Are you a first time buyer? Are you finding the whole thing a little bit daunting and stressful? Worried that you are going to get conned by some unscrupulous car dealer who doesn’t really care if you end up driving a car that isn’t anywhere close to how it was advertised. Well we are here to help by giving you a few different tips and pointers on how to avoid any nightmare buying experiences.
First of all, before stepping foot in a car dealership make sure you have a clear idea in your own mind of the type of car you are looking for. Did you like the car that you learnt in? More importantly were you comfortable in it. I learnt in a Fiat Punto myself and felt like buying one as close to the model I learnt in would be a good idea, so that’s what I did and I didn’t have one accident. I’m not saying it works this way all the time, but after learning in a KA a friend of mine got insured on his dads second hand BMW X5 which was a lot more powerful and difficult to drive than the car he learnt in. And he believes it was for that reason that he himself crashed the X5 just two weeks after he passed his test. As a rule of thumb; the higher a cars performance is, the more driving experience you require to drive that vehicle safely.
On the other hand my brother is just recently learning, and he is doing so in a Fiat 500, which he does like but he’s not too keen on the idea of buying a second hand Fiat 500 for his first car as they are stereotypically a girl’s car, and they aren’t exactly cheap either. If you are in a similar position just do a bit of research and try to work out which cars are similar or built on the same platform. Otherwise task some family or friends if you can have a quick go in there car around an empty car park, though make sure they have the appropriate insurance before you get behind the wheel!
At the end of the day though, as long as you make a good solid choice and don’t go with something ridiculous you should be fine as even if it is a bit rocky to start you should be after a solid 10 hours driving in it. Just don’t think the only prerogative of a first car is that it is cheap. Again, my brother had his heart set on a second hand BMW Z3 because he found one really cheap on the internet and his thoughts were it is a beamer so it must be good, but there is always a reason if an originally expensive car is cheap, and it’s not usually a good one, beside like I said before, even if it was in good condition it wouldn’t suit a new driver.
In general, new drivers want to be looking at buying cars like your second hand Ford KAs, Fiat Puntos, Corsas, 206’s and other such models, with a l-1.2 litre engine, where you feel comfortable because it doesn’t really matter if you get a couple of dents or scuffs on them.
