first cars - with towbar

[Tim Noyce]

There are many tips for reducing your premium as people have said, obviously the area where you live and your age / experience are the major deciders on cost but all the little things help so it is worth playing about online to see what is cheapest.

eg. a garaged car is less risk than a street parked car, a mileage of 8,000 is a lot less than a mileage of 15,000, until last year I had my Dad and Mum on my policy to bring the price down, stating the car has an immobiliser if it has one also helps.

In recent years the difference in price between fully comp and TPFT seems to have narrowed. It used to be loads cheaper to go 3rd party but not so much any more. You will find that once you have paid your young drivers excess that you won't be left with much of a payout anyway!

[john_hamilton]

iv tried all combinations with most cars. but finding a car with an immobiliser for around 300 quid is tricky

[roland_trim]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201146429761080/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/500/radius/1500/keywords/immobiliser/page/3/postcode/bs312bg?logcode=p

You could be a star in a reasonably sh1t car?

[neal_gibson]

with insurance these days adding women or parents to your insurance does little to reduce your premium as the sexism laws have been brought in to stop inequalities between men and women in real terms means insurance companies charge more to women than they used to.

oh and noycey one tihng to consider get a quote for your car garaged then get one for your car on a driveway mean was £100 cheaper stating it lived on my driver overnight

[Hayley_Trim]

with insurance these days adding women or parents to your insurance does little to reduce your premium

Ah those were the days when having a bird made sound financial sense as well as giving you street cred. Never mind lads. Think of us girls. Once we got cheap insurance. Then someone created equality. The age of chivalry is dead.
Like the bottle of pinot grigio; I'm not bitter... 

[roland_trim]

Darling, am I missing something here (apart form the bottle of Pino....)

[Hayley_Trim]

Sorry. Spent the evening discussing sexual stereotypes with lord justice of appeal and  head of the law commission. Oh, and you might have been missing the amaretto and limoncello as well...

[phil_kirk]

Not sure if the Trims should consider this discussion here.  Could get ugly. 

I have no real value car advice to offer.  I've had a Metro a Mondeo and a Focus.  The metro was over priced and rubbish on the motorway, not very comfortable but quite good in snow.  The mondeo was quite reliable except when the battery died.  It started to fall to peices near the end but got up to 165,000 miles.
The deisel focus tows most things really well but has had some mechanical faults. 
In conclusion Fords tend to start to decompose when they get between 8 -10 years old.   
All the metros probably have decoposed by now.

[simon_jones]

I can only add that if all metro's have decomposed, there is a god of motoring after all. Dean has had a lot of experiance in buying cars, I believe we got to around 20 at the last count. However it's not stopped him buying the lemons. 

[Graham Bridle]

If anyone wants it, I have a ball hitch that was part of a removable towbar on the car that got written off....... it is only the ball part,on a swan neck type thingy.

[Neil C.]

I can only add that if all metro's have decomposed, there is a god of motoring after all.

Here's Cherub 2631 leaving Andy P's workshop in 1986. The boat is still going strong. I suspect the car may not be!

[ross_burkin]

No brainer mate. MICRA. Cheap to insure and comes in a fetching metallic apple green. Tow bar (I still have mine. I took it off after it crashed itself) is simple to fit and you can fit a 2.5 meter ladder inside with about 5mm clearance off the back window if you fold the front passenger seat down. They'll never break (unless they crash themselves) and very pleasing aesthetic.