The prospect of buying your first car is enormously exciting, but it can be intimidating as well. Exciting because buying a car has the potential to give you the freedom you’ve always craved, but intimidating because there are so many things to consider, and decisions to make, in choosing the right car for you. Car-buying can be daunting for anyone, but it’s especially daunting when you’ve never done it before.
Fear not, because we’ve put together this helpful guide detailing all the things you need to consider when buying your first car, and packed it with helpful tips and advice.
And this isn’t just finger-in-the-air stuff, either. It’s all informed by our survey of 1,000 new drivers (all had passed their driving test within the last three years) asking precisely what they want from their first car.
With the combination of these insights and our expert knowledge of cars and the car market, we’re perfectly placed to help you find your first car. With that in mind, once you've finished reading this article, be sure to head over to our guide to the best first cars for new drivers, which includes the Toyota Aygo, Kia Picanto, Ford Fiesta, and more.
Buying Your First Car:
- How Much Should I Spend?
- Should I Buy Petrol, Diesel, Hybrid or Electric?
- Should I Buy Manual or Automatic?
- Should I Buy a Hatchback, Saloon, Estate or SUV?
- How Important is Insurance?
- What Other Costs Will I Face?
- How Can I Make Sure the Car I Buy is Safe?
- How Can I Make Sure the Car I Buy is Reliable?
How Much Should I Spend?
Unsurprisingly, the purchase price came out as the single biggest area of priority for the first-time car buyers in our study. Of those surveyed, 48% said they’d want a second-hand car, 43% said they’d want a new car, and the rest didn't mind.
We also asked people how much they’d be willing to spend on their car, and it transpired that the average budget respondents are working with is precisely £8,557. Spoiler alert: that rules out a new car these days, as there’s no brand new model available for that kind of sum.
It is, however, enough to get you a very nice used car, and for that money, cars of all different sizes and types are available. In a moment, we’ll tell you how to start whittling down your shortlist, but before that, a few words on setting your budget.
Everyone’s budget will be different, and when setting yours, we’d advise being ambitious and realistic. By that, we mean that you should aim to spend as much as you can afford to get the best example of your chosen car as possible, but also remembering to keep enough cash back to deal with the additional motoring costs you’ll face, which we'll go into in more detail in a little while.
You also need to consider how you plan to finance your purchase. Our study suggested that the vast majority favoured owning the car outright, whether that meant raiding their savings or borrowing the cash from family or friends. Only 31% said they’d take out some sort of loan, leasing deal or financing option, leaving them with monthly payments to make. Finance deals can be obtained through car dealers themselves, or from independent lenders, credit brokers, or finance providers, all of whom should be governed by the terms of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Even so, keep a close eye on the interest rate you’re being charged, and this can have a very significant effect on the amount you end up paying overall.
Should I Buy Petrol, Diesel, Hybrid or Electric?
A pretty key question, this. When we asked it in our survey, 46% of people said they wanted a petrol car, diesel and electric were neck-and-neck with 19% apiece, while 16% said they fancied a hybrid.
The truth is, the fuel type that suits you best depends on the sort of driving you do, and how much of it you do, so this is important to consider before you choose. We have a detailed guide on how to choose your fuel type, or you can use our handy fuel chooser tool, below.
If you do lots of miles - we’re talking upwards of 15,000 per year - and they’re mainly on the motorway, then you should consider a diesel car because it’ll return the best fuel economy over long distances at high speeds.
If your motoring sits at the other end of the spectrum, and you do mainly short trips at low urban speeds, then you might want to consider an electric car, because these are the conditions in which battery-powered vehicles work best. Alternatively, if the majority of your journeys fit this profile, but you also need your car to be able to cope with a longer journey occasionally, then a hybrid might be the way to go. A hybrid will also cost you less to buy than an electric car. Beware, however, that there are various different types of hybrid of varying levels of complexity - which you can read about in this guide to hybrid cars - so it’s important to know the differences.
