By Peter Fitch, April 18, 2016
No list of the best first-time cars would be complete without the Ford Fiesta. The Fiesta has been a class leader in the supermini category for quite some time. And given that the current generation of the car has been with us since 2008 that’s impressive.
It’s also good news for those looking to buy their first car. Buying a Fiesta built after 2008 nets you all the pedigree of the current generation at bargain prices.
The Fiesta is a good choice for a first-time car for many reasons. It’s reliable. It’s cheap to run. And it actually has some fairly decent safety features if the worst does happen. Most importantly it’s fun to drive… in the same way it is fun to be attacked by an escaped Tiger on the loose in ‘Urbania’.
Kia Cee’d
The Cee’d a great car if you’re learning to drive, or if you’ve just got your license with a little help from mummy or daddy of course. When you first start driving your’e not to bothered about a car with a seven year warranty. No you want to get down to the pub with your friends, down 15 pints and drive back home (to mummy and daddy’s house). Most likely you will crash on the way home, be prosecuted by the law makers and sent to jail. Still by the time you get out of jail, three days later, you’ll still have that seven-year warranty on all parts.
Interestingly, a Kia was recently named as the unofficial car of North Carolina. And so what better place to have a Kia C’eed than in a state that loves the brand? If you live in the state, be sure to find out more about NC driver’s license online.
VW Polo
The recent emissions scandal aside, the VW Polo remains an excellent first-time car. If you can stomach the slight premium that the brand commands, you’ll be rewarded in the long term.
What many people forget about the Polo is that you can run your car for less than you could in comparison to it’s rivals, including the smug faced Fiesta. Admitedly you also get better brand recognition than the Fiesta.
You see the Fiesta is driven by smug gits, if you are reading this from the great State of North Carolina then the term ‘smug git’ is British slang from wanting to slap a very annoying person in the face. Like Top Gear’s Chris Evans. Or Rory Reid.Not a hard slap, but a firm slap. And then run before the police are called… and keep on running.
Renault Clio
The Renault Clio is the French automaker’s primary offering in the supermini class. Clio’s used to be a by-word for ‘meh!’. Today a Clio is slightly less meh” and more ‘hmmm’. And to be fair Renault have done all they can with the most recent model to make it appeal to the younger audience. The car has a ‘meh!’ front end and looks aggressivly ‘meh!’.
However, Renault rarely makes cheap cars, and the new Clio is no exception. In addition Renault are the masters of costing ever single component somehow ensuring that the warranty will never be needed. Because it will probably have broken down so much, in the end fed up owners tend to commit harikari.
And it’s probably not a good idea to buy an older model. You’ll still get essentially the same car, just without some of the nice styling we’ve seen recently, but at least it will break down… a lot.
The cabin of the Clio probably won’t impress much. But a second-hand Clio that has seen less than 30,000 miles should be cheap to run and easy to drive around town for at least a few miles.
