Two years ago the no. 1 daughter killed her Punto. Leaving the house and driving down the lane to the road she was putting a CD in, and failed to avoid a tree. It took out the NS front wing, headlamp, lower arm etc. Beyond repair, so I bought her a poverty-spec £200 Nova for the remaining six weeks before she went travelling. When No. 2 daughter started driving earlier this year I bought a 97P Corsa 1.2, which to date has been good.
Imagine my surprise when SWMBO and I returned yesterday morning to see a sick Corsa with a severely dented NS front wing and wrecked bumper. No. 2 daughter had crashed within 5' of the first accident, but had not hit the tree, just a fence post holding up a panel. Wheel/steering/suspension was good, so I removed the wing, bumper and headlamp (intact, but the securing lugs were sheared). All off in 25 minutes. This accident was also caused by her lack of attention - she was worried that a cake on the passenger seat was going to bounce off the seat, so was trying to re-position it.
Google was my friend, and I soon found A1 Vauxhalls just beyond Swindon (www.a1vauxhalls.com ) who quoted me £70 plus VAT for all the parts, which I collected straight away. The supplied wing was silver, not the desired blue, so I came back via Halfords for a £6.99 rattle can and some wet/dry.
We (daughter's first lesson in car repair) prepped the wing last night and then sprayed it after masking, and at 0745 I started putting it all on. Had it finished in time for her journey to work at 0845.
She's only been driving a month, so I hope this will be a good lesson for her. My sense of humour is now back up, and my sense of pride quite high. I guess an insurance assessor would have written off the car, though it could not have got to that as the car is only insured TPFT.
Forget passengers causing accidents - No. 3 daughter is going to drive a car with no stereo or passenger seat !
Happy Christmas all - let's hope 2009 is safe and accident free.
Edited by oldnotbold on 20/12/2008 at 13:55
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I've been guilty of that myself, if its too hot I may fiddle with the heating controls or wind the window down a little, but when driving if something suddenly happed my reaction times would be delayed by a second.
Your daughters have been very lucky they didn;t take out a pedistrian both times this happened.
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The lane is just an un-made up track and almost an extension of our drive - it's not often used by pedestrians as it only goes to our house and the field beyond, and I think that's half the problem. If it was a street with kids, walkers etc. they'd take far more care.
Edited by oldnotbold on 20/12/2008 at 14:19
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My eldest ended up with a very original Volvo 340.
The first time it was smacked, it required a front bumper but I couldn't source one from a scrap yard with repeater indicators. I bought some small ones and fitted them to the front wings in the style of an earlier model, with an older front bumper.
The second time it was smacked requiring another front bumper, I couldn't find an older one, so I had to fit a more modern one with side repeaters integral.
If you ever saw an old Volvo with two side repeaters each side, you now know why.
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My eldests' Polo has its fair share of dents and dings... but thats why I bought it... no point in spending more than £500 on a first car as most drivers will be lucky to get away with not smacking it into something in their first couple of years of driving... hers was a low wall at work!
I simply can't understand parents who buy their offspring a brand new car as their first car after passing, talk about money down the train (or more money than sense!)...
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My daughter had access to a brand new car when she passed her test, it was SWMBOs and bought brand new for SWMBO before she passed (in fact despite having a driving instructor she took the test in her own car and passed.)
Not a noticeable scratch on it yet. Maybe if you trust people they drive more sensibly, mabe if you buy them a heap of disposable junk to drive around in they simply dispose of it.
Personally I work had for the money I earn, and I'll spend it how I want to thanks!
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My daughter was mortified when she had her bump, the cost of the vehicle didn't come into it, it was "her" car and she didn't want to damage it... its just I don't see the point in giving an expensive car to a beginner... but you are quite right, its your money...
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I see both sides, I am a bangerman myself, but newer cars are safer and I think that comes into it. If it was my son or daughter I would get them the cheapest safest car I could find, which would probably be a MK2 Punto or Clio.
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I wouldn't buy my son a car. Make him save for it.
