25 newbie driver looking for some advice/thoughts/pas experiences :)
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum - I found it on Google and have been lurking for a few weeks now :)

Anyways, I'm 25 on November 2nd and have decided it's time for me to start driving. I would really like an Impreza as it is my dream car, I have loved them since I was a school boy!
So that said, seeing as I have not actualy got a full UK license yet I can't get any quotes (I did get 1 off moneysupermarket for £140/month on an Impreza sport), all I can do is guess... Here are some answers to what seem to me to important to insurers when it comes to quotes:

• car will be parked in a private off street car park (I live in a flat)
• I am a home owner
• I am a professional (according to the lists of jobs on the various brokers websites)
• no previous with the law of any kind

Ideally the car would at least look like a WRX - I would be happy with a sport with WRX trimmings - but I hear mods put your premium up (even if they don't make that car faster??) Ultimatley would like an actual WRX Turbo but I'm more than happy to work my way up from a sport! The max I can spend is £350/month on insurance.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this - what are my chances of getting insured etc?

Many thanks in advance :)

Sorry, forgot to say the year - anything between '97 and '99 :)

no one will insure you until you have been driving for minimum 12 months, best to get a run around for 1 or 2 years first!

Ñðî÷íî òðåáóþòñÿ ïàðòíåðû ! Ðåàëüíî îò 6000$ Òîëüêî ñåðüåçíûì!
 

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No one at all?? That would be very dissappointing! Surely there must be a way? Thanks for the reply all the same :)

there is always a way...... £££££'s.

Im sure £10K would get you insured,,,,,,, but seriously, as a first car, this would not be ideal. you WILL crash, dent it, and do you really want to do that to your "dream" car. As already said, get yourself a run around for the first yera or two, THEN go spend your money on your dream car !!!

trust me !

Go get yourself a sport. I have one & love it. A standard 2 litre subaru will be more than enough for anyone who has no driving experince. (Group 13 insurance). You also get the wrx trimmings.

Yes, that is what I meant - I just started waffling on about WRX's :wonder: I'm just about to start the rounds on the phone and see where I can get (if anywhere) on a provisional. Thanks for the reply :)

Wow, I just looked at your pics - it's gorgeous! If I could drive something even close to that I would be really happy! I love the old shape cars.

Thanks for that. I think classics are the best shape. 350 a month ! thats over 4000 for a year. Im sure a insurance company out there would be happy to take your money off you.

pmsl,,,, I dont spend that on the car and bike !! lol

Just got a quote for £2200 on my provisional, that will do for me least I know I can get insured, hurrah! :luxhello:

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated :)

Car Advice
 

I dont know if everyone will agree but...

For a first car, even if only for a few months, get yourself something underpowered, with nothing more than average handling and dont spend a fortune. I can understand why you want to go straight for something good but I honestly feel it would be a huge mistake not only in terms of money, but also in terms of screwing up your driving ability for life.

I spent two years in a mk 2 fiesta 1.1 which at the time I hated. Since then however, despite having 300bhp+, I find those old lessons learned attempting to overtake in such an underpowered car still come into their own today. Its so easy to rely solely on power to overtake but do you want to feel like its the car with the ability or yourself?

Also, as a new driver, the chances of you safely experimenting with the handling of the car anywhere near its limits without ending up in hospital are particularly slim. Again, the scoobys flatter you so much as a driver that you will will feel overconfident to the point where you may one day get it seriously wrong. With the fiesta, the limits were so much lower that you could feel like you were getting there on the roads. in my time, a fence, a couple of hedges and the odd reverse exit of roundabaouts were all part of my learning. It would be a shame to do that to your prize scooby.

Add to this the many other issues such nursing hot brakes, maintaining momentum etc and it becomes part of learning to drive. Bypass this and you could be missing out.

what does anyone else think? Am I the old killjoy bugger i used to think my father was when I wasnt allowed straight into a PUG gti? I know things are different now but when I was 17, we all started in minis, metros and fiestas etc.

Got to agree with paul555 here. It's not so much the damage you'll do to your car it's more to do with who you'll take out aswell if you overstep the mark. Drivings like any trade... you need to learn it from the bottom up.

Please, seriously consider a lesser powered car for at least a year and think.... all that money you'll save on insurance you could have quite a few days out on the track in something faster just to whet the appetite?

M.

PS. my 1st car was a 1.1 Escort and within a week I'd misjudged a turning through a gate and flattened my rear arch and ripped the bumper off!:freak3:

Its a tough one. I started off in a 1.0l mk1 fiesta at 17. :lol1:
But it only lasted about 7 months till I got a 1.4 Rover and then onto a 2.0 GSI Rover and during my 10 years + of driving I have only ever had 1 minor car park bump at which I was not at fault for. (old man been drinking me thinks) :nono: I was always very aware of my cars ability's.

