Learning to drive...

Bidley

Those insurance prices aren't that insane. I passed my test at 21 and I had to pay £1400 to insure a 1995 1.4 Rover (this was in 2007). And that was only 3rd party. The car cost me £400.

When you think about it, the amount of money you piss away on car insurance you rarely (if ever) use is pretty depressing.

Ben8010

On the subject of dodgy insurance, I've got a good story - I passed my test in November and got my first car in Feb. I did a quote before I'd bought the car to see how much it would be and put the "when do you want the insurance to start" box to a week in advance just so it didn't expire (it did say that I can change this date when i go to confirm). I bought the car a few days later and when I changed the insurance date from the Saturday to the Tuesday the premium went from £1500 to £1900. Literally not a single other change over than that and it sent the premium up by £400. Ridiculous! Just shows how much it can fluctuate over seemingly irrelevant things. No doubt that when you come to buy the car your premiums will be different again.

A lot of my premiums went down when I'd actually passed my test and put in my license number on the quote - so maybe the same will happen for you.

digitalscream

OK a month later and four lessons in...feeling a lot more natural with it now, and I said as much while we were out driving today. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "So, how are you finding it today?"
Me: "Much better, feeling a lot more comfortable with everything, and I haven't nearly killed us on a roundabout either. I'd call that a win."
Her: "Great - in that case, next week we'll look at booking your test. How does the end of April sound?"
Me: "Blurbleblurblearrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh"

Also...ABS is really disconcerting when it kicks in (yeah, we did an emergency stop for the first time).

EricTheWeary

digitalscream said:

OK a month later and four lessons in...feeling a lot more natural with it now, and I said as much while we were out driving today. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "So, how are you finding it today?"
Me: "Much better, feeling a lot more comfortable with everything, and I haven't nearly killed us on a roundabout either. I'd call that a win."
Her: "Great - in that case, next week we'll look at booking your test. How does the end of April sound?"
Me: "Blurbleblurblearrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh"

Also...ABS is really disconcerting when it kicks in (yeah, we did an emergency stop for the first time).

I was told on my driver awareness course that you should always wear sensible footwear when driving because you could actually hurt your feet in flip flops/ bear feet when using ABS. When I did my test an emergency stop involved throwing a brick on a string out the window so I don't really know...

digitalscream

EricTheWeary said:

digitalscream said:

OK a month later and four lessons in...feeling a lot more natural with it now, and I said as much while we were out driving today. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "So, how are you finding it today?"
Me: "Much better, feeling a lot more comfortable with everything, and I haven't nearly killed us on a roundabout either. I'd call that a win."
Her: "Great - in that case, next week we'll look at booking your test. How does the end of April sound?"
Me: "Blurbleblurblearrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh"

Also...ABS is really disconcerting when it kicks in (yeah, we did an emergency stop for the first time).

I was told on my driver awareness course that you should always wear sensible footwear when driving because you could actually hurt your feet in flip flops/ bear feet when using ABS. When I did my test an emergency stop involved throwing a brick on a string out the window so I don't really know...

LOL

Actually, I had the opposite problem in my first lesson. I was wearing a pair of CAT boots (I'd just walked the dog), and I couldn't feel anything through the pedals, most notably resistance on the clutch and brakes, so I was really heavy-footed with it and kept stalling.

mudslide73

Sounds like it's going really well. Our singer didn't pass until his 30s but he's a great driver. Insurance has just undergone another change in calculations so it might be a bit more than before.

digitalscream

Well, that's it then. Just booked my first test....

Also, I seem to have suddenly developed the boneheaded habit of using the clutch to control my speed on roundabouts. As if I didn't have enough to deal with on the damn things as it is :P

speshul91

digitalscream said:

Well, that's it then. Just booked my first test....

Also, I seem to have suddenly developed the boneheaded habit of using the clutch to control my speed on roundabouts. As if I didn't have enough to deal with on the damn things as it is :P

At least you aren't holding it on the clutch at junctions, my instructor used to hate me dping that. 

Sporky

My instructor said I had excellent clutch control, and didn't need to demonstrate it at every opportunity.

'Course, in my day we didn't have ABS. Emergency stops are much easier now. Which is a good thing.

digitalscream

speshul91 said:

digitalscream said:

Well, that's it then. Just booked my first test....

Also, I seem to have suddenly developed the boneheaded habit of using the clutch to control my speed on roundabouts. As if I didn't have enough to deal with on the damn things as it is :P

At least you aren't holding it on the clutch at junctions, my instructor used to hate me dping that. 

I actually spent a bit of time getting the hang of that today, at T-junctions where I was joining uphill. Not because it's a great thing to do, just that it's good clutch-control practice.

Didn't do anything moronic today, apart from the one thing I "failed" my mock test on - ended up in the wrong lane approaching my exit on a roundabout; there was no-one else around, so I jumped lanes without even thinking. Not wise.

