Guys,
Glad to see we are having a nice conversation, I can't argue with the facts, that the majority of accidents occur with young male drivers..................... however I also agree, not all young male drivers are p*i*ks.
I personally am of the idea that it is partly the driving licence system that is at fault in the beginning, mainly because you can go out as a learner in the morning, and in the afternoon (after passing your test), go out and drive on a motorway (good example is my cousin, she has no idea that 2 cars cannot occupy the same space at the same time, she found this out on the M25 at rush hour, with a whole days worth of experience under her belt!) This does not teach younger drivers correctly and accounts for many bad drivers in later life. TBH, I think you should be restricted to a low engine car (not a low model, but a low engine/BHP), I also think their should be 2 licences, Pass, Advanced:
Pass (can only be obtained until 21): Drive during daylight only, no passengers, no motorways, low engine/bhp.
Advanced (can be obtained once 21 has been reached): Drive at night, carry passengers, use motorways and drive larger vehicles.
At least that way it elliminates the majority of factors dangerous to the younger/immature motorist (also reducing the legal limit for drinking to 0 would be a good idea).
I know from experience putting an 18yo in a GTI is a bad idea (ask my mate who wrote off, one day after his test, his mums Jag and dads Porsche, as well as his GTI, a total of about 100,000+ worth of cars
), or my mate who nearly died when he wrapped hiss Ford Fiesta RS thingy round a lamp post and had to be cut free (he did take 6-7 times to pass his test though, and this should have been taken in to account).
I had nice cars from day one (even my 'modded' Corsa was quite nippy, 1.2 16V for a first car isn't bad when you consider that quite a few people have 1.0l rust bucket nova), I graduated from that to a BMW 316i (it was one of the last models that had the 1.8l engine instead of the 1.6l, it just wanted tuned the same, it was certainly quite a fast car (not sure what the previous owner had 'done' to it), considering I only had probably 6 months experience under my belt), then I went to a 520i SE [2000, 2.2l model], which again at 19/20 is quite a nice car to have, now at 22 I have my T-S, TBH, yeah I went out and went like a BOH, but I did also do my pass plus, I passed first time on both tests and got exemplary or whatever for all my PP marks, yet none of this is taken in to account when you go for insurance, just my one prang (which as most will know was as a result of me trying to get away from someone attacking me!!!! Hardly a fault claim really, especially when the lazy cops couldn't even be bothered to talk to me!), so for 4-5 years experience I have driven over 50/60,000 miles in a few differnt cars and vans, I hold a PP qual', and had one 'tiny' prang that wasn't my fault, and that instantly marks me down as a bad driver/boy racer and pushes my insurance through the roof!!!!! (even though I've never made a claim, had the accident but the damage was so minor it never went through the insurance, yet they say it did????? NU's great work again there, hmmm) The system really isn't fair, but hey, thats life, not fair.
Whilst I don't agree all young drivers are bad, you gotta agree probably 80% arn't great and the majority of drivers out there (age irrelivant) are sh*te (says he who in one day [yesterday] got cut across by a people carrier, and almost crushed by a polish lorry driver changing lanes without signalling, another rant altogether). The fault is with the DVLA, the test is too easy, and should be made much harder to cut out those not fit to drive (perhaps a limit on the amount of times the test can be taken in a year, like once perhaps).
All this whilst sounding harsh, would push down insurance for the rest of us, who like humans have accidents, (everyone does, just the majority lie about it
), but some people just shouldn't be allowed out (without supervision, these people are usually the lot who were stuck with safety scissors and glitter
).
Originally Posted by
Type S Bournemouth 
Agree with you as well. It is totally wrong how people assume just cause your young you should not have a nice car. Not everyone is the same. I think it all comes down to jealousy again. People getting spiteful cause maybe they did not have a nice car at that age.
As you can see I'm not jealous (and hopefully don't come across as spiteful
), just a realist, you gotta agree, that anything that gets our insurance down has got to be good.
ATB,
Tom (22yo, old fogey, HFVMDS [Honourary Fellow of the Victor Meldrew Driving School]
).