How to go about buying my first car?

Corsa's are pretty good... so are old people cars like Toyota yaris' small Hyundai and kias - they were reliable cars to start with and the old people tend to service them on the dot.

you could get one that'd easily last 5 years for £4-5000

I'd wager with some luck you could get a decent one for even £3-4000.

Remember the price tag often doesn't have an awful lot to do with the car beyond model, mileage and year, it's just what someone thinks they can get. Really the only value you care about is it's value to YOU (resale value is a valid yet secondary concern). So that means do the research/stats, learn what you're really looking for and be ready to pay a little money for decent checks and inspections upfront, maybe £100 before buying could save you £1000s down the line.

I bought 1 Corsa in the < £2000 range and wouldn't do so again, corroded death trap but looked pretty. My SLK Convertible I paid £1250 and has started every time for 18 months now with no horrible surprises *shrug* the good cars are out there.

Hey, im in my third year of medical school, going into fourth and i need a car to take me to and from hospital and gp placement
. I'm taking my driving test soon and am researching some second hand cars to buy. I'm learning in a vauxhall corsa and have thus gotten quite used to it, so ideally i'd also like to buy one of these as my first car.

I just want to know how much is a good ballpark figure for estimating whether the deal is worth it? i.e, how much should i expect to be spending in order to get a second hand car which won't end up costing me more to fix and repair than it did to purchase?

Also, I intend on driving this car for ~ 3-5 years before hopefully earning enough to purchase a new car.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, im in my third year of medical school, going into fourth and i need a car to take me to and from hospital and gp placement
. I'm taking my driving test soon and am researching some second hand cars to buy. I'm learning in a vauxhall corsa and have thus gotten quite used to it, so ideally i'd also like to buy one of these as my first car.

I just want to know how much is a good ballpark figure for estimating whether the deal is worth it? i.e, how much should i expect to be spending in order to get a second hand car which won't end up costing me more to fix and repair than it did to purchase?

Also, I intend on driving this car for ~ 3-5 years before hopefully earning enough to purchase a new car.

Thanks in advance!

ah you could have dmed me, I drive one of those

You can get a perfectly good corsa for around £2-2.5K, insurance will probably cost around the same amount if not slightly more than the cars price, so I'd set aside around £5/6K for the first car inc. tax etc... I'd recommend checking autotrader and gumtree (stick to companies as opposed to buying off strangers privately).

Ideally you'll want a full service history to get an idea of how well the car was maintained too.

In which part of the country are you likely to be buying the car? Posters might be able to point out places which are offering what you are looking for in your price range.