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Advice sought - want to start driving

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  • 25-07-2007 9:56pm
    #1
    ponderer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 60 ✭✭


    Hi all thanks in advance for any help you can provide me with....

    Ok I'll start with a brief background...
    I'm 24, I have had a provisional licence for the last 8 months (since I passed the theory test). I have NEVER driven a car and live in Cork.

    I want to start driving and would like answers to the following:

    1) What's the best way of organising lessons??
    2) Who should I get them with?
    3) How much do they typically cost?
    4) What kind of car should I buy (2nd hand), how much should I expect to pay and what would insurance cost etc??

    Ummm think that's all the questions for now, hopefully someone can help!

    Cheers,
    Ponderer :)


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    #2
    zilog_jones
    Registered Users Posts: 6,638 ✭✭✭zilog_jones


    Ask around if you know anyone who's had lessons or done the driving test recently. I was paying €30 a lesson last year (a lesson would last about an hour).

    I'd recommend you try and get a car as soon as possible if there isn't one in the family you can get insured on or anything, otherwise the lessons would be a waste of time. My instructor had no problem taking me in my car after about 5 lessons in his dual control car.

    How much should you expect to pay for a car? How much do you have? :)
    From my experience, don't get a loan!

    I got a '98 Fiesta 1.3 LX 5dr last year for €2,500 (looking back it wasn't really worth that much, but I was too lazy to look around). Insurance cost me €2,300 (Hibernian), but insurance seems to have gone down a bit in general and I'm 21. Since then there was tax (€272 for a year), NCT (€50), got new tyres after a warning from the NCT (€70), oil change/new plugs (about €60), new heater control valve (€50 - common fault on Fiestas), new thermostat (€40 - common enough thing to break in cars), new temp. gauge sender (€50), and worst of all a new steering rack (€400 - but that was my fault for driving into the kerb!). So yeah, be prepared for other expenses too.

    There's a lot of good small cars from the late '90s around for about €1500-2500. If you go over 10 years rust becomes much more of a issue, and some insurers like Quinn put extra loading on insurance for cars worth less than €2k which is kinda lame.


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    #3
    BrandonBlock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 570 ✭✭✭BrandonBlock


    zilog pretty much summed everything up there, all I'll say is

    DON'T PAY MUCH FOR YOUR 1ST CAR!!!

    You will knock, bump, scrape, bang, dent , etc it! Try get something for around €1000~ :-D


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    #4
    Gregor Samsa
    Registered Users Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    Do try to get personal recommendations for an instructor from friends or co-workers. If you just pay for one lesson (as opposed to block booking 10 of them), you'll get the chance to see if the instructor suits you before deciding to carry on with him/her or looking for someone else.

    Also, Boards has a Learning To Drive forum where you might pick up some tips and info:

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=909


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    #5
    layke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,956 ✭✭✭layke


    BrandonBlock wrote:
    zilog pretty much summed everything up there, all I'll say is

    DON'T PAY MUCH FOR YOUR 1ST CAR!!!

    You will knock, bump, scrape, bang, dent , etc it! Try get something for around €1000~ :-D

    Agreed 100%.

    Get a piece of ****e and use it for a year, during your time get your full license. As soon as you do a year your insurance premium should drop a fair bit and you will be hitting 25 so insurance companies will want to know you.
    Then you can go and buy something decent, make sure you ring around for a quotes after that period as insurance companies are black-hearted bastardos who will try and screw you out of money if you let them.


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