Buying Your First Car

Insurance cost, fuel economy and environmental friendliness. And the price of public transport. I can drive, but I quit lessons before the test because I couldn't afford the price of the insurance or the lessons, and also because I strongly dislike driving, and live in a city where it's quicker to travel by public transport, and cheaper. It really isn't worth it, to be honest.

 

Buy the most fun you can afford. You only live once OP.

But yeah, check out what fuel and insurance costs will be before you buy.

 

Yeah i agree fuel economy is a big one. Used or new?

 

Seeing as it's your first car, go for used, reliable, affordable, and safe. Fuel economy, maintenance costs and insurance would my main concerns. My first car was a BMW, it only had good fuel economy out of those, would not recommend for a first car, though it is very fun to drive. And if you have a fairly nice car, you also feel really bad when you make the inevitable new driver mistake and hit something, pole or curb etc. I think a Civic, Corolla, Focus or something similar would be a good first car and then if you want you can buy something nicer in a few years.

 

The miles on a car is very important; make sure it doesn't have a lot of miles on it. Check the fuel economy of the car - the more fuel economy it has, the better. The insurance cost is important too. Check the engine, make sure the fuel gauges work, check the battery in the engine to see if it's good or not (if it's not, you'll just have to replace it), the tires, if it's safe or not, and lastly, you can look at the little things like if it has a CD player or not or seat warmers or anything really cool like that you want in a car.

 

Gas mileage, yes. Actual miles the car has been driven, no.

 

Like the person above me said: Gas mileage, yes. Actual miles driven on a car, no. I'll give you an example:

My car is a 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo Z34. The fuel economy is about 19 miles per gallon, which considering I don't drive it to far places, it's pretty good. The actual miles it has on the car is about 208,000 miles. When you buy a brand new car, it only has about 20 miles on it and that's really nice. And nowadays, new cars have an average fuel economy of 24.5-26 miles per gallon. Cars are built to drive a certain amount of miles before they start really breaking down. Mine will last until it hits about at least 260,000 miles because Chevy's are fairly good cars and last for a while. You want to look for a car with less than 100,000 on it and a decent fuel economy if you're looking to buy a used car so that you can have a car that lasts for a while. So that's why it's bad to have a car with a lot of mileage on it.

 

The more its been driven, the more prone to problems it is. My dad goes through a car about every 4-5 years because he drives 100 miles a day, and in 3 years, he had about 100,000 miles on his '09 Impala. That's now my car and it still does great, I drove it about 350 miles in one day back in January, but I wouldn't trust it if I was going to drive to, say, Florida and back.

 

Hi Oceanic

I remember the times 5 years ago thinking and looking forward to driving, don't think you'll be disappointed! Just try not to get too over confident, it's so easy to do. You have no idea how mega cautious with everything but I've still had a bump and a scrape since I started, I think driving gets me thrilled so I lose my head haha.

A bit more on topic:

Does your parents drive? It's basically a must in these times to be insured on your mother/father's policy and share a car. This does mean you're required by the insurance company to share the car 50/50 (ie, you cant drive it more than your mum/dad) but not sure how that can be proved anyway. When I got my own (not sharing etc) insurance quote it was £2500 per year, instead I'm paying, along with my father, £800 per year. Even if you can afford the 2.5k pa, it just isn't worth it.

The main downside I've had with this is that obviously you may find you can't use the car as much as you'd like (because your parents have it for work or something), and also if you started to work, believe it or not I couldn't get insured to use the car for work purposes anywhere at any price!

For the car itself, don't buy new, too risky and you'll probably find you can't get insured anyway. Take something that's done a good few 10,000s of miles but you can be sure is reliable.

My family have been quite loyal to Vauxhall, our current car is a Vauxhall and had another Vauxhall before that one. Not glamorous but affordable, which means you can start saving for your flashy audi/bmw etc later like I am :eusa_danc
We bought the current car from a family friend's niece or something. This friend also happened to be a car mechanic, so in short, if you can buy from people you know this will hopefully reduce the risk of dodgy dealing. Someone I know has spend thousands on cars (he buys and sells) but he's had a nightmare with some of them because they've been flawed.


Just a little mention on the lessons by the way when you come to it. A friend of mine started driving lessons without calculating costs & time and soon discovered he'd run out of money to continue. Whilst not a complete waste because when he starts again he'll know more than a normal first-timer, it's certainly going to mean he'll need more lessons than he would have if he didn't take several months break in the middle of it.

