Naivity sucks...

[kittie]

What I would do is buy the cheapest example you can find with a full MOT and a bit of tax. Keep it until the MOT runs out. Don't spend anything on it you don't have to. Any spare cash you have put in a big jar marked 'Real GTI Fund'. Scrap/sell shoddy car, take your years NCB and driving experience, and buy a real GTI.

I bought a crappy fiesta for £350 with full MOT, caned the crap out of it for a year and then sold it for £250. As I spent a grand total of £30 of upkeep on it, that worked out at about 1p per mile over the year I had it, result I think. I used the £250 I got back and what I'd saved up for stuffs for my golf 

[cняis]

if you're that bent on getting it looking like a GTI, why not buy a cheap non-running GTI for bits? i had one for sale 3 weeks ago for £75 for the whole car! 

that way you have all the arches, bumpers, trim etc

[Jay]

Get the Ryder mate, but make sure you knock some money off for that dent repair  ! I got my Driver 1.6 for £195 off ebay and only had to spend a little on it really (new brakes, wheel bearings and a full service it didn't need  ).

As for making the Ryder look more like a GTI all you need is the black trims bits which you can pickup off ebay really cheap, or off other forum members in the classified section and even scrappies! Alloys will be the most expensive 'mod' but you can get the G60 steelies from VW for something like £23 each 

Do it, you know it makes sense!
How old are you? I was 25 when I got my Driver (also being my first car) and my insurance was £795 or sommat.


PS: You could go wild and have the arch's cut back to look a little different 

[Squiggles]

Get the Ryder mate, but make sure you knock some money off for that dent repair  ! I got my Driver 1.6 for £195 off ebay and only had to spend a little on it really (new brakes, wheel bearings and a full service it didn't need  ).

As for making the Ryder look more like a GTI all you need is the black trims bits which you can pickup off ebay really cheap, or off other forum members in the classified section and even scrappies! Alloys will be the most expensive 'mod' but you can get the G60 steelies from VW for something like £23 each 

Do it, you know it makes sense!
How old are you? I was 25 when I got my Driver (also being my first car) and my insurance was £795 or sommat.


PS: You could go wild and have the arch's cut back to look a little different 

Thanks for your help everyone again, it's all good stuff

I'm 21 now... Do you know what inch alloys I should be looking at for the Ryder?

[Jay]

Depends on your preference, you can go for 12" if you really want, but you'll need some proper fat rubber so that your speedo stays kinda correct, on the other hand you could get some 16" maybe 17" with low profile tyres. But the standard Alloys come in at 14" and 15"

You get the standard steelies which are crap, the G60 which imo aren't that much better and then the BBS selections which are generally expensive depending on which set you go for, but you can get bargain BBS RA's on ebay on the rare occasion.

[Squiggles]

Depends on your preference, you can go for 12" if you really want, but you'll need some proper fat rubber so that your speedo stays kinda correct, on the other hand you could get some 16" maybe 17" with low profile tyres. But the standard Alloys come in at 14" and 15"

You get the standard steelies which are crap, the G60 which imo aren't that much better and then the BBS selections which are generally expensive depending on which set you go for, but you can get bargain BBS RA's on ebay on the rare occasion.

Yeah I just checked those stealies and they didn't set my pulse racing... No point blowing money on something I don't like.

Trouble is the current wheels, Jesus f**king Christ, I don't think I've ever seen wheels so ugly; they're completely flat: 0 spokes, it looks like it's sitting on saucers. So hopefully I can persevere long enough to find something nice. 

[Squiggles]

What I would do is buy the cheapest example you can find with a full MOT and a bit of tax. Keep it until the MOT runs out. Don't spend anything on it you don't have to. Any spare cash you have put in a big jar marked 'Real GTI Fund'. Scrap/sell shoddy car, take your years NCB and driving experience, and buy a real GTI.

I bought a crappy fiesta for £350 with full MOT, caned the crap out of it for a year and then sold it for £250. As I spent a grand total of £30 of upkeep on it, that worked out at about 1p per mile over the year I had it, result I think. I used the £250 I got back and what I'd saved up for stuffs for my golf 

Heh, I can't drive around in a wreck for a year, even if is the best long-term plan. I won't be too extravagant and no buy anything which can't be transferred if required. My insurance quote was 1,400 for a GTI - compared to £598 for the Ryder, which basically wrote off the idea of sensibly owning one - how much would that the insurance fall by, roughly, with a year of no-claims? Any idea? If it doesn't fall dramatically in that time it makes (a bit) more sense in getting the Ryder looking the dogs. 

Cheers Kitty.

[Jay]

it looks like it's sitting on saucers. So hopefully I can persevere long enough to find something nice. 

That would be the horrid crappy thingies *ugh*

I've recently had a few quotes as I've almost got 1yr NCB as a new driver (being 25 though) and from £795 it's going down to something silly like £300-£350 and a GTI will cost me something like £500-£600 depending on how much cover I want.

[Squiggles]

it looks like it's sitting on saucers. So hopefully I can persevere long enough to find something nice. 

That would be the horrid crappy thingies *ugh*

I've recently had a few quotes as I've almost got 1yr NCB as a new driver (being 25 though) and from £795 it's going down to something silly like £300-£350 and a GTI will cost me something like £500-£600 depending on how much cover I want.

Ace.

Maybe 1 year NCB will do it then.

[rubjonny]

the later GTI steelies look pretty good with the rim protectors fitted, and still look std for the insurance