GTI Order Placed (what age are you)?

[mcmaddy]

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.

£950 gross for a 21 yr old on NMW
£1197 gross for NMLW

[Bill_the_Bear]

Guys, just to be clear.  I think a lot of people think I'm saying all under 25s are irresponsible and I'm not saying that at all.  I'm saying they lack experience (which of course is also true for older drivers who start driving when they are old too, but is is true of every young driver necessarily).

What I said was that no matter how sensible or not sensible you are when you are 21 you don't have the awareness and the intuition that only experience brings.  Its even worse in a powerful car because you also need to know what the bangers on the road can drive like.  Yes, your brand new GTI with its disc brakes can bring you to a halt in record time, but what about that busted Citroen with the bald tyres?  How will you take into account that cars performance if during your learning period (the 5 years after you pass) you get into a modern powerful car?

Even if as a young driver you never make any mistakes (and everyone makes many mistakes every single journey), thats not the point, other road users will make mistakes, frequently.  It takes years of driving to have built up the knowledge of what might happen, what pre-emptive action to take, what to do if it does happen and what limitations you and other drivers have.  Its not even just other road users, what about pedestrians?  Half a second can mean the difference between hitting that child that ran out in the road and stopping in time.  There are different road conditions to take into account, different mechanical faults, road layouts vary across the country, different vehicles behave differently, bikes behave differently, push bikes, pedestrians etc etc etc...

So I'm not saying everyone young is reckless, but no matter how careful you are its going to take years before you are an expert and that applies to every young person.  I don't think (personal opinion) non-experts should be driving 200bhp cars.  Sorry.

[GTI7me]

I'm 21 and i'm picking my GTI up next week. I've owned fast cars in the past and driven a massive variety of different vehicles, most people i think drive more sensibly and carefully than older people do. Clean license, no bumps, 3 years NCB and insurance works out at around £650 P/A.

I've worked hard all my life and now run my own business, moved out from the parents house 3 years ago and set up life with my partner in our own home (rented at the moment) but looking to buy in the next year or so.

I think it massively depends on the type of person you are. There are many 21 year olds i know that i wouldn't even let in my car never mind let them loose with one!

J

[Bill_the_Bear]

To answer some questions regarding insurance, I'm 21 and the insurance is gonna work out about 1000 for the year.

This still seems shocking.  Are you fully comp and you are the primary driver?  I was paying well over £1k for an old banger at 21!  At 23 or something I asked my insurance about what it would cost to get me in a 2nd hand mk5 GTI.  They said they do not cover anyone under 25 in that car.  I called around.  Best quote?  £10k per year.

[GtG]

I think the driving comes down to the individual rather than the age. I always had performance cars from 19 300bhp+ but respected the fact I was driving something a very dangerous weapon.

What does concern me as Bear has just mentioned is the insurance. I paid at that age stupid premiums. (The most ridiculous £3k). (I wasn't living at home I feel I should point out!  )

A friend of mine bought a new TT when we were 21, his Dad insured it with him as a named driver. On he second week he had he lost control of it, hit an oncoming car and the TT ended up on its roof written off.

The insurance company very quickly worked out he was in fact the main driver as he used it to drive to work and his Dad had his own car he used to drive to work, not paying a penny out to him or the 3rd party plus he ended up in court for dangerous driving AND driving uninsured. The driver of the other car sued him resulting in him having to take out a massive personal loan secured by his parents house which he was paying off for seven years.

[GTI7me]

I think the driving comes down to the individual rather than the age. I always had performance cars from 19 300bhp+ but respected the fact I was driving something a very dangerous weapon.

What does concern me as Bear has just mentioned is the insurance. I paid at that age stupid premiums. (The most ridiculous £3k). (I wasn't living at home I feel I should point out!  )

A friend of mine bought a new TT when we were 21, his Dad insured it with him as a named driver. On he second week he had he lost control of it, hit an oncoming car and the TT ended up on its roof written off.

The insurance company very quickly worked out he was in fact the main driver as he used it to drive to work and his Dad had his own car he used to drive to work, not paying a penny out to him or the 3rd party plus he ended up in court for dangerous driving AND driving uninsured. The driver of the other car sued him resulting in him having to take out a massive personal loan secured by his parents house which he was paying off for seven years.

And that is why it is not work breaking the law! This story should be told in college's and University's around the country. Maybe it would teach people to slow down and not to try and "skimp" on insurance!

J

[stuart.cameron]

Not everyone at 21 is working at minimum wage! And I've also learnt my lesson after ending up in a ditch in a 1.2 Clio and getting 3 points in my Polo! Basically I can't afford to loose my car as I need to drive for my job.

Basically the company won't let me drive a car more than 3 years old as they pay for it

Insurance for the GTD will be around £600 p/a.

[Gryzor]

Age and experience both have a lot to do with it.  I know young drivers who are very sensible and good drivers, and I know older drivers who shouldn't allowed on the road.  Anybody who calls themselves an "expert" are just talking smack, unless they have the requisite training and qualifications to prove it.  Otherwise we are all learning all the time, and that just means generally, older people have more experience of more situations, and hence tend to be safer on the roads, especially with higher powered cars.  There are always exceptions though.

My insurance came out at just £211, which is purely a reflection of my age, where I live, and a lifetime of no claims.

[mcmaddy]

Agree with you Gryzor. No one is an expert when it comes to driving not even so called professionals.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Agree with you Gryzor. No one is an expert when it comes to driving not even so called professionals.

Semantics.

A 21 year old is less 'expert' than someone who has 10 years driving under the belt.  I'm saying that there is a minimum level of experience that you really need before you should be driving a car like the Golf GTI.  How we define the word expert isn't relevant to that.  Whether some older drivers should also not be driving a GTI isn't relevant to that.