First Car

[cj1]

2 minutes ago, Skezza said:

600 at 22 is decent. It does all depend on driving history black boxes don't bloody help!!

Have you ever had one? I havent, but imagine it being like this- 

 

 

really wouldn't want to be the person in a car with a box! ?? 

[mattarosa]

That was funny when the video wouldn't load so it was actually a black box and then it got better

[mk2]

Everyone's gonna hate me... I've been done for speeding five times. Once on the national news. No accidents. Work in the tuning industry and know how to mod cars. In fact almost every car I own is properly modded. 10k miles a year and have had cars stolen. I pay £92 a year tpft with priveledges to drive anyone's car with permission.

[cherrys]

8 hours ago, mk2 said:

Everyone's gonna hate me... I've been done for speeding five times. Once on the national news. No accidents. Work in the tuning industry and know how to mod cars. In fact almost every car I own is properly modded. 10k miles a year and have had cars stolen. I pay £92 a year tpft with priveledges to drive anyone's car with permission.

wow. 

 

im from the other side of berkshire (not the nice side) so premiums are naturally gonna be high

[Skezza]

 

On 10/1/2016 at 9:46 PM, cj1 said:

Have you ever had one? I havent, but imagine it being like this- 

 

 

really wouldn't want to be the person in a car with a box! ?? 

I've never had a black box before, they weren't around when I passed my test lol. They're a stupid idea, and I would refrain from advising anyone to go for one, but I am aware they bring premiums down massively.

[sawdust]

5 minutes ago, Skezza said:

 

I've never had a black box before, they weren't around when I passed my test lol. They're a stupid idea, and I would refrain from advising anyone to go for one, but I am aware they bring premiums down massively.

Personally myself I can see the benefits of offering a huge discount if young drivers are prepared to have their driving monitored.

However I think the same should apply to any "at risk" group. Those coming off a ban, those over the age of 70 etc etc.

 

[Skezza]

9 minutes ago, sawdust said:

Personally myself I can see the benefits of offering a huge discount if young drivers are prepared to have their driving monitored.

However I think the same should apply to any "at risk" group. Those coming off a ban, those over the age of 70 etc etc.

 

My feelings are this. When I passed, I was a genuinely terrible driver (although I genuinely believed I was a good driver, funny that). I drove a genuinely terrible car and paid a terribly high price for my insurance (although not as much as the ludicrous amounts banded around today).

That said, my car was freedom for me. It gave me the opportunity to go to see gigs in cities 2 hours away. It allowed me to drive to work. It provided all sorts of opportunities that hadn't been afforded to me before. At the time when I passed my test, I was still working at a local Chinese takeaway. My shifts usually ended at about 1am and then we would hang around for a free takeaway and some chill time with my fellow employees. I then moved to a nasty chain takeaway with a big M and ended up working in a pub over those first few driving years... all of which had shifts running into the early morning.

Already, that's a red flag for the blackbox thing, as they often have a curfew which stipulate to be home at about 10pm. Secondly, all those gigs I went to, they were in towns/cities that were miles away (Stoke doesn't have a massively vibrant music scene) and they all ended late. Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle.... I went there!! Two or three red flags. 1. Some black boxes monitor how far you drive and you can be fined if you travel too far away from home (as it's seen as an insurance risk). 2. We've already discussed driving late at night and their curfew. 3. I often took the motorway which many of the black box insurance companies stipulate drivers don't take (I know this from my girlfriends younger brother).

You've taken away perhaps the most experience I ever gained from driving with just one little black box. Driving to gigs was a great learning lesson for me. I learnt how to drive while (idiotic) passengers talked and shouted and occasionally consumed alcohol in the back of my car. I also learnt how to handle motorway drivers, the good and bad ones. I gained good navigational experience and I also learnt how to properly park as you'd be amazed at some of the places I had to dump it. Going to see a rock gig in somewhere like Dudley tends to involve you abandoning it somewhere.

And driving to work, that was my bread and butter. Simple repetitive experience that both improved my awareness and improved my technique. You take that away from me? I don't think my driving history would be as accident free as it is!!

[mk2]

I passed my test in London, but have to 100% agree with skezza. My early years if driving were purely for pleasure and because I wanted to put a V12 in a moggie minor. It hadn't been done before...(back then).
I started to use a car for work eventually, but I now had two cars, and I was 19. I drove the cheapest car I could insure at the time which was a Lada. But my other car was a... I didn't care at all. Adrian s flux was my insurer and they gave me a superb deal with milage restrictions for modified cars. I've never looked back. I passed my test first go, never had an accident and still drive like an idiot...... I think insurance has gone up a lot and I do feel sorry for new drivers, as enthusiasts who visit forums like this are generally very careful with their cars- they get penalised for the morons out there.

It does help if you have another name added to your insurance policy to get the premium down, like wife or girlfriend. No idea why.