What first car for nervous female driver (28)?

[ATV]

Hi,

Trying to find a car for my sister. She passed her test first time 11 years ago but she is an extremely nervous driver. She's driven my mum's Polo a maximum 8-9 times over the years alone and has never been on the motorway. She's been using public transport up till now.

She's got a new job now which requires driving on the motorway. We'll get her some advanced driving lessons and I'll passenger up with her a few times to get her confidence up.

Could anyone recommend a car up to £8,000 for her? The requirements would be:

Must haves:

Small
Reverse parking camera
Automatic

Would like:

Cruise control
Leather seats
Reliable build quality
Cheap mpg
4WD (or at least good in snow without winter tyres)

Any advice gratefully accepted. Thank you

[scarble]

Dangerous assumption that 4wd means good in snow, better at accelerating but no better at stopping and steering.
Why the snow requirement, does she live on a mountain?

[Shaw Tarse]

ATV said:

Hi,

Trying to find a car for my sister. She passed her test first time 11 years ago but she is an extremely nervous driver. She's driven my mum's Polo a maximum 8-9 times over the years alone and has never been on the motorway. She's been using public transport up till now.

She's got a new job now which requires driving on the motorway. We'll get her some advanced driving lessons and I'll passenger up with her a few times to get her confidence up.

Could anyone recommend a car up to £8,000 for her? The requirements would be:

Must haves:

Small
Reverse parking camera
Automatic

Would like:

Cruise control
Leather seats
Reliable build quality
Cheap mpg
4WD (or at least good in snow without winter tyres)

Any advice gratefully accepted. Thank you

Would a bigger/higher car give her more confidence?
Rear parking camera? Many people did without for years,try a shop window (though it does help)

[The Turbonator]

I'd reccomended a 1.0 ecoboost titanium x Fiesta with the powershift gearbox.

The gf has had 3 Fiesta's now and they've all been brilliant. So good in fact, that I even bought one myself whilst we save for a wedding. All of ours have been diesel but I did have a rental Focus with the ecoboost engine and I was very impressed.

Both were very good in the snow earlier this year too and they never once got stuck. We were going up hills where SUVs were getting stuck. To be fair though, even a 4x4 will be crap in the snow with summer tyres. Driving technique is far more important than relying on a 4 wheel drive system. It's all about smooth inputs and keeping momentum.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2018...

I only found that after a quick look, the powershift is rare but you'll be able to find a lower mileage one within budget.

Edited by The Turbonator on Sunday 29th July 17:16

Edited by The Turbonator on Sunday 29th July 17:17

[Pothole]

She doesn't need a reversing camera. Please make sure she's actually capable before letting her on the motorway on her own.

[iwantagta]

ATV said:

She's got a new job now which requires driving on the motorway. We'll get her some advanced driving lessons and I'll passenger up with her a few times to get her confidence up.

Must haves:

Small

Any advice gratefully accepted. Thank you

If she is driving on the motorway does she *really*want a small car? - (by small i'm assuming Yaris/Ka size) - Fiesta would be minimum i'd want to do on a repeated motorway basis (if covering mileage)
Anyway;
Mazda3
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[giantdefy]

Pothole said:

She doesn't need a reversing camera. Please make sure she's actually capable before letting her on the motorway on her own.

How do you detect the lack of need of a reversing camera?

[vikingaero]

Pothole said:

She doesn't need a reversing camera. Please make sure she's actually capable before letting her on the motorway on her own.

She does need a reversing camera! If it's your or my car in the firing line as she's reversing, I would prefer she had one.

[vikingaero]

If she is that nervous then get her to have a few lessons with a driving instructor. Mrs V was in the same boat x years ago, passed her test, not had the need to own a car, and she did about 8 lessons with an instructor.

[Gary C]

Hummer H1

No need to fear anyone not in a tank

Seriously, so thing higher seems to make people less nervous.

[Pothole]

giantdefy said:

Pothole said:

She doesn't need a reversing camera. Please make sure she's actually capable before letting her on the motorway on her own.

How do you detect the lack of need of a reversing camera?

Nobody who is a competent driver needs one. How much reversing is she going to be doing which isn't into or out of a parking space? My wife, who is not a nervous driver but doesn't enjoy it very much and would happily let anyone else do it, found the camera on our recent purchase quite confusing at first. Extrapolating that to the kind of driver I believe the OP to be talking about, one less new, distracting feature to worry about might be a great help.

[Shermanator]

Pothole said:

giantdefy said:

Pothole said:

She doesn't need a reversing camera. Please make sure she's actually capable before letting her on the motorway on her own.

How do you detect the lack of need of a reversing camera?

Nobody who is a competent driver needs one. How much reversing is she going to be doing which isn't into or out of a parking space? My wife, who is not a nervous driver but doesn't enjoy it very much and would happily let anyone else do it, found the camera on our recent purchase quite confusing at first. Extrapolating that to the kind of driver I believe the OP to be talking about, one less new, distracting feature to worry about might be a great help.

You're right, nobody NEEDS one, however nobody NEEDS a radio, nor do they NEED electric windows. Some things are just nice to have...

I've got one on my car, a Citroen C1, and while I can park it fine within it having the camera is nice when it's dark, or I'm trying to get into the centre of the space (line on centre of camera says where the centre of the car is)

[Ian Geary]

Shaw Tarse said:

Rear parking camera? Many people did without for years,try a shop window (though it does help)

I reckon it will be easier to find a car with a reversing camera fitted than it will be to find one with a shop window fitted.

Brings a new dimension to the phrase window shopping

[CDP]

vikingaero said:

If she is that nervous then get her to have a few lessons with a driving instructor. Mrs V was in the same boat x years ago, passed her test, not had the need to own a car, and she did about 8 lessons with an instructor.

This, this and this again.

A few lessons with a decent instructor will work wonders. No shame in a refresher course if rusty.

[Pistonheader101]

Spend a bit on say 5-10 refresher lessons

[aka_kerrly]

A slightly left field hatchback that has 4x4 capability without having to be the size of a tank is the Suzuki Swift 1.2 SZ4 - it has most of the options required other than rear parking sensors & leather.

[CDP]

Although this should be pretty easy to park:

[url]http://www.minimayhem.org.uk/autotest.htm[url]

[hooblah]

If she's that nervous then she has no business being on the road. Tell her to find a new job and save everyone else the hassle of putting up with her driving.

[ambuletz]

as others have said, she needs lessons.

alot of those features you won't find all of the above features in a small car, especially AWD. if you want AWD then a jinmy it is. but in a small car front wheel drive is perfectly fine in the snow.

if she's a nervous driver how's she even going to manage the snow? she might aswell just buy something ka-sized or fiesta sized. my vote goes to a yaris or honda jazz as they're more geared to being 'easy cars to drive'. which is kind of a strange thing to say really, don't think there's ever been a hard supermini to drive..

[ATV]

The Turbonator said:

I'd reccomended a 1.0 ecoboost titanium x Fiesta with the powershift gearbox.

OP here, that autotrader one looks nice thanks for the tip

How did you and your girlfriend find the reliability on the Fiesta?

Did you find the 1.0 a bit weak for motorway driving?

hooblah said:

Tell her to find a new job and save everyone else the hassle of putting up with her driving.

Yes I'll definitely do that, I'll put it in in my diary to deprioritize my current reports and make these my primary action items for 13 o' clock on July 35th

Edited by ATV on Sunday 29th July 20:05