First car....

I love the seats. Comfortable, supportive. And look great.
 
Not worrying about one's car "because it's already a banger" is an outstanding way to decide to do dumb things that put you in harm's way. OTOH, thinking "hey, can I do this" followed by "boy, I sure don't want to explain THAT to my parents" is an excellent way to avoid poor judgment calls. Let's take your beater Sierra for example...if you do something dumb and destroy it...it hasn't cost you much, has it? If you'd put a lot of money into it...I bet you'd make far more conservative decisions.

Sorry to bag on your commentary, but it's simply far off base. You're entitled to your opinion. I'm entitled to point out you don't have a clue.

Steve

Well, it didn't occur to you that some people have good enough judgement to not do stupid/ dangerous things on the road regardless of the car they own?<_< I do take care of my car, and for that reason and because it's my car, I don't want to break it. But IF I have an accident, it's not going to ruin me financially. I can assure you that If I owned, say a 15k? Bmw, I would drive it pretty much identically to how I drive my current car, but I would still worry about it more.

Does that make sense to you?:)
 
Nice Clio!! :D

And those seats look great! How come your mum chose the GT 130 bhp version?? You were given a great deal for the GT or it was your "influence"?? :lol:

My mum likes quick cars. She has had quite a range of cars, e.g: MK1 Fiesta XR2i, and she seems to change from one extreme to the other, the last new car she bought in 2004 was a 1.2i Corsa sxi. She sold that and bought a 1.8t Audi TT, then sold that and bought a Chevrolet Captiva 4x4 :L this time she wanted something both of us would like, wasn't slow (so above 1.4ish), and could do more than the 20mpg she got out of her Captiva. She was going to give herself a budget of ?5k, and me one of ?2k so we could have seperate cars. But there was nothing she liked in her price range. She offered to share one, so we ended up buying a new car saturday, so today the Chevvy was picked up and we went and got the Clio :)
 
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Why do most people (generally speaking) say having a crappy car as a first car is for the best? If you drive a new(ish) car you'll (again) generally speaking be much more gentle and more careful with it. Nobody benefits from the 'oh, It's okay to dent this car as it's old'-mentality. Responsibility is one of the (many) important assets that makes a good driver IMO. Having an accident can happen to anybody, I won't disagree with the fact that young drivers have more risk of being involved in an accident. But wouldn't you rather be in a safe (thus automatically reasonably modern) vehicle when it does happen?

Just my 0.02$

Further more I can't deny the fact that I'm a bit jealous! Renault did an excellent job restyling their product line.
I really wished this was the case in Toronto...most of the kids here get new cars from their parents...a lot of these cars have damage and many times insurance companies get involved. First drivers getting beaters...is surprisingly less common than I thought, its more likely the beater dies mechanically since most are in such terrible shape here.

I'm actually of the opinion that the ideal first car is one the driver will love. If the driver loves the car, the care they take is better than one they have little care for be it new or old. In my case...I'm still on my first car because I really like it and spent money to ensure it would continue as a daily driver, I also drive extremely cautiously to ensure I never cause an accident on the roads.

As for the Clio...I actually like the way the current one looks. It actually looks pretty good in blue...it would be nice to drive these cars at work instead of...orange Dodge Calibers...
 
I really wished this was the case in Toronto...most of the kids here get new cars from their parents...a lot of these cars have damage and many times insurance companies get involved. First drivers getting beaters...is surprisingly less common than I thought, its more likely the beater dies mechanically since most are in such terrible shape here.

I'm actually of the opinion that the ideal first car is one the driver will love. If the driver loves the car, the care they take is better than one they have little care for be it new or old. In my case...I'm still on my first car because I really like it and spent money to ensure it would continue as a daily driver, I also drive extremely cautiously to ensure I never cause an accident on the roads.

As for the Clio...I actually like the way the current one looks. It actually looks pretty good in blue...it would be nice to drive these cars at work instead of...orange Dodge Calibers...

So true, I don't want to drive my car like a tool because it's the best thing I've ever owned therefore don't want to risk a bump or scrape! I park miles away from anything in a car park, always wash it every week. It's my baby :)
 
^ I wish I were as lucky as you. We have the one Kangoo between the four of us (sure my sister is at Uni, so technically 3, but its a pain). But getting another car soon hopefully!

