Is this madness?!

[Alu_ATC]

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?

 

[Alu_ATC]

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.

 

[Alu_ATC]

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.