So I've just passed my driving test.. QUESTIONS!?

grudas · 10 Oct 2015 at 01:12

Hi guys!

Well, I've just passed my driving test! super happy to do it first time! but now.. I've got so many questions about first car, not so much the car but more about insurance, parking, buying etc!

would be great if you could shed some light into them!

So insurance, is it true that I could insure the car right after buying, as in at the dealer, say I pay for the car and do some quotes online, pay and insure it. Will I be able to legally drive it home?

Day insurance is out of question because my license has been held for less than a year, now the question is.. do traders/small dealers all offer trade insurance on cars so I can legally test drive it before buying it?

Parking! now this is super confusing, from what I have read online I need a parking permit, now that is all fair and cool! but to apply for one I need to be a registered keeper of the car on the V5 and I assume that after buying it, it will take a few days/week to get the updated V5 with my name on? so what that means is that I won't be legally allowed to park on my road for more than 2 hours! now where do I keep the car while the V5 is sorted, the permit is sent out etc? I assume that will take 2-4 weeks in total :| is there a way to get a "temporary" permit while the real thing is sorted out ? if not, how and where do I keep the car for that period of time? :confused:

road-tax, from what I've heard, I need to pay for road tax on the spot(similar to insurance) so I assume that cars can't come with say, 6 months of tax left on it? so before I leave the dealer I need to make sure that is paid for too?

I know some of them might sound stupid but hey! I'm super confused right now and I want to start driving ASAP while I know what I'm doing so I Can continue learning!

Thanks!

Hxc · 10 Oct 2015 at 01:15

1) Sort the quotes out online, get a ref number, call them and pay when you buy the car at the dealer, won't be a problem.

2) Traders and dealers will have insurance to cover test drives if they are half respectable.

3) Depends entirely where you are. My council (Newham) let you apply for a parking permit with the buyers part of the v5 or insurance cert showing your address. It will be temporary and valid for about 4-5 weeks when you need to submit a full copy of the v5. Before this is validated however, you will likely have to use visitors permits, I certainly did for the 3 days before I got a ref number for my permit which i then stuck in the window, which they accepted until the thing came in the post.

4) Tax cannot be sold along with cars now, so yep, you need to get it taxed as soon as you buy it.

adam cool dude · 10 Oct 2015 at 01:48

Get the quotes ready then all you need to do is ring them up with your reference number and it will save a lot of time on the phone. This also gives you a better chance of not being fleeced as you can play about with the quotes to get the cheapest in the comfort of your own home.

Car tax needs to be done straight away now. Although when i bought a car last February from a private seller he informed me he wasn't going to post the V5 till the next day so I just drove it home and taxed it then. Technically the car is still taxed till the seller has informed the DVLA that it isn't so you could theoretically get away with it for at least the drive home. (If the car is still taxed at point of purchase and not SORN)

As for the parking permit, no idea as I have a drive and garage

Worst case is just park it somewhere close till all is sorted!

koooowweeee · 10 Oct 2015 at 07:19

Traders I.e the garage can put 6 months tax on it for you. So it can be sold with tax.

You can do it online with the v5. It's dead easy and you can pay monthly for just a few quid more per year

I would get some quotes before buying the car. It might end up to expensive on that car.

What cars are you looking at?

Richie · 10 Oct 2015 at 07:23

The taxing answers are a little confusing.

If you buy a car from a dealer, the car will most likely be "attached to trade" meaning there is no tax on the car at all. The vast majority of dealers will tax the car as part of the final agreed deal so it will be taxed before you drive away. Even if they dont, you can jump online and tax it before you go using a debit/credit card.

If you buy from a private seller the car will have tax on it (provided it is not SORN'd). The tax will remain on the car until the previous registered keeper has informed the DVLA that they no longer own the car. At this point, the tax is removed and a cheque is sent to the previous keeper with the remainder of the tax refunded. This means you will likely have a few days to tax the car.

Best bet - Tax it online before driving away using a computer or smartphone.

If you want to see if a car is taxed then go here - https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and put in the reg number and make and it will tell you when the car is taxed and MOT'd until.... This works off the same system the police will use (DVLA database) so if it states its taxed on this site then you're good to go.

*** PEDANTS READ THIS - I know its not road "tax" but the OP calls it that so keeping it simple *** (it's official name is Road Fund Licence)

paradigm · 10 Oct 2015 at 08:58

Richie said:
*** PEDANTS READ THIS - I know its not road "tax" but the OP calls it that so keeping it simple *** (it's official name is Road Fund Licence)

Ironic that you get the bit aimed at pedants wrong.

