Fabia owner seeks excitement and long walks

S

sbtUK

Torque Junkie
Points
67
Location
UK
Car
'04 Saab 9-3 1.8t
Hi there!

Ok... Best ignore the thread title. I figured there was enough threads with titles like "Hello!" and "New here" already :)

I had best introduce myself... I'm 21, from Yorkshire and I drive a 2001 Fabia 1.4 8v. That's right: not even the 16v one. It's my first car, and I'm really just waiting for that ellusive 1 years no claims bonus before I get something with more than the blistering 68bhp I currently wield around the A-roads.

I've not really done a right lot to it. I fitted a cheap and chearful central locking kit to it because I was getting paranoid about leaving one of the doors unlocked in the local Tescos car park. I de-badged it because I love symmetry and it cost nothing. And I put the cheapest, nastiest ripspeed head unit in it because I wanted to listen to mp3s rather than the two tapes that I own.

Aside from cars: I work as a computer geek (ok, not my actual job title... But I'll spare you the details), I like playing guitar, driving around the country roads aimlessly (Damn. That's cars, isn't it?), and modifying anything I can afford to.

I just found this site this evening, and I've already read all of the tuning articles on the main site. Great site. I love it!
 
Hey man,

Welcome to the site :) Have to say first off - you type incredibly well, haha. A pleasant change for the internet.

I enjoy long countryside drives too (From south side of Manchester, so we've got some excellent area to roam down here) - Its just a laugh and I find it clears my head.

And similarly, I'm a bit of a geek myself, although I don't really work on computers, so much as spend too much spare time on them.

Nice to meet you anyway,

Izo/Rob
 
Hi sbtUK and welcome to TorqueCars, you will fit in nicely. You love driving and love cars and are seeking more power! Good title by the way - it did make a refreshing change. Feel free to ask any questions and get stuck into the polls, debates and discussions.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, guys :)

Izo/Rob: The compliment on my typing is much appreciated! The amount of people who don't bother to punctuate, or even spell out entire words has driven me to write in long-hand as much as possible. Too bad a lot of people still don't follow suit. Nice to meet a fellow, erm... Long-hander?

Waynne: Thanks! I already have done! Looks like a nice community you've built up here. Hopefully I can be as much a help as a hinderence and answer a few questions as well as ask... Well, maybe if someone asks about computers :lol:


Thanks again! It's sunny... I'm off to find my sunglasses and car keys...
 
sbtUK said:
Thanks for the warm welcome, guys :)

Izo/Rob: The compliment on my typing is much appreciated! The amount of people who don't bother to punctuate, or even spell out entire words has driven me to write in long-hand as much as possible. Too bad a lot of people still don't follow suit. Nice to meet a fellow, erm... Long-hander?

Waynne: Thanks! I already have done! Looks like a nice community you've built up here. Hopefully I can be as much a help as a hinderence and answer a few questions as well as ask... Well, maybe if someone asks about computers :lol:


Thanks again! It's sunny... I'm off to find my sunglasses and car keys...
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I'm jealous. Sat in work "working" and seeing the sun outside. I wanna go into the hills dammit! :p

And you're welcome. :)
 
hey and welcome to the site sbtuk
yeah your first year of driving is an absolute pain. but after that its a lot easier. youve still got the same problem i have your under 25 so the insurance company still hate you


haha Izo its lovely and sunny up here 8)
 
pgarner said:
hey and welcome to the site sbtuk
yeah your first year of driving is an absolute pain. but after that its a lot easier. youve still got the same problem i have your under 25 so the insurance company still hate you
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Thanks for the welcome :)

Yeah... Insurance companies really do hate me. I'm 21, male, have been driving for 5 months, I don't exactly live in the best city for car crime, and on a main road too. I think my dreams of a Fabia vRS or a Triumph Stag (Odd mixture, I know) will have to wait a while.

