brum brum.

[SteveC]

Of course there's one thing lacking from the photo I gave abocve: it does require new alloys IMMEDIATELY

PS: I can beat escorts off the mark up to an including 1.8 engines.... I also beat a 1.6 Astra not too long ago at top speed.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[SteveC]

Oh, and Pat - am I right in thinking that youo might be getting a car due to a certain student loan you might be getting... of around £7k ?

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[This message has been edited by SteveC (edited 19 January 2001).]

[Gurm]

So what's the going exchange rates of pounds and dollars?

I only ask to get a better sense of Paddy's budget situation.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[SteveC]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by ayoub_ibrahim:

Originally posted by SteveC:
I also beat a 1.6 Astra not too long ago at top speed.</font>

Obviously,not a law abiding citizen as top speed of either car well above the legal speed limit

ayoub - As I said in my earlier post,
...My 214si has a 105bhp 1.4 engine which I've had 120Mph out of...



Gurm - isn't the exchange rate around $1.4 = £1

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Paddy]

Right,

I have two options:

I can buy a new Fiat Punto (which is by far the best car i have seen). It's only a 1.1l engine, but inside it feels really nice.

or I can go second hand (sounding dodgey) which will allow me to buy something slightly better at a much cheaper price.

budget = 7.5K

I have no no-claims at all which is bumping my premiums upto ~1K

I cant afford to insure a car with an engine >1.3l.

The Rover 25 is out of my price range at ~8K (new)....

---
buying new is safer, but costs more. All the small cars are girlie (but i'm a student for christs sake!)

I have reached the conclusion that i should only buy new if I can get free insurance.

Therefore new cars:

Fiesta (quickly going off it)
106 (reminds me of a lada)
Punto (may not be the fastest thing around but it is huge and comfey)

[Lizzard[MPE]]

You men every hear of sports cars? lol.. (As i wake up every morning and open my garage door to my shiny dark blue 1994 Mitsubishi 3000 GT).. haha.. soooory.. had too.. Actually, my bf bought it.. i just drive it! hee hee.. We shopped around too.. It was orginally $40,000 in "94"
we bought it in 1999 for $18,000. It was a great buy, and we couldnt pass it up. It is a beautiful car.. go test drive one.. you'll fall in love.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Paddy, have you actually shopped around for different insurance quotes because your quote seems exorbitant.

[Ant]

I'd go for a second hand car not new, there are a lot of these car supermarkets around these days that do 1 or 2 year old cars, unused for pretty good prices. You're in Leicester aren't you Paddy? There is a place in Derby you might want to have a look at, can't remember it's name at the mo, it's either Motor Point or Motor City, but it's advertised in all the free rags around Nottingham so I'd presume Leicester as well.

As for insureance go try <a href="http://www.directline.com/">Direct Line</a> got mine substantially cheaper from them than anyone else. Got a VW Golf myself, I do like them.

[Gurm]

Well Paddy, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I did a quick search of Yahoo classifieds in your area, and turned up one interesting link right away:

http://uk.classifieds.yahoo.com/yc?c...5609-4868&cf=3

Which is a BMW 520i (1994) with 60k-ish on the odometer. 6500 pounds (how do you make that little pound symbol?).

Now, that's a little high for you, right? But that's a full-sized sedan! Certainly you can find a smaller vehicle with similar age/mileage for even less!

Then I hopped over to insurance...

And OH MY HOLY F-ING LORD!

It costs the equivalent of $8000 USD to insure you for a year! HOLY POOP!

Wow.

Gasp.

Pant.

Wheeze.

That's f-ing absurd. I could insure 6 people, all under the age of 20, with comprehensive insurance over here for the same money.

Wow, never mind. Buy the Toyota.

- Gurm

EDIT: I looked back over the posts here and noted that you were looking at roughly 1,3K to insure one of these smaller vehicles. Does the UK really do it by vehicle/engine size? Wow, what a totally foreign concept.

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[This message has been edited by Gurm (edited 19 January 2001).]

[SteveC]

Oh yeah Gurm! The Rover I have (above) is classed as a 'sports car' (!!!!) and costs me ~£1800 (~$2500) to insure (I've been driving 3.5 years, but have had one or two minor knocks).

I'd say our insurance is based on, from most cost-effecting to least cost-effecting:

Age
Car type
Engine power
Previous Accidents?
Place you live in

How does yours work then? Our insurance is extraordinarily high...

(PS: The '£' symbol is on our '3' key )

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Gurm]

Well, let's see.

Here, it's dependent on the following factors:

1. Vehicle Age (new cars or cars under payments are the most expensive to insure)
2. Male/Female driver
3. Driver age (under 25 is more expensive)
4. Years without accident
5. Driver's Education (yes/no)
6. Sports Car (yes/no)
7. Safety of Vehicle
8. Color of Vehicle (sometimes)

Now, my BMW 325is for example is classed by Massachusetts as a sports car, but not by Pennsylvania. It's not, technically. It's a coupe. But the fact that it's a sports car is offset greatly by the fact that it's a BMW, which means it's safe. Julie's car is still under payments and is only 5 years old. But it's the safest vehicle in the world (nobody has ever died in a 2-car collision in a Volvo 960, and Volvo is so sure that they put a $250,000 life insurance policy on the owner/driver for the first five years of ownership), so that also offsets the fact that it's a luxury car.

So TOTAL, for myself and Julie, last year (when I was still under 25 and had a couple tickets and whatnot), both cars ran us around $2500 USD.

Engine size has NOTHING to do with it. When our second car was a non-"sports" car (Acura Integra) the premiums were only $1700. And now that I'm 25, they go down further. (It's around $3000 but that's because Pennsylvania is a huge insurance ripoff.)

However, my brother in law (who has had multiple accidents and tickets) would need to spend around $3000 to insure himself. But he's a rare case.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by SteveC:
I also beat a 1.6 Astra not too long ago at top speed.</font>

Obviously,not a law abiding citizen as top speed of either car well above the legal speed limit

[Paddy]

Finally bought a new Fiat Punto. It looks a bit girlie, but it sure is comfey.

Its a 1.4 16v ELX. cost 7.5K with:

• 1 years fully comprehensive insurance
• 3 years AA fully comprehensive cover
• free labour on anything for life
• 3 year warranty
• and a tie....dont ask!
• 1 year tax
• and when I pick it up in 7 days time i'll demand a full tank of petrol.

May not be the quickest thing on the market, but its cheap, economic and affordable.

Gurm, I'll buy that BMW when i'm 25 and I have qualified.

[Paddy]

here is a pic of the interior


and here is a nasty looking pic of the exterior, mine is black and doesn't have the alloys.



Looks a bit rough on the outside, but inside it's lovely.

btw, my g/f has named the car 'Willie' - as in 'will he or wont he' climb up this hill...

--edit--

UBB code!

[This message has been edited by Paddy [MU] (edited 21 January 2001).]

[Topha]

you should have gotten the bmw (or at least a mercedes)

or have a look at this one: www.smart.de

support the german car industry!!!