It's not called Road Fund License, and hasn't been since 1937

dacads · 10 Oct 2015 at 11:32

Let's not turn this into a VED thread

grudas · 10 Oct 2015 at 12:54

Awesome! thanks for the answers! I guess I Will have to call up croydon council and have a chat with them about the parking permit, online says V5 and no mention about insurance cert/buyers part of the V5 so will need to get that cleared up!

koooowweeee said:
Traders I.e the garage can put 6 months tax on it for you. So it can be sold with tax.

You can do it online with the v5. It's dead easy and you can pay monthly for just a few quid more per year

I would get some quotes before buying the car. It might end up to expensive on that car.

What cars are you looking at?

yeah I've done a lot of quotes, the car will only be used for the weekends/sunny days so I don't need anything economical/small/cheap to run so I've been looking at fun cars like mk2 mx5's, rx8's, e46 bmw's etc! oddly insurance is just 300-400 quid more than a cheap econobox(1.2 punto's etc the usual first cars)

Richie · 10 Oct 2015 at 14:04

paradigm said:
Ironic that you get the bit aimed at pedants wrong.

It's not called Road Fund License, and hasn't been since 1937

Yeah I'll take that

I could always have done what others like to do on here and say "I know, I was being sarcastic" :rolleyes:

Quartz · 10 Oct 2015 at 15:27

grudas said:
So insurance, is it true that I could insure the car right after buying, as in at the dealer, say I pay for the car and do some quotes online, pay and insure it. Will I be able to legally drive it home?

With whom were you insured as a learner? Speak to that insurer first - if you had no accidents then you should get a hefty discount on your insurance and it should be a case of, "Just give us a ring when you're actually buying the car."

I know some of them might sound stupid but hey! I'm super confused right now and I want to start driving ASAP while I know what I'm doing so I Can continue learning!

Not to put too fine a point on it but how old are you? If you're under 25 then you should start an advanced driving course ASAP.

tres · 10 Oct 2015 at 17:47

You can get day insurance easy enough. I got day insurance as a learner, before I even had my test, and also used day insurance regularly right after my test

grudas · 10 Oct 2015 at 18:14

tres said:
You can get day insurance easy enough. I got day insurance as a learner, before I even had my test, and also used day insurance regularly right after my test

really! can you tell me who quoted you?

I seem to struggle to even get quotes with license that has less than 1 year on it

tres · 10 Oct 2015 at 18:55

I shall dig through old emails! I used day insurance to drive mother's BMW 325 then her TT, so it's definitely a thing

tres · 10 Oct 2015 at 18:56

have you tried tempcover.com? off the top of my head

grudas · 10 Oct 2015 at 19:10

tres said:
have you tried tempcover.com? off the top of my head

yeah, lowest they go is 6-12 months

no one seems to cover less than that, for what ever reason :confused:

K.C. Leblanc · 11 Oct 2015 at 14:03

I did once test drive a car, I decided I was going to buy it so I drove it home and then got a lift back to the garage to pay for it and pick up the paperwork.

Blackhawk47 · 11 Oct 2015 at 14:06

I don't think a RX8 would be a good 'first car'.

Quartz · 11 Oct 2015 at 14:23

grudas said:
oddly insurance is just 300-400 quid more than a cheap econobox(1.2 punto's etc the usual first cars)

I'm guessing you're rather older than the normal beginner driver.

Blackhawk47 · 11 Oct 2015 at 15:08

K.C. Leblanc said:
I did once test drive a car, I decided I was going to buy it so I drove it home and then got a lift back to the garage to pay for it and pick up the paperwork.

No one in their right mind would let someone buying/looking at a car just drive off with it without paying or paperwork...

Definitely not normal.

grudas · 11 Oct 2015 at 15:36

Quartz said:
I'm guessing you're rather older than the normal beginner driver.

pretty much!

I'm looking at something I would enjoy taking on longer/weekend drives so economy, running costs don't bother me because I will do less than 5k/miles a year and I will still get to work on my bike.

Blackhawk47 said:
I don't think a RX8 would be a good 'first car'.

well it's not your "usual" but many first time buyers buy a car that will be used daily, to drive to work etc whereas I want something I can enjoy and actually like to look at.