I'm in the fun process of looking for my first car!! 

 

I won't have one till next year! i'm just doing some early research

 

I've been looking at various small cars with low insurance.

 

thepoxallcorsa is among the favourite for a first car but it doesn't do anything for me! 

 

The fabia mk1 however has nice looks & great build quality what more could a man want! 

 

I'm just concerned about the insurance, i appreciate all cars are expensive to insure for a first time driver, but i've been told the smaller enginedfabias have lower insurance group which is beneficial for a first time driver??.  

 

Also what are the things to look out for engine & bodywork wise?

 

cheers all Henry! 

Yes, the 1.2 and 1.4 variants are cheaper to insure, I would go with a 1.2 12V in terms of reliability and economy, the 6V version is too prone to burnt valves to recommend, the 1.4 MPI is reliable but thirsty and 1.4 16V may be too expensive to insure.

12 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

Yes, the 1.2 and 1.4 variants are cheaper to insure, I would go with a 1.2 12V in terms of reliability and economy, the 6V version is too prone to burnt valves to recommend, the 1.4 MPI is reliable but thirsty and 1.4 16V may be too expensive to insure.

 

Thanks!! 

 

how do you tell if its 6v or a 12v? 

I believe the 12V has the added bonus of a higher power output than the 6V, 70 brutal BHP compared to less than 60!

My partner has a 1.4 mpi estate and it is cheap to insure, it has been very reliable and gets around 50mpg on a run so I wouldn't discount it. I will say that the mpi engines are prone to thermostat housing leaks though as we have gone through two in two years which has been its only problem since she owned it.

My first car (albeit at the age of 22, a year after I passed) was a Fabia 1.9SDI estate, which I was able to insure for a relatively low £850. It's insurance group 4 or 5 off the top of my head (lower is better). It's a diesel which doesn't have the turbo (as in a 1.9TDI) so much slower, more economical and less powerful. Makes it better on insurance than a 1.4TDI or 1.9TDI. The main advantage of a diesel is that high miles matter much less - but fuel costs more. You may find that the petrols are cheaper to insure and run though.

 

I've had my Fabia 2 years now and it's never let me down - in fact, I bought an Audi A4 two weeks ago as a replacement and I can't bring myself to sell the Fab.

 

As a tip, go on Autotrader, find a car of the model/spec you want and do a quote on comparethemarket and confused.com.. then repeat for all the cars you're looking at. It'll give you an idea of where oyu stand in terms of prices.

 I went through this last year and decided on the Fabia 1.2 12v as it was cheap on insurance and seemed like a decent little car and engine

The 1.4 MPI's were a lot more expensive to insure for some reason and are known to be quite poor on fuel economy.

The 6v 1.2 engines are known to be bad for the valves burning and they are only 54bhp which struggle at higher speeds.

The 12v which I have is a fantastic little engine and keeps up no trouble with any other small car I know of its age. Its only 64bhp but has loads of torque for its size and it comes in quite low down so nippy round town.

I looked at 1.9 SDIs which were expensive on the insurance as were all diesels, also they are known for gearbox failures

The 1.2 should be a good choice and I know from looking at quotes on almost everything with no NCB and no driving experience that they come out as some of the cheapest to insure cars around. The only car I could find in  a lower insurance group was a citroen c1 and I would rather walk than drive one of those things.

The 12v variant of the 1.2 can be identified by the rear badge which says 'HTP'- The 12v have a red letter 'P' and the 6v have a black letter 'P'

you are also only likely to find 6v engines in poverty spec models with wind up windows and no central locking

Hope this gives you some information that might be useful

thanks for all the advice!! 

 

the 1.2 12v is the car i'm looking for with reasonable equipment