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While this might be jumping the gun a bit, since my last two learners licenses expired as I was simply too busy with exams to sit for my driving exam, I need a car in the UK.
Semi-urban Scotland isn't really renowned for its public transport as far as I'm aware, and the NHS expects me to show up promptly in the unlikely event a CT1 shrink is needed for an emergency.
I'll be earning about £44k for the first year, and given that I so far have been rather scrupulous about not dipping into the bank of Mom and Dad, and have some piddling savings myself, I'm looking for a decent second hand car in the 10-15k pound range. That will require guilt tripping my dad into paying for most of it, but hey, he loves me, I've made him proud, and my brother already de-facto owns the one nice car we've got.
Requirements?
I'd appreciate all the insight you can provide. I'm very much a novice at this, I'm going to have to learn to do things like change tyres or replace the oil, and other essentials like topping up blinker fluid. But youtube will suffice for that. I want brands, models, and years. I'm not very picky, so have at it.
Edit:
Also, do BMWs deserve their bad rep? In terms of servicing that is.
10-15k is a fair bit higher than you really need to spend to get something decent imo, if 'every penny saved helps'. Hatchbacks tend to provide much better value than other body types, and imo for a relatively young person look better anyway. Saloons are very middle aged. Automatics command a premium too as you doubtless know, and after a while driving a manual it really becomes second nature.
Still, even if you do want an automatic it's hard to beat a Vauxhall Corsa for value - yes it's a hatchback, but all the 2010s ones look good. There are automatic versions with <40k miles for less than 6 grand on autotrader.
If you really do want a saloon, a Volvo S40/60/80 might be decent value and pretty reliable? There are S40s with <30,000 miles in the £5-6k range, a handful of them automatic.
Huh. I definitely didn't know there was an association between age and driving a sedan. That's very much not a stereotype in India. Sedans are aspirational, and so are SUVs, though not as much as the States.
I could certainly save more money, but it's okay, I'm going for 3 years at the least and have a wide geographic range to traverse too. So if my budget is excessive, I can always opt for something cheaper, but that's about as much I'm willing to treat myself since it's both a matter of practical utility and something that I want to look decent, I'll be getting some mileage on it if I want to escape small towns and head over to Edinburgh on the weekends.
To put it into perspective, that's about what might be expected for an Indian doctor breaking into residency to splurge on first hand, though most of us would likely need a car loan. I probably won't, it's the only big ticket purchase I don't feel bad about asking my dad for, since he did once promise me a car when I finished med school. I was the one who turned down the offer, because I'm a fucking homebody and never saw the appeal of burning fossil fuels for fun. But now it's a genuine necessity.
A premium I'm willing to accept. I'd call it a deal breaker really. While I did/am learning to drive stick, I consider it a nuisance, even if I'm sure I'd get used to it like everyone else. I likely will be at best ok at driving by the time I'm in the UK, I'm resuming my driving lessons and do actually need to pass them, but even with our questionable roads, I doubt I'd be entirely comfortable. Still have to make do, if I leave with a driving license that earns me 2 years of leeway before I have to apply for a British one, which is much harder to get.
I like the look of the Astra more, but the Corsa isn't bad. I'm just a little leery of hatchbacks for idiosyncratic reasons.
The S40 and the S80 both seem to be something an elderly driver in the slow lane would drive, but the S60 has some style. Is it significantly more expensive?
I appreciate the advice, tailored as it is for the UK!
Yeah it's really hard to understate the dominance of hatchbacks among young car drivers, which is partly driven by their relatively better fuel consumption, insurance grouping, price etc. than bigger cars of course, but still, perhaps downstream of those factors there is a general cultural association of hatchbacks as young peoples' cars. Not exclusively, older people do drive hatchbacks often too, but virtually every young person drives a hatchback. Saloons/sedans are - at least in my impression, maybe other Brits would disagree - pretty deeply uncool for a young person and associated with balding professionals. Not necessarily a reason not to get one, if you don't care what other people think (and I have no idea how young you are), and it's not like it matters that much, but if you do something to be aware of. Also bear in mind that among some elements of the middle classes 'looking' aspirational is not necessarily a good thing, though again this doesn't really matter and no-one will care about your car much anyway.
Sedans just aren't that popular full stop, as they get outcompeted as family cars by crossovers, estates and SUVs which are more practical, and without either young people or families it doesn't leave a huge market.
Fair (though I've got to imagine that even if the test is harder driving in Britain is much easier than in India), but bear in mind that if you do the test in Britain in an automatic you will not be allowed to drive a manual under any circumstances, which might be annoying if you ever need to drive a rental car/van/friend's car/whatever.
Overall, if you are looking for an automatic in the £10k range, you will be able to get a considerably lower mileage, more economical, newer car if you do go for a hatchback. For that price you can get a virtually new 2023 Corsa at the moment and you would struggle to get any low-mileage sedan that wasn't old or uneconomical.
Oh driving is waaaay easier in the UK. When I have relatives who either learned to drive there or became accustomed to it return to India, they have conniptions at the sight of our roads, let alone the other vehicles. Hell, even as a pedestrian, I once got into an involuntary standoff with a car at an unmarked crossing. I was waiting for him to cross first, and it took me a good minute to realize he was polite enough to wait for me to go first. We were both smiling and shaking our heads at each other when I did figure that out. I'm used to running madly across the road in the middle of traffic. Not that bad, we all do it, and nobody I know has died yet.
And I'll be traveling down sedate suburbs and if I'm unlucky, some lovely rural countryside (I'm a city guy, sadly), so I don't expect to be engaging in illegal street racing.
@2rafa thoughts? Because I'd be pissed off if it's true, a little. Because I personally prefer the aesthetics of sedans and saloons, though I obviously care at least a bit what others think.
Not that I think estate cars or crossovers look bad, I strongly dislike SUVs for how impractical they are, and a hatchback just screams broke motherfucker to me here, even if it's different elsewhere. I guess I'll get over my hangups if I have to. Thanks!
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