Mistakes young driver make when buying their first car

Having a car is great, it gives you the feeling of freedom and can be a great way to transport your friends and family around the country. Cars have gotten much better over the years in terms of design, efficiency and pollution friendliness. I was 19 when I passed my exams and right away I purchased my first car, a ford focus 1.6 petrol. Unfortunately because of my inexperience and excitement, I rushed when buying my first car only to be shocked by the bills later on. Here is a pic of my first car:

How to choose your first car

Choosing a car is the most exciting part of the whole driving experience however many young drivers fall for the trap and choosing a car that looks good and forgetting about things like reliability, efficiency running costs. When choosing your car, generally speaking the lower the engine size the cheaper the insurance, road tax and fuel efficiency it’s going to be. If you plan to nip around town, or do mostly short journeys a small petrol engine car would be your best bet. If you plan to drive long motorway miles, then a diesel engine car would be more fuel efficient. Also when a car manufacturer claims that a car does 60mpg its highly unrealistic and unachievable in real world scenarios. I came across a good website called REAL MPG where people submit their real life mpg of their cars. Its always a good idea to go for a car with a reasonably high real mpg.

Do not fall for any traps

Insurance

Insurance prices for young and new drivers can be off putting at first, but you need to remember that car insurance is arranged in groups with the lowest being 1 and the highest being 50. The lower the insurance group, the less you need to pay for car insurance. If your looking for a low insurance group car take a look at this website that lists the carswith group 1 insurance. For young drivers you can get a black box installed in your car to save you even more money. Be careful though, a black box can monitor you speeds so don’t go over speed or there will be consequences, some insurance companies also restrict you to drive late hours, so make sure you read the terms and conditions.

Road Tax

Road tax is also something to look out for. When I purchased my first car, the road tax cost me almost 150 pounds for a full year. It might not sound like much but it adds up. Over the course of 5 years That’s 750 pounds, now it’s not so funny, eh? Make sure you look at the tax bracket of a car before buying. These days some cars are Road tax free and some can be 20 pounds, while other high end cars can go Al the way up to 500 pounds/year. Make sure your keep up to date with the latest laws on road tax as they have changed some things recently.

Customising your car

Many drivers like myself like to customise their car. It makes your car stand out from the crowd and shows a little bit of your personality. Personally I like to tint my rear windows black which makes the car look more sportier. Other people like to change the rims on the wheels and some people go as far as getting a new body kit installed. The problem with customising your car is that insurance companies require you to tell them beforehand, and this will probably end up making your premium insurance cost even higher. Tinted windows alone will add around 50 pounds to your insurance bill. People who avoid telling their insurance about any third party customisations are more likely to her their claim rejected because your didn’t tell them about your customisations, so please don’t take the risk.

Got enough money? Go electric

Electric cars are great, they produce instant torque and save you a ton of money on fuel and road tax costs. As I mentioned in my intro post, I try my best to go as green as I can and to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible. The problem with electric cars is that they tend to be more expensive to insure because of how fast they can accelerate. They are also more expensive to buy and opposed to regular fuel driven cars due to expensive batteries. Luckily in the UK the government can give you a £5000 grant when buying a brand new plug in electric car, so that’s something to look for.

I don’t expect any young drivers to buy an electric car just yet due to the cost of buying one but you can always think of getting one once you secure a nice paying job in the future. I myself am saving up for a Tesla model S, which doesn't look your stereotypical electric car at all and can accelerate faster than most supercars! Check out how fast a Tesla model s accelerates:

That’s all for today lads and gals. I hope it has been helpful to you, if you please share it with your friends that are looking to buy their first car soon. Don’t forget to comment below on what your first car was.