A recurring topic I know, but my son's looking around now for something for his 1st year at "uni" ....as we must learn to call it.
If you were [almost] 19, what would you be buying with £4,000 hard earned savings, assuming Dad agreed to pay 50% of the insurance for 3 years.
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In my experience keep £3k and buy something for £1k or less if it's for a new driver. Plenty of decent Micras, Starlets or Civics for that money and the extra £3k won't really make any major difference...more towards tuition fees too!
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Think hard whether he needs a car at all. Many universities have restrictions on bringing cars onto campus - where most first-years live - and managing a car will mean a lot of bother and expense he'd be better off without. Even that £1,000 would make a useful taxi fund for when there's no alternative.
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I'd put the £4k into an ISA and use it to re-pay part of the student loan on graduation. I'd then buy a pushbike and get fit, for free. the only students I've seen who might need a car are vet students.
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And if he says he needs the car to get home to see his girlfriend, then he hasn't got the point of going to university....
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Whether a car is useful or not at uni depends on the Uni. I went to Manchester and the parking at university residence was limited (and cost). Parking at the University would be costly - more per day than public transport or better still a bike. Of all the students I knew with a car they hardly ever drove it so a costly and expensive luxury.
However, if he is going to be staying somewhere with poor public transport links to the University, then:
- maybe a car needed, but
- there are usually areas where students want to live (e.g. in Manchester one area was Fallowfield) and there are good transport links. My example of Fallowfield is on the busiest bus route in Europe (or was) with buses all the time during term and frequent during vacations.
I'd figure out how often he would use it. Several thousand per annum on insurance goes a long way on other things. I say several thousand because depending on the car it would easily be that much for a lad of that age at Uni.
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Wait until Christmas when he knows all about the parking situation and any real need. Some at his university will take advantage of this chap with his own car - how do you tell if they're real mates. My two offspring call "uni" car owners the "rich kids". From my limited experience they represent only about 10% of them at most.
"Uni" life tends to be set up around not having a car, drinking a lot and studying in-between more socialising. If he takes a car he will miss out on the dubious benefits of all that drinking and socialising.
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I'd forgotten about the nights out and drinking. Having a car that's used even less as you cannot drive to Uni in the morning.
One person when I was at Uni with a nice newish Pug 205 as it turns out was quite rich. He didn't let on but the accent obviously gave it away. We'd found out after a while he was an Etonian. And at the end of year, whilst getting details to keep in touch over the summer his turned out to be bascially "house name" followed by a town in Bucks. Turns out the family owned an estate (many farms!) and they all went to Buckingham Palace for tea every year at least once :-)
And this rich student.... never used to drive the car. He'd get the bus with the rest of us.
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Ford KA's are popular with 'first time buyers' as they are cheap to run and insure (group 1 I think) and there's loads about. A new one is only £5k or thereabouts, but as others have said 'suss' out the uni first and see what the parking situation and costs are (my uni [Cardiff] was £1 a day, even for residents).
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As a student, I drove at University: old and pretty clapped out cars: mainly 50 miles to and from home when I did go home.
My recollections are:
1. Anything new or good will not be appreciated and will be abused.
2. Anything old will be abused.
3. A reliable hack is better than an unreliable one.
4. Cheapness of running is all.
5. Student cars are prone to theft/pranks etc
So may I suggest nothing more than £1.5k to buy: preferably a common or garden Fiesta, Corolla or run of the mill car . Nothing very good cosmetically but boldily and mechanically sound that will stand unsympathetic use (minimal maintenance and washing..)
I drove : 1929 Riley 9, Austin A30, Austin A35, Austin A35, Rover 75, Rover 16. Nothing cost more than £80 .. multiply by 15 for inflation...And I sold them all for the same or more I paid for them... Mind you parking was free (when you could park) in those days!
madf
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If i was 19 again, I wouldn't spend any more than £1k on a car, especially if I was taking it to uni. I went to Uni when I just turned 20 and had no choice but to take the car as my parents couldn't (and still don't) drive. Was a pain to find a (free) parking space within 10 minutes walk of the Uni campus and only really used the car for the odd shopping trip, the odd trip up to see the folks and the odd ramble on Dartmoor with friends. Had a 1991 Peugeot 309 diesel at the time, hardly a head turner and certainly not a car for pulling girls, but that didn't stop drunken yobs trying to rip off the door mirrors and windscreen wipers on the odd occasion.
My recommendation, if you have to have a car at Uni is to find a decent Fiesta, 205, 106, Corsa or Micra for £500-1000, save the rest and have a damn good time.
Martin
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I don't see the point in spending more than £500. £200 ideally. Get a nice Mk ii Polo for that with 12 months MOT.
He'll prang it; we all did. Hopefully it will be a tree he hits, not another car, so it won't matter insurance wise.
Actually, I don't see the point in having a car at all. Unless he's going to Cirencester. Or unless he has bags of cash and wants to pursue an unusual hobby. The gliding club will love him if he has a towbar. If he wants to be Master of beagles, then he'll need it to visit farmers. If he is just going to drink and do normal studenty things, then don't bother with the car.
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If I were almost 19 and looking for a car, I'd be quite excited about it and really riled by the advice not to have a car at all - well-meant as it is.
