Was a thread about car insurance...

yeah well chips are always a winner :P and im right there with you on the suntans, you'd think i could possibly tan easier, because my younger brothers (also half indian, but are paler than me) tan lovely even my mum does whos pure British, but yeah if the suns out, im out haha

Yeah, really can't wait (: and yeah i agree, i do tend to be the sensible one but i still wouldn't want to trust myself driving a car after a drink

And yeah you might find you do, im in a habbit of going up though my gears, but im gonna try skipping second when it seems alright to do so and see how that goes, and i think i've used it once, for me it's a pain to get in into 5th, i always seem to get 3rd instead so takes me a good few times in and out of gears, i can do it when im like stationary (obviously i was just practicing and had no intention of moving off in that gear) but when im driving it just doesn't seem to work, on 40 roads i find 4th gears fine, 50 roads it does kinda want the 5th gear, so if you're going above 40 then probably might want to use it, but i go over a little stretch of road thats 50mph, as its not that long of a road i don't bother faffing around with the gears.

Yeah I still sometimes get chips and sweet & sour sauce as a side order. Chinese chips are pretty nice as well
Ah, same as me I don't tan all that easily. Quite often I burn, then when the burn goes away I have a nice tan for about a year lol, but I can't keep getting sunburn just to get a nice tan, no good for your skin is it. My sister wants me to start coming down the tanning salon to start having sunshowers, might have to have a go you know haha.

Ah right, guessing 5th gear is a must for motorways then. It'll probably come naturally to you soon For some time in my lessons I had trouble switching to 3rd for some reason, I was always doing it fine but just never felt right for a while haha. Think I may have told you this before...

Been down town today to get a few bits for the car; engine oil, washer fluid and a new windscreen wiper. Managed to fit the windscreen wiper all by myself Washer fluid level is all good at the moment. Engine oil does need changing but I've gotta find my funnel, we've got one somewhere. Would rather be safe and not make a mess of it hehe.

Yeah i love chinese chips, not too keen on sweet and sour things myself tho,i don't know my head can't see to get round the taste i think. and yeah well i don't tend to do much burning its just takes a while to tan, but it seems to last which is good, and aha why not give it a try

and yeah i'd definitely say it's a must for motorways, i suppose its more fuel efficient to use it at 40mph too if it's possible road/conditions wise as i say i just can't be bothered with the faffing especially if i know there a roundabout coming up or something, and yeah i hope one day it will, Im gonna take it on the motorway soon and try get some practice in then so we'll see. and im not sure if you have, but i know i would of said the same thing, it was always one of my troubles getting into 3rd gear at the start

that's good that you're being organised with it i wish i was, i need to learn so much more about cars too -.- my window washer doesn't work ): me and my neighbor had it all out checking it but couldn't seem to find a blockage think it's maybe the actual water pump thing i think thats what he said i don't know, for now i carry a bottle of water with me haha

Yeah sweet & sour isn't one of those things that everyone is gonna like, very strong flavour. Some of their curry sauce is nice with chips as well, but some make their sauces way too thick.
Yeah think I might do, costs £12 to book 60 minutes in to use whenever you want. Think you only have to start with 3 minutes and work your way up a bit each session, since the sunshower does all around at the same time, rather than cooking myself for 3 minutes on each side like a stake lol.

Yeah it's always gonna be circumstancial isn't it. No point whatsoever in changing to 5th when you're gonna change back down in less than 30 seconds. I think anyways, could be wrong haha. I remember in my earlier lessons I'd sometimes poodle along in 1st or 2nd because we would be reaching a junction in about 10 seconds, but my instructor said it's bad to do that. I can see what he means, also either way the clutch has to go down at the end of a road so might as well change up until we get there, then change down once the clutch goes down.
Something I've been considering changing in my habits but not sure if it's a good thing to change; I've obviously gotten used to approaching a roundabout from a dual carriageway in 4th, then just change down to either 1st or 2nd when I get there after assessing the situation. But I'm unsure whether or not it's a better idea to change down to 2nd as I start to slow down, so should fully get into 2nd gear roughly 5 seconds before I reach the roundabout, then that way if I see that it's all clear on the approach then I can just get back on the gas and go. Is that what you do or have you just stuck with what you've been taught (assuming you were taught like me)?

