u/Think-Pipe2760

The stress of buying a first car

I have recently passed and I am planning on buying my first car as soon as possible. I am 21 M and have been looking at auto trader for the last couple of weeks for a car.

I am constantly being told I should buy something old that can get beaten up but I am also told I should be looking for something with low mileage. I want a car that I like the look of, reliable and not too bad to insure.

It feels like when I look at a car and tell someone I like it, they instantly point out a major fault. Such as Peugeot 208 the other day for 3k which I liked the look of, was told to avoid due to it having 70k miles and a wet belt. I then found another with a belt replacement recently for 3.6k but was then told I should avoid due to missing the last couple years of its service history.

Is it normal for it to be this hard and stressful to buy a first car? I feel like a budget of about 4k (depending on insurance) is quite reasonable? Or would I have to increase it?

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u/Think-Pipe2760 — 4 days ago

Honestly such a relief and so happy. Such a stressful journey from changing instructor and financially juggling everything.

The two most important things my instructor told me which I genuinely might not have passed if I didnt know.

  1. Dont give up if you think you have made a mistake. I thought I had failed twice because the examiner helped me out with telling me a couple things, but it turns out that wasnt a problem.

  2. Make sure you start and finish strong. The first 5 minutes I was really nervous and afterwards I was fine, so getting a good start really helped. Then I was making sure I was purely focused with the last 5 minutes as I would kick myself if I made a silly mistake.

Good luck everyone, the feeling afterwards is so worth it!

u/Think-Pipe2760 — 14 days ago