Is this madness?!

Alu_ATC · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:19

Hello everyone,

I have a friend who has recently begun learning to drive - he passed his theory a week or two ago.

For a first car he was going to have a Mk4 Golf (not a bad choice imo), but he decided instead that he would drive a BMW 525I X SE TOURING A Estate Automatic. Below is a very close picture of what it looks like.

He has always been a BMW fan, but this thing is huge! Its done over 150k I believe, but the car has been in his family since it was 3 years old. To me it seems crazy, it has a 2.4L engine! Although I havn't seen him drive it myself, I am told by a friend that he is driving it around now with L plates on. He said the insurance was only £1200 with Norwich Union, comprehensive, I think as second driver - and yes, the car he owns is the same white, ugh.

This really is mad, isn't it? :eek:

-westy- · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:21

Surely its better to learn to drive in a manual car, so you can choose what car to drive (manual or auto) when you're older, as opposed to being limited to automatics?

Firestar_3x · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:21

Nope not really, no reason to follow the usual super small first car....

Edit - Apart from the auto thing!

Alu_ATC · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:26

-westy- said:
Surely its better to learn to drive in a manual car, so you can choose what car to drive (manual or auto) when you're older, as opposed to being limited to automatics?

He is learning in the 5 in his own time - meanwhile his instructors car is a Ford Focus manual, which he will take his test in.

Lashout_UK · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:26

Doesn't say he's not taking a manual test - does it?

I had an auto as my first car, was great fun driving a Daweoo Lanos for lessons, then jumping in an automatic 70's rear-drive saloon for the trip home

JRS · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:50

Alu_ATC said:
but this thing is huge!

An Oldsmobile station wagon is huge. A Chrysler Imperial is huge. A 5 series Touring is merely average size.

Alu_ATC · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:56

JRS said:
An Oldsmobile station wagon is huge. A Chrysler Imperial is huge. A 5 series Touring is merely average size.

I'd say for a learner driver this car is very large. Running costs will be quite high too.

Muncher · 27 Mar 2006 at 22:59

No, not madness, could have been a manual, but it's not a bad idea, espcially as it has been in the family for ages.

[TW]Fox · 27 Mar 2006 at 23:05

Hmmm, a 525iX Automatic.

All the disadvantages of a large engined car, like fuel economy and running costs, and not many of the advantages such as performance due to the auto gearbox and the 4 wheel drive.

A rubbish choice of first car - getting practice in your own time is brilliant but an auto is not really going to help much with that.

Plus he can't even insure it in his own name, he's had to insure it as a named driver, which aside from the fact that with NU its technically fraudulent, means he isnt gaining any NCB either.

NickXX · 27 Mar 2006 at 23:07

I drove a Toyota Carina E estate 2.0 auto straight after passing. That wasn't much smaller. I had no problems with it after learning in a manual 306 DTurbo.