A cheap car isn't always an economic way to get started.
At that sort of price you will have to pay for repairs for every MOT and you will find it will break down more often, and probably not drive as well just when you need to not be thinking about its quirks
(LONG POST ALERT!!)
Disagree! I've been running £500 cars since I first started driving. Only one has died on me, and it was a slow predictable decline that I was prepared for and scrapped it for little financial loss.
The following isn't an affront on yourself night train, your post just triggered a few thoughts and I wanted to reply with my own view of the world. I know you said a cheap car isn't
always an economic way to get started, and your right. But sometimes it is, for the following reasons based on my experience.
Matthew, you may already know most of the following but it makes sense in my head and I thought I would just do a massive brain dump in case its of value or interest to anyone
I spend time picking something good and reliable to begin with, do lots of research to find common faults so you know what to look for and what to check has been done eg anything over 70,000 miles should probably have had its cam belt done recently. If someone sensible has been in charge then they would most likely have fit a new water pump while they were at it. Pistonheads is a goldmine for this sort of stuff. Also if the car you are looking at has its own owners club/forum then these are brilliant too for finding out about potential niggles that may appear disastrous but are easily cured.
I always try and get something at least with a galvanised chassis. I've had many happy years service from a couple of stratospherically high mileage diesels and with regular maintenance (which you should be doing on any car of course) there are no expensive surprises come MOT time.
Remember that things like brakes, tyres, oil, spark plugs etc are not repairs. These are consumables that will cost you regardless of what car you have. Granted some cars will wear out certain components faster than others so this should be factored in when you do your maths. (my old Citroen Xantia loved to chomp through front brake discs, but they were only £35 a pair)
Our current steed is approaching its third year with us. Cost to buy £450. Servicing has included 4 new tyres. Be aware tyres on older cars are generally smaller/narrower so loads cheaper: £180 for the set. Of course when I say older cars everything I own has been in the early-late 90's bracket. 1990-1998ish.
New brake discs/pads/ rear calipers all in about £160. Annual oil/filter/spark plug/air filter change, any reasonable human being should be able to do this typical cost no more than £80 or so. It will be getting a new exhaust soon and as its pre 1994 there's no catalytic converter. Hurrah! Entire exhaust from manifold to silencer £300 fitted or £200 and fit yourself, its not that difficult. New cars have all manner of extra stuff just waiting to go wrong. God help you if you buy a newish diesel and it needs a DPF.
I normally can't stand people who say "Oh just swap the engine, its not that difficult" but I really honestly mean it normal service items like oil filters/spark plugs and brake pads/discs are really not hard at all. You have to weigh up the cost of your own time versus the cost of a garage doing it at £50 an hour. As a man you should be able to tackle these things, just get someone who's done it before to help you the first time and its easy peasy. I took great joy in learning how to do this stuff myself. If that's not your bag then fair enough but I find it very rewarding, just the same as properly cleaning a chain on the bike, or adjusting the gear indexing so its perfect. Its pretty much the same thing in my view, just applied to a rather larger lump of metal.
The only thing I have had to get a garage to do was change the rear calipers as they had seized and I didn't have the tools to dismantle it. Cost an hours labour (£50).
Excluding fuel the cost to run this car for
2 1/2 years (including the cost to buy it) is probably about
£1200 with some other miscellaneous items. For that I've got a reliable car that I know inside out. I'm confident its been looked after properly (because either I've done it myself, or I've identified what needs doing and got a pro to do it) and I can predict within reason what will need doing in the next 6 months or so and I constantly compare that against the cost of another £500 car. I've also learned an immense amount about looking after my car which has made sourcing the next cheap car easier.
Economy isn't all that bad in older cars either really, driving style plays a large part. I got the same economy wafting along in my XJS than I did screaming around in my Fiesta. Do some actual maths on savings from buying a newer car with improved economy versus purchase price
plus estimated cost to run. Factor in estimated mileage too so you can make an informed decision. Increased economy can be false economy! (See what I did there?!)
I love that people buy new cars because they think that old ones are unreliable, it means there's absolutely loads of cheap, good cars around for people who believe otherwise!
Bad points: Safety
Mitigation: Don't crash, wear a helmet.