I think it depends on how much he's going to use the car - including how far university (I can't stand 'uni' ether!) is from home.
If the answer is 'not much', the advice not to spend more than £1,000-£1,500 makes a lot of sense. Go for anything that looks sound - condition matters more than brand at that price.
If it's 'a lot', then something reliable like a newish Fiesta or Corsa or Yaris would make sense - or even a Fabia if he often has passengers and needs the room. Saxos have a lot of street cred but I'm not sure how safe they are if he should have a crash. Polos hold their value too well and he'd have to have an older one: a Ka is possible but he will probably think it too girly. Ditto the Micra.
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Just over half way through Uni now - for the first two years my student car was a 99 Ford Mondeo Ghia X 2.0 16v - ideal student car. Sound bizarre? Well no, wait..
Cheap to fix, spares are everywhere, doesn't cost any more to repair than a Fiesta.
Students are not exactly doing 20k PA, so the fact it does 25mpg around town isn't a big deal.
Loads of room for all your stuff and all your mates
Safer and nicer than a small car.
Was a great student car. I've now replaced it with a '51 BMW 530i Sport which I suspect won't be nearly as hassle-free a student car as the Mondeo which went before it, and parking it outside the lecture theatres with its small spaces can be challenging..
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.. parking it outside the lecture theatres ..
michael - where is this university that allows you to park right outside the lecture theatre ?
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Michael's at Plymouth.
Thanks all for your input. I agree mainly with 'why have a car' but I'm expecting a typical 19 year old's response to good advice, especially when it comes to "cool".
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A long time since I was in Plymouth, but it's quite well served with buses, and a fairly compact city compared to some. The long-distance coaches are good as well.
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Plymouth perhaps has the crummiest collection of cars you've seen in the UK. A £4k car would be in the top 5% of the cars in the locality. Anything over £250 worth will stand out like the dog's sphericals.
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Plymouth perhaps has the crummiest collection of cars you've seen in the UK. A £4k car would be in the top 5% of the cars in the locality. Anything over £250 worth will stand out like the dog's sphericals.
This sounds extreme but it is actually more or less true, if a slight exageration in places. It's staggering how little.... decent cars there are here. Even when I had the Mondeo, which is what, knocking on for 8 years old now, I'd often find myself filling up the newest car on the petrol station forecourt. Very odd. Then I'd drive it 150 miles to Hampshire and find myself driving the oldest car for miles around.
Up until the day I replaced it with the 530i I still got people saying it was a 'posh car'. Great as it was, 100k+ 7 year old ex fleet Mondeos are NOT posh and the fact people thought it was is a reflection on the general attitude to car ownership at this end of the country. Ok it had Ford quality leather seats and Ford bodystyling and I kept it in good nick, but drive to Sussex and even a 6 month old Mondeo is not regarded as 'posh!'.
It's not a co-incidence that both my Mondeo and my 530 had to be bought from Berkshire.
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>> .. parking it outside the lecture theatres ..
michael - where is this university that allows you to park right outside the lecture theatre ?
As said, Plymouth. Robbins lecture theatre has pay and display machines on the street directly outside.
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And in fact at York you could and still can get yourself parked (in an official space!) within about 30 seconds walk of one of the main lecture theatres quite easily.
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I had a car at Uni not very many years ago - a Peugeot 106 1.0, about 10 years old. Cost me approx £1000 and was a great car - I wouldn't suggest getting anything much more expensive unless he will be often going between uni and home and it's a fairly long distance. I managed home (London) to York quite frequently in the 106 without any problems. I put about 10k miles on it over a year and sold it for not very much less.
It was largely used for shopping trips and occasionally taking my friends for example to the station if they were going away with heavy bags. Beyond that it wasn't much use. However...if your son wants to work while at uni a car could prove invaluable - opening up a whole load of jobs to him in pubs/bars/restaurants etc that are inaccessible (particularly in the evening/at night) to less mobile students. Also potentially very useful after his first year if he lives off campus and in a house somewhere - a car is the best thing in the world on a cold wet November morning when it's a 20 minute walk to lectures! Parking on campus can be particularly difficult - I had to pay £3 a day P&D (now £5 I believe) though it didn't take me long to discover exactly where you could park without the parking wardens noticing, or how often (or not) they would come round. In the end I just ignored the P&D and ended up getting 3 or 4 £40 fines across the year I was on campus, much cheaper and more convenient than paying every day. Obviously I don't know what any other uni's are like for this but imagine all to be troublesome.
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MG ZR105's are cool, apparently
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I went to Uni in Plymouth and even back in 2001 realised how car unfriendly it was. Nearly everywhere within 10 mins walk of the Uni and halls of residence was pay and display. The halls I was in (Radnor) had approx 20 car park spaces for £40 per term. I applied, but got rejected, so I ended up parking it in a free street where a friend on my course lived, but free spaces were like gold dust.
I certainly wouldn't recommend any student bringing a car to Plymouth Uni unless it is absolutely necessary. After all, everywhere is within easy walking distance and Plymouth is well served by coaches and trains to most major conurbations in the UK.
Martin
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It's not so bad when you get to know where the free 1/2/3 hour/all day parking sites are. You just need to be prepared to walk far from car to Uni if you've got a busy day and cant get away with an hours parking.
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