General 1.2 Pop as first car?

[306maxi]

Also, consider whether you really need to be spending 3k a year on insurance. Over 3 years you'll be close to 10k spent just on insurance. That's getting on for house deposit money. Now unless your parents are loaded I think you'd have to be crackers to go and buy yourself a newish car like that and waste so much money on insurance.

 

[loveshandbags]

You think? Because I have had quotes for the 1.2 Sport, Pop and Lounge with the Pop coming out considerably cheaper each time.

Hi Joel.

There are a few threads on here that are specific to insurance on the 500 models
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/269994-500-twinair-insurance.html
Lounge/Sport spec
1.2 old 4 new 6
1.4 old 6 new 12
TA old - new 12
Abarth 13 new 26

and with the new classification from 0-50 the 1.2 POP is a group lower at 5 with the 1.2 Sport & 1.2 Lounge which are both at 6.

Most of the 'general' insurance questions are on a different section of this forum. When I was 17 I became a named driver on my Dad's insurance and after 2 years got my own policy. I got credit for having been a named driver plus I had a full licence. I drove a series of bangers before I got a decent car. You might have to 'park' the 500 for a bit. I too cruise on the Abarth section and expect to drive one some day.

Michael.

 

[nottsfiat07]

No disrespect to the OP, but I work with young people, and they want everything now. Driving to them is a right, not a priviledge as it was to us. So many parents pay for their children to learn to drive the minute they reach 17, then they buy them a new or nearly new car. Where is the respect for the thing they are driving built up or the value placed on it when it took no personal effort or self discipline to obtain? I couldn't afford to learn, let alone buy a car, until I was 25, and then our first car was a Austin Allegro worth about £500.

I know I probably sound like a miserable old git and I will get criticised for posting, but indeed, I am a miserable old git. I'm also correct.

 

[306maxi]

No disrespect to the OP, but I work with young people, and they want everything now. Driving to them is a right, not a priviledge as it was to us. So many parents pay for their children to learn to drive the minute they reach 17, then they buy them a new or nearly new car. Where is the respect for the thing they are driving built up or the value placed on it when it took no personal effort or self discipline to obtain? I couldn't afford to learn, let alone buy a car, until I was 25, and then our first car was a Austin Allegro worth about £500.

I know I probably sound like a miserable old git and I will get criticised for posting, but indeed, I am a miserable old git. I'm also correct.

I completely agree with you. For me it's just the sheer waste of money. If you get a 10+ year old hatchback when you're 17 and learn to drive in it then when you get to an older age and can afford to purchase, insure and run a new car on your own then you'll appreciate it far more and you'll also have a SHEDLOAD more money left over for other things. Just recently we had someone working in a supermarket who had bought himself a 500 byDiesel and couldn't afford to run it and pay for it because he hadn't really thought it through.

I just don't get the mindset of some people. I know a guy who bought himself a new Fiesta back in 2005 whilst living with his mum and then when he got a job with a long commute his traded it in for a new shape diesel Fester. Thing was the dismal wasn't that much more economical and he was also having to pay for the car on top. He was getting married and due to having so many commitments they almost didn't get a mortgage and I think her dad had to be a guarantor. Now he's been made redundant and she's had a baby so isn't working and as she was self employed she doesn't get maternity pay. If I did that to the wife I think she'd leave me! With good reason to be honest.

Just seems bonkers how people want stuff and will happily take oodles of credit out or waste thousands upon thousands of pounds on insurance.

Perhaps I'm just a tight fooker, buying all my filters, oil and plugs in advance, having brake discs and pads before I need them and so on. But having a few hundred squid left in my pocket does leave me feeling rather smug.

 

[RobinPJ]

No disrespect to the OP, but I work with young people, and they want everything now. Driving to them is a right, not a priviledge as it was to us. So many parents pay for their children to learn to drive the minute they reach 17, then they buy them a new or nearly new car. Where is the respect for the thing they are driving built up or the value placed on it when it took no personal effort or self discipline to obtain? I couldn't afford to learn, let alone buy a car, until I was 25, and then our first car was a Austin Allegro worth about £500.

I know I probably sound like a miserable old git and I will get criticised for posting, but indeed, I am a miserable old git. I'm also correct.

I agree. It's like my children - they expect me to but them new shoes the minute they outgrow their old ones. They seem to think having shoes is a right, not a privilege.

In order to ensure that they respect their footwear, I give them rabbit skins and string and encourage them to craft their own. They can then decide to buy their own shoes once they can afford them themselves.