Yeah just wanna get everything tip-top before I start driving it. Just been out and sorted the engine oil. Now just waiting for Wednesday Well, my insurance starts at midnight on Tuesday going on Wednesday. I haven't gotta get up early on Wednesday morning, so I might go for a midnight drive as soon as the insurance starts, should be a nice quiet drive for my first time on my own getting used to the car
Could be anything wrong with it Well taking your water bottle around is one way to do it hehe, just spray on and wipe Only needs to be done when the window get's dirty anyways.

yeah im personally not a fan, but i can be quite picky about food, as a child i would literally only eat a few foods, i have got better now though. and can't be bad, instant tan and i don't think its gonna be possible to get a natural tan in this weather so why not (:

Yeah i wouldn't see the point in changing gear if you know you're gonna be changing back down in a matter of seconds, im not sure if thats me being lazy though haha. Well now on approach to a roundabout i just change down my gears as i approach, when im in 4th gear coming to a roundabout i'll always change it too 3rd gear as im slowing down (the 2 times i managed to go round a roundabout in 4th gear on my lessons were horrendous, obviously a mistake i should of changed down but yeah never again lol) then if i see the cars can't go so i'll change down to 2nd and then if i have to stop 1st, but now i feel so much better at forward planning now and a lot of the times i can just enter the roundabout because it's clear which i usually do in 3rd gear. I mean you could go straight to 2nd or 1st but 3rd going to be fine for a little while and you might even be able to stay in third because it might be clear

yeah you could even do some clutch work on main roads if you go out late because hardly nobody will be about, i love dead roads at night, not country ones though, at night they look scary haha and yeah im not sure if it would fail the mot for it, it's not due till November but i kinda hope it gets picked up because then at least i can ask them to try fix it but yeah the water bottle works quite alright for now, half the time its raining anyways haha

Pretty much the opposite to me then. Not a big fan of vegetables though tbh, quite a lot of them I don't like but there's a fair few that I do like. But I think 95% of foods I don't like are some sort of vegetable haha. Not fussy at all though when it comes to other kinds of food.
Yeah pretty much, and you can build it up nice and gradually as well, bit healthier for your skin that way.

Ahh I see, yeah makes a bit more sense to take it in 3rd if it's a normal sized roundabout. I suppose 2nd might be more appropriate for turning right at a mini one though. Rolling up to the roundabout at an appropriate gear to continue if it's clear should also help kill a long-time bad habit of mine, where I sometimes get the clutch down too early. If I'm in the right gear to continue but then decide when I get there that I need to stop, then the only choice is to put the clutch down in those last couple of seconds if I decide that I need to stop.

Yeah just seems like perfect circumstances to go and get used to my own car. I was just gonna stay really local and avoid the main roads, but even the main roads should be empty at that time in the middle of the week
No way of telling if it's a failer or not to be honest. Might be worth finding out how much it would cost to get it fixed at a garage if nothing else works.

I don't like vegetables either, i did once i have carrots with my sunday diner and decided they weren't that bad so i though id have them again, then guess what....i was sick so i don't eat them anymore haha, not a loss though because they weren't exactly nice in my opinion i ate them because i though i better eat something a little healthier than my normal crap but i guess it wasn't meant to be lol, and yeah start now you'll have a good tan by summer comes

and yeah if its a mini roundabout i'll do 2nd gear usually, i used to go round a few of mini ones but then i realised there was a quicker way home from uni -.- which is much better because two of the mini roundabouts was uphill and at one i was turning right, i don't know why i just used to hate them, and yeah i think iv progressed from my lessons because i feel my gear changes have become much more natural, on this particular roundabout ill obviously go into third as i approach, quite a lot of breaking because its just off 50 and 40 roads and its on a bend, then if i see the cars infront of me having to stop ill go down to second and keep it at that unless i have to stop, but as i said now things seem to come more naturally to me than they did on my lessons i think

Yeah i think it'll be dead, i mean even now it's usually quiet so come midnight i don't imagine many people will be on the roads, and yeah think i'll ask my step dad but he's busy at work so don't think he needs my bothering him about it just yet, don't think it'll cost much though

Sounds like you puke quite often haha. By standards I do eat much more crap than recommended, but I'm one of those people that doesn't gain any fat from eating. In fact these days I'm all about getting in good shape, and my brother (who's a trainee fitness instructor) has said that someone like me needs a high calorie intake to gain muscle. Been working so far, I do have to eat a lot of healthy calories & protein though, so I eat a lot of stakes and eggs and stuff like that. But I've also got an excuse to eat lots of pizza, a large one from Dominos is over 1000 calories
Can stay tanned all year round then can't I

Yeah that makes sense. If I see a bit of a traffic queue up ahead I normally just stay in whatever gear I'm in and come off the accelerator. That way I slow down gradually anyways and often the queue is just clearing as I get to it, so I often don't have to change gears.

