Daewoo Matiz sold so we bought a KA

[Vince70]

I wonder if someone could give me some advice as my girlfriends daughter is learning to drive and a cheap early 800 matiz has come up locally and I just wondered if they are any good.

 

Also does anyone know who to try for insurance for young drivers as the cheapest quote we have had so far is £1450 with Hastings direct.

[Kiltox]

Awful

Awful

Awful

Awful

 

Seriously, buy ANYTHING else. They're not even bad in an autoshite way, just terrible

[mrbenn]

I had one for years, a 1998 SE Plus. Absolutely loved it. 3 cylinder engine sounded brilliant and was good on fuel. Handled well due to the wheels being right at the corners (not much overhang) and a good amount of equipment for back then.

[richardthestag]

marmite cars, 

 

I like the one we had, #1 son hated it, folk took the piss out of him and he wasnt thick skinned enough to tell them to FRO

 

+ it goes, can be fixed with hammers, ebay breakers have loads so part supply is not an issue

 

- road tax is not cheap for a 3 cylinder car, it is noisy and harsh. there are absolutely no toys whatsoever! Keep fit everything

 

before you venture any further ask gf daughter what she thinks. Sharp intake of breath and rolled eyes = ..... well just read the signals for yourself

[dollywobbler]

I bought a 1999 SE brand new and loved it. Better to drive and better built than our Nippa, though perhaps that isn't saying much...

[richardthestag]

#1 Son insured through Morethan with a blackbox and limited miles. added myself as a named driver bought the cost down. for a lad first car I was pleased with £1100 on the Daewoo. It went up to just shy of £1300 when he upgraded to a 1.4 307 pug

[HH-R]

Definitely marmite. Not had the pleasure, but they like to nom headgaskets I think.

[Kiltox]

Come on.

 

The build quality is terrible and they rust for a laugh.

[richardthestag]

cheap car - crap build quality - hold the front page lol

 

ours didnt rust, sold it is Turkish Kurd who was going to drive it to Turkey. Nutter. probably should be on here. all those charidee banger run tosspots could learn a trick or two from a chap who wants to drive Matiz to Turkey in 24 hours!

[Noel Tidybeard]

they were built to a price and can feel it, but they are a hoot to hoon in especially if you do the powah mod(free) and release untold horesey powers

get se or se+ for elec windys and a/c

[Supernaut]

the powah mod(free)

Push the hopeless pile of shit off a cliff?

 

I've had brief experience of one of these hateful little rotboxes. Fucking awful thing. Too shit for autoshite, definitely.

Admittedly, my opinion may be biased, as the one I have experience of belonged to an ex who is an ex for very good reason...

[dollywobbler]

Come on.

 

The build quality is terrible and they rust for a laugh.

 

Build quality on mine was fine. Nothing fell off and as I recall, I did 18,000 miles in 18 months. Also had one as a hire car in Malta in 2003, driving over some of the shittest roads I've ever encountered (apart from rural Northamptonshire) and it was fine. Great air con too. No rust at 18 months thankfully. I stupidly chopped it in for a Subaru Impreza at this point. Which I then crashed. Therefore, Matiz is better.

 

I only like them before the facelift. Then they ruined it completely, then revamped it, then made it a Chevrolet.

[Mr Laurence]

Unfortunately I can't say much about a Matiz, but speaking as (probably) one of the younger members of the forum, I can try and offer advice for insurance. I'm insured with Admiral - it costs me a snip over a grand a year for my Mini (1.3), fully comp with no black box, though because I pay monthly, it ends up being a little more. They were by far the cheapest quote for me, even including telematics ones, so it may be worth checking what it'd be with them if you haven't already

[Dead_E23]

I was overtaken by one, several times, on the A30 yesterday.

 

It seemed to go quite well on the flat, or downhill, but every time there was an uphill section it appeared to run out of steam quite badly.

 

Must have been quite a disappointment for the driver to see the same ropey Mondeo cruise past every 2 miles.

[dollywobbler]

I can confirm that they will do 100mph downhill on the M40. Allegedly. At that point, the engine limiter kicks in. Like a 2CV, they are rather a stranger to the concept of torque.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Here's my father-in-law's facelift 1.0SE that he's had from new. The only major difference (styling aside) between the it and pre-facelift versions is the use of a torsion beam axle at the rear instead of a dead beam.

 

 

This thing is unkillable. It currently does a 120-mile round commute three times a week, it's been to Ireland, on tours of Scotland and to the Continent. It has over 120,000 miles on the clock and aside from routine servicing (and the brakes binding every now and again) it's never really needed much in the way of fettling, despite only receiving half the requisite number of oil changes over its lifetime.

 

I occasionally get to borrow it and it's not too bad actually. I'd definitely go for the three-cylinder version, partially because three cylinders are always better than four, also that the 1.0 is a gutsy, torquey little unit with not much weight to move around, and it feels like the rest of the car can't really keep up. The handling gets out of shape at relatively low speeds and it becomes a bit of a handful. Motorway lane changes are also...exciting. Lower power means less ability to attain such speeds.