Starting to get frustrated with the instructor's car, though. It's a 1.2 Peugeot 208, and joining dual carriageways can be a proper nightmare because there's just no power there even when dropping it a gear. The car's Top Trumps stats say its 0-60 time is 14.0s, and I'd say that was bloody optimistic; 50-70 takes forever.

Sporky

Drop two gears and bounce it off the rev limiter.

guitarfishbay

Just watch YouTube, worked for this kid

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39587853

digitalscream

Sporky said:

Drop two gears and bounce it off the rev limiter.

I'd be tempted in my own car, but I get the impression that my instructor wouldn't be too impressed with me doing that in hers

It does raise an interesting problem, though. My current plan is to get an MG ZR, probably the 1.8 version (it has ABS). 0-60 in those is about 8 seconds, so it's effectively got almost twice as much "go" as this thing. I wonder if it's going to be too much of a jump?

guitarfishbay said:

Just watch YouTube, worked for this kid

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39587853

I'll be honest, that's how I feel most of the time...

Sporky

digitalscream said:

It does raise an interesting problem, though. My current plan is to get an MG ZR, probably the 1.8 version (it has ABS). 0-60 in those is about 8 seconds, so it's effectively got almost twice as much "go" as this thing. I wonder if it's going to be too much of a jump?

Just don't (always) push the go pedal all the way down. It's an NA engine so it should be quite progressive.

digitalscream

Sporky said:

digitalscream said:

It does raise an interesting problem, though. My current plan is to get an MG ZR, probably the 1.8 version (it has ABS). 0-60 in those is about 8 seconds, so it's effectively got almost twice as much "go" as this thing. I wonder if it's going to be too much of a jump?

Just don't (always) push the go pedal all the way down. It's an NA engine so it should be quite progressive.

"NA engine"?

Sporky

Naturally Aspirated - no turbo or supercharger, so it'll smoothly make more power as the revs rise. Put simply.

Older turbos had lag - until the exhaust gases were going fast enough they didn't do much, then you hit the right point in the rev range and there's a sudden boost in power. Not so much now.

digitalscream

Sporky said:

Naturally Aspirated - no turbo or supercharger, so it'll smoothly make more power as the revs rise. Put simply.

Older turbos had lag - until the exhaust gases were going fast enough they didn't do much, then you hit the right point in the rev range and there's a sudden boost in power. Not so much now.

Ah, gotcha. 

The engine is a bit of a sticking point in those old MGs - they have the K-series engine, which is prone to massive head gasket problems. There's apparently a Land Rover gasket upgrade which sorts it (mostly), but it's not cheap.

ThePrettyDamned

digitalscream said:

Sporky said:

Naturally Aspirated - no turbo or supercharger, so it'll smoothly make more power as the revs rise. Put simply.

Older turbos had lag - until the exhaust gases were going fast enough they didn't do much, then you hit the right point in the rev range and there's a sudden boost in power. Not so much now.

Ah, gotcha. 

The engine is a bit of a sticking point in those old MGs - they have the K-series engine, which is prone to massive head gasket problems. There's apparently a Land Rover gasket upgrade which sorts it (mostly), but it's not cheap.

Worth it though. It's a brilliant car otherwise, and the engine is otherwise good have it done proper, not by a local mechanic. 

digitalscream

ThePrettyDamned said:

digitalscream said:

Sporky said:

Naturally Aspirated - no turbo or supercharger, so it'll smoothly make more power as the revs rise. Put simply.

Older turbos had lag - until the exhaust gases were going fast enough they didn't do much, then you hit the right point in the rev range and there's a sudden boost in power. Not so much now.

Ah, gotcha. 

The engine is a bit of a sticking point in those old MGs - they have the K-series engine, which is prone to massive head gasket problems. There's apparently a Land Rover gasket upgrade which sorts it (mostly), but it's not cheap.

Worth it though. It's a brilliant car otherwise, and the engine is otherwise good have it done proper, not by a local mechanic. 

Aye...I considered doing it myself (takes me back to the old days of helping my uncle with his car). Then I looked at what's involved and swiftly un-considered it.

ThePrettyDamned

If you are concerned about the power, try the 1.4 which is brilliantly nippy, though has the same k series head gasket issues. 

They're nice looking and fairly spacious. My mate *loved* his.

To be honest, I'd not worry much about power. I never had problems with the puma - nippy can be useful for slip roads. 

However, there are *very* few cars that accelerate too slowly to safely do slip roads. I drive a 1 litre aygo and its perfectly fine - you just need to know how to drive it properly. The reasons for more power is not so much acceleration as it is smoothness, quietness and ease of use.

I certainly don't need faster than the aygo, and that's 0-60 in probably 12 or 13 seconds its loud though, and I do need to leave it in third until I'm above 50mph to keep the acceleration going. It doesn't mind it, though.