First car / how do people afford cars when in low paid work?

[hash tag]

You might want to look at how VW ranks in reliability these days... Maybe a 15 year old one with a good service record, but the newer ones rate quite poorly. Stick with Japanese and you can't go wrong. The Koreans rate well in holding up, but they're famously quite difficult to get fixed if something does break.

Mrs Tags very old Micra went on forever. Many told her it was a tin can and was not safe in the event of an accident.
Do you need to check for ulez compliance?

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

a few thoughts -

I pay something around £ 450 a year for insurance and breakdown cover. That's with being in what's considered a low risk job, somewhere outer suburban / rural-ish, and with maximum no claims discount. With no licence history / no claims it's potentially going to be a fair bit more, and I've no idea where you live - where I live is ranked a B on this list (A is lowest risk / price, F is highest, 'refer' means it's going to be bloody expensive.)

The breakdown bit is maybe 100 of that, but in theory avoids the risk of being stranded in the middle of nowhere. (although with previous provider who were RAC, that turned out to be a possible.)

Insurance will be slightly lower for an older / lower value car (mine is worth maybe about 5 grand), but the damage you can (potentially) do with one is similar so it's not going to be half that for a car worth half as much. Going comprehensive with a reasonable excess (the amount of any claim you pay) can come out cheaper than going for 'fire, theft + third party', for reasons I don't fully understand.

Annual MOT and repairs / maintenance is going to be at least somewhere round £ 150 a year, more if they find anything dubious. Last year, I probably spent too much on an old car hoping that each repair would be the end of problems for a year or so. In the end I had to scrap it, which got me about £ 200 in scrap value. Generally speaking, any car is losing value all the time it's on the road (although car before that was old enough to have started going up in value again.)

Car tax varies according to CO2 emission banding.

This banding is not the same as what triggers Ultra Low Emission Zone charges - these apply in some city centres,. and generally, older cars (especially older diesels) don't meet the ULEZ standards and you have to pay a daily charge for going in to the zone (don't know if that might be an issue for you.)

Some places are trying to implement higher parking charges for non ULEZ compliant cars.

Is having something cheap and potentially unreliable going to be an issue with new job?

Eek!


"M Manchester

1-9, 11-24, 40, 60 . . . . . . . . . Refer

25-29, 32, 34-35, 38, 43, 45-46 . . F *

30-31, 33, 41, 44 . . . . . . . . . . . . E *"


I'm in one of the 'refer' postcodes. I already figured insurance would be the most expensive thing. I think some of my neighbours register their cars to their parents or partners address. (And I know the risks involved in that, if they get caught it would void their insurance, and they might even get done for insurance fraud or something.) When I was thinking of bringing my car back from where I lived and worked abroad, I was quoted £4-5k for insurance and that was about 15 years ago, (hence why I didn't do it), so gawd knows how much it would be to insure a Saab 9-3 1.8T in my neighbourhood now! And hence why I'd need to be realistic and get a little run-around with a small engine, to keep insurance costs down.

There isn't a ULEZ in Manchester... yet. It's been threatened previously, but they keep capitulating to the car-owning masses, sadly. (I live next to two main roads with 'killer levels' of air pollution.)

And yes, buying a lemon that's cheap but unreliable is a big fear. I think it would be an issue.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I stl remember that number plate from my first car that I had 34 years ago. Yet I forget my Pin all the time.

B939UKL

Hahaha! I've just remembered the registration plate from my childhood, from my father's Ford... Cortina or Corsair. RTB 131C. It was purple.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

You might want to look at how VW ranks in reliability these days... Maybe a 15 year old one with a good service record, but the newer ones rate quite poorly. Stick with Japanese and you can't go wrong. The Koreans rate well in holding up, but they're famously quite difficult to get fixed if something does break.

Yes. And also I don't like the racist vibes of VW's advertising in recent years, so I was planning to try to avoid them. There's been some controversy in Germany a few years ago.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Mrs Tags very old Micra went on forever. Many told her it was a tin can and was not safe in the event of an accident.
Do you need to check for ulez compliance?

5* safety performance in tests was one of the reasons I liked my Saab 9-3, given how appalling the driving was in Qatar. I literally saw someone have a crash in the driving test centre and the instructors/security guards wrenched the two cars apart (the bumpers had become entangled) and then she - a Qatari woman - continued!

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Thank you all very much, your comments and insights are very helpful and very much appreciated. I've got a lot to think about and research... providing I get the job!

 

[Elpenor]

Yes to back up what Looby said it’s pre-booked pool cars for business travel here for most people

 

[Looby]

Also, adding business miles to lease or PCP can really bump up the price or you could end up paying excess mileage if you under declare how many miles you’ll be doing.

 

[baldrick]

You may want to look at cars that are not "traditional young driver cars" and maybe consider something that isn't a 1.0

It can be more expensive to insure a small runaround compared to something more family car sized

 

[nogojones]

Yeah, I think I'd be torn between this option, crossing my fingers and hoping I don't get sold a lemon, and the lease option.

Do you have a mate you can call on who knows anything about cars to check them out with you?

you can check a cars MOT history, which might give you some clues here Check the MOT history of a vehicle

and read up online about common faults and costs for any car you're going to view before you see it

 

[hash tag]

Do you have a mate you can call on who knows anything about cars to check them out with you?

you can check a cars MOT history, which might give you some clues here Check the MOT history of a vehicle

and read up online about common faults and costs for any car you're going to view before you see it

Also be wary of any loans that might be outstanding on a car.