 

It's not much of a chore to drive more slowly, though, as the steering and low-speed handing are pretty good, although the gearbox is the worst I've ever used.

 

Space efficiency is excellent, despite being tiny there's plenty of interior space, with acceptable room for four and maybe five at a push, plus with the big door openings you can simply walk in and out of it. There's also a fair amount of boot space. The driving position is comfortable if a little too upright, but the seats are pretty pants and the ride can be a bit jittery.

 

They're not nearly as bad as is made out, for urban motoring they're pretty much perfect. I also reckon they're proper shite material, too: after all, I bet there isn't a single person on earth who aspires to own one and even when they were new they were about as desireable a consumer good as an asbestos chopping board.

[sierraman]

I've driven one. They are fucking shit.

 

Where do I start? They rust like fuck, nasty to drive, fairly bad in an accident, embarrassing to be seen in, badly made, poorly equipped, useless on the motorway.

 

Has she seen one? Im guessing not.

[Tamworthbay]

Awful

Awful

Awful

Awful

Seriously, buy ANYTHING else. They're not even bad in an autoshite way, just terrible

This^^^^^^ I had one as a courtesy car for a week. It's the only car I have ever driven where I couldn't find one single thing I liked about it. The engine was awful, the gearbox the worst I have ever had the misfortune to come across. The interior was made by the people who do the inserts for biscuit boxes at Christmas and the panels were made from rejected tin foil. Hateful thing.

 

The only way I could be made to like one is if I see Evil Knievil rise from his grave and reverse park one directly into Donald Trumps arse whilst shagging Buffy the vampire slayer (I like Buffy).

[dollywobbler]

BEST CAR EVAH.

 

What a pretty arse.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I'm confused by people saying that are shit. It's a car and it works, so even rusty it's better than the bus, that makes it good!

 

Over the years I've driven some utterly horrible cars. All of them at one time were good* cars, like the Golf gti mk2 that displayed it's amazing German build quality buy having every single panel with giant rust holes in it, gears that were guesswork and zero clutch or the BMW 325i that had its entire back end held on with filler.

 

Don't know if there's a point to my post is other than anythings better than nothing.

[Kiltox]

With the used car market the way it is, nobody NEEDS to buy a Matiz in 2017 so I don't really get the "it's better than nothing" argument unless it's free.

 

Billy was selling a tested 1.0 Corsa for two hundred quid the other day - a far superior car.

[Tamworthbay]

If it was a genuine choice between one and walking then yes I would have it, well,I would if I needed to go more than five miles, otherwise I would still walk.

[gordonbennet]

Never used one in anger but delivered quite a few new, i kinda like them.

Had the odd automatic on board, its a proper torque converter box and the box is a peach, can't imagine it'll help on the open road but around town given how narrow the things are should make a brill little runabout.

 

The only bad thing i've heard is inboard mounted front discs which make changing them a right ballache, on Hyundai coupes you can end up buggering all four front wheel bearings making it an expensive job, the same might happen doing Matiz front discs.

[sierraman]

I've chosen walking before as opposed to being a passenger in one.

[Tickman]

Never even been in one of these but where we used to live a local car was driven by a gnome (he really looked like one) 

 

Regards insurance, Charlie was with Flux while she was learning with a learner driver policy which was competitive when taken out. She is now insured with Admiral as a full licence holder who were the cheapest 

[stuboy]

great wee cars... nicer to drive than a yaris

[Noel Tidybeard]

I've driven one. They are fucking shit.

 

Where do I start? They rust like fuck, nasty to drive, fairly bad in an accident, embarrassing to be seen in, badly made, poorly equipped, useless on the motorway.

 

Has she seen one? Im guessing not.

 

no no no no we are talking about matizs here not ford kaks

[Vince70]

Thanks for all the advice it's much appreciated we have narrowed the search down to the Ford Ka and the Matiz due everything else being too expensive to insure.

 

I did think Ka first but the problem is I can't weld and I know there's no such thing as a rust free Ka.

 

The brief I had is it's got to be cheap to insure and under £400 and the Matiz is only £200 and is the cheapest car to insure at the moment but anyone know of any other cheap little motors for insurance

 

I've tried all the normal suspects like the fiesta, corsa, Lupo, arosa etc the only one I can think of now is maybe the Suzuki Alto.

 

Any suggestions

[dollywobbler]

Alto is a good shout. I've never met anyone with a bad word to say about them, other than the usual rot woes. Perodua Nippa/Kenari/Kelisa?

[Slartibartfast]

I rather like the look of them. I'd love to get one and upgrade everything to make it into a proper little monster. However I've never been in one.

 

That said they're pretty awful safety-wise and I'd not personally get one for my daughter, I'd be constantly worried that one mistake would have her in hospital or worse. Cars are on their arse value wise so there will be a lot of other much safer chod she could be driving around in.