When's your test booked for again? I never pay attention to Facebook... :lol:
 
Thats an impressive 1st car!:blink:

Wish I had the cash for something new, but my parents are currently asking if I can lend them money from my student loan! :lol:
(the current economic climate has made our bussiness suffer)

I'll certainly not be getting a new car as a 1st (probably never will) but I disagree with the idea that somebody who drives an old banger will be more inclined to drive badly and not care about it.
I mean sure, I wouldn't have to worry about parking dents or the car being bumped in a car park or anything but it wouldn't mean I'd be stupid while driving. You'd have to be an idiot to base your sensibility while driving on the value of your car.

I've not had a problem with wheel shuffling, but I haven't gone over 55mph in my few hours of driving and haven't had to do any fast direction changes. It can be annoying when straighting out from a tight junction though, I end up slightly in the wrong lane before it straightens out fully.
 
^ I know we've been over it before, but wheel shuffling really sucks. So glad I passed so quickly. Actually cheaper too as we only had to pay for 14 lessons plus a test. :)

But as for the care thing - yes I am careful behind the wheel of the Kangoo, but when I found out I had put a scratch on the side (from driving down an extremely narrow country lane on which I was worried about scraping both sides of the car at once 3 days after passing with a car full of slightly tipsy friends, one of them asleep, I must add) I was not bothered. Sure if it was brand new I might have been more pissed off (or rather my parents would have been), but I don't believe I could have driven much more carefully that night.

I think the fact that if I crash the Kangoo my mum cannot get to work also helps me to be careful. Its the only car we own, and only has 3rd party insurance. Not a disposable asset.
 
LOL at carting your pissed mates around. Screw that I would be getting hammered with them!

And by my test i will have about 10 hours worth of lessons under my belt, although I'm currently at about 8 and my instructor is sure i need no more but I'd rather be over prepared! I also drive my car nearly every day with my mum to and from places :)

Test date is 27th!
 
Well, i failed my driving test :(

On the way back to the test center, after 40 or so min's of driving without a fail so far as well which makes it more painful! On a dual carriage way i indicated to go into the left lane, as he told me to go straight on at the roundabout. However after seeing a huge queue of traffic in my left lane, i slowed slightly. Then i realised, shit, i don't need to be in that lane! Canceled the indicator and carried on.

However, as i had slowed down, it caused a Major (Over here we can have up to 14 minor faults before a fail. But you cannot have MAJOR faults). The fault wasn't in accidentally signaling, but in slowing down as i held up traffic.

When he told me i was absolutely gutted, really, all I've wanted to do since i was tiny was drive so hearing it was a bit of a kick in the nuts.

However, thinking about it, there's no limit to how many tests you can take, and since it was such a shitty mistake my instructor told me to book another test asap (Mid December, epic waiting list ftl). And I kind of have gotten over it, although still a bit pissed at it. Although i don't argue with the examiners decision, a fail is a fail at the end of the day no matter how silly the mistake was. His job is to save me from going out there and killing myself or others on the road so yeh.

Anyway, going to try every night on the internets to get a cancellation so i can book in asap.
 
I know the feeling of not passing, I actually failed my driving test twice.

First time for a good reason (I didn't pay enough attention to a blinking orange light and cut the priority to someone).
Second time was debatable, my driving was fine but the examiner failed me on "lack of anticipation" (whatever that means in his mind, since he didn't even took the time to explain it to me). My driving monitor was in the back of the car and told me at the end that he didn't really knew either why I didn't pass.
For the third time I drove a little bit worse than the second time (the examiner even had to touch the brakes at some point, but not for something dangerous, he just wanted me to turn in some street but warned me too late) but I still passed.

Only difference between second and third time? For the second time I had long hair, for the third time I had cut them :lol:


Don't worry, you'll get it the next time :)
 
^yeah they ALWAYS fail you the first time, atleast they do so over here.
they just want moar monies
I needed 3 to get my "real" licence, and TBH the third time, I thought I drove worst of all...
 
Why do most people (generally speaking) say having a crappy car as a first car is for the best? If you drive a new(ish) car you'll (again) generally speaking be much more gentle and more careful with it. Nobody benefits from the 'oh, It's okay to dent this car as it's old'-mentality. Responsibility is one of the (many) important assets that makes a good driver IMO. Having an accident can happen to anybody, I won't disagree with the fact that young drivers have more risk of being involved in an accident. But wouldn't you rather be in a safe (thus automatically reasonably modern) vehicle when it does happen?
.

How old are you? because what you say may sound nice in theory, from my experience, is untrue. Most young kids, esp boys, dont really deserve/need a brand spankin new car. They get them usually because of parents who have the $$ and don't really care. First cars should be older, used, maybe hand-me-downs from the parents when they purchase a new car for themselves. Young owners of new cars get into trouble/accidents/speeding all the time.
 
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