If your driving habits lie somewhere in the middle, or are regularly changeable, then you’re probably best off with a good old-fashioned petrol car. These will be the cheapest of the bunch to buy, too.
Should I Buy Manual or Automatic?
When we asked those who took part in our survey which they wanted, automatic came out as the clear favourite, with 57% wanting a self-shifter, compared to 40% who wanted to swap gears themselves (the rest didn’t mind).
Before nailing down that decision, though, we’d urge you to ask yourself how much you really want an automatic. Sure, those with auto-only licences will need one, and nervous drivers may be more comfortable with one, but if it’s simply a preference thing, you may be better off settling for a manual.
The reason for that is that there’s way more choice of manual cars on the used car market, especially at the end of the market that new drivers are likely to be looking at, so finding one will be much easier. A manual is also likely to be much cheaper to buy. That’s not only because they’re mechanically much simpler than an auto, but also because the demand for automatics at this end of the market that we’ve demonstrated, versus the relative shortage of supply, means that prices for automatics can be inflated.
For instance, once all our survey data was in, we picked the Toyota Aygo as the car that came closest to satisfying all the things our respondents said they wanted - including an automatic gearbox - for the money they had to spend. We found, however, that if they could live with an Aygo with a manual gearbox instead of an automatic, then they would likely spend around £2,000 less on their car.
Should I Buy a Hatchback, Saloon, Estate or SUV?
When it comes down to preference, 21% of our respondents said they wanted an SUV, with the humble hatchback just behind on 20%. A 4x4 was the car of choice for 13%, while 12% were unsure, and the remaining 44% of people were spread thinly between seven other types of car.
However, much as everyone has a different budget for their car, everyone also has different needs for their car. At the end of the day, a car is merely a tool to help you go about your daily life, and what that daily life entails will govern the type of car you need. How many passengers will you need to carry (89% of respondents said they’d need at least four seats)? Will you regularly need to transport bulky objects in the boot? These are all things that need to be considered.
Essentially, our advice would be to buy a car that’s big enough to do all the things you need it to on a regular basis, but that’s as small as you can get away with. Why? Because size equates to weight, and weight is the enemy of all things motoring: it damages efficiency, performance, agility, affordability, etc, etc…
How Important is Insurance?
Behind the price of buying the car in the first place, how much it would be to insure was the second biggest priority among those who took our survey. And that’s perhaps not surprising given how ludicrously expensive cover can be for inexperienced or young drivers. For a first-time buyer, the cost of their car purchase is often overshadowed by the size of the insurance premium needed to cover it, especially if it’s an older car.
It seems that new drivers are more than prepared for big insurance costs, mind. When we asked 1,000 of them how much they’d be prepared to pay for 12 months of insurance, the average answer came out at £1,144. However, if you’re an inexperienced driver, you certainly don’t need to be driving a Ferrari for premiums to reach that sort of level.
Precisely what you’ll pay will depend on a variety of factors, many of which you have little or no control over, such as your age, where you live, where the car is kept, and so on. But, choosing a car with a low insurance grouping will give you the best chance of an affordable premium. All cars have an insurance grouping, graded from group 1 (the cheapest to insure, likely to be the cheapest, least powerful cars available) to group 50 (the most expensive cover, and cars that are probably pricey and powerful). You can easily find a car’s insurance grouping with a quick online search using its registration. Obviously, the lower the insurance group the better, and new drivers will probably want to look for a car in group 10 or below. To help your search, read our roundup of the cheapest cars to insure.
What Other Costs Will I Face?
For new drivers, the cost of insurance is certainly the biggest concern, but there are plenty of other expenses to consider as well.
