I know nothing about cars but have just passed my test, what car should I get?

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MILF-Hunter

one with a padded roof so you can park it at the bottom of bicycle repair man...

Sorry MILF-Hunter, it was irresistible.

Cool I'll lend it for you nextime you try Long Tall Sally.

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MILF-Hunter

Reliable, economical and cheap to insure.
Also, if you declare your car to be in Selly Oak your screwed for car insurance even if you've got the worst car imaginable.
A smallish car (Corsa/fiesta) are cheap to run and repair and the insurance is lowish.
Really, the deciding factor is the budget you have.

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Level-headed member of Gadd-vey

aha. sharp MILF-Hunter, very sharp.

as a new driver and with fuel prices as there are atm i'd recomend a 1.4l(ish) diesel hatch back. i'd also recoment getting as new a car as poss for your budget to reduce running costd though bits breaking etc. also consider the more common makes (parts are cheeper) and cars with lower CO2 emmisions (road tax can vary massivly), a simple search could tell u that info

i'd start your search on auto trader, you can put in your requirments and quickly get a feel for what you can get for you money, then, if u see something u like, wack it into a comparison site to check you can afford insurance (TIP, its can offern be cheeper to add a parent as a named driver and as phil said, register the car at home - selly and other parts of brum are in 'high risk' areas)

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VP '08-'09

as a rough guide and idea of cost, here's what i recently spent (note the car is powerful and i've been driving 4 years)

car 1350 (2001 megan 1.6 petrol)
insurance 800/y (egg, fully comp)
tax 150/y
new wheel / tyre 120
new exhaust 120

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VP '08-'09

get a land rover and keep me in a job for now!

a red one!

BMW Z4 hard top/Bowler Wildcat/The New Seat Leon Cupra R/Classic Jaguar E type/Triumph TR3A

a Defender... one of my mates has this as his first car! Tis bloody brilliant!

NOT a Yaris... unless you have a rather bland personality. Plus my mate's has broken down twice with pretty bad engine failure [in warranty though]

More realistically:

Citroen C2, although being french, its the only car along with the defender out of my mad wolvo friends which hasn't broken down.

Seat Ibiza or Mazda 2 - good fun cars and the newer models are really quite good looking.

BTW.. Cocky's comment of "a red one" isn't that daft. Statistically red cars have better resale value over other coloured cars!

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"I'm not mad, I just see things differently"
No longer VP : But still Vaguely Philippino
FYI: Actions speak louder than wombats

Got to the series III V8 Petrol FTW!!

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Level-headed member of Gadd-vey

Depends on what your needs are how much you want to drive it. If you're happy to learn to do some work yourself?

Answer these questions..
Do you want a big estate that you can put lots of stuff and mates in and possibly sleep in?
Do you want a small cheap car?
Do you need your car all the time or just for trips weekends away?
Do you need a car to get to work?
Can you do any maintenance yourself?
Do you want toys (Air con, Electric windows etc?)
How many miles will you drive
Is it a stop gap for 12 months or do you want it to last several years
What's your budget :
Initial purchase
Anual running costs

Until then I'd recommend a late (1995/6) Peugeot 205 either a 1.1 petrol or 1.8 diesel. Very economical, cheap to maintain, low road tax and possibility of classic insurance if you take a limited millage (say 6000 per annum) policy and don't use it to commute. Plus will only cost 600-750 for a good example. I had a 1.1 before the MR2 sold it to my mate for £250 and he's still running it 4 years later spend less than £200 a year to get it through the MOT and it's done + 140,000 miles

here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1993-PEUGEOT-205- ... 25587f14b7

Thanks everyone well I've been looking around and its gonna be something small, petrol with no more than 1.3 engine otherwise i'm gonna be completely raped on insurance. I want to get something as cheap as possible so I can get third party only insurance and I'll upgrade when I have a years no claims. Basically there's an Irish company called quinn who are the Ryan Air of Insurance and they're at least £500, often more , cheaper than the next cheapest for any car I put in but claiming off them is a **** so I'm only gonna go with them if it's third party only. They're around 800 for something like a KA, Corsa or 106 and for something a bit bigger around 1200 whereas the cheapest quote I can seem to get anyway else is 1300 - 1500 for a KA and more for anything else.

So something like a 106 or a corsa would be ideal and hopefully in red. I'm gonna go for petrol as I've read diesel doesn't really save you much money until you get something the size of a golf or bigger but it makes my insurance a lot higher as the engines are bigger.

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MILF-Hunter