Is this madness??

dragonfly

Hi guys just wondering if any of you motor afficionados can tell me what you make of wat I am planning to do which is this: I have been offered a used car (make, model irrelevant) at 4 grand by a car saleman that I know and trust. This would me my first car purchase ever if I buy it. I can just about manage to get that money together and I am very keen to accept his offer as I also know that the previous owner had a lot of maintenance work done on it just before she traded it in. This all sounds fine so far. Now for the crazy bit.......

I am still in the process of applying for my driving text and therefore still have only a provisional license. Before even looking up insurance companies and what extraordinary quotes they'll give, I'm pretty sure I won't have the money right away to get insurance for the car so I'm thinking can I leave it parked in my garden in the meantime and maybe switch it on and off every now and then to keep the motor revving a bit and warmed up.

So whaddaya think? Let me know.

Hope ye all had a super Christmas!

seamus

It's something that quite a lot of people do.

What I would recommend though, if you buy the car, is to leave it in someone else's house, and give them the keys. A brother, sister, parent, uncle, anyone else's house. Go down once a week and start it up or ask them to start it up.

Believe me, you'll be sitting there, car in the driveway, keys and licence in your pocket, and you may easily just do something stupid, regardless of how much you say you won't.

bazz26

In my opinion I cannot see a problem having a car not insured if it is stored off the road i.e. on private property and not being driven.

However I am not sure what the law states in doing this.

The only down side I can see is that while it is parked on your drive and not insured, if it is stolen or damaged then you are out of pocket.

Just a question then, how are you going to get the car from the garage to your drive if it is not insured?

To be honest I would ring around insurance companies first and get a couple of ball park figures on insurance before buying the car, just to make sure you can afford to insure it first.

No point in buying a car you cannot insure no matter how much of a bargin/good car it is.

Just my 2 cent.

JohnCleary

bazz26 wrote:

Just a question then, how are you going to get the car from the garage to your drive if it is not insured?

The garage will deliver it im sure. Or a friend of the OP Can transfer their insurance for an hour and drive it to his house

seamus

bazz26 wrote:

The only down side I can see is that while it is parked on your drive and not insured, if it is stolen or damaged then you are out of pocket.

Actually, that's another very good point.
If you buy the vehicle, leave it in the garage as long as you possibly can. Give them a deposit, and leave the vehicle in the garage. Until you have taken delivery of it, do not give them the full cost. Your vehicle will be covered by their insurance, should anything happen to it.

There are no legal issues with leaving a vehicle parked in your driveway. A lot of foreign nationals around our area seem to have vehicles in their gardens for months on end (though probably for different reasons than you).

Also, as bazz26 points out, I wouldn't recommend buying a vehicle that you can't afford to insure. Don't look at the future and the what ifs, and the "Ah sure next year I'll have a years' no claims and a full licence", just at the now. You don't say what age you are, but if you're 18 a 1.8 GTi won't have reasonable insurance for 7-10 years at which point it won't be worth **** to you.

_Kaiser_

When I bought my first one earlier this year, I had a look round online first for prices and got some opinions from friends on what's a good car (stay away from anything French I was told, Japanese are good - hence my buying a Mirage in the end! )

But before I bought it I rang around a bit for insurance quotes. You'll find that a lot of the companies won't quote you (or will quote ridiculous amounts) and in the end I went for Quinn Direct's quote which is high enough anyway but at least they were willing to cover me, even though they may not offer all the extra bits and pieces the others do. Still, you have to start somewhere, right?

In the meantime, I had a friend check the car over and as it seemed ok, I bought it and he stored it in his place while the insurance and such was arranged, and an alarm fitted - security was a factor for the reason of being out of pocket if something happened as mentioned above, but noone would touch it in this guy's place

Once everything was all sorted he drove it over and that was that

TempestSabre

Personally I see car tax, nct, insurance, purchase cost, as all one one bill. I would work out your finances based on that. It it takes 6 months for you to get it on the road, you'll have 6 months worth of depreciation on the car. Theres tons of cars out there, no need to rush to buy one.

bazz26

seamus wrote:

If you buy the vehicle, leave it in the garage as long as you possibly can. Give them a deposit, and leave the vehicle in the garage. Until you have taken delivery of it, do not give them the full cost. Your vehicle will be covered by their insurance, should anything happen to it.

Not too sure if many garages will do this as usually when a car is sold they want it off the forecourt asap. Not sure they would cover it under their insurance if it is no longer belong to them.

You never know though until you ask.

unkel

TempestSabre wrote:

It it takes 6 months for you to get it on the road, you'll have 6 months worth of depreciation on the car. Theres tons of cars out there, no need to rush to buy one.

My sentiments too. Wait until you are ready to hit the road before you buy and make sure you have a firm insurance quote too, again before you buy

dragonfly wrote:

I have been offered a used car (make, model irrelevant) at 4 grand

On the contrary, make and model and year, etc. are very relevant

Out of interest, what is the superdeal you are offered that you're willing to take the risk of the car stolen / damaged / burnt out and the risk of not knowing what you're insurance is going to be?

unkel

bazz26 wrote:

Not too sure if many garages will do this as usually when a car is sold they want it off the forecourt asap. Not sure they would cover it under their insurance if it is no longer belong to them.

That shouldn't be a problem, they should be covered under their trade insurance. How else do you think they drive cars being serviced?

And you're right, they'd want the car of the forecourt asap. I'd say they'd be happy enough to drive the car straight to your drive (provided distance is reasonable of course)

bazz26

unkel wrote:

That shouldn't be a problem, they should be covered under their trade insurance. How else do you think they drive cars being serviced?

Yes they will do that if they are servicing, repairing your car etc. This falls within their boundries of their insurance policy but to store a car that is not belong to them and is not insured by it's legal owner. I think they would shy away from this.

But there is only one way to find out and that is ask.

To the OP. Most people here, like myself, will tell that due to high insurance costs the first car you buy is usually the one you can afford to insure rather than the car you want.

seamus

bazz26 wrote:

Yes they will do that if they are servicing, repairing your car etc. This falls within their boundries of their insurance policy but to store a car that is not belong to them and is not insured by it's legal owner. I think they would shy away from this.

That's why I advised the deposit. When I bought my last car, I needed them to hold onto it for two weeks while I got insurance sorted. So I gave them half of the cost (so they knew I was serious) and left the car with them. They didn't complain, though they were glad when I came down and took it off them.

Until you take delivery of the car and the payment is 100% sorted, the car belongs to them and is covered by their trade insurance.

dragonfly

Yes thanks good point Seamus. I will try asking can I pay half price deposit and see how that grabs them. I'm 29 (and a half) by the way although this is still my first car and my first provisional license. Also does anyone know can you pay your insurance policy in quaterly installments or does it have to be the full year's amount up front?

seamus

Depends on the company. Quinn-Direct will definitely allow you to pay by instalments, but other companies insist on it all up front. Others will take a lump sum off you, then 3 or 4 smaller sums.