Should definitely be dead out. Even though there's no traffic I'm still gonna do loads of emerging, just cos it'll help with clutch control. Do definitely feel like I'm getting the feel of the clutch now though from messing around with it in my drive again today. Even managed to get a super-slow reverse going pretty easily, had trouble controlling the speed the first few times haha.
Yeah as you said there's plenty of time. Plus as you also said, it's always raining so the windows get a wash anyways. Been pure summer weather here all week, then all of a sudden it's gone all wintery again today

Haha well i think i've mentioned all the things i don't eat anymore, im just hoping no more get added to this list, the majority of them and fast-food/takeaways and i don't want to be put off places like pizza hut or kfc haha, and well thats not bad then, more pizza for you! aha i actually want pizza now and yeah tan all year round has got to be a good thing

and yeah thats what i normally do, usually works out quite well and as you said sometimes you can just stay in the gear you're already in and go

and thats what i did, my first drive was christmas day morning/afternoon time so obviously is was pretty much dead everywhere but i went out around where i live and made sure i stopped at every junction even when it was clear to go, just to get the practice in stopping and going again, and yeah i think controlling the speed when trying to go slow if you're reversing or parking or something like that can take some getting used to because of it's nippiness and quickness it just seems to want to go, and yeah they got a real good wash today, was hail stoning too ): we've had the tiniest bif of sun, but the winds pretty much taken over -.-

One thing i keep forgetting when im driving is to check my petrol levels -.- i really need to get used to checking it before/after every journey because one day im just gonna run out :') haha, think it's just over a quarter so i better put some in on monday

Quite fancy a Dominos myself now actually. Grrr why does it have to be Saturday, on home one my own so the midweek rescue deal would mean I could get a large pizza for about £8.50, runs from 4-6 but only on Monday-Friday though Might have to see if one of my mates wanna come round for a beer and pizza night, nice 50% off deal if you buy £40 worth of stuff, nice big meal for £20/£10 each

Yeah seems like a brilliant idea to be fair. There's a nice steep hill just round the corner from me as well so gonna get straight round there and do some hill starts, should help me get the feel of it as well. If I can get the car to hold in place just using the clutch and gas then get moving, that'll be a good guide as to what pressure to use to move off on flat ground.
We had quite a bit of rain yesterday, been dry today but it's gone all cold again.

Yeah must remember to keep checking mine as well, that'd be awful to run out on a journey haha. Happened to one of my mates last month actually, he was really low on petrol but his pay day wasn't until the next day. He risked it and went on a little trip, backfired and he had to get his dad out to come bring him some petrol haha.


Got my mini mirrors today, tbh they look a bit crap... will have to see though. They stick on by a thin bit of foam on the back of it so they won't exactly be flush to the mirror. Were any of yours like that?

Well that sounds like a good ole Saturday night in (: not a bad deal either, im sat here with a couch full of papers and books, joys of revision i guess, but when exams are done i think i may do something similar see if someone wants to come round, but it'll probably be pizza hut for me haha

Yeah my areas like that too, theres like 3 street you can go up which are hills, all junctions at the top too so you have to stop as well, in my old car (i just couldn't get used to the high clutch) i must of stalled it about 10 times, i honestly considered letting it roll down the hill haha and yeah well now to get some practice i do a range of things on hills, if it's steep then i'll go for the handbrake, sometimes i'll hold it on the break and have the clutch almost ready then quickly move my feet, and sometimes hold it on the clutch and gas

yeah it's something i always forget to think about, been out and checked it earlier, just over a quarter, i'll try remember to go to the garage on Monday before i go, and i'd hate to run out of petrol especially somewhere where you're really causing a distribution, probably would be my luck -.- since as i won't be using it too much through-out summer ill probably just top it up, then i plan on filling it up when i start back at uni and make regular daily journeys then im gonna try keep on top of just putting something in every week to keep it going

And my first ones had just a tiny square kinda in the middle to stick it on with, my new ones had a circle teh full size of the mirror to stick it on with.

The ones i have now are here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260968617221?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I don't have the information for the other ones because i bought them over 90 days ago, but they sound similar to yours

Sounds scary think I'm just gonna really ease up the clutch when it comes to moving off, as soon as I start getting some movement on it then the gas pedal is going down haha.
As it turns out, I was wrong about not having a cig-lighter socket and power steering, after having a second look I realised the car actually has both, glad I can use the phone charger I bought already
My insurance quote is decent, Tesco Standard comprehensive for less than £1300 a year, pretty nice considering I'm under 25 and have 0 NCB. Gonna be 10% more than that though since I'm paying monthly, gonna cost me £119 a month.




