must be cheap to insure or something as nearly every chav kid in my town has an old VW Polo now, usually dropped so low its scrapeing the floor. I did wonder why, as normally they used to all go for Saxo`s or Peugeot 106`s.

[leonk]

Just a note on 1.0l corsas. they are a three cylinder and prone to head gasket problems and timing chain wear. Looked at loads of them for my lad and ended up buying a 1.25 fiesta 2003. Belting little car.

[rabbitstew]

Just a note on 1.0l corsas. they are a three cylinder and prone to head gasket problems and timing chain wear. Looked at loads of them for my lad and ended up buying a 1.25 fiesta 2003. Belting little car.

 

One major problem with the fiesta however is its weak clutch / gearbox. My ex missus had one and needed a new clutch / gearbox at relatively low mileage which cost her £1500. My mate had the same problem and my parents neighbour actually got through 2 in the space of about 20,000 miles.

[leonk]

You've worried me now