Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 09:24
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - terry25

My grandson passsed his test yesterday. I will be buying him a second hand car, maybe a 1lt yaris. My question is would it be best to buy a 1k car for 1st year and upgrade to a 3k car after 1 yr just in case?

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 10:40
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - RobJP

Young drivers - especially young male drivers - are massivley more likely to have serious accidents within the first 2 years of passing their tests.

So you might want to revise the '1 year' change idea.

By far the most important thing is that he knows how to check his tyres for pressure AND depth, fluids, bulbs - and actually does it all. Far too many young drivers are caught out by a combination of factors - lack of experience meaning too fast for the conditions, but if you add into that mix bald tyres then the results can be horrific.

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 10:53
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - madf

Agree with teh above advice.

BUT

Young drivers also tend to park or run over kerbs. This does terrible things to wheel alignement.. Son had a Yaris and it suddenly started skidding on corners. Tracking was way out due to kerb parking. OK when tracking sorted.

So check tracking when bought - ring round( ATS used to check for free..)

And keep an eye on tyres for uneven wear..

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 11:11
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - catsdad
In my own experience as a young driver myself many years ago it was my ability to attract gate posts in tight driveways and similar minor mishaps that caught me out. My son later followed in the family tradition with a couple of minor dings and one blameless right off (hit when stationary). Hopefully minor scrapes will be the worst your grandchild will suffer. Yaris is one of the larger superminis but a good choice in terms of reliabilty. Personally I'd find the cheapest sound one I could and not worry if it comes with the odd scratch (reflected in the price) and upgrade at a later date when they've learned to drive as against learned to pass the test!
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Wed 18 Nov 2015 11:33
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - slkfanboy

@catsdad - Strangly enough most drivers have been a young driver at some point!

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 13:03
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - catsdad
Inexperienced yes, young? Not necessarily. You won't catch the "dad" out on that one dear "boy". ;-)
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Wed 18 Nov 2015 15:15
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - madf

@catsdad - Strangly enough most drivers have been a young driver at some point!

When I learned to drive, the only cars I could afford to buy cost £40#1 and if you hit a gatepost, the gatepost fell over or broke or both...

(I bought just postwar#2 cars which had VERY thick metal..)

#1 in the days when you could buy a Mark6 Bentley for £150.

#2 WW2.

Edited by madf on 18/11/2015 at 15:15

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 13:07
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - corax
In my own experience as a young driver myself many years ago it was my ability to attract gate posts in tight driveways and similar minor mishaps that caught me out.

Did that in my Alfasud and spent the rest of the day doing repairs.

I was the Isopon king.

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 14:11
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - terry25

All very constructive and helful. Thank You everyone

Edited by terry25 on 18/11/2015 at 14:14

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 16:43
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - bathtub tom

Don't!

Every young driver that I know who's been bought a car has smashed it up. They've no responsibility for the car, or the consequences and have to deal with the increased insurance premiums in later life.

By all means help them to buy a car, perhaps by agreeing to meet half of all costs. I did this with my kids. They quickly learned the cost of car ownership. Particularly after one of them 'bent' the car on an innocent concrete post. They couldn't afford their half of the bodyshops estimate and had to wait (with the car off the road) until I got 'a round tuit' dealing with the damage - it didn't look so pretty after!

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 16:54
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - lordwoody

That is certainly not my experience, children need teaching responsibility by their parents and neither of my children 'smashed it up' when helped to buy a car. Just saying.

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 17:03
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - jc2

I never bought my children or grandchildren a car-they bought it,they insured it,they broke it.My great grand children(I've already got some)will be treated the same.

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 18:51
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - Wackyracer

A workmate bought his son a brand new car as he didn't want to be spending out on repairs etc. but, it didn't work as the son wrote the car off within a couple of months and I'm sure he would have been better off having bought a good cheap banger.

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Wed 18 Nov 2015 19:43
Toyota Yaris - New Young Driver - bazza

I would definitely not spend too much, just making sure whatever you buy is safe, treat it to a brake service and a decent set of new tyres. Both our two were bought very second-hand cars, depreciation then is not a factor and the inevitable scrapes can be repaired if needed cheaply at a local body shop or just accumulated. Yaris is perfect, strong, cheap and reliable. They've realised the cost of running a car through experience, plus hopefully they've learned it's not necessary or financially astute to get into debt or sign up to PCP deals etc to be mobile.

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