It'll only end up in a hedge anyway...

[Eighteeteewhy]

I'm just the wrong side of thirty and when I first started driving it was almost guaranteed that you were going to crash your first car. I did, and most of my mates did. Is this still the case? Most newer cars handle better and having all these driving aids that were only on the most prestigious cars when I first started. Not to mention the price of insurance these days!
I was lucky and had a 309 GTI at eighteen and my mates had Porshe 944s, RS Turbos etc no chance of that sort of metal for young drivers any more.


@

[groomi]

There have always been 'some' idiots and there always will be. Unfortunately, everyone else also suffers for their lack of responsibility.

[vrsmxtb]

So does this mean that newer cars are more likely to tolerate st driving and so only go wrong in a very bad way?

Makes me think of the post today about the little Aygo/107/C1 having loads of grip. So it'll take everything some young racer-wannabe will throw at it making him feel the daddy, and then suddenly let go at far less controllable speeds?

[Petrolhead_Rich]

Eighteeteewhy said:

I'm just the wrong side of thirty and when I first started driving it was almost guaranteed that you were going to crash your first car. I did, and most of my mates did. Is this still the case? Most newer cars handle better and having all these driving aids that were only on the most prestigious cars when I first started. Not to mention the price of insurance these days!
I was lucky and had a 309 GTI at eighteen and my mates had Porshe 944s, RS Turbos etc no chance of that sort of metal for young drivers any more.


@

better handling and driver aids = higher speed and more spectacular crashes, luckily safety is also improving.

People will always push things to the limits, especially when young, this will never change!

[J4CKO]

vrsmxtb said:

So does this mean that newer cars are more likely to tolerate st driving and so only go wrong in a very bad way?

Makes me think of the post today about the little Aygo/107/C1 having loads of grip. So it'll take everything some young racer-wannabe will throw at it making him feel the daddy, and then suddenly let go at far less controllable speeds?

Yes, I was doing almost sixty in ours before, it is all in context, they arent very fast so it would take commitment to wind one up to huge velocity, they do grip better than they have any right to though.

I didnt crash at all despite havign, Capris, a manta and Golf GTI's, luck more than judgement.

[blank]

I'm 26 and I haven't properly crashed a car yet, although plenty of mates wrote off their first cars.

It's probably luck rather than skill or modern cars to be honest...

[Disco You]

I'm 22 and I didn't put my first car in a hedge.




... It was a ditch, not a hedge.

[ruff'n'smov]

Eighteeteewhy said:

I'm just the wrong side of thirty and when I first started driving it was almost guaranteed that you were going to crash your first car. I did, and most of my mates did. Is this still the case? Most newer cars handle better and having all these driving aids that were only on the most prestigious cars when I first started. Not to mention the price of insurance these days!
I was lucky and had a 309 GTI at eighteen and my mates had Porshe 944s, RS Turbos etc no chance of that sort of metal for young drivers any more.


@

You owe me 3 grand. You and your mates are the reason it cost 3k to insure my lad at 17.

[Johnnytheboy]

I had a Fiesta 1300S - I crashed it into a gate but it lived until I was about 27, then someone torched it.

[FreeLitres]

I have never crashed and I have driven a 5-Litre TVR for the last 2 years.

Do I win some kind of prize?

[squareflops]

Some people are just ste and always will be. A girl I know drove past me coming into the gym, she had to swerve to avoid me, mounted the kerb and without touching the brakes sailed over it grounding out the sills as she did.

I saw her again this morning, two wheel half up on a kerb that isnt supposed to be parked on, god knows how she bumped her civic up on to it. Not a panel on her car that isn't dented and no wheel remains un kerbed.

I amazed she hasn't killed herself and many others by now..

tbh I think this is less about the topic and rather a rant on the complete fkwit for being dangerous and incompetent

[McSam]

Eighteeteewhy said:

I'm just the wrong side of thirty and when I first started driving it was almost guaranteed that you were going to crash your first car. I did, and most of my mates did. Is this still the case? Most newer cars handle better and having all these driving aids that were only on the most prestigious cars when I first started. Not to mention the price of insurance these days!
I was lucky and had a 309 GTI at eighteen and my mates had Porshe 944s, RS Turbos etc no chance of that sort of metal for young drivers any more.


