Your First Car

[Prince]

My first car was a 2001 Vauxhall Corsa. It was a 1.0 and it was great! I paid £2000 for it and then insured it for £1200. It was a good little run around and cheap to run. The only thing I didn't like was the acceleration!

Here's a pic of it (yes I know one of the trims is missing)



What was everybody else's first car?

[HDi fun]

1981 Fiat 127 1300 GT - great car, typically old school Fiat wth indestructible engines. Surprisingly very very little corrosion.

81bhp - not bad in a car that weighs under 700kg.

[Massive]

One of your wheel trims were missing! :P

My first car was a renault scenic :s 1.9 dTi 1996 96 bhp 0-60 12.7sec top speed of 174 never got it that fast though obviously

[Prince]

Originally Posted by Massive

One of your wheel trims were missing! :P

It came off when I was going round a corner once! I couldn't be bothered to stop and run down the street after it!

[waynne]

Mine was a Y reg (1982) Renault 9 TLE with a 1334cc engine! It was in metallic green and I crashed it writing it off within 2 weeks

[pgarner]

'96 1.1 fiesta mk 3
0-60 timed at 18 seconds managed the ton as well

[HDi fun]

My mate's 1976 Mk2 Escort Estate was the beast to have.

A 1.1 litre Kent Crossflow Engine. Power - 41bhp - but subtract 3bhp for the belt driven cooling fan (honestly) you're left with 38bhp.

Rear wheel drive and 4 gears, steering like a clock spring. Brakes non existent.

We timed 0-62mph - 49 seconds!!! YesSSSSS!!!

[Shao]

F reg Citroen AX 990cc - had a plastic boot etc so was very light and quick off the mark - i ragged the balls off it - suspension was sooo sloppy - regularly went round tight bends on 3 wheels! Was a fun car

[sbtUK]

My FIRST car? I've still got it

A 2001 Metallic Sea Green Skoda Fabia 1.4 Classic 8v
68bhp, 88 lb-ft of torque, 1155kg, 0-60 in 14.9 seconds, and a top speed of 101mph.



I have to say: as a first car it's brilliant. It's comfy and roomy (even for my 6'5 frame), it's not painfully slow and I quite like the look of it... I still want a VRS though

[fingers]

1987 Skoda Estelle 130 Limited Edition Sport Homoligation car.

Factory fitted Dellorto 45mm carb, Ashley GroupA full exhaust system, Kent cam and Spax suspension. That was a proper quick little car, used to eat Ford XR's and Nova GTE's. Pain £100 for it, had it 4 months, rebuilt the engine 3 times due to headgasket failure (common problem), gasket went for the 4th time, I let the engine cook and go boom. Two weeks later I found out the "Sport" models were rare and at the time worth £2-£3000.. Oops!

[waynne]

Ooh - unlucky fingers. It does look to me like the modern drivers are getting newer cars. In my day we were lucky to get a car under 8-10 years old as our first car. Is this because cars are getting cheaper, finance is easier or we demand more from a car nowadays?

[Prince]

I think it's because you usually get what you pay for. I paid the money for my car to last. I could have bought some old rust bucket on wheels for £200, but I didn't want it in for repairs every week! I don't think cars are getting cheaper, I think they're getting more expensive. It's just everyone's own taste I suppose.

P.s. Fingers....ouch!

[pgarner]

no id agree that newer drivers are buying a lot newer cars. i started out in an 8 year old car, then a 6 year old then 16 year old before buying the bora as a 4 year old.
i live in the street and the amount of young drivers, mainly girls, are buying brand new cars not long after they pass their test. i think it was more Citroen that started this with the cashback and free insurance deals on the saxo.

the problem with buying a new or nearly new car for a first one is the fact it does rarely have problems with them ( that arent covered by warranties) so you gain less experience doing thing on them.

with the fiesta ( first car ) i learnt how to change oil, air filter, sparks, leads, dizzy cap, rotor arm, and coil. learnt a large amount of electrical as so many things were needing wired back up due to corrosion

[sbtUK]

Originally Posted by pgarner

no id agree that newer drivers are buying a lot newer cars. i started out in an 8 year old car, then a 6 year old then 16 year old before buying the bora as a 4 year old.
i live in the street and the amount of young drivers, mainly girls, are buying brand new cars not long after they pass their test. i think it was more Citroen that started this with the cashback and free insurance deals on the saxo.

the problem with buying a new or nearly new car for a first one is the fact it does rarely have problems with them ( that arent covered by warranties) so you gain less experience doing thing on them.

with the fiesta ( first car ) i learnt how to change oil, air filter, sparks, leads, dizzy cap, rotor arm, and coil. learnt a large amount of electrical as so many things were needing wired back up due to corrosion

That's a very good point

Granted my car was only 7 years old when I got it, but (perhaps due to my nature) I've been doing as much to it as I can. I've learnt to change the oil, filters, spark plugs, leads etc... I've fitted central locking (It seemed like a really big job at the time ), changed the break disks and pads, and a whole bunch of other things.

I bought my car for £2000 at 7 years old with 39k on the clock. I don't think I'm likely to ever buy a brand new car. You loose so much money on them. My father changes his car every three years or so. He's got an SLK 230 at the moment and has recently had a SAAB 93 Aero convertible, a Honda Ledgend (Suprisingly quick car. Scared the hell out of a few boy racers) and some other really nice cars. He's bought them all second hand and has never lost more than £1000 on them when he's sold them. If he'd bought them new he probably wouldn't even get half what he would have paid for them. Not to mention that he probably wouldn't be able to afford them in the first place.

The difference for him is that he could have got a brand new Polo for the price he paid for his SLK, and in three years time when he changes his car he wouldn't get enough for the Polo to buy anything other than a second hand Polo or equivilent.

It's all fine when you've got maximum no claims and pay £200 a year to insure an SLK like he does

[waynne]

Do i detect a hint of jealousy SBT?

Soemtimes I wonder if the repair costs on older cars actually work out more than paying for a newer car. In terms of depreciation the best way to beat it is to buy at 3 years old and sell at 5. Typically a car loses 50% of its value in the first 3 years.