GTI Order Placed (what age are you)?

[GTI_Redpath]

Bloody hell.  There should be a law that no one under 25 can drive anything over 150bhp.... its just not wise.  Dunno how you afford the insurance either.

not everyone under 25 is a reckless idiot behind the wheel...

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bloody hell.  There should be a law that no one under 25 can drive anything over 150bhp.... its just not wise.  Dunno how you afford the insurance either.

not everyone under 25 is a reckless idiot behind the wheel...

I know I'm gonna piss people off now but frankly, they pretty much are.  Some realise it, some don't, some see it in their mates and take super care at all times and yet all are the same because they have no experience.  When you are that young you think you know it and you think you can handle anything... you can't.  After you pass your test it takes years to build the skill and experience.  You may feel you are safe but you really are not.  Hell, I'm still learning myself.  Driving a vehicle with power is a really bad way to go about this process for multiple reasons.  Really really bad.  Your basically short cutting a vast amount of experience and knowledge you need.

But it goes beyond that really.  When you start your first job you don't begin in the board room of a FTSE100 company.  You need to start with something small and work up as you gain experience.  It's for the benefit of the young lads as much as anything, that is the right and proper way to learn.  Jumping into 200bhp with less than 5 years experience is bad for everyone, let alone 200bhp in a BRAND NEW car!  Even if you are stinking rich and money is no object the wise thing to do is get about 10 years driving with all kinds of experience on the road and under the bonnet before you do that.  For one thing you don't know your limits and until you do half a dozen different things that leave you thinking "oh sh!t that was close" you won't know them.  You do not want to be finding these limits in 200bhp.  It will make you feel invincible and then in a heartbeat you are anything but.  Learn these things gradually or you won't really learn them at all.

Now I know the lure is strong, so strong it's likely every 21 year old who reads this is going to be fuming with anger and disregard everything I've said out of hand, I was the same!  Believe me I wanted the nice car, the new car, the performance car.  But it's just not good for you.  I hope I don't meet these young chaps on the road in new GTIs because when I look back at myself, out of the 1000 or so 6th formers at my college I was probably the most mature sensible and careful one, and there is no way the me now would want to bump into the 18yo me... and that is in a car with less than 100bhp!

Sorry if I've offended anyone in this.

[GTI_Redpath]

Bloody hell.  There should be a law that no one under 25 can drive anything over 150bhp.... its just not wise.  Dunno how you afford the insurance either.

not everyone under 25 is a reckless idiot behind the wheel...

I know I'm gonna piss people off now but frankly, they pretty much are.  Some realise it, some don't, some see it in their mates and take super care at all times and yet all are the same because they have no experience.  When you are that young you think you know it and you think you can handle anything... you can't.  After you pass your test it takes years to build the skill and experience.  You may feel you are safe but you really are not.  Hell, I'm still learning myself.  Driving a vehicle with power is a really bad way to go about this process for multiple reasons.  Really really bad.  Your basically short cutting a vast amount of experience and knowledge you need.

But it goes beyond that really.  When you start your first job you don't begin in the board room of a FTSE100 company.  You need to start with something small and work up as you gain experience.  It's for the benefit of the young lads as much as anything, that is the right and proper way to learn.  Jumping into 200bhp with less than 5 years experience is bad for everyone, let alone 200bhp in a BRAND NEW car!  Even if you are stinking rich and money is no object the wise thing to do is get about 10 years driving with all kinds of experience on the road and under the bonnet before you do that.  For one thing you don't know your limits and until you do half a dozen different things that leave you thinking "oh sh!t that was close" you won't know them.  You do not want to be finding these limits in 200bhp.  It will make you feel invincible and then in a heartbeat you are anything but.  Learn these things gradually or you won't really learn them at all.

Now I know the lure is strong, so strong it's likely every 21 year old who reads this is going to be fuming with anger and disregard everything I've said out of hand, I was the same!  Believe me I wanted the nice car, the new car, the performance car.  But it's just not good for you.  I hope I don't meet these young chaps on the road in new GTIs because when I look back at myself, out of the 1000 or so 6th formers at my college I was probably the most mature sensible and careful one, and there is no way the me now would want to bump into the 18yo me... and that is in a car with less than 100bhp!

Sorry if I've offended anyone in this.

I do agree that learning respect for a car is incredibly important. I do also agree that it is vital to have a many crappy, slow, unreliable cars to learn how to drive properly. I also think it would be beyond stupid to get into a car thinking your safe and drive the nuts off of it the second you get in it but to say that ALL under 25's is just wrong. every person is individual. saying that is just ageism frankly, nothing more...

