[Closed] First car for a 31 year old IT nerd - something interesting a very bad idea??

Interesting and sensible don't often come together.

Golf TDi's and A3's are definitely not interesting...

For the OP however, how about a 306 GTi-6? Comfy ish. Can cruise easily and relatively frugally, 6 speed box. Makes an awesome noise when you boot it. Has plenty of toys. Bike'll go on roof bars or a towbar no problem.

If you want an RX-8, you may as well try one, but make sure you go in knowing what to expect. They need oil (not a major issue), and the fuel consumption and road tax (for later ones) are pretty brutal. But hey, run it for a year then sell it on - if you've bought a good one and been careful you shouldn't lose much on it, and you'll have had a year of fun.

IMHO - because everyone else has one - you can seriously damage yourself in any car, really. If you misjudge your speed and/ or a corner, you're probably in trouble, and the question really is how much. And, admittedly, some cars will put you deeper in trouble than others.

Alfa 147? Learn all the joys and pitfalls of car ownership in one go.

if I had 4k to buy any car I'd be going for a ep3 type-r if I was bothered about kids/carrying stuff. If I wasn't. I'd be going for a mk1 mx5 and strapping a charger to it and put the grand change in the bank. An rx8 would be nowhere near any list I made.

Dave (31 year old IT 'geek', 3 x owner of mk1 mx5s and had the aforementioned 1.6 sport civic which I loved to bits).

Ah yes but you're an IT geek whereas I'm an IT nerd.

That makes a huge difference.

Probably

Go classic or quirky, get a nice safe car that way and still turn heads. Saab 96, p1800.

Or more modern, Toyota Sera

Only cheapo advice from me - dont get a rwd first. Proper pants browning. Especially when you might not realise the price of folk's fences, hedges and sheds - from personal experience.

Any sporty fwd - good for a laugh. Makes you look sensible. Dont buy anything precious for your first car - you may well dent it whilst parking etc etc. Or someone else will and you'll realise that NCB is worth a lot.

I have no intention of driving how I ride a bike so am less concerned about handling at the ragged edge

This sounds like something I once thought lol. My pride - and confidence - has still not recovered 😆

Hmmm, this is making me wonder - just how over zealous do you have to be to bin a RWD car?

My brother in law installed his mx-5 on a roundabout , via a very solid lamppost.... 12 years or so experience but then he always did seem a little er 'enthusiastic' with his right foot...

Some people are making out that RWD cars are inherently unsafe.

They're not, but if you have come from a fwd car with lots of active safety gizmos especially traction control, but then get in a RWD car without traction control, if you just give it full throttle exiting a corner in the wet you might find the back end steps out a bit, and if you dont recognise this is happenign until its too late then you could be in a spot of bother. If the RWD car has traction control it'll be no different to the FWD car as it will not let you give it full throttle.

You'll learn loads about how to drive a car in a RWD car and once you get to know it, you'll never want a FWD car again (because in general, they're boring compared to RWD)

But its this adjustability on the throttle that makes a lot (but not all)of RWD cars interesting. Your right foot is an analog device, use it like one and you'll be fine.

I used to have a TVR cerbera that would spin the back wheels in s straight line even at 90mph in 4th gear if it was wet, but you had to be really clumsy with the throttle to provoke it to do this, and it was great fun all the time.

My first car was a 6month old Mini Cooper, I've driven many many cars over the years (cough 6), many scary fast cars namely the supercharged/mapped loaner STI Impreza.

None come even close to the £900 1.7 Yamaha engined Ford Puma.

If the MX5 mk2 was more practical* for biking itd be equal, if not a slight win for the mx5 however the Puma is small, nimble, go-kart like and bloody nippy once you are over 2nd gear. Direction changes, snappy input- the steering is great and its cheap as chips for parts etc. When it dies I will go back to a Forester but I hope it flies through its MOT in Feb.

Trying to refit a saris post ride then the bike and secure is a hassle post-ride when you can just chuck it into a hatch......then there's the fact you can carry 3/4 people in a Puma or a lot of junk..

Saying that if you can fit a towbar to a mx5?

First Time Driver:

Get a modern car with good NCAP scores, ABS and Airbags! Doesn't matter how you intend to drive, its all too easy to get out of shape or just make a cock-up. [i] You have to make a gross error to loose control of a modern car[/i] Rubbish! Just going a little wide on a bend is 'out of control', especially if you end up heading for an oncoming car.

A car that ticks the above boxes will usually be a common and not particularly desirable. But it does mean that in the first 6 months of driving, you will be kerbing £10 wheel trims rather than £600 alloys, and broken mirrors etc will be cheap and easy to replace.

6 months minimum in a 'normal' car, then go and fine something exciting!

This was my mate's car as we headed out for a ride, I can't honestly suggest its a practical car for the OP though.

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Rather than an RX-8, you'd be better spending the same money on a BMW 3 series coupe.

It'll drive as well and you'll actually be able to sell it when the time comes.

The thing is though, for 4k it'd be a pretty old 3 series coupe!

Rx-8's are crazy cheap!

I doubt the op would get insurance on a rx8

Not a nerd, but after passing my test at 30 I got a Fiesta 1.4 03 plate. Not scandalous to insure and cheap to run/fix.

...And apperently a really good drive as well. Like the mk1 Focus etc.

Hora - the insurance isnt actually too bad, I posted a page or two ago the comparative quotes for a corsa, Octavia and rx-8.

...And apperently a really good drive as well. Like the mk1 Focus etc.

Nothing to compare it to, but is a fun car to throw about.....just have to use the gears right to make up for the lack of grunt.

RRR....hmmmmmmm could be within the 'brief' then.

