GavM

Thanks for the advice again. I'll do a bit more digging, and see about joining a local club. Is there anybody from the forum in the Cardiff/Newport area? As for budget and fuel efficiency... these can be stretched to be honest. At the end of the day, I'm looking at £3.5k minimum for insurance on a eurobox (and even that seems unlikely - it appears my area has a higher crime rate than Somalia) so I'd have to do a fair few miles to make up the difference. - GavM

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'd definitely be looking at a Series 3 (1972 if possible to avoid Road Tax) or an early Defender. I'd quite like one of the LWB models, paticuarly one with extra seats, but I think that might ramp up the premium. What I'm going to do is get a few specific models and ask NFU, Sureterm, Adrian Flux & Footman James to provide a quote for each. Hopefully, they won't have a problem doing this. Obviously this won't give me an exact price, I won't get that until I actually buy one, but it should give me some idea. My budget for a Land Rover could probably stretch to £2,000. Whichever model I get, it'd have to be a hard top, it'd have to (eventually) reach 70mph and ideally do 20mpg or more. I'm not being too optimistic, am I? I'm currently looking on eBay Motors... is there a better place to look for second hand Land Rovers? As for actually driving one, I haven't driven one yet, but I have been driven in one (which, I'm not sure, as it wasn't a concern at the time) and I liked the 'rawness' of it. Thanks

Hi all, This is my first post here, so bare with me... I'm seventeen and am currently learning to drive (in South Wales, if you're interested). My test is booked for the 1st December and I'm keen to get on the road as soon as possible afterwards. Naturally, I've been looking at small-engined euroboxes. However, I've looked on a few price comparison websites, with a variety of different cars (From a VW Lupo to a Ford Focus) and, even with every variable tweaked, the cheapest third party quote I've been able to get is around £3,500/year. This is with a full license (I don't see any point in getting insured on my provisional). No thanks... I've been told to look at Classic Cars, in particular, old Land Rovers. Which is great, as I love the older Land Rovers, rust and all, but I would never have thought that a big 4x4 would be cheaper to insure than a tiny 1L Polo, but apparently I'm wrong! So, this is where I'd be really grateful if you could help me out. What would you recommend I look at? It's my understanding that I should stick as close to a 'factory model' as possible to keep the premium down, but are there any particular models/engines which are generally cheaper to insure? I'll be looking to buy something in fairly good condition, but I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. As for insurers, I gather that NFU are probably my best bet? Any advice you can give will be very much appreciated... Thanks, GavM