[GTI_Redpath]

oh and all the wreckless drivers are in ST's not GTI's

Great, now I'm discriminating! haha

[MJ-GTI]

25 and all the way from South Africa 

[mcmaddy]

I agree with almost everything bill is saying but unfortunately you can't tar every bell end under 25 with the same brush. the majority yes but not all but saying that I don't think it's just a certain age group. what if your 40odd and just pass your test and get something powerful. are you better or worse than an under 25? I bet the insurance won't be much different and it still beats me how these young kids can afford proper insurance for st's, gti's, Scooby doos etc are they all fronting? are they even insured or do they actually pay the massive premiums?

[monkeyhanger]

I think it completely depends upon the person. I'm by far the most sensible of all my mates, and always have been.

When I passed my test, I was chomping at the bit to get out in a car. I didn’t buy one immediately – I had access to my dad’s car. He had a works van and goes down “the club” (British Legion) most evenings for a couple of hours. As long as I was willing to give him a lift there and back, I had unlimited access to his car. I was given the impression that I would have to go out under my dad’s supervision a few times before he would let me loose with it on my own. For 2 weeks I harassed him about going out with him in the car and then finally he just handed me the keys and told me I could go out on my own. He probably just wanted me to get out of my system that “just passed my test, I am a great driver/I am invincible” buzz everyone gets when they first pass. He knew I was sensible enough to handle it. It was by no means a pootler. Unlike all my mates thrashing their mam’s Rover Metro, I was let loose on a 2.8L Ford Granada estate.

It is character building to start from nothing and working your way up through bangers you fix yourself etc to the good stuff, but a lot of it will depend on the person. Some people are dicks behind the wheel when they are young and grow out of it, some people will be dicks forever, some people will have their sensible heads on from day 1.

Everyone wants a nice car at 17, but not everyone is desperate to leave home (I was – it was a powerful motivator not to spend too much money on a car). If you’re happy living with your parents, financing a GTI/GTI probably isn’t going to break the bank (although the insurance might)

There is no waiting these days – buy today and pay for it tomorrow, how many people here are buying their car outright? Car finance has never been so accessible.

I think my sensibilities are shown in my car of choice – a relatively expensive car on paper which is not as expensive to run as most would imagine due to the excellent residuals. I get to run a £26k VW for the same price as running a £17k Ford/Vauxhall/Alfa/Renault etc. That is smart car buying as far as I’m concerned.

[CraigW]

I don't think you can label all youngsters as irresponsible as there are many out there who are very sensible. What I'm intrigued by (and I don't agree with MH on this) how do these youngsters afford these cars. Even living with my parents, there was no chance in hell at 21 I could have afforded a £27k car and that was with me out working at that age. I was running about in 2nd hand fiestas and Polos until I was 26 and even after that my first brand new car was a 1.6 golf Mk5 which cost about £16k I think.

These youngsters nowadays must be on huge salaries. Probably just jealous 

[monkeyhanger]

I don't think you can label all youngsters as irresponsible as there are many out there who are very sensible. What I'm intrigued by (and I don't agree with MH on this) how do these youngsters afford these cars. Even living with my parents, there was no chance in hell at 21 I could have afforded a £27k car and that was with me out working at that age. I was running about in 2nd hand fiestas and Polos until I was 26 and even after that my first brand new car was a 1.6 golf Mk5 which cost about £16k I think.

These youngsters nowadays must be on huge salaries. Probably just jealous 

Depends how much they’re earning and how much their parents are taking off them in “board”.

Some parents maybe won’t take a penny off their kids. Maybe some parents will act as guarantors on the car loan or officially take out the finance themselves. An old work colleague did that years ago. His daughter at 17 was earning about £10k a year and wanted a new Peugeot 206CC. She got the car, had no other money to spend.

Some people would skint themselves to be driving around in a flash car – no holidays, no beer money etc. For some people, their car is their life.

What’s minimum wage now (22 years old and over, for the highest band)? About £12500 a year (£6.50 an hour on a 38 hour week)? That’s got to be about £950 a month take home pay considering most of the wage will be under the annual tax-free allowance. Taking into account no deposit and financing the depreciation only, plus interest, a GTD will be costing you about £400 a month and running costs.

There will be some people picking up minimum wage, living at home, paying next-to-nothing to their parents who are willing to spend £550 a month (+ insurance) on the overall package of running that car. I personally think they’re daft, but I do see it happening with some of the young apprentices at work having some of the better cars in the works car park.

[GTI_Redpath]

To answer some questions regarding insurance, I'm 21 and the insurance is gonna work out about 1000 for the year. Expensive for some but not too bad at 21

And I'm not skinting myself getting the car....

And my parents charge a hefty board rate unfortunatly