Blimey your lucky I had a 1256 Vauxhall Viva!.....:eek: Which changed to a 2.0 Opel Ascona within a week!.(my dream car at the time:luvlove: )..had it three weeks and spun it out of a bend into another car!...:cry: (the joys of no traction control)....My insurance company loved me so much they made me pay more for the Viva when I came to re-insured it than I had paid originally :confused: ......

So I too agree that you should drive a lower powered car for a good few months to gain some confidence and a degree of knowledge of the roads...whilst at the same time...saving for a more powerful car like your dream Impreza, I can imagine its not what you want to hear...everyone wants to jump straight in to their dream car... but its better to learn the skills to drive than learn the lesson the hard way.:nono:

I would agree that you should start in something less powerfull... if you were 17. But your 25 so shouldn't feel a need to prove yourself to 15 yr old girls by driving like a plank :)

A Impreza sport is fine as long as its driven sensibly. Biggest part of driving experience isn't your skill improving, its knowing what the jerk coming towards you is going to do next!

[QUOTE=A Impreza sport is fine as long as its driven sensibly. Biggest part of driving experience isn't your skill improving, its knowing what the jerk coming towards you is going to do next![/QUOTE]

So very true ! You not just thinking for yourself on the roads. you have to guess what everyone else is going to do.

and can someone please tell me how to work the quote things. :wonder:
Im useless :brickwall

Click on the quote button against the post you want to quote is the simplest way

yer but I only wanted to quote part of the message. never mind will have to have a play around :wonder:

Click https://www.scoobynet.com/images/buttons/quote.gif and the text will appear with the necessary syntax to properly fomat a quote. Delete out what you don't want, but don't accidentally delete the syntax which is the [ QUOTE = Whatever ] you can delete this bit [ / quote ]

I'm with the others, start small and aim for your dream, and then do it properly when you do. A lot of fun can be still had in 'so-called' lesser cars. I drive a Skoda diesel and frighten Scoobs on the track :p

And there is also a lot of fun to be had if you get a old banger too !

Dit it ! cheers mate

I don't get what everyone is on about here. Impreza sport is underpowered, slow and soft. It's not a performance car and it costs a fortune and looks like the insurance is huge just because it looks the same as the turbo impreza.
In fact, if it wasn't for the huge insurance it's a good starter car ... The only issue I would have with it is spending all these money on car, insurance and other things, while getting very little in return. With that money you can get a car that is more fun, cheaper to run and just a better package overall. Also, getting impreza after impreza after impreza ... Try different cars and get a WRX/STI at some later point, at least this way you'll appreciate what scooby has to offer.

i started with a 1.3 mg metro piece of cack was always broken,the tailgate fell off before i even past my test:lol1: it didnt look bad no rust ect. then i got a pug gti 1.6 and soon crashed into the back of a poor old lady that didnt go at a roundabout when nothing was coming ,too late for me to slow down in the wet and not enough experiance to know better,i agree about jumping in a sporty car as your first ride but a good idea is the track days i learnt alot about driving fast cars at knockhill in a race spec xr2i.

The Sport certainly isnt underpowered. Its not a performance car and doesnt have the big bhp but the handling cant be too far off a standard wrx.The Sport is more forgiving than a turbo. And as for insurance it isnt huge because it looks like a turbo its because it is a 2 litre car and in or around the same insurance group as other 2 litre cars.

Get yourself a nice slow first car, you will dent it, bend it, rag it, basically abuse it, learn how to drive in it before going for something a little bigger and get use to the roads and gain that all important experience (plus you will save money in the long run :))

Tony

You are, of course, right. Sport isn't underpowered in comparison to some cars, it is AWD and all, but handling is not too far off a wrx ? Don't know, I've only driven sport once and a couple WRXes, to me it felt like handling and the whole driving experience of sport is nowhere near WRX.
Regarding insurance, I'm not an expert, but for example a Skoda Octavia 2.0 FSI is group 10, while Sport 2.0 is group 14, and they are comparable cars.
Either way, the point I was making is paying £2200 for driving something like sport is silly, especially when you have no clue how to drive that car.

Bloody Hell, my Fabia vRS is group 9A and scares WRX's. It'd trounce a Sport. I still say hold the dream and do it properly later. If it ain't a Turbo, WRX, STi etc then it isn't a real Scooby IMHO.

I looked at a fabia but at the end of the day its still a skoda

To be fair when does anyone use the full potential of a turbo`d scoob on the roads? I`m sure on the roads a sport is as good as anything you can get for that sort of insurance group. Having had a UK turbo and now an STi i know that if I`m honest, its overkill. Not everyone goes for a scoob for the performance, if that was all they were intersted in then i`m fairly certain there are other cars for the same money that perform better. A sport is as much a real impreza as any other so whats the big deal about it?