@

Yeah, cheers for that little bit of cause and effect.

[squareflops]

[Art0ir]

The older guys at the rallies have some great stories of going to auctions and picking up Escorts for £20 on a Friday night in their teens and spending the weekend staging and sending them through hedges. Apparently their only concern was getting shot by either the army or the paramilitaries.

[jamoor]

Never owned a car with less than 130bhp since I was 17, had a 200 BHP RWD saloon @ 19.

Never crashed or done anything daft.
1) Use your brain/not be a retard.
2) Maintain your car to extremely high standards, especially tyres and brakes.
3) Oh, and I drove a fair bit too, I drove around europe to CZ when I was 18, and since have driven in all sorts of countries which helps increase awareness rather than the blinkered drivers you get here.

Edited by jamoor on Wednesday 17th October 21:53

[interloper]

McSam said:

Eighteeteewhy said:

I'm just the wrong side of thirty and when I first started driving it was almost guaranteed that you were going to crash your first car. I did, and most of my mates did. Is this still the case? Most newer cars handle better and having all these driving aids that were only on the most prestigious cars when I first started. Not to mention the price of insurance these days!
I was lucky and had a 309 GTI at eighteen and my mates had Porshe 944s, RS Turbos etc no chance of that sort of metal for young drivers any more.


@

Yeah, cheers for that little bit of cause and effect.

That's a tad harsh young drivers weren't just rubbish ten years ago, they have always been bad. Insurance policies for youngsters have always been a bit higher. Unfortunately due to the costs of claims (generally), the money markets and partly cause they can get away with it. Teenagers are being hit very hard.

Personally I do wonder if giving young people really competent cars with esp etc is a good idea. Driving old nails you got warnings of the physical kind, little slides, skids and the odd near misses. It was enough to calm you down a bit. If the only warning you get is the ESP light blinking at you occasionally how are you supposed to learn that you are in over your head and heading for a big accident?

[akz0rrr]

I'm almost 25, and I've never crashed anything. I've not had anything too powerful, though I did get an Astra VXR at 19. But I was so proud of it I drove very, very carefully for the first 6 months. A few of my mates had some prangs when we were 17/18 but nothing serious. A friend of my sister, however, wrote off his 206 2 days after passing his test earlier this year, so it does still happen!

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

I've not had an SVA in a car either, in 25 years.

However, I didn't come on to post and say how wonderful I am - I am sure it's just been a combination of me trying to constantly learn and improve my skills, and a large dose of a guardian angel following me.

What I did want to say was, it amazes me that our driving test does not include an element of skid pan training (and compulsory Motorway training too - but that's another thread).

Ok, I know cars are harder to crash now with ESP, but it's still surely a basic skill everyone should be taught? Or at the very least, the theory of it and being aware of whether your car is front, rear or four-wheel drive and the theory behind how it might react in certain situations, no?

[4key]

Is this car killers annonymouse? I passed my test 2 months after my 17th birthday and am now 33. I have only ever managed to sell one roadworthy car, my last one and it was a cat c repaired by the time i had finished with it. Wasnt my fault though, none of them were

In answer to the op, yes they still all smash cars up, i work in a yard full up with recovered boy racer fk ups.

[snotrag]

Related story.

Back when we were 17, My mate texts me "Parked my Fiesta badly in that ditch on way to work". I knew exactly where he meant, as he pushed it faster and faster down that road every day on the way to his apprenticeship, in order to get an extra 30 seconds in bed. Lift of oversteer, overcorrect, round she goes, plonked it in the field.

A dodgy bend on a not very busy twisty B-road between two villages. But the best bit -

The next 3 vehicles to come round the corner - no word of a lie - were -

- His driving instructor (who was also a mates Dad), who stopped, and laughed his bks off.

Then...

- His Dad. Who went mental.

Then...

- The Police. Who also stopped, gave him a ticking off, made him go tell the farmer he'd pay for a new fence and could he kindly pull him out with a tractor.

Much, much, much ribbing from all parties followed.