So you’ve passed your test and you can say goodbye to an instructor telling you to remember ‘mirror-signal-manoeuvre’ every five minutes, so what next? Well, actually getting a car might be an issue if you’re young and don’t have one waiting for you. The problem is, cars are expensive, and you’ll be very lucky if purchasing one, insuring it, and getting it on the road comes to less than £1,000 - but then you’ve got to run and maintain the thing! Here are a few pointers on how to keep the costs down when you’re financing your first car:

The purchase

So you want a Ferrari? Well, tough, because you’re not going to get one. That is unless you have a substantial trust fund waiting for you somewhere. In the more likely scenario that you don’t have this option you’ll probably need to get a second hand car - and that can require some serious shopping around if you want to get a bargain. Popular choices include smaller cars that are cheaper to insure and run, such as the Nissan Micra, Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta, or Toyota Yaris. You should certainly look in a publication like Auto Trader to find out about cars available in your area; you may also want to find a local auction if you want to snap up a real bargain - some cars can go for as little as £50 during auctions! Beware though; a lot of people want to get rid of cars because they have consistent maintenance problems. It’s essential that you check the recent MOT certificate is for any new purchase, and you should at least hope that it will pass its next one if you make a purchase, even if it’s a complete banger.

Insurance

Even if you’ve got the car for an absolute steal, or you’ve purchased a hunk of junk, then your insurance costs are still going to be high if you’re under 25 and you’ve only just passed your test. It is a legal requirement to have car insurance, so don’t think you can just miss it out. Shopping for insurance can seem a bit daunting, but it’s important you put in the time to make absolutely sure you get the right quote. Check a number of options; price comparison websites are fine, but they’re not complete lists, so make sure you search a few companies independently after typing ‘car insurance’ into Google. Supermarket brands like ASDA Finance can also provide car insurance quotes from a number of providers, so they’re well worth a look.

Car Tax

So you’ve got a car, you’re sure that it runs safely (so you don’t need to have it serviced), you’ve got your insurance – now what? Now you have to get it taxed! Like insurance, Car Tax is not an optional extra – you have to pay it as well. You can apply for a tax disc online, or go to the Post Office with your insurance details and get one immediately. For smaller cars of under 1549cc engine size car tax is currently £115 for a year or £63.25 for 6 months.

How do you finance all this then?

You might be wondering how you’ll afford all of this and then be able to spare the pennies to buy petrol and actually drive your car. It’s not going to be easy, but you may want to consider options for car loans. These are offered by a number of banks and financial companies - they’re typically personal loans of between £5,000 and £20,000. If you think you want to take this option to make your car purchase and the added extras, then do make sure you shop around. Start with a high street bank like Alliance and Leicester, and check their interest rates against other providers – it may well help you to make that all important purchase.

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