Good to hear, won't get caught unawares anymore.
Well, whether or not people will hear you depends on if you have the window down I suppose haha. Just don't get too into it and close your eyes when you sing

So many corsa drivers in this thread haha. Good to hear you got it fixed!
I think I liked the higher biting point because I've got big feet, so I've got quite a bit of length between the heel and ball of my foot on the pedal, only feels like I move a touch from having the clutch down to it hitting the bite. I'll get used to it and I'm sure I'll not want it any other way after a while though, if I got really comfortable with the last clutch within 20 hours of lessons despite never having driven before, then should be able to adjust to this one pretty quickly hopefully. Just a case of getting round a car park once my insurance is active, hopefully I don't stall or worse on the way there haha. Think I might drive round the backstreets in my local area first, plenty of closed junctions to practice my peeping & creeping to really get used to the feel of it. Feels very delicate, got so much zip on it which I guess once I get used to it will be really helpful at traffic lights

Ended up going to his place, his mrs wouldn't let him out hahaha. So we had some Dominos while we watched Britain's Got Talent. Then we had a game of Cluedo, so fun.

Yeah think I might have been tempted to just give up and go back down lol. My uncle reckons I might get in trouble if I get caught in a car park at midnight, not quite sure why but won't risk it then. 3 more nights...

Fair enough. Probably gonna wear mine down to the ground this summer haha. Can and will pretty much go anywhere now Might have to wind the window down on my first drive and do a braveheart out the window. FREEEEDOOOM!!! Lol.

They look good actually, cheap as well. Don't think mine are half bad now that I've fitted them. Might get those ones as well, then if I prefer the look of them I'll do some replacing.

Looks like I will have to settle for black box insurance when I buy my own car (presumably a VW Polo 07 reg).

My ideal car would be the Citroen DS3, but when I get my NCB going, then I'll consider buying one. Absolutely stunning car.

Only problem with the black box though is that you feel like a prisoner with the car lol (according to my best friend).

I have a back box, i think now im used to it and accept it so it doesn't bother me, and tbh it's not that bad. Mine only measures 3 things and my insurance can't go up, you just earn cash back from it so it's pretty decent considering it was my only way of getting insurance anyway, without a box was out of the question.

I love the DS3 design wise, after my first car I'm not a huge fan of Citroen myself but i do think it looks a lovely car

Oh right, so it works on a cash back basis rather than reducing your actual insurance?

I see, that wouldn't bother me too much. Do you reckon it measures your braking, acceleration, direction change a little too harshly?

Same, I've never really had anything for Citroen's, but the DS3 is one car that has stood out for me. The onboard computer it has is really cool, simple and elegant. The stop start system is extremely useful in traffic, I always use it when I know the sequence of traffic lights at a junction.

I actually wanted to get one of these Honda's.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201242489493226/sort/pricedesc/usedcars/price-to/4000/price-from/2000/transmission/manual/quantity-of-doors/5/model/civic/make/honda/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/30/postcode/en11ez/page/2?logcode=p

The leather seats

But the insurance is hefty!

When I do pass my test soon, my mum and dad said they'll put me on their insurance for our family car (honda civic 1.4 00 reg). Honda make some awesome cars, the engine is reliable and responsive.

Yeah mine does, you get cash back every 3 months and you can check online how much you're on course to get depending on your driving score, my first 3 months i had a score of around 7.6 i think and i got £154 so it's not too bad

And well mine measures the following,
usage - it doesn't really like you driving after 11pm-5am i don't reallt do that anyway, i had some trouble at the start and one of my journeys said it was started at midnight when it was actually 9 in the morning but my usage score was still like 8 for that journey.

Speed - it is pretty accurate with the speed i think, but there has been times where i go over by 1/2 mph for a short while and i still usually get 10's i think if you constantly drove at 32mph on a 30 road you wouldn't get a really good score but i think its a bit lenient if you just slightly go over for not long.

Smoothness - which is always one that varies with me, under smoothness it looks at acceleration and harsh braking, and sudden movements on the car (like swerving) i think, but i do accelerate way more than i need to at traffic lights sometimes which is why i don't usualy get perfect 10's usually get 7's/8's for that one

I love how unique the DS3's are, i love my corsa now but also like Toyota's since i learnt in one, so my next car will probably be a new shape corsa or the new yaris but i'll be keeping with this one for a while because i can't save for a new car until my insurance drops a little

I haven't looked at many Honda's but that looks pretty modern, i quite like the inside, i suppose it could be high on insurance because of its engine size, but yeah if you get on their insurance at least it gives you the opportunity to drive once you've passed, you can also include the fact that you've been a named driver on another policy when you got for quotes cant you?

I dunno, the co-op didn't have that option, if I remember correctly, when doing the quote online.

Meh, so is the blackbox a fixed price then per three months? How much do you pay roughly? (initially when you took out the policy?)

Oh im not sure then, i know compare the market have it, but i forgot you obviously want the black box ones, you thinking of going with co-op? I think theirs is a little different to mine in what it measures

Mines a fixed price for the year, mine was £3000 (then i changed car so paid another £700) far too expensive but it was the only way