Churchill wanted me to have one, one of Admirals plans wanted me to have one (although they offered a policy without one too), Diamond were actually returned (I'm assuming thats who you're thinking of), there were quite a few small name companies that wanted me to have one and Co-op do vehicle insurance but you have to speak to them directly rather than going via price comparison sites, co-op was cheap, very cheap, then it turned out they wanted to fit a device to my car, enforce time curfews and limit how many passengers I can carry. What a joke. I'm 20, I have driven for 2 years without issue. I rode a moped for 2 years prior to that. I'm not a 17 year old with zero experience behind the wheel.
Ah yes a golf or a polo would be excellent for me! Was actually looking at some corsa's and they didn't look too bad though? What problems have you had with yours just out of curiosity? I have a friend that smashed the bumper and grille of his Peugeot 206 a few years back actually and in the end it was cheaper for him to buy a 7yr old VW polo than to have the parts replaced, so I'm definitely going to follow your advise there! Haha poor stereotyped micra :'( xD
how about these.(all within your bugdet) btw ebay is your freind for cheap cars: #swag : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-Volk...9274686?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4adad99dbe http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/51-Reg-Fo...6641563?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1e90b2951b http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2003-03-V...0653278?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f361a9c5e http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-3...6162664?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item25935d69e8 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-BMW-318-CI-SILVER-/271587124099?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f3bdaa383 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A6-A...2570383?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item417d26d20f hope this helps .
2004 Corsa Life 3 door with the 1.0 engine. Its currently running the 3rd ABS unit. The 2nd engine. The 3rd clutch. 3rd set of front coilovers. 2nd battery (although admittedly normal for a car of that age, 7 years is a number I've often been given for how long a car battery should last and I did only get it replaced within the last year as it wasnt holding a charge properly anymore). 2nd set of rear wheel bearings. Heres a very fun one. Tradition dictates that the positive lead in an electrical system should be red or on occasion blue (that is a much newer and rarer thing), negative lead should be black or brown. So what do vauxhall do in all their vehicles unlike every other car manufacturer that follows the tradition. They use brown for negative, thats just fine but they use black for positive. Now when I've been called out at 6am to jump start mums car because apparently when you wake up on somebodies floor the night after a party it can't wait until I'm awake, you pop the hood and your eyes tell you that you are looking at an old faded red wire on positive and a black wire on negative which is totally not the case and results in huge sparks because you've just attached jump leads in the wrong polarity because you are also an idiot that didnt manually check the polarity on the battery itself. I've attached labels to the cables now. Power steering is massively overpowering compared to what it needs to be, in a way thats a good thing because you get really really light steering, but it completely eliminates all road feel. I've got a weird issue right now where if I remove the key too quickly the electrics wont turn off and I have to turn them on and off again more slowly. Not kidding. The key will be removed from the vehicle entirely and my stereo will carry on blaring (its an aftermarket unit and will not power on unless the ignition live is on which should not be on when the key is removed), that one is very weird. Front brakes jammed on. Twice. PITA. Seems to be some sort of design flaw where dirt from the road gets in them really easily and jams them up. Overheats. Its ok when its running, but put it in slow moving traffic and it cannot keep cool. My old car was fine, my nissan micra courtesy car was fine (actually as repulsive as it is I was somewhat impressed by that car, I would never own one - its girly, its clutch pedal is in the wrong place and the interior felt flimsy - but it drove ok), parents cars are both fine. Sure if an engine is being revved at a standstill for a fair old amount of time it will warm up. But when idling for 5 minutes it should be fine, nope, temperature climbs. There is plenty of coolant in the system, the radiator fan kicks in on cue. It just seems that its an entirely inadequate cooling system in that vehicle (duplicated across 2 mates corsas, dads old corsa and mum also has a friend that commented on how her corsa overheats rapidly). As soon as its rolling again its fine. Everything rattles. Sure the interior feels fairly solid. But nope, as you drive it is a rather noisy vehicle (and I've been in quite a few, its not limited to mine). Sometimes when reversing it will pop itself out of gear. It will be properly rammed the entire way into reverse, definitely not a case of it being short shifted, but nope. It will pop out on its own with an almighty crunch on the way. Handbrake doesnt do anything really. Again not limited to mine as mates also have issues with theirs. A very small incline and you have to leave the car in gear when parked as the handbrake alone isnt really adequate. My old car on gravel if you yanked the handbrake at about 5-10mph the rear wheels locked and skidded a tiny bit as the car came to a quick halt, the corsa will keep on rolling. I am finding the only likable feature in the entire vehicle is that it has a nice clutch feel. Excellent work there. Got a mate with a 107. Peugeot wanted £200 to repair a damaged wing mirror. It was only the plastic backing. He did luck out and found a part online advertised as being for the aygo but the aygo and 107 are rebadges of one another anyway so it fit fine, cost: £26 - - - Updated - - - Oh. To add another issue specific to the 1.0 engine. NO POWER. It is the most power deprived engine to grace the roads. Terrible engine.
Oh wow I wasn't expecting it to be that bad xD Wow those battery connections sound dangerous as hell! Surely if you got a bad shock from it you could even sue vauxhall for use of non universal polarity determination techniques? I have noticed that my grandparents corsa 1.0 has little to no power actually but I presumed that was a problem that would only effect her car and not the entirety of the corsa stockline, as far as I remember they actually contacted vauxhall as the car was so slow to take off it was kind of dangerous! On another note what's your opinion on older models of ford fiesta's? There are some on autotrader that are quite cheap and don't look too bad for their age..
