Re: General discussion chat A bus pass is your best bet A 1 year bus pass is cheaper than the cheapest insurance available for new drivers. 1L Vauxhaul Astra's tend to be popular because of how low the insurance group is. I also see a couple peugeot 107's. Citroen c1's. Basically any thing small cheap and lethargic tends to be quiet popular. A cooler option would be an old BMW or something along those lines, but the insurance will likely be far from cheap.
Re: General discussion chat Get a small classic car like me! MG Midgets are fairly cheap to insure and are a lot of fun to drive! When running.. If you want something with a bit more oomph then go for a MGB or Triumph Spitfire but they tend to cost a lot more to insure. Might break down a lot though..
Re: General discussion chat How reliable do the classic cars tend to be? Also how much more is the insurance compared to the modern city cars? I haven't really looked into any classic cars, mainly due to those issues. Also because its statistically likely that i would write off my first car and i would rather it be a car that i wouldn't feel bad about destroying, it would also be nice if it was something a bit safer.
Re: General discussion chat Probably, if it has a 4.6l v8 engine and is rear wheel drive i cant imagine it being as cheap as a chevy spark. In the UK i know it would not be cheap, but 'murica may be a bit different.
Re: General discussion chat If you do some preflight checks before every long journey they tend to be reasonably reliable, you just need to keep an eye on things and make sure everything is in check as you go. In terms of insurance, my MGB GT costs about the same to insure as my friends 1.4L Fiesta, around £1200 a year (for me a 17 year old). I don't pay any tax on it and give it a few more years and I won't need to MOT it any more. I wanted a classic car that was in need of restoration so that I would be more careful when driving it, because I would have put lots of time and effort into the car I would want to keep it from being damaged or written off. Yeah it is more expensive than a Bus pass, but it allows you to go wherever you want whenever you want and you get to have a lot of fun!
Re: General discussion chat Watch out on corsas, 106's, fiestas, puntos and saxos though. As popular boy racer vehicles they fetch a higher insurance cost for no real reason.
Re: General discussion chat How reliable a vintage car is depends on how good it is mechanically and how well it was designed. Most people who own classic cars do their own maintenance and have knowledge of how to keep their car running at its prime. I'm not sure about vintage car insurance in UK but here in the US classic car insurance is quite expensive, and most classic car insurance company's will not accept a 16 year old driver (You will need to insure it through your parents). There really isn't a such think as a teen "casually" owning a classic car (unless his parents are filthy rich). You need to be totally dedicated and passionate about what your doing. You will need to justify all the long hours working and large amounts of money you spend. Going with a city car makes a lot more sense, You can get something like a Civic, easy to work on and highly modifiable, drive it around a few years, if you crash oh well and then after some years go by you can begin to explore the idea of buying a vintage car. It should be about average, 4 door, big=safe, not a sports car, most insurance company's don't seem to care if its RWD. Shouldn't have a bad reputation because most teens hate the way they look and don't want one.
Re: General discussion chat I got to admit that i do find them pretty ugly. Im not a fan of the shape and i think the paint job just makes things worse.
Re: General discussion chat I'm not too big on the styling, but the price of a retired Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is really tempting, especially for someone buying their first car.
Re: General discussion chat Do people ever have issues with buying old police cars and finding that they took quite a heavy beating during use to the point where there may be structural issues? Or are they all in really good structural condition due to the maintenance that they will have received?
Re: General discussion chat Yeah I get a lot of shit from my friends for my taste in cars lol. It's not so much the looks I like, but its just a cool car. The chevy caprice and crown vic, it's like they never got shrunk down in the 80s or 90s like a lot of american cars did. They stayed big and boaty. In my book, there's nothing cooler than a v8, rwd, body on frame sedan. Especially if it used to be a police car. I like the way they look, I love how simple they are, but it isn't really the thing that makes me like them so much.
Re: General discussion chat Most police cars aren't really beat on much. They aren't babied either. They're run hard and put away wet. I guess they kind of are beat on, but not in a way that would cause there to be structural issues. The power train is mainly what takes a beating. I mean, if you give a someone a car to use, and they don't have to pay for repairs or gas, they're not gonna treat it well. It's not like they're taking them off jumps, though.
Re: General discussion chat I got some shit form kids in high school for my Camaro. Some people thought it was cool but some people gave me a lot of crap for it. Haters gonna hate I guess They were all secretly jealous. Kids who don't know much about cars only have respect for million dollar super cars, and wouldn't know a decent project car or enthusiast car if it ran them over. It was funny though some kids had no clue what kind of car it was, and there were at least 3 people who thought it was an 80's Mustang. Keep in mind all of the factory "Camaro" "Chevrolet" and "Z28" badges were on the car. There was another kid who had an 80' Camaro and someone who had a late 80's T/A who had similar lack of respect problems. Everyone however agreed my car sounded amazing and as a result thought it was fast (which it wasn't). Never new an emissions chocked 305 could make such a good sound. You could also effortlessly brake the back wheels lose so that got peoples attention.
Re: General discussion chat Considering how much you post "it's my opinion, it's not changing if you disagree, I'm allowed it", you should realise how wrong it is for you to say that.
