Car leasing vs buying

‘Character’ not a personality disorder.

 

I cheaped out and avoided the sunroof and electric seats becasue that meant you had to have keyless entry as well which I wanted to avoid, but I do have the disco lights and specced the adjustable suspension.

 

Hatchback big enough with the seats down to carry a bike inside. Plus ‘character’. Essentially I’ve come to realise he means a car with ‘S’ written somewhere on it.

 

Yeah keyless entry was a worry. I have to carry this bloody pouch around with what looks like tin foil inside, blocks any criminals scanning and copying it.


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https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202001266600338?postcode=ha53ef&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&model=JAZZ&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1501&make=HONDA&sort=relevance&page=1

Something like that then. Suitably modded up but generally driven by pensioners so should be cheap to insure. Hondas of that age are generally pretty reliable as well. Avoid Vauxhall / Ford. These tend to be popular amongst the "yout"and hence have higher risk ratings for insurance.

Alternatively the Korean companies often dish out decent finance packages with warranties and insurance bundled. In the long run that might be cheaper.

 

As practical as it is, I can’t see a Honda Jazz tempting him. Agree with your point that a car not generally used by young people may be rewarding insurance wise though. Maybe an old Civic.

Navigating the cheap end of the spectrum to avoid poor condition is the issue.

 

Who's paying for the car & insurnace? If it's you then why is his preference even being considered?

 

Because in 2020 the sheer humiliation that comes from driving an awful car is enough to torment a mentally weak kid

 

I would suggest given Moose's relentless debating style here, any mooselets would have toughed up enough by the age of 18 to even manage one of these

 

He’s got a job, been working hard and has saved a fair bit. Not enough that he wouldn’t need some help though. The reality is he wants to get an old banger he can tinker with so he and his friends can roar off down the lane. He could near enough buy and insure something himself from the early to mid 2000s.

Me being sad and clucky, parachute parent of the age wants him to have something with boring safety features that won’t break down on the motorway. So I’m pushing him up rather than the other way.

 

Got it in one, except he thinks he can stick three mountain bikes on his wreck and drive from Herts to Fort William. My feeling is that this would be a fun thing to do, but reliability would be an issue.

 

You sound like my dad.

I had a Rover Metro as my first car. Bloody loved it.

Once I went to uni, however, Dad started worrying like a mother hen over me driving up and down the motorway (~4 hour trip one way) in the Metro, so he insisted on buying me a larger car.

Ended up with a 1.6l bright red Renault Megane...but I would have been happy with the Metro. Loved that car.

 

I am your Dad you ungrateful *******.

 

I passed my test in my brother's MG Metro, then went out and bought a 1972 Dodge Challenger 318. Replaced with a 383 Challenger, then a 1970 440 Challenger. In yellow. Somehow, on classic car insurance, it was affordable. Apart from petrol.

 

Nice. Having the same problem on petrol with my new car. Just bought a 5 litre Jag F-Type. I’ve had some fast cars before but this is a monster. However it claims to have 50 miles remaining in the tank and by the time I get to the supermarket it wants more petrol. Great fun though!

 

Migrane was definitely a step down. How many electrical faults did it have?

I've owned or driven 3 Metros. Actually as long as you get the suspension pumped up every year as part of the service they were bloody decent cars.

1.0 mustard yellow City A reg which was passed on from my grandfather to my mother and eventually to me. Managed to get it airborne over a hump back bridge and kill the rear brakes. When I went to Uni it was then passed on to a couple of cousins who blew the engine swapped it out for a 1.3, painted it green and promptly killed the 2nd engine. I think it was well and truly knackered.

Replacement was a Rover Metro Nightfire special edition. K reg. The special thing about it was the metallic red paint and the Nightfire sticker. Was really my dad's but I drove it art the weekends, the only car we've ever had nicked but it was safely recovered.

After that a british racing green Rover 111 Ascot. When they tried to up the brand status they got rid of the Metro name. This one was so posh it had carpet on the doors which was handy as I got it up on 2 wheels once. It was passed on to me by my dad when he bought a new car. He was going to part exchange it but he salesman said "we'll take it off your hands but it won't take any money off the price of the car" I drove this for a good few years however fancied something sportier. Was going to part-ex it but it died just before the new car was ready so scrapped and money to charity. Sad it was the most reliable car I've ever owned. The car that replaced it was a VW Polo GTI. The one with the problematic turbocharged and supercharged engine. It broke down 9 times in 3 years and drank a Liter of oil every 600 miles. After threatening legal action, VW bought it back off me. The Merc and current meistermobile that replaced it has been flawless except for it's stop/start battery which is too feeble for the short journeys I used it for.

 

Zero.

Had two "major" issues with it. First, a belt broke; this resulted in the battery not getting charged while driving and the car suddenly dying as I drove it down the A41. I was very fortunate because I'd just been driving back from uni and the car died a mere 3 miles from home instead of on the motorway. And when I say "died", I mean it: the power steering gave out and I suddenly driving a non-responsive brick. It was terrifying at 30mpg on a pretty empty road. Can't imagine it on a packed motorway at 70mpg.

The second was a complete lack of power for ~7 seconds after hitting the accelerator. The mechanic told us it was a sensor issue, it was worked on multiple times for days at a time, no fix. Turns out it wasn't the sensor, but a hole in the fuel line, immediately detected by a AA man I called out when the car again became undriveable.

Some bloody mechanic. Useless git.

Neither of those were what I'd term serious mechanical faults, even if the impacts were quite noticeable. Just normal wear and tear on items that were unfortunately very important.

 

Lucky.

My brother's Clio had multiple electrical issues. I'd wager the whole dashboard functioned about 60% of the ownership.

The best fault was the sunroof bolts detaching themselves and then rolling about between headliner & roof. It did provide fun in tracking them audibly as we made left and right turns. If the electrics hadn't have blown before, on opening the roof it may have landed on his lap.

 

I spent a summer home from uni working in Renault customer services call centre in Maple Cross. I reckon the whole range had electrical issues.

 

Good drivers cars and good value, just electrics from that era were an achilies heel.

 

I designed a black box telemetry system for a household name insurer a couple of years back. The box measured 4 basic motions - accl, braking, cornering, and speed. It also alerted if disconnected (in case drivers want to hide their journeys) and also detected a high g crash. No one looked through every recorded event - that would be impractical. The data was run through an algorithm (which I created) which calculated risk over a period of time, and the underwriters would adjust the premiums to suit. The data was used fairly and sensibly yes. At the end of the day insurers want to retain customers, they just don't want to lose money.