 

If you buy used, check for rust with a fine tooth comb. Check seals as well - the second car i bought, the trunk filled up with water every time it rained. Oh yeah ask about any oil leaks too - those things are annoying and expensive to fix.

 

Take the car to a mechanic to check it over before buying it,it maybe a pile of junk or maybe a good car.Don't buy it on the spot either just by looks.

 

Why do you want/need a car? Cars are terribly inefficient environment-destroyers, very expensive, and also very dangerous. Cars kill. Why not stick to public transportation?

I got my driver license at age 17, and at 23 I'm proud to say I still don't own a car and don't intend to ever get one. (And my bank account is even happier, without car payments and costly insurance payments.)

If I were going to get a car (which I'm not), I would like something small and efficient. So that would be my recommendation to you. You're in the UK, so perhaps it's less of an issue, but around here so many people get gargantuan disgusting inefficient SUVs, yuck.

 

Because not all areas have public transportation. Because not all people live close enough to places to walk. There's plenty of reasons to get a vehicle. Additionally, SUVs can be pretty handy. Can pack a lot into it when moving, for us, it's possible to haul home hay bales that won't fit into the back of a car. It's also cheaper to fill up than a diesal and will start in colder temperatures where a diesel truck won't. Just because you don't need a vehicle, doesn't meant other people don't.

To OP, the type of vehicle you get depends on your needs. I would recommend that you look up reviews on the vehicle you're looking at buying. Ideally, you want something that's going to be easy to work on. On top of that, one that won't crap out after a couple of years.

 

Not everyone lives in a heavily-urbanised city; some places are literally impossible to live in without a car, even some cities.

I can drive under supervision on my Ls (learner's permit) until the end of the year, then I can get my Ps (provisional licence) in January. Driving is incredibly useful for a lot of things, but it can be expensive, so aim for a small and fuel-efficient car. When you do begin to drive, make sure to get insurance. There's no point in driving if you're just going to lose the car with no chance of compensation. Try to use public transport if it's possible; it's normally cheaper and more environmentally-friendly, as well as meaning you're less dependent on your car, which is generally not a good thing.

 

Cars are starting to become more environmentally-friendly and public transportation can be quite time-inefficient. Cars help us get around without taking up time from pick people up at numerous stops, unless you're carpooling. We have natural gas cars now and they emit a third to almost a half less CO2 than regular gasoline-fueled cars. Also, not all of us live in intensely urban areas. Unless you live in an urban area, cars are better to get around in.

I would strongly recommend that you look for an excellent fuel economy. 30 to 40 mpg is ideal as of now (13-17 km/liter). Trust me, your wallet and the Earth would thank you so much. Cars with this gas economy can be quite affordable. Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas have excellent gas economies, more than 30 mpg (13 km/liter). You don't have to buy hybrid cars to drive a fuel-efficient car.

The interior design of the car can be quite important too. I prefer cars with a push-button start up because I find that to be quicker than the turn-key ignitions. Digital odometers are becoming a big thing now. I feel that the digital odometer gives you an instant-read on what speed you're driving. The analog ones can leave you estimating what speed you're driving at and before you know it, a police officer stops you because you were going 3 miles (5 km) over the speed limit. Why? Well... I speak from experience.

 

It's actually a pretty personal decision, that only you can really make, depending on your needs/wants.

Smart can be boring, and fun can be stupid. Do you want efficiency? Do you want power? Do you want small/large? What's your budget?

I'm a fun/power type of person. A boring, efficient, vehicle, would kill me. My first vehicle had a 360 cubic inch V8 that got 11 MPG. Fun, not efficient. Though, gas prices were not much more than a dollar at the time. My current car is a modified, 500 HP, muscle car, that's extremely fun and somewhat efficient (Vauxhall Monaro in the UK). This is what I enjoy and what I can afford.

I know petrol prices in the UK are much higher than they are here in the US, so that could very well be a big factor, even for someone like me who likes power. If you buy used, go over it carefully. And if you don't know cars well, find someone who does to do so for you.

 

I would go for a second hand car for your first car. The things I look for is service history and accident history, I would never buy anything that has been in a crash or that has a poor service history. Go for Japanese makes especially Toyota, they seem to age better and have less reliability issues, and the parts aren't as pricey.

 

Problem is that when he can drive at 17, the insurance will be around £2500, as another british poster mentioned. It's pretty damn unlikely that he'll be able to afford that. And it's against the law not to have insurance.