That's currently an interesting concept. My son is only 4. And we did buy him a car. Little Tikes Cozy Coupe II for Xmas 2006.
direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-8819.aspx
- apparently its been replaced by the Cozy Coupe III
direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-0305.aspx
If your daughters shunt their cars again, it might be cheaper to get them one of these:
direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-9419.aspx
"suitable for ages of 1 year and over"
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Me too, its bus pass or a job :).
In fact in our household its the other way round, I bought my dad a car :D, though my parents did pay me back as I wasn't allowed to borrow it.
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My two daughters learnt on Minis (old style) which cost around £600 and were essentially expendable. The first cars they owned were a 205 and a Swift (again old style). Now both 'girls' are around 40 and still haven't bent any of their cars, I think they are on their own.
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My two daughters slightly bent one of my wifes cars each. One discovered that the rear wheels dont follow the track of the fronts when turning around a concrete post, the other that hand brakes have to be applied fully in sloping car parks, (hit armco barrier). Both car accident free and their husbands problem now, (I hope).
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My 2 daughters, aged 23 and 26, are great drivers, though each in their own way.
They're both undoubtedly better than I am, despite my 51 years.
The reason for this is that they have much lower Testosterone levels!
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Daughters - I've two, one 21 and the other 18. Both learned in my wife's old Micra and still have it as well as a Punto. Yes they've had the odd knock and scraped the alloy wheels and bumper on the Punto. The Micra's reconfigured our garage door (three hours to get it to shut again) but it's all part of life.
Would I swap them for lad's? No way. I can still remember the daft things I did when I first started driving and boy did I think I was good then!
{Edited to add punctuation etc. Merry Christmas, Rob}
Edited by rtj70 on 20/12/2008 at 21:49
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Lots of us seem to have two girls...I have as well. The 30 yr old shows no inclination to drive but thye 37 yr old passed at 17, Put her early Mini into back of a friends car, (probably showing off, repaired easily) and now drives a big emergency ambulance for NW ambulance service. 35 yr old son wrote two off but strangely neither his fault. I was the best driver in the world at 17 but I've probably dropped a few places in the last 45 yrs !
Ted
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Daughter, now 26, still has her much loved first car, a 1.4 Proton Sprint. Only marks to date are the dents on the roof made by a student climbing on it while she was a post-grad in Cambridge, plus a scrape mark acquired when being driven by a male friend of hers - which has recently been T-cut out by her present b/f. Would, and do, trust her to drive any car.
Give me daughters any time - I won't embarrass my son and his male friends by recounting their scrapes and bumps. I might add, sons g/f drives a car that looks as if it is serious need of ironing on both sides. Both sides damaged by young men not paying attention and cases in the hands of lawyers.
Daughter obviously takes after her mother ;-) Son after his father!!
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A friends son recently backed his 306 into the undergrowth when overestimating his ability to feel the limits of his tyres adhesion. The car was wedged so firmly between a tree and a wall that he couldn't open the doors and had to call dad on his mobile to come and help him. They got him out by breaking the tailgate window so he could climb through and the car remained in situe for almost a week, cordoned off with police tape, until they got someone who could extract it.
The lad never had as much as a scratch. The car had quite a few.
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> A friends son recently backed his 306 into the undergrowth<
I can sympathise. I recently reversed my car into a spot in a temporary car park. I didn't spot the dead leaves covering a hole just the other side of a tree root :>(
Nice dent in the door sill!
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Yes, me too: two sons as well - all (supposedly) grown-up.
Elder daughter's experiences of 3 successive Toyota Yarises (all excellent) have featured in the forum when people have asked for advice on the Yaris. She drives fast (but so far, touch wood, safely) and without very much mechanical sympathy, and I was very impressed that her last Yaris, after 2 years and 55,000 miles, still drove like new without rattles etc. I have shown her how to open the bonnet but she has forgotten again - another tribute to the Yaris - so I check things at week-ends.
Younger daughter unlike her sister passed her test first time and her very patient and laid-back boyfriend has let her drive first his Aygo and now a Twingo GT.
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