Hi guys, My family and I are moving to the U.K from New Zealand in early May and I was hoping some of you could help me out with how car purchasing and especially insurance works. Initially we are looking at not spending too much until we get settled in and earning. At that point we would either sell this and upgrade or just buy another car for my wife to have. Ideally we would like an Estate/Touring as we need the extra space with a small child, I know it's optrimistic but we'd like something European/English and would love to not spend more than £5,000 GBP Obviously we're quite partial to BMWs and there's one or two E46 Tourings in our price range, also a couple of Volvos, VWs and Audis, maybe we'd even looking at a Mondeo? It doesn't need to be overly powerful etc, we just need something semi reliable, safe (baby in mind) and not too thirsty in terms of fuel consumption. 2003 E46 Touring http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...ies-325i-se-touring/2188243?isexperiment=true 2004 E46 Touring http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...-es-5dr-2-owners-full-service-history/2213955 2005 Volvo V50 http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/volvo/v50/volvo-v50-s-2-4-injection-estate/2212928 In terms of Insurance which sounds like an expensive process, we've never lived/worked in the U.K so have no insurance history or NI numbers yet. Is it safe to assume that the smaller the engine capacity, non turbo etc then the cheaper insurance is? Is Diesel a better option in terms of cost at the pump vs consumption? Also, do you pay more for your insurance, the more the car costs? I've only looked on Pistonheads so far but I'm guessing Ebay might be a better place to look? As I work in the Film Industry we plan on living somewhere in West London and the three big studios (Pinewood, Shepperton and Levesden) are all over that way. We've heard Richmond is nice, it would be good if we were within walking distance to the Overground. Thanks guys, Ollie.
I lived in the UK for 6 months and found insurance cheaper with a British license. Get one as soon as you can. Also I took over proof of the no-claim and clean driving history from Oz. It was accepted. Also take over financial references and banking history. It helped as well.
At the risk of getting flamed on here I am on my second Mondeo Mk3.(estate) My first was a 2001 and I bought it at 110,000kms, and sold it at 310,000kms, that was after eight years of use. One clutch replacement (did not like towing the M3, my fault!) blocked fuel pump prefilter, and faulty ignition coil were the only problems I had. I drove that car quite hard, it was like a weed, you could not kill it! Was still going very well when I sold it. Recently bought another Mondeo, an ST220. Being a 3.0 V6 it is a bit thirstier, but much more fun to drive. Great cars, handle very well even though they are FWD,(best FWD I have ever driven) and loads of room, a lot more than a 3 series, probably comparable to a 5 in terms of interior space. Conrad
Ollie, www.autotrader.co.uk Insurence: There are plenty of search engines for insurence quotes. This site gives some great advice. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/ Getting a UK licence will be best and should be pretty straight forward. https://www.gov.uk/exchange-foreign-driving-licence If you can prove your no-claims from NZ, that will help with premium. After you have used the quote search sites, give the top 5 quoters a call to confirm. There is also Vehicle Exice Duty, to be paid on the CO2 output, so beware of going for a large petrol engine. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/299797/V149__2014-15.pdf Diesel is probably the cheaper option in regards to running costs.
Can we all now please stand up together and flame Conrad in concert? thank you. the only mitigating circumstance is that you used it to tow your m3 haha John
hey Ollie, cant help you with any of the UK questions, except perhaps recommend to get a diesel only if you do high mileage (cost of diesel engine and maintenance vs. mileage factor). In Germany, diesel engines are also taxed higher (we pay a tax each year for the vehicle), dont know if that is the case in the UK, but might be something to look into. So soon you can also come to the Ring and play? You can probably go in convoy with some of the regulars on here. Perhaps we will meet up there soon again. John
Ollie, Some sensible advice above. Your first motorsport event to attend in London: http://www.motorsportatthepalace.co.uk/ Alan
Road tax in UK now varies hugely by car type from £0 for super low emission cars to an excessively high amount for a Chelsea tractor (big, expensive 4x4 SUV with gas guzzling engine) If you know a car's registration number (which stays with the car) you can check out the cost of the road tax on this site (4th tab down - Vehicle enquiry) https://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/app/home/intro Price of diesel at the pump is more than the price of unleaded (even the 98 Octane unleaded) http://www.petrolprices.com/ But if you are doing reasonable mileage then diesel will be cheaper overall to run because of the lower fuel consumption. Loads of choice on small / medium estates and people carriers. Vauxhall Astra or Vectra Ford Focus or Mondeo VW Golf or Passat http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...-0-highline-130-5dr/2084117?isexperiment=true Audi A4 etc etc Are you buying property or renting. Whole of West London is pretty expensive to buy. Most (well many) people end up living further out with long commute to work. Leavesden and Pinewood are on the edge of the urban sprawl of London. Could easily live out in rural area. Richmond IS nice but is well into London. Could easily take an hour at times by car to get from Richmond to Pinewood or Leavesden.
Hi guys, many thanks for all the replies so far! We won't be doing much mileage at all (really only getting to and from work each day) Peter, we plan on renting a house for a good while as we would need to sell our house back in Auckland, New Zealand if we decided that the U.K was going to be home. As we will only have one car and I'll be using it during the week, I wanted to be somewhere nice and not too isolated so my wife can entertain herself and also our 16 month baby. I'd would be great if we were close to the overground to so she could easily get into Central London if she felt. The idea with being in West London is to try and be as close to all three studios as possible to cut down on commute times. John, I'm already thinking of ways I might be able to make it to the ring for a visit as it was 2008 when I last met up with a few of you The family car to start with wants to be as economical as possible and as cheap to run and maintain but still be pretty solid/safe for a baby in the back.
Is there any merit in getting something that is AWD for winter? Or would the running/servicing costs outweigh the benefits
Which of these E46 Tourings would you guys think would be the best buy? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/...mileage/up_to_70000_miles/page/1/sort/mileage
I do a bit of work in the motor trade also having worked for BMW GB and this one stands out to me on a few reasons, private sale, its an SE so has a nicer basic spec than the ES, Just serviced shows they take care of it even when selling it ? Low miles, Long MOT,Lots of images so there not trying to hide anything ? Good Price ? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...w/maximum-mileage/up_to_70000_miles?logcode=p
Very little benefit if you are just thinking in terms of getting about in the winter weather. We get very little snow in the South East these days (famous last words). More likely to be rainy and grey. And most routes are kept clear by gritting/ploughing when ice or snow is forecast. If you live and work in SE England, IMO 4WD might be useful for a handful of days every 10 years. I might take a closer look at the 2005 blue one....... A year less old, manual box and CD player (rather than a cassette) - I guess both are out-dated now! Yes, it has done more miles but still not too high mileage.
Hi again guys, have done a quick google search but can't find any concrete answers... Doe E46 Estates/Wagons have isofix in the rear seats? (for baby seats)
Yes, ISOFIX as standard. I had an E46 320d and ran it for 60k miles. Good car. Look out for worn front suspension bushes (don't use pattern parts, short life), Pre 2004 swirl flap issues and rusty fron arches. Respond well to a re-map and a decat exhaust. Even did two laps of the ring in ours!
