Which car to buy?

AdrianHi

Try a Mazda 6, go for petrol and not diesel at this age. The diesels don't make financial sense, too expensive to buy, don't save much on fuel costs and these earlier (pre-facelift) diesels weren't that realiable and the 72000 mile / 6 year (approx.) servicing costs a staggering £750 (petrol around £250).
5 year old car is yours for around £3500-£4000
4* crash safety.

lincroft1710

Skoda Octavia, 5 seats, auto option, choice of several petrol/diesel engines, reasonably priced, on same floorpan as Golf, probably cheaper to insure than Saab.

hewhoisnotintheknow

everyone should be made to ride a moped for 1 year before getting a full licence, great to teach people to consider others and also great for natural selection

Ukuser

Buy her a Lexus LS430

You can pick up a 2001 model for less than 5K and it will have every concievable option as standard
Leather
Sat Nav
Heated Seats
Fridge
Parking Sensors - makes the car a doddle to drive

Bullet proof reliability and silky smooth silent performance

You drive one i will guarantee you will want it!!

have a look on lexus owners club uk for more info

hewhoisnotintheknow

dont put people who have 4 crashes in 30k in a huge great thing!

tomstickland

She has had 4 crashes in the last 6 years, so safety is the prime consideration.

I'm sorry to appear judgemental, and sometimes the laws of probability can work against people. However, there is a state of mind that assumes that accidents are just fate, and could not be avoided. I'd argue that better observation and planning might well lead to a better ability to avoid being on the receiving end of other people's mistakes. I've avoided several accidents via a "6th sense" which is actually just observing and running a load of "what ifs" through my mind.

So yes, go and do a course.

Lemoncurd

An alternative to the IAM is the Rospa advanced driving scheme, I know someone who has done both and trained to become a driving instructor, he thought the Rospa scheme was much better. I went to IAM meetings for a year or so but never actually managed to get on the course as they didn't have enough people to supervise. Not sure if it has changed since then but I was only 20 at the time and everyone else there was over 50 so it was a bit of a strange experience!

GDB2222

I'm very torn. The Lexus sounds great, but road tax and insurance are going to be a lot. We do maybe 5k miles a year, and paying standing charges of say £1500 is quite a bit.

I am vaguely thinking about a Mercedes A150.

Ukuser

hi

road tax is £210 for a year

Insurance is £500 fully comp for me ( age 30, 1 years NCB)

Not too sure about mercedes - personally i think they are not as good as they used to be

why not have alook on the lexus owners club

anewman

Buy her one of these and show her this video posted by someone else on here recently. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M3FdnWU5ecg She won't want to crash in one of those

How about getting the roadcraft book?