I am sooo confused as to what car to get!

[Desmo]

How the hell did you get from Yaris to Z4?

[Mondo]

The only concern with the mini is that being a BMW, a 03/04 plate, when anything breaks, and because it is old, it will throw up the occasional repair bill and big one. Not to mention they come with run flat tyres at £150 each.

The Golf isn't so bad, but the only decent ones i seen is Diesel TDI and i dont enough miles to warrant one of those and again, 04 plate.

The Fiat 500 ticks all the boxes, £6k can get one 09 plate therefore it is still under warranty, no MOT. Bonus
It is in a zero tax band, so that's £250 saved compared to the mini cooper s.
It will also get twice the MPG than the cooper, i am guessing over the course of the year, i will have an extra grand in my account because of it.
Being a newish car, 09 plate vs. a 04 plate Mini, there won't be (m)any repair bills either. Or even a 06 plate Yaris. or 04 Plate Golf.
I also like the look of them, the only down side is that it is 1.2L, slow.......
just have to stick to the left lane on the motorway then...


Desmo, the Yaris is the logical choice, its the cheapest to buy, cheapest to insure, cheapest to run and in theory, most reliable (by reputation). Makes perfect sense as the first car.

Then I threw all that out the window to see what else I could get for my money if i up it 25% just for fun. The Z4 fits that perfectly.....and in a lot of ways, it is a perfect car. It is a bargain of a car for the money. 3.0L straight 6, leather interior, sat nav, climate control, all the toys you can think of....

But i had to come back to earth as gettnig that as a first car IS silly.

[Jingo]

We have an 09 Fiat 500 Sport - £30 tax/year, ~60mpg (driving dependant; its such a fun car you might get less ), very nippy and the sport comes with a load of 'extras' i.e. bluetooth, usb media system, aircon, city-drive, leather seats, elec.windows, alloy wheels etc etc.

Fiat have 3 year warranty on 500s which as you say = no MOT, no unexpected costs = piece of mind.

Overall it's a higher quality of car compared to a lot of its competitors - the clio, corsa, swift and a few others we looked at were very cheap inside, noisy, plastic etc.

It's not as high a quality as the Mini - but you can get a sport/luxury package on a much newer 500 cheaper than you can a much older, entry level mini.

If it's a consideration of yours then it might be worth contacting FiatDirect - london-based second hand dealer where you can get 1/2 year old fiats with minimal mileage at cut costs.

[Kitten]

I really love the Fiat 500 - I had the 500 day countdown to it being released as a screensaver, because I always loved the original. However, it's sorta being hijacked as a very girly car. I do love them, but it's like EVERYONE is getting one, so it's becoming the iphone of the car world a bit for me. Coupled with the fact it's a FIAT, which I steer clear of at every opportunity, it's putting me off a bit.

[Mondo]

Originally Posted by Jingo

We have an 09 Fiat 500 Sport - £30 tax/year, ~60mpg (driving dependant; its such a fun car you might get less ), very nippy and the sport comes with a load of 'extras' i.e. bluetooth, usb media system, aircon, city-drive, leather seats, elec.windows, alloy wheels etc etc.

Fiat have 3 year warranty on 500s which as you say = no MOT, no unexpected costs = piece of mind.

Overall it's a higher quality of car compared to a lot of its competitors - the clio, corsa, swift and a few others we looked at were very cheap inside, noisy, plastic etc.

It's not as high a quality as the Mini - but you can get a sport/luxury package on a much newer 500 cheaper than you can a much older, entry level mini.

If it's a consideration of yours then it might be worth contacting FiatDirect - london-based second hand dealer where you can get 1/2 year old fiats with minimal mileage at cut costs.

I will need to take out a small loan for one of these from a dealer.

I'd like it to have alloy wheels, so the sports model seems ideal but they are closer to £8k, so i would need to get like £2-3k on finance.....

I seen a nice mini cooper S near me for £5095 private, 73k on the clock is the only down side. but then, thats £3k cheaper than a Fiat 500....would I need £3k on repair bills on the mini?

Arghhhhhhh wish this was easier.

[Mondo]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...s/60?logcode=p

This is the Mini, its in Worcester so I can look at it easy as well.

[leowyatt]

Are there no plain coopers in your price range?

[Belmit]

I'd be very surprised if you needed £3K to spend on the MINI. Mine was a 52 plate and in the two years I had it (up until last year) I don't think I spent more than £1500 in total over two MOTs and a couple of repairs, including new Pirelli runflats (£130 a piece), a replacement coolant tank (£50) and a replacement seat ratchet lever assembly (£18 inc labour). The BMW garage charged me labour at 50% because of the age of the car, and all parts were 10% off, so a lot of the bills came out far, far cheaper than they quoted.

[Mondo]

Thinking about running costs, MINI vs. Yaris/500

50mpg vs. 25mpg in the mini. Equates to about £300 difference in petrol over 5,000 miles.
£240 vs. £30 in road tax
£1100 vs. £800 in insurance.

That's £800 cheaper per year favour of the 500. so it's not £3k difference...

[Pheebs]

Input: YAAAAAAAAAARIS all the way.

Not biased.

At all.