Affordable Cars?

[Futz]

Hey, so I might be starting an electrical engineering apprenticeship this september (just got invited to a second interview so I'm really hoping I get it) and the first year I would be in college about 13 miles away for 5 days a week and it doesn't have any direct bus links from where I live.

I've come to the conclusion I need a car! I've passed but I've never really looked into buying a car since I didn't really have an income at college so I have no idea what cars are affordable with the insane insurance rates. I'm from Birmingham and my friends insurance is about £2000 on a Clio just to give you an idea of how much it is for a young dude who's just passed.

Anyone with a better knowledge tell me what kind of cars I would be looking at, I have about £2,500 saved in the bank and would be getting about £200~ a week during my apprenticeship.

Thanks for any help dudes

[GoldenMerc]

I'd go for a 1.2 clio tbh, bubble shape

[Futz]

How much would petrol be do you think it would cost per week if I was doing 26 miles per day

[GoldenMerc]

£30-40 possibly, depends on how economical you drive really

[tm]

If you can afford monthly payments, there's offers on new Skoda Citigos and Peugeot 107/Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo on finance offers some of which include insurance - therefore they are pretty great for young drivers.

The Skoda Citigo in particular is an amazing car, it's won car of the year this year and tens of other awards. Insurance is as low as you can hope to find and economy is very high too.

http://www.carpages.co.uk/skoda/skoda-images/skoda-citigo-28-09-11.jpg

Assuming you use the monthly money to pay for the insurance, with £2500 you can get pretty much anything you want 5+yrs old. I'd stay away from all French cars though. Clios especially are notoriously unreliable, especially older/cheaper ones [waits for flame war from clio owners]. Also avoid ALL FIATS like the plague [fiat owners can't flame because they are all broken down somewhere right now].

26 miles/day is worth looking for a diesel definitely.

You could get a decent 5-6yr old Ford Focus diesel for about £2500 which would be an infinitely better car than a Clio.
I'd recommend a Honda or anything Japanese too. I know they aren't cool but you could get a top knotch Civic for £2500.

It depends what you want, but with the used car market right now there's so much choice and prices are very affordable.

[Glen Coco]

i don't know that much about cars but ive got an 03 plate peugeot 106 and it was about £1100 and insurance is pretty cheap.

[Futz]

I got the apprenticeship! started to seriously look into them now, my friend wants me to get a blue clio ahaha 'cause hers is bright orange so we can roll around looking like skittles, tempting...

[Disaronno]

Ford fiesta are cheap, or possibly a 206 1ltr, even an aygo. Anything french will crumble tbh, look at anything german as they are so cheap to fix.

[shiver]

get a fiesta, u can't go wrong.

[Metric1]

bmw 3-series