Question

[banjobill]

hi im 17 and learning to drive.

my dad is thinking about bying me a used yaris as a first car is this a good buy?

the model he was thinking of is a 10 year old VVTI with 30 000 miles on the clock, petrol, manual, and advertised at £2995

and ideas appreciated

banjobill

[Cyker]

It's a very good car, and quite underrated as a first car.

Easy to drive, cheap to run, very reliable.

The 1.0 Yaris in particular is cheap as chips to buy and very easy to get hold of with lots of choice, with the 1.4 Diesel being very expensive and hard to get but the cheapest to run, tax and insure while being the most powerful (Don't recommend it as a first car if you're like the boy racers on this forum tho' :D)

In comparison, my first car was a 1.3 Fiesta; Very good handling but relatively high insurance group, very under powered (Weaker than the 1.0 Yaris!), drank fuel like water and ludicrously high tax.

IMHO, the price is high for a 10 year old 1.0L Yaris. I'd expect to be able to pick one up for at least a grand less. If it's a T3 or T Spirit spec 1.3L then that's not too bad. If it's for the diesel then that's very good!

[HowardL]

A Neighbour PX'd his '52 plate 1.0 CDX 24,000 miles for a '55 plate Ford Cmax

and got £3500 for it.

Now the garage has it for sale at £4995 ...amazing! ...is that a correct price? I know its a low milage but...

They wont possibly sell it for that price....or will they???

[Chris81]

Both of those prices sound unrealistic.

£3000 for a 10 year old supermini is way too much. If it's a 1.0 (and I'm guessing it is, seeing as it's for a first car) then it was probably no more than £7000 - £8000 when new. Mileage may be low but I'd pay no more than £1500 for it.

As for the garage asking £4995 for a 52 plate, equally as silly. But if they can find one person willing to pay it then they may as well try their luck. It's not as if car salespeople have any morals!

[Gunzi]

£3k for a 10 year old 1.0 Yaris is a rip off. You should be able to get a low miler 2003 or newer reg for less than that. Have a good look through the Autotrader.

[banjobill]

thanks guys. it is the 1l model, however my local toyota dealer have the same model for 1200 more i have no seen one as cheap as you say ill keep looking.

[alfiejts]

Yaris is very good as a first car.

One thing no one has mentioned here is safety.

All cars nowadays have "NCAP" safety tests and are designed to be much safer in a crash than old cars.

The old Yaris got much better crash test safety results than most of the other cars around at the time, so if you're looking at an older car - the Yaris is a very good buy from this perspective.

I'd be happy putting my two kids in an early Yaris whereas similar cars - Corsa, Saxo, Punto, etc of a similar age got much worse crash test results....

It was all down to the fact that the 1999 Yaris model was designed with the crash tests in mind whereas many of the other mainstream manufacturers didn't start designing their cars for NCAP safety until the next model they released after that, which meant their 2000 models were of the "pre-NCAP" design....

Clio's got good crash tests at the time, so if you don't go for a Yaris, they had comparable safety tests - suggest you browse the NCAP site if this is a key factor for you and compare the models....

[alfiejts]

By the way - have a look at Autotrader.co.uk to review cars of a similar spec and age - that will give you a view of the going rate - and ring a few up to see if they have been sold - even if they are too far away and you have no intention of buying.

Just because they are advertised at a price, doesn't mean they were sold - they price might still be too high for a sale - but if you get a good spread of similar cars in Autotrader.

By ringing around, you get a view of what the right "selling price" is.

Also, if you go to here http://www.networkq.co.uk/buying/value-your-car/ you get the official "Glasses" guide trade in value for any model.

You might have to offer a few hundred pounds more to buy a similar car, but if you know the trade-in value of a car you're buying, you know the price area that you should be aiming at. YOu know what the garage bought it at or what the private seller has been offered as a trade in and wants to beat....

[Cyker]

A Neighbour PX'd his '52 plate 1.0 CDX 24,000 miles for a '55 plate Ford Cmax

and got £3500 for it.

Now the garage has it for sale at £4995 ...amazing! ...is that a correct price? I know its a low milage but...

They wont possibly sell it for that price....or will they???

£4995 for a 1.0 Yaris???

That's just £500 shy of what my Yaris cost me, and mine is a '53 plate Yaris T-Spirit D4D with 32,000 miles with full Toyota service history!!!

What they want for that car is daylight robbery!

Just keep looking; There are loads of 1.0 Yaris' about at much better prices!

If you don't mind paying that kind of money, you may as well get a diesel one - It's the best of the lot (Cheaper to tax, cheaper to run, more powerful!), and resell value is much better!

[HowardL]

Got my 53 plate 1.3 CDX 3yrs ago....30,000 miles for£5,950

[alfiejts]

There are 10 2006 & 2007 new model Yarises on autotrader for between £4000 and £5000.

If you can stretch to that price (or a bit more) go for the new model and you'll get even better safety rating and resale value....

Given that you can get a new model for £4000-£5500, I wouldn't personally want to spend that sort of money on the Mk1 model and if I was buying a Mk1, I'd only buy it if it was less than I could get a Mk2 for....

Buy an "07" Mk2 for £4500 and you've still got 12 months Toyota warranty left.....

My daughter stretched and bought a Mk2 under warranty. Her boyfriend bought a Mk1, but then had to spend £1000 on tyres, exhaust and suspension within 12 months of buying it - so his economy was short lived.... Now he wished he'd spent a bit more and got a newer one.....

[banjobill]

thanks. am going to look at a cheaper yaris tommorrow