Hmmm is there anyway I can buy a mx5? How could I explain to hora jnr and mrshora that I can't carry them both?

How about old school cool? Jaguar XJS 4.0
It'll use more oil and more petrol than an RX8, and probably has the actual reliability that the RX8 is perceived to have, but because it's not a rotary it'll pass muster for a STW "list".

Get the RX8.

p.s. I love the XJS, so it's a semi-serious suggestion.

My brother has a V12 XJS.

It decided to not start as he and new wife left the church en route to their wedding reception..

It's now in a garage , covered up and unloved at my parents house... A lovely car in a straight line by all accounts, when it worked ...

A-B happens quicker in our Mondeo diesel estate, shifting so much kit and you don't even notice the speed. The MX-5 is slower A-B, but so much more fun and feeling.

get the least amount of car to move as much as you need, the mondeo could never handle like the mx5

On a motorway. On a series of bends the Mondeo would be left behind.

Just to give a contrasting approach... I went from sports bikes, where in all honestly 99% of people can't get anywhere near the edge of the thing's performance, and half the 1% that can choose not to, and bought a diesel focus estate. And tbh I have far more fun trying to make the focus go moderately quickly than I ever had going considerably faster on a bike. Obviously different people take their pleasure in different ways but I'd much rather be trying to hustle a slower car, than being in a fast car feeling slow.

Also feel you learn a lot from driving a more basic car, they flatter you less and don't let you hide mistakes as easily.

YMMV of course- no doubt a lot of people would hate my mobile garden shed.

hora - not many straights on the roads I was thinking of, Welsh B-roads with rarely a chance to get beyond 4th

MX5 is more fun, but the Mondeo [u]will[/u] be waiting at the next village.

Like Northwind suggests, lot to be gained from hustling a basic car.

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I'd still take a mx5 over a civic type r. After I drive one I thought it was all revs and shouting with little too show.

Timber you've obviously raced someone at somepoint. All that you proved against that driver is someone in a welsh village had their taxi turn up early that day.

OP - Any car with a bit of poke will be entertaining for your first car! All the folk on here going on about 'boring this', 'wouldn't have that', have all drove/owned multiple cars. It's only on driving muliple cars that you notice the difference between them!
Has for the RWD, FWD and AWD debate...I have a RWD car and although I love it, I wouldn't buy another. I live at the bottom of a steep hill and can't drive up it when there's snow/ice about. Luckily I can borrow a 4x4 when that happens, if it wasn't for that, I'd have sold my BMW and bought an Audi Quattro by now.

First car for a 31 year old IT nerd, I would say get yourself a cheap Nissan Micra and use it for a year to get used to driving and cheap insurance aswell, after a year then upgrade to a better one.

Good luck

Why? What wierd thinking!

Buy a car with great drive dynamics. You'll be safer as you'll be more in tune with the cars handling and interface with the road.

Buy with the view you'll bang and ding and you will.

So. Buy a mk1 1.6 5door Ford Focus on decent tyres.

Job done.

If the budget will stretch to it.. an unmolested Mk2 Golf late 80's early 90's.. they're not exspensive to buy and you can get classic insurance on them... fit 5 people inside or a bike and a hoot to drive or storm up the motorway, A road, track day, family outing etc....

Race? No.
I own both and it is my drive to work.

Taxi comment is true though, stop outside a pub in town on Friday night and chances are someone will try to get in.

NO offence but a mk2.5 Mx5 will beat many many carsa in competent hands down twisties. Yes it means braking later, etc however you'd arrive first. Yes in a turbo diesel you'd arrive more relaxed but you'd arrive first in a mx5 and grinning.

If you've had the rear out you almost automatically 'know' its limits. Wierd.

I sense HUGE amount of complete bollocks in this thread. All 4 pages of it.

DWB you can't just say that- add detail!

"NO offence but a mk2.5 Mx5 will beat many many carsa in competent hands down twisties. Yes it means braking later, etc however you'd arrive first. Yes in a turbo diesel you'd arrive more relaxed but you'd arrive first in a mx5 and grinning."

Not in the wet you wouldnt, or even the slightest damp....FWD is just so much easier to drive to the limit in wet conditions where RWD can catch any one out in the wet and roads dont have any run off.

and I am convinced that with an average driver FWD will always be quicker.

(and I've owned/owe an MX5 Mk3 and Mondeo diesel 🙂 )

One word; understeer Funky

Hora - then your driving the FWD wrong Hora 🙂

No They tend to understeer, lift off/brake etc positioning all you want but if you are hussling a FWD through twisties at a reasonable rate you will always combat understeer in these sort of situations.

The Mondeo's centre of gravity higher/more body roll etc also adds to the mix as it aint no sports car is it.

I could easily have taken my MX5 down snake pass smoothly with no dramas whereas in a Focus it was 😯 and to a much lesser extent in my Puma. Saying all this I'm no gung-ho driver, its all done at 7am'ish at the weekend and there will always be another driver out there quicker than me.

Sounds like you dont drive smooth enough 😆

😆 I pride myself on using the brake as little as possible on the way home from a ride- just gearing down.

Hora, "gears are for going, brakes are for slowing."

Police driver's handbook 🙂

Someone hit the nail on the head up there. Many of us passing comment on here have driven lots of different cars. FWD, RWD, 4WD. Some of us have had near misses (and not so near misses). Try a few and see what you think.

Bear in mind there's a reason that most day-to-day cars are FWD. The very fact they understeer rather than over-steer makes them a safer proposition for most drivers. There's been lots of threads on this here STW explaining why and I'm sure the internet has lots of explanations too.

(as usual, there are always exceptions) 🙂