Buying your first car

You’re 17, maybe 18 and you’ve just graduated to the proper, genuine pink of a full driver's licence – it’s that magical moment, where you cast aside the bicycle-limited shackles of childhood and head for the open road. But you’re going to need a car…

Now, maybe mammy and daddy have ponied up for you to buy something, maybe you’ve saved and scrimped for years or maybe you’ve just got €500 in your pocket and you’re going to take your chances, but whatever your route to buying a car is, you should definitely follow some basic, hopefully helpful, rules.

First off, buy the newest - and therefore safest - car you can. An unpleasant survey carried out by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed last year that the vast majority of young or first-time drivers killed on the roads were driving older - and therefore less safe - cars. I know you’ve been hammered with this over and over again, but you’re never going to be as risky on the roads as you are right now, so try and insulate yourself from this by buying the safest car you can.

Newer cars are safer, it’s as simple as that, but there are some older cars you can pick up on the cheap that are exceptionally good at protecting you if it all goes horribly wrong. The 2000-2005 Renault Clio, for instance, was a four-star car in the EuroNCAP crash test and can be picked up for around €1,000 these days (and it’s not as unreliable as some horror stories would have you believe). Likewise, the 2005-2011 Toyota Yaris was actually a five-star crash test car and is incredibly reliable too, so there are affordable options out there that are also safe.

Speaking of affordability, you’ll need to keep your engine size down if you want to get affordable insurance. Stick to, or as close as possible to, a 1.0-litre engine (the Yaris is another good shout in this department) if you want to get a premium that you can actually afford. It’s probably not a bad idea to make good friends with your local insurance broker, who may be able to get you better quotes.

Alternatively, you can get trained up and to be honest there’s no better advice for anyone with a newly-minted licence. Yes, you’ve just passed and yes you can probably recite the Highway Code from memory, but trust us, there’s a lot yet to learn. Some of us have been driving for more than 20 years and we’re still learning. Advanced driving courses can teach you a huge amount, not just about safety but also about mechanical sympathy (which will help on the reliability front) and in some cases they’ll even get you a few Euro knocked off your insurance quote.

Finally, make sure you leave a bit of budget aside for servicing and tyres. Keeping your car in good mechanical fettle and making sure it’s running on good rubber is hugely helpful both to safety and, in the long run, to saving money.

Now, get out there and be brilliant.