Best 1st car - advice

shopaholic84

I passed my driving test on the 5th attempt 2 weeks ago, and i am now on the hunt for my very first car. I will not be able to buy it until the end of May, but i am looking what i can get now, and also doing insurance quotes. I will have £2,000 to spend, i ideally don't want to spend anymore on my 1st car, as i know in your first year new drivers are likely to have an accident, so i don't want to fork out silly money on my 1st car.

I am looking at Vauxhall Corsa, Pug 206 & i have my eye on a VW Lupo but they are a lil bit expensive, and i think that may be too small. I don't have kids, i'm 25, but i have a lil 2 yr old niece who will be going out in my car lots, so needs room for pushchair and all her bits.

I was shocked at how cheap my insurance is - quotes for all cars above are around £570 - and thats with Tesco.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

xx

rummy

Stay away from Pug 206, I've never known anyone to successfully own that car without problems (new or second hand). Lots of problems with that car.

Lupos are really small, VW Polo isn't bad for a first time driver and you can fit a buggy in the boot (I've had one!), as well as have a child seat and your insurance should be cheap on that too. Corsas are nice little cars and good for first time drivers but not sure if their boot could accommodate a buggy. Remember you'll need a child seat too. Everyone recommends a micra and the fairly new micras look quite big to me. There's also Ford Fiesta which again are good but small.

Erm I can't think of what else to say but £2000 seems fair for a first time driver. You should be able to get a fairly good car with that amount. Also as a new driver, if you're not so confident then make sure you take the engine size of the car into consideration. Something from 1.0 -1.4 should be ok. It will also help ensure your insurance stays lower.

shopaholic84

Thank you for the advice rummy. I have heard some other horror stories with the Pug 206, so i may cross that car of my list of possibles.

My friend has an older VW polo and its really smart, hers is GTI though, so not sure i will like my 1.0 VW Polo lol, but happy to have a look at them. My partners first car 7 years ago was a Corsa, and he raves about how good they are as a first time car. I've done a few quotes for a Corsa sxi and insurance quotes are around £600.

Will have a look at the Micra and Fiestas.

anewman

Toyota Starlets aren't bad small cars and I think you'd get a buggy in the boot - or if budget allows, a Toyota Yaris might be a good option.

redmandarin

Hi, shopaholic84, Congratulations on passing your driving test - I bet you're dead chuffed! I've got my test coming up this month, so this thread is of real interest to me - thanks for posting the question!

Any tips on passing the test - I'm really nervous? Would it be ok to pm you?

anewman

redmandarin wrote: »

Hi, shopaholic84, Congratulations on passing your driving test - I bet you're dead chuffed! I've got my test coming up this month, so this thread is of real interest to me - thanks for posting the question!

https://www.2pass.co.uk forums are a good place to look :beer:

shopaholic84

Hi redmandarin, i have no problems with you sending me a pm sweet.

Re tips - my biggest tip would not be too get nervous - in all of my first 4 driving tests i was soooo nervous and felt sick throughout, after my 4th fail i just thought sod it, i'm going to book another test but not going to let the test get to me, i pretended i was just on a normal lesson, and i kept thinking to myself if i fail there's always next time, and i wasn't going to give up lightly.
What made it even worse for me though is after every test the examiner would say to me "you can drive no problem, you should pass next time" if i can drive, just pass me, don't fail me on the revving the engine and hurting the environment - didn't even know they could fail you on that - weird.

Do you do your lessons with a big name or a local company? I was with AA for a few months, then i realised i was getting ripped so i went with a local company, 1st local company was awful, she would spend my entire lesson texting on her mobile, after 10hrs with her and £190 later, i left her and went with Rainbow driving school and i passed with them after 7 months.

Good luck for your test!

x

shopaholic84

anewman wrote: »

https://www.2pass.co.uk forums are a good place to look :beer:

I can second that one - i'm a member there! Great people and everybody is friendly and soo happy to help!

carbonmonoxide

redmandarin wrote: »

Hi, shopaholic84, Congratulations on passing your driving test - I bet you're dead chuffed! I've got my test coming up this month, so this thread is of real interest to me - thanks for posting the question!

Any tips on passing the test - I'm really nervous? Would it be ok to pm you?

No. 1 tip, if you make a mistake try not to panic - it might only be a minor fault. I passed first time last month but I had a lot of lessons. I made a lot of mistakes on the test, even scraped the pavement at one point when pulling over but I only got marked down for minors. You can have quite a few minors and still pass so even if you think you've failed carry on as normal if you can.

Incidently I'm picking up my first car this weekend-a renault clio. Have to drive it home 3 hours down the motorway but luckily I have persuaded my Dad to come with me for the ride!

Cupra_Kev

SEAT Ibiza, VW Polo, Skoda Fabia (all basically the same car - cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to insure/tax)

benjus

anewman wrote: »

Toyota Starlets aren't bad small cars

My mum's got one of these - it's basic but a surprisingly pleasant car to drive, even for a 6'2" bloke like me, and being a Toyota it should have plenty of mileage left in it. Boot capacity is pretty respectable for a small car, and it should take a medium size buggy quite comfortably.