I have never driven a fiesta so can't particularly say. Got a mate that covers high mileage in one and never heard him complaining about any car problems except the time he left the sunroof open in a thunderstorm and flooded the interior. But yeah. The 1.0 engine is just horrid. About 20 seconds 0-60. Joining motorways, well you want to get as much speed up on the entry ramp as you can to merge with the traffic properly rather than speeding up as you enter the traffic as everybody else seems to do. I got outdragged by a renault scenic. In city driving conditions its pretty economic and it copes just fine. If the vehicle was only ever going to be used in and around town then the 1.0 is just perfect. But outside of the city, bam, you have to floor it and shift gears through the power band properly and your fuel economy just disappears, the 1.2 engine fares much better both performance and economy wise (without being much worse in the city driving either), plus its a 3 cylinder and perfectly exhibits non overlapping power strokes causing shudder at low revs. I personally didnt get a shock from the battery. I may have been dumb enough to not check the polarity on the battery itself, but I wasn't dumb enough to go and touch the source of the sparks with my bare hands, it was just pretty lights to look at (and panic over while you remove the cable ASAP). Some of the vauxhall people carriers have had *extreme* power steering faults (I personally know someone who was driving along as you do and then the power steering system decided to send the rack to full lock left for no reason at all, at least the airbags worked). Stepdads insignia was in and out of garages with multiple issues with the sensors for the engine management system (went through multiple thermostats actually), the ECU itself, the aircon and at one time the transmission, all under warranty within the first year. We had an Astra courtesy car once while the insignia was in which just decided to cut out while driving and never start again, just totally dead. Oh, I've also had the catalytic converter replaced, that may be related to the first engine installed in the car which prior to somehow being blown up by the previous owner with only 50k on the clock (no doubt to do with the way you have to floor it to get anywhere) may have been burning oil or something which does tend to knacker cats damn quick. Also had the rubber grommets on the exhaust mounts replaced, that may be a double whammey of an 04 car on british salty roads or it may be crap material in the first place, don't know. Part of the exhaust was also replaced as it had a nice old crack in it, that happens, mistreating the car over a speed bump or even debris being kicked up by the front wheels can cause that.
OP, this is probably going to be my 1st car: 1997 Subaru Justy 1.3 AWD, 68HP of Hungarian/Japanese AWD awesomeness! If you live in a rural/snowy area i'd happily recommend this or the "real" Justy 1.2 4WD (not the above one but real 4WD, no center diff!)
my dad had a 2003 5 series,it was crap. avoid BMWs,they are expensive cars to maintain,repair etc. no offense if anyone here is a bimmer fanboy,i like BMW,it jsut that they arent very cheap when it comes to insurance and rpair costs
A 1 liter engine? In a car? There are motorcycles with bigger engines than that. Damn. I'm really glad that isn't the norm here. No replacement for displacement.
I hope this big brother insurance doesn't become the norm! If you are in a situation where you have to step on the gas for safety, they won't know why you did it and assume you were doing it for fun and will jack up the price on you. Stupid idea!!!!
1. don't ever buy a fiat panda. 2. Generally for your first car get something you won't be upset by damaging it, such as a Ford anything. 3. I've found that the safer the car the more friendly insurance companies are toward you. So look for good safety ratings. They're still going to be c*nts when pricing though. 4. It's your first car, don't buy a lot of car. you're a novice driver, get something small. Nice hatchback or something with good visibility, and just keep blind spots in mind when trying them out. See what blind spots you think you can deal with. You're going to have this car for a long time. There's no real best, the world is a nuanced place. Just grab a car that suits your needs and pleases the insurance company. So get something underpowered, economical and with a good safety rating. On your 25th birthday, get a GOOD car after you're out of the age bracket they hate and proven yourself a good driver by not telling them about the many accidents you've had.
I have the box insurance from Tesco, and it seems to me like they take how safely you drive in general, including speed, smoothness, time of day, whether you primarily use motorways, taking breaks on long journeys etc. The benefit of the box insurance is that it can be something like a third of the price of normal insurance.
The older ones are very reliable - e36, e34, e21... I must admit tho, the newer it is, the more problems it will have. E39 is a good car. Like every other car, buying it second hand is a gamble and can cost you much. A later 528i, 525d, 530i/d with not much extras and gadgets to break and a good service history can be a pretty reliable and good car. Parts are expensive and as long as you buy the correct ones and maintain it properly, it can be very reliable. 540i is known as one of the most reliable V8s and the only problem for it is the price of the fuel here in Europe
5. get something that is reliable. there are many reliable cars and many known for trouble. EX. my brothers 1996 pontiac grand am. 2.4L I4 DOHC throttle body fuel injection, FWD 5 speed manual 2DR clutch and slave cylinder system rear tires brakes all around heater core and now the engine needs replacing. hes owned the car for 1 and a half years now, and covered 6k kms. 224k kms on the clock. My 1992 ford crown victoria 4.6L V8 SOHC Direct fuel injection (one injector for each cyl) RWD AUTO 4DR water pump thermostat rear window (tree fell on it) rear tires minor electrical work i have had the car for 8 months now, and gave it 13k km's on the clock since i bought it. currently at 595768 KM on the clock. the pontiac was known for trouble, this ford was built to last generations.
Tires, brakes and a rear window being smashed by a tree don't count as reliability issues to me. Tires are consumables. Brake pads are consumables. Consumable meaning they are going to wear out. 6000km, if you are hard on them then yeah they can wear out, I'd normally expect them to last alot longer though but chances are they werent brand new when your brother got them. Rear window, well yeah that is going to be smashed when a tree falls on it, not the cars fault.
my point is if a car is known for issues, run dont walk away from it. set yourself up for the best in the first place and you will always be ahead, maintaining properly
my point is that 2 of your issues are a standard thing on all vehicles and the vehicle will not affect it and that 1 of them is because a damned tree fell on it.
