tbh you can go alot further wrong than a landie and tbh you can have a right crack in them and while all your mates are running round it little cars with no room you have somehting that is actually useful, and if you decide to have an argument with another car or stationary object it will stand up pretty well and yu wont be goign that fast either cos fast in anything other than a landie with a v8 is a relative term so speeding fines arnt a worry either lol

dit: as for insurance i know someone who insured a v8 range rover as their first car for alot less than its gonna cost me for my corsa, which if im actually working as an aprentice when i start driving is gonna probably cost in excess of £3000 tpft

Quote from Crashgate3 :

Just the thing to keep the insurance down


I think I'll definitely look into doing the pass-plus though. What kind of stuff does it involve?

It's a minimum of 6 extra hours of driving with your instructor. You do motorway driving, poor weather, night, rural roads and dual carriageways. If you can't do any of those (i.e. you live 5 million miles from a motorway, or the weather is good) you do a theory module instead. You don't pass or fail, but if you are shit they will want you to do more hours before you get it.

I drove like shit in mine (I had been driving my own car exclusively for a few weeks and forgot how to drive a Fiesta!) and still got it in 6 hours...

More info here - http://www.passplus.org.uk/modules.asp

Adding PassPlus to my quotes didn't change squat. They took like £50 off it at the very most, which wouldn't even cover the cost of doing it

[Edit: Maybe because they reckon by 28 I should be over the "boy racer" thing and actually value my own life without needing extra lessons]

When I was looking at quotes before pass plus they wanted £1,600 for a 1985 Defender, after pass plus that was down to £800. Which was nice.

It seems that if you choose non-standard vehicles for your first car insurance is a lot less than the typical young lad cars (Corsa, Nova, Fiesta, Saxo, etc). Which is nice. I got a quote of £1,800 for a 3.0 V6 Omega, which was a lot less than the £3,400 I got for a 1.1 Fiesta.

Having a play with the various comparison sites, Pass-Plus seems to make not one jot of difference to the quotes. As Dajmin found, it may be because I'm not a teenager.

im ditching the corsa and getting myself an omega then lol

Quote from Jakg :

It's a minimum of 6 extra hours of driving with your instructor. You do motorway driving, poor weather, night, rural roads and dual carriageways.

You don't HAVE to do that while getting your license?

In Germany, at least night driving and driving on the Autobahn and rural roads are mandatory. You can't take your test without having done those.

No the driving test doesn't cover night / rural / motorway driving annoyingly.

You can't go on the motorway as a learner in the UK - although you do usually go on the dual carriageway (if there is one within 30 minutes of the test centre so it's feasible - although usually there is) which is very very similar.

thats worrying... here both the instructions and usually also the test covers most of these (autobahn and country lanes in particular)
granted the autobahn requires a lot more attention and knowledge than a boring restriced motorway but educating and testing drivers on all kinds of roads should be a requirement anyhwere

You don't get tested on it but your are put into those situations by your intructor, ive done night driving, country roads just not the motorway which isn't really hard. Suppose you won't get night driving in the summer either really :\

I think your main insurance problem is where you live. Manchester is probably very high up the risk scale for insurance companies.

Have a look at Citroens. Mechanically they'll run forever, but check for stupid broken things like faulty window switches and other electric parts. They're not massively quick, but they are massively cheap and massively comfortable. I bought a Xantia 1.9TD a couple of years ago for £137, perfect mechanically but like I said it had some stupid electronic problems (one door wouldn't unlock, one window wouldn't open and the rev counter didn't function). Driving it was like driving and armchair, eventually I sold it (for £200 with over 200k miles!), but now I miss it.

The big expense with the Citroens are the ones with the hydraulic suspension. When that goes your savings will feel it.

Hardly, the suspension parts on the hydraulic Citroens are surprisingly cheap, and on the later models (Xantia onwards) the system is pretty reliable.

Working on the system is also simple, I replaced the front spheres on my Xantia for £35 including the tool I needed to do it, and it's easier than changing the headlight bulb.

It'll only seem expensive if you make the mistake of getting a garage to do the work, because they will convince you it's difficult when it really isn't.

Something I've found - a company called Footman James are consistently quoting me about £500 wheras all the others are closer to £1000. I've no idea if it's a bug on their website, but I get the same quote if I get a quote direct too. If it's correct then I'm well happy

http://www.footmanjames.co.uk (it says it's a specialist broker, but they do 'normal' cars too).

They quoted me £1783 for mine. Holy Jeebus.

Quote from Jakg :

Although you do usually go on the dual carriageway (if there is one within 30 minutes of the test centre so it's feasible - although usually there is) which is very very similar.

Random Fact: Only one test centre in the country doesn't require you to go on a Dual Carriageway on your test [Melton Mowbray]

Quote from J@tko :

Random Fact: Only one test centre in the country doesn't require you to go on a Dual Carriageway on your test [Melton Mowbray]

Leicestershire lol, I'm moving there in 3 weeks

Doesn't the A1 go right past Melton Mobray?

Quote from Crashgate3 :

Doesn't the A1 go right past Melton Mobray?

A6 I think you mean

Neither of my tests at Mill Hill put me on a dual carriageway, my little brother's test didn't put him on one either. Methinks I smell BS.

Quote from BlueFlame :

A6 I think you mean

Google will know. To the internet!

EDIT: A6 is about 4 miles away, A1 is about 6 miles away to the other side. Both have adequate provision of dual-carriageways.

I nether went on a dual carriage way on my test either. I did go on a dual lane road, but it is a 30MPH stretch of road (and has been for well over 15 years) to try and stop kids ending up as flowers tied to a lamp post.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

to try and stop kids ending up as flowers tied to a lamp post.

And they said alchemy was impossible. Next step: gold.

I'll rephrase it. It's the only place where you DEFINITELY DON'T go on a dual carrigeway

A1 is about 30 mins from Melton, and I don't think the A6 is dual carriageway near to Melton...?

Where you moving to BlueFlame?

And sorry for OT

Quote from Bob Smith :

And they said alchemy was impossible. Next step: gold.

I've done it, my Lord! I've discovered how to turn things into gold! Pure gold!