Insurance on my group 2 Fabia is costing me £1300 a year for third party, fire and theft. They do insure me to drive other cars third party only though, so I get to take my mother's Subaru Forester out now and again :)
 
thats better than me then i pay around £650 for my bora full comp, But because im under 25 then im not entitled to drive other cars on 3rd party its a pain as i have to spend another £30 a year to drive the wifes car now and again
 
pgarner said:
thats better than me then i pay around £650 for my bora full comp, But because im under 25 then im not entitled to drive other cars on 3rd party its a pain as i have to spend another £30 a year to drive the wifes car now and again
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I'd rather be in your shoes to be honest. £1300 is quite a bit more than £680, whichever way you look at it ;)

If you're interested, Quinn Direct will insure you to drive other cars, even if you are under 25 :)
 
will look into it as insurance is due in june a think. ether june or july

bit of a tip for ya if possible pay it in a oner. bell wanted around £200 more to pay monthly. so bunged it on a new credit card and paid it off Interest free 8). i know its a bit more awkward with £1300

yeah but the £600 goes on fuel to keep her happy :)
 
pgarner said:
bit of a tip for ya if possible pay it in a oner. bell wanted around £200 more to pay monthly. so bunged it on a new credit card and paid it off Interest free 8). i know its a bit more awkward with £1300
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Already done :)

I paid the lot for the year at the same time I got my car. Means I only have to worry about fuel as a regular cost. Not sure I'll be able to do the same next year, but it should be a lot cheaper next year, provided I don't crash before then!

One other (albeit small) factor in it being slightly cheaper next year is that I was 4 days off being 21 when I got my car insurance for the year. I'm gonna get insurance for the week when my policy ends so I'll be 22 when I get my new policy. Every little helps. Wait... No... That's Tesco...

Thanks :)
 
Mines rediculous.

Hell, I'm 20, on my mums insurance (Seriously its that bad) and the Gold is like, 2K.

...


Wince. Seriously, we rang around and all sorts. Unless anyone has some cunning plans to lower that?
 
hi sbtuk, welcome to the site. try getting a qoute from more than car insurance. i started driving when i was 17 in a 1.9 litre rover and my premium was £1000 fully comp (tho with a £700 excess but was just uber careful in the first year). when i was 18 got a 1.4 litre 8v polo (so similar to your skoda insurance wise) and my premium was £345 fully comp (this time with £600 excess) tho this was a mistake their part as it should have been £600. now in my third year of driving (age 19) and my insurace was £490 ish including full european breakdown cover, legal aid etc. the one problem with more than tho is they wont insure if there are any modifications to your car that increase acceleration or top speed which is a bit of a bugger. tho if you did have to claim you could always "demodify" the car tho i would advise telling them everything.

ps sorry for abbreviating "though" to "tho"!
 
Thanks for the on-going amount of welcomes from everyone. Makes me feel right at 'ome, it does!

StevieDB9: I notice you're living in Scotland. I also notice that your insurance is comparitively cheap. I lived up in Edinburgh for a while when I was at uni, and got a few insurance quotes while I was there too. On average: the quotes I got were £400 to £500 less when I said I was in Edinburgh, compared to living down here in West Yorkshire.

Either way... I got a quote with More Than a while back, and they worked out more expensive than my current insurer. And I wouldn't be insured to drive other cars with them either.

From what I understand: one of the reasons that there are so many insurance companies is because almost all of them are cheapest for at least one type of situation. For example: if you're in Scotland with a Polo, the More Than may well be the cheapest. But in West Yorkshire with a Fabia, Quinn Direct may be the cheapest.

Insurance not only baffles me, but angers me. I got a few quotes the other day out of curiosity. It seems that my current insurer would want £400 more than I currently pay if I bought insurance off them now. For the exact same policy. Oh how I hate insurance companies :p

Anyway... Scotland... Cheap insurance... You lucky swine! ;)
 
I spend a good few years of my life as an insurance broker so got to understand the system. Insurance was invented by the shipping companies where they would all pool money and pay for lost cargo.

It was a was of spreading the risk so 100 companies would cover the cost of 3-5 shipwrecks. Nowadays nobody wants to share the risk so many new factors come into it to ensure a fairer rating.

Yes driving a 1.0 something in a remote part of Scotland will be much cheaper than running a car in London (but you have to put up with all that rain in Scotland :lol:) We now have 20 or more different groupings for cars taking into account their safety and repair costs, then there are numerous driver factors, age, parking, mileage driven, sex, favourite food etc...
 
what ever happened to the insurance groups changing got a link out of the paper a couple of years ago showing they were going to be changing up to 50 groups


the rains not a problem. its the roads down south they are super smooth compared to up here
 
The roads round our way are a nighmare. People have lost small children down some of the potholes. The main roads are OK generally. As you get into Kent and nearer to Dover the quality of the roads deteriorates rapidly. Let's blame the lorry drivers from abroad for this!
 
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