 

[grimwau]

I know I probably sound like a miserable old git and I will get criticised for posting, but indeed, I am a miserable old git.

I completely agree with you.

In order to ensure that they respect their footwear, I give them rabbit skins and string and encourage them to craft their own. They can then decide to buy their own shoes once they can afford them themselves.

I find hedgehogs fit better and you don't need the string

 

[nottsfiat07]

I agree. It's like my children - they expect me to but them new shoes the minute they outgrow their old ones. They seem to think having shoes is a right, not a privilege.

In order to ensure that they respect their footwear, I give them rabbit skins and string and encourage them to craft their own. They can then decide to buy their own shoes once they can afford them themselves.

Quite right. If I had decided to burden an already over populated and dying world with my pointless mewling projeny, I would have forced them to live outside for at least the first five years of their existence, just so they would appreciate the pile of sacks I then would allow them the priviledge of sleeping on in the shed.

Also, if I hear that woman on the Asda advert moaning on about how important saving £6 is "especially with two young children at home" one more time I'm going to do something I will probably regret. You decided to have them, shut your gob and keep them from under my feet when I go shopping. And why do pensioners have to go to the swimming pool at 7am in the morning and clog it up for all the people who have jobs but want to get some exercise before they go to work? But I digress. Often.

 

[emibeth23]

To be honest you should just buy yourself something cheap as a first car. You'll be hitting stuff and kerbing wheels like nobody's business and your 500 won't be looking too pristine.....

TOTALLY agree with this! I passed my driving test October 2008 at age 18, and I had a Toyota Aygo from new...although I was extremely grateful to have a new car, what I wanted was an old banger for a few years, as you really do bash it about for the first couple of years you've passed. Luckily I also had the option of having the 500 when I passed, but I held out til now, and I'm glad as I'd be gutted if I'd ruined the alloys and various other scrapes and bumps I've had with the aygo!!

Actually saying that, the aygo was a great first car, cheap to run and insure, and pretty nippy when it wants to be, and they're cheap 2nd hand too!

 

[306maxi]

I find hedgehogs fit better and you don't need the string

One foot in the grave reference?

 

[306maxi]

You decided to have them, shut your gob and keep them from under my feet when I go shopping.

This has a lot to do with why we do our grocery shopping online nowadays.

 

[grimwau]

One foot in the grave reference?

Even just reading that makes me chuckle as I relive the scene in my mind.

 

[Stu DemonD]

and as she was self employed she doesn't get maternity pay.

You get 'maternity' if you are self-employed, as long as you are paying your Class 2 NIC. It is called Maternity Allowance though

 

[306maxi]

You get 'maternity' if you are self-employed, as long as you are paying your Class 2 NIC. It is called Maternity Allowance though

Sorry, just an assumption I made, but still a pretty daft situation.

 

[Stu DemonD]

Sorry, just an assumption I made, but still a pretty daft situation.

Oh, I am not denying that

 

[Heidi]

I never bashed cars around after I got my licence.

When my son reaches 17 I will be paying for lessons and then purchasing him a second hand car with the first years insurance paid. I see nothing wrong in that. My parents did the same for me and I've not turned out spoilt or unappreciative of things. I've gone on to buy my own flats and cars without a penny of help. Not all people who get driving lessons paid for at 17 are spoilt brats!

 

[306maxi]

I never bashed cars around after I got my licence.

When my son reaches 17 I will be paying for lessons and then purchasing him a second hand car with the first years insurance paid. I see nothing wrong in that. My parents did the same for me and I've not turned out spoilt or unappreciative of things. I've gone on to buy my own flats and cars without a penny of help. Not all people who get driving lessons paid for at 17 are spoilt brats!

I'm certainly not saying parents should never help, my parents paid for my insurance for a few years, but it was more like £100-150 a year and not £3000+!!!!!! If I have children I will help them too, but not with wasteful things like spending that much on insurance.

 

[nottsfiat07]

I think the days of everyone having their own car and swanning around willy nilly are numbered.

 

[306maxi]

I think the days of everyone having their own car and swanning around willy nilly are numbered.

Or as the Austrian philosopher Schwarzenegger would say

Playtime is OVER!!!!!

 

[Super Uwe]

There's a reason why the Young Persons' Railcard runs until you're 25....

 

[Heidi]

There's a reason why the Young Persons' Railcard runs until you're 25....

Although not that useful when live in a town without a rail station