Churchie-The-Dinosaur

I havent had much experience with other countries, but in comparison, this one sucks.... insurance high, tax high, people in parliment morrons etc.

Ok so I am young, I have nearly been driving a year. No crashes, no claims, no worries. I have a VW Lupo 1.4E yr2000. I turned 17 and took my theory 2 days after my birthday, then passed the driving test one month later. I searched for insurance high and low, the best price was around 600 pounds, great i thought, but no, i would have to pay a further 600 when i passed. The cheapest insurance i found was churchill, fully comp (cheaper than 3rd party :S) this cost a staggering 1380pounds, and did not go up when i passed. Now i am looking to get a new car as the lupo despite getting a new clutch, tyres, catalytic converter, spending 400 pound on the M.O.T to pass it, now needs a new gearbox, this i cannot afford, so again searching for a car, cheap, reliable, and bigger than the lupo...... can i find a car bigger than the lupo, simply no. Insurance quotes me around 1000pounds on pretty much every car i put through, and thats with a years experience and no claims. so if i buy a car for 500pounds, i STILL have to pay double its value? O.k so their are boy racers, drivers who are too careful which cause accidents, but their are those well who surprisingly do what they are told, obey the rules and keep to the speed limits. Do the insurance companies take this into account after a year? not particularly, they see you have a years no claims, then calculate a number, ok so maybe after 5 years they realise you are a safe driver...... nope still they calculate the no claims and give you a number. So i read things on the net, looking for cheaper insurance, wise cars to own, etc. the telegraph said this for their article "Young drivers struggle to get car insurance" One in every five young drivers has a crash within a year of gaining their licence, with young drivers 10 times more likely to be involved in a serious collision than more experienced ones. Ok granted, but those who don't get rewarded with discount? of course not.... HOW TO CUT YOUR PREMIUMS Shop around extensively. Different companies will take very different views about your risk Restrict the number of drivers covered Insure third-party only Take Pass Plus lessons within a year of passing your test Try a specialist broker Shopped around extensively worked, churchill where the best by far I have one driver covered... Me! Third party only? that was more expensive. Surely fully comp is better for young drivers because of what it covers? if young drivers are more likely to have risks, then isnt third-party a worse option? I took pass pluss, gave me more experience, no discount! the internet discount could not be joined with the pass pluss discount! The specialist broker in my area, was rather more expensive. so for a young driver to get on the road.... Theory =31.00 Lessons = 300 pounds (and that was 15pound an hour!!!) Test = 62.00 Car = 450 pounds Cat = 200 pounds Insurance = 1380 pounds Tax = 120 pounds Thats 2543 pounds to get on the road...... THEN you start to get problems with your car.... Now i have moved out, dont have mummy and daddys help on things like o so many do. Can i afford to even run my car? not really. And i need to get a new one, i know ill do the new scrappage scheme next year when my cars 10 years old, then its worth 2000 instead of nothing, o wait... i have no money. just little saved for insurance. This is a VERY hard country to drive in for young drivers like myself who can only afford small bangers which will break every month. Do we get help? do we buggery, its harder now than ever, with the bangers dissappearing to the scrappage scheme, with fuel and insurance rising. its a battle that the young independent drivers have nearly lost. so you may ask well do you need to drive? well yes if i want to buy food, look for a job, and not be a 24/7 hermit, theese are the so called best years of my life.... i say their the skint years of my life at least. O and to top it all off, if i was born female, it would have cost me 600 less on my first year... 600! thats more than my cars worth! something needs doing. some compromise.

i have a Lupo 1.4 16V E W reg (year 2000) 96K (off the top of my head) The alloys you usually see on Polo's New clutch a few months ago New catalystic converter end of 08 think i am the 4th owner off the top of my head Quite new tyres The blue colour (forgot the name) Runs very well (no miss-firing, never fails to start, good fuel economy, cheap to fill up) Now the not so good parts Speedo lights are currently flickering (looking to fix shortly) Locks don't work ( Getting fixed tomorrow) Scrape on drivers side, above back wheel arch and on back bumper, also above front wheel arch No electric windows or central locking, its all oldschool I like my lupo, but from all the time i have spent working on my friends old renault 5, i am ever so tempted to get an old car and make it a runner. The lupo has been good to me, but silly little things keep annoying me that is why i am considering selling it on. If anyone has any interest just leave a post or P.M me.

I have a 1.4 lupo E Found churchill was by far the cheapest coming in at £1283 Some details I am 17 Live in an o.k area No other drivers just me on my own insurance The car is in my name Guranteed hire car Legal cover I found all others were around £2000 upwards except directline which was £1500 Hope this info is of some use

ahhh brilliant! i'll do that now also haha as a joke on the back i am changing LUPO to PULO thought it might get some giggles from people

ahh thankyou Ah yes i also forgot. i got given a tape head unit, which connected to a 6cd multichanger. i bought the cd keys, took out the radio, my friend had a cable which looked asif it connected the new radio to the vw cable, so we fitted it up, it worked fine. Then we put it in, and it didnt work So took it all out put the standard vw radio and cd player in, that didnt work Took it to halfords, they said i had blown the ignition fuse for the radio, which would cost around £80 to replace, and we used the wrong cable to connect the radio up. But he did say that on the cable we were using if we attached this cable to that cable itd work, and it did, but i think now the cd multichanger has blown as it does not select cd's just goes up and down searching so i have a tape player, as the cable port on the tape player isnt their. i was wondering if anyone knew how to replace the radio ignition cable or whatever the halfords man means? and if so if they could post a guide, would be highly helpful also does anyones internal lights (not the door light, all the rest) have intermittant issues? the air flow lights dont come on at all, and sometimes the gauge lights flicker on and off then sometimes stay off for a while.

Hey all, I have a Lupo 1.4 E year 2000, that blue colour, it has some scrapes from the previous owner, and now both the locking barrels have broke ( so if i lock it i get in and out of the boot) and i tried fixing the passanger side, and it appears that the door handles (inside and out) have somehow been disconnected from the door clamp ( my fault again i imagine) I was also looking to fit an air induction kit, i took the filter off, and realised its connected to a radiator pipe, this confused me as i thought cold air was ment to be taken in to the engine because it is more dense? and ontop of that, the radiator pipe had deposited some yellowie gunk right next to the thing which opens when you rev it. Sorry for spelling, punctuation and generally not knowing what things are called. Church