Passed my driving test - which car to buy?

I was discussing this subject with a Learner on his last driving lesson before his driving test last week.  I thought I'd expand on it a bit to possibly help others.

Your first car should be small, economical, not too powerful, cheap to maintain, low insurance and with good visibility all around it.  

Small because you're going to need to do those manoeuvres and starting out in a small, agile car has got to be a good move; bay parks, parallel parks etc are going to be so much easier for you in a small car.  So think of a size of a Corsa, 205, Polo, Ka, and aim for no bigger.  

Economical is all about the amount of fuel it uses to drive.  Electric cars will soon be with us, so all you do then is just plug into the mains at night to re-charge, but until then, you will need to choose between running on petrol or diesel.  Although diesel is slightly more expensive to purchase, you do tend to get more mileage from a car running on diesel compared to petrol.  To give you some idea of what you should be roughly aiming for from the car you purchase, let me give you the stats for my Hyundai i10 for you to compare with when you are car hunting.  As of today, it costs me £41 to fill up the tank with petrol, and that is 30 litres of petrol.  That will provide me with about 255 miles of driving on driving lessons.  As 30 litres = 6.6 gallons, then my car is running at about 38 miles to the gallon.  When you speak to people about fuel economy they tend to speak in terms of “miles to the gallon” – although the size of a ‘gallon’ is an old, imperial size, and we all now talk in newer ‘metric’ sizes, old habits die hard it seems.  If you want to get quite precise about fuel economy, then you would need to account for the average speed at which the car is running at, and you hear terms like ‘urban’ (meaning driving in town), and ‘rural’ (meaning non-town driving), but to be honest, that is a little geeky, just taking an interest in the general miles to the gallon is a sensible question to ask any seller.

When I say ‘not too powerful’, I’m referring to the engine size.  My i10 is a 1.1 Litre (or 1100cc) engine.  This refers to the size of the engine; 1000cc = 1 L.  Generally speaking, the larger the engine size, the less the fuel economy, the more your insurance premium will be; also the larger the engine size in a small car = the faster it will drive.  I would suggest anything over about 1.3L as your first car is going to be quite a poky small car.  Might be quite flash for your mates to sense that acceleration and speed, but probably not the best idea in terms of a ‘safe’ option for a small car – a conversation to be had with your Parents perhaps.

You will be surprised how cars differ in terms of maintenance costs.  Things to think about are the cost of parts, general availability of parts, whether you want to service the car at a garage that is authorised for that make of car – how far is the nearest service station for that make.  Reliability is a big concern for drivers, some people don’t chance it, and buy separate break down cover in case something goes wrong.  In general terms, you may remember hearing about the ‘bath tub curve’ relating to reliability for products.  When a product is brand new, and when it is nearing it’s end of life, you can reasonably expect to experience faults crop up.  Some makes of car have got a reputation for being more reliable than others.  Cars will get through what is called ‘consumables’, these are things like tyres, bulbs, brake pads, exhausts, wiper blades – and ideally you should budget every month for these things cropping up as they inevitably will; it has nothing to do with reliability, it is simply acknowledging the fact that to run a car on the road, will automatically result in needing to replace certain parts that have a fairly short life cycle.  I can purchase a new tyre for general driving in my i10 for £37, I choose to pay a little bit more so that I know my tyres are slightly better quality, as it’s a Driving School car, so I pay £47 per tyre.  A new tyre in my family car costs £260, so pay attention to the detail when you choose your new car.

Cars generally fall into ‘insurance groups’, not everyone knows about them, but most do.  It’s sensible to check what insurance group a car you like the look of falls into.  The higher the number of the insurance group, the more the premium will cost.  You can get this information easily enough from the internet.  Insurance companies generally speaking don’t like to hear about ‘modifications’ to cars, as they inevitably demonstrate that the car is a) being altered from it’s original design capabilities, and b) is not going to be used in a standard way.  Look out for any changes to a prospective car that you are interested in, as you would be contractually obliged to inform an insurance company of non-standard features like exhausts, bodywork, wheels, windows, engine, lights.  Failing to do so and then attempting to claim on your insurance, could affect your claim.  My Facebook driving page has got links to good insurance companies that my Learners have been kind enough to allow me to publish for others to benefit from.

Now although ‘visibility’ is last on this list, personally, I’d place it quite high up in importance.  You will be amazed how the size and position of windows in a car affects vision, which affects safety and ease to drive.  You might like the look of the car when you are standing 10 feet away from it, but get in the drivers seat and actually assess the vision all around.  How big and low is the rear windscreen for you to see the kerb behind, how easy is it to do that blindspot check over your right shoulder, how big are the side mirrors.  My advice is not to underestimate this point, the link between amount of vision, safety and insurance claims is strong.

You may have noticed that I haven't put 'safety' of the car on my list.  The reason is because it's a massive subject that would take over this entire blog.  On a practical point, there are certain features that are nice to see in a car.  Knowing how well a car handles impact from different points of the car for example.  How well 'equipped' it is with features such as ABS, Traction Control, airbags etc. And how 'solid' it has been built - by that I mean compare how a vehicle hitting one of these tiny 'Smart' cars will affect the occupants compared to some other car makes that employ size, stability, crumple zones, space in an entirely different way.  At least if you are aware of these factors when you are choosing your first car, you can compare them.  

Hope this is useful to you, please feel free to grade it below, or add any comments.  If you have made a good decision for your first car, leave a comment for others to benefit from it.

Thank you.