There’s tax, of course, otherwise known as VED (Vehicle Excise Duty), car tax or road tax. This is an annual amount you must pay the Government to drive or keep your car on the public road. The precise amount of tax you pay will depend on what car you have and when it was built (the rules that govern how tax is charged have changed over time). For a full explanation of how the tax system works, you can read our complete guide to VED tax, but if you simply want to know how much you’ll have to pay in tax on any potential purchase, a quick online search with the car’s registration should tell you.
There’s also maintenance to consider. A routine service (these are typically done every year or 12,000 miles, whichever happens first, but this can vary from model to model) should cost somewhere between £150 and £300 depending on what sort of car you have, while bigger, more expensive jobs will crop up at longer intervals. Your car’s handbook should contain a detailed servicing schedule telling you precisely what needs doing when.
And remember, that’s just routine maintenance: any repairs needed will cost more on top. You’ll also need to get your car MOTed every year to keep it in a roadworthy condition. Expect to pay around £50 for the MOT test, plus whatever remedial work might need doing to get your car through the test.
And then, of course, there’s fuel. Regardless of what fuel powers your car, it’ll be one of the biggest running costs you face. Every car has its own official fuel economy figure, which isn’t necessarily what you can expect to get in the real world, but is a laboratory measurement designed to give you an idea what to expect compared with other models tested on a level playing field. If your car has a combustion engine of any type, its fuel economy will be measured in miles per gallon (mpg), which is a little confusing as fuel is sold in litres in the UK. If your car is fully electric, its efficiency is measured in miles per kilowatt-hour (m/kWh), but oddly, this is a figure that’s often not quoted by manufacturers, who prefer to quote an electric car’s range instead. Again, our guide to the various fuel types available can help.
And obviously, how much you end up spending on fuel will depend on how far/often you drive, and the way you drive as well. Here are our tips for keeping your fuel costs down.
How Can I Make Sure the Car I Buy is Safe?
Before buying a car, it’s always a good idea to do a little bit of research into what safety features it comes with. Our car reviews will tell you that information: just select the make, model and age range of the car you’re considering, and away you go.
You could also check out the Euro NCAP website. This is an independent body that for many years has performed crash tests on cars, and published the results for comparative purposes. Each car is given a rating out of five, based on both the crash tests, and the amount of preventative safety equipment provided. The methods and thresholds that cars are tested against are made more difficult annually, driving forward safety standards year on year. That means a five-star car built today will be safer than a five-star car of five years ago, but it gives you an indication of a car’s safety compared with its contemporaries of the day.
How Can I Make Sure the Car I Buy is Reliable?
Unfortunately, there are never any guarantees as to how reliable a car will be, and that’s the case whether you’re buying from a car dealership or a private seller. Even brand new cars can go wrong occasionally (although those are usually covered by a warranty to protect you from the resulting repair costs), and the older a car gets and the more miles it puts under its tyres, the more likely it is to go wrong in some way.
There are things you can do to maximise your chances of picking a reliable car, though. Firstly, look out for the various reliability surveys doing the rounds. There are plenty of them, most of which are conducted annually for an up to date view of the market. Stick to the models and brands that perform well, and avoid those that don’t.
It’s also worth a quick Google search of the model you’re considering to see if there are owner forums that document any common problems with that model. That way, you can keep an eye out for evidence of the problem when you go to view a car or take it for a test drive.
Remember, though, that even the most reliable model in the world won’t be reliable if it’s not looked after, and that’s why a full service history is very desirable on any used example you’re considering. Flick through and make sure all necessary work has been completed on time and on schedule, and keep an eye out for any bills/receipts on items that have been repaired repeatedly, as this could be a sign of an inherent weakness within the car.
You can also search for the car’s MOT history using the official Government website. This not only details a car’s previous passes and failures, and the reasons for any failures, but you can also use it to make sure the mileage is kosher, and to check on the car’s past advisories to make sure they’ve been addressed between tests.
So there you have it: our top tips for buying your first car. To start your search, head over to our separate story about why we rate the Toyota Aygo as a top choice of first car.