Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
27 September 2011:
Buying my first set of wheels
What a palaver. I’ll admit, learning to drive is one thing, but buying my first car to practice in is something completely different. When my identical twin sister, Georgie, swapped her Volkswagen Lupo for a Smart ForFour, it seemed to tick all the boxes for me too. I’d never considered a Smart before - although, it would mean us both having the same thing for the first time in our lives. We’ve never been twinny at all, you see.
So the hunt began. I scoured the web daily, checking if anything was for sale. It didn’t take long. A few weeks of searching led me to the perfect car. Or so I thought. Seeing it in the metal was completely different. One of the foglights was missing and had tape amateurishly stuck over the offending hole to try to cover the fact. None of the body panels seemed to match-up, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it appeared as if the whole thing had been cleaned using wire wool. It did have a new clutch but that hardly made up for all its faults. Good luck to the seller is all I can say – but this wasn’t the car for me.
So, it was back to the drawing board and shortly afterwards another car came on the market. I arranged a viewing, but almost immediately something wasn’t right. The seller was working away in Northern Ireland and could only make the sale through a broker. Alarm bells started ringing. Loudly! Plus he wanted me to pick it up from a non-existent address. It later transpired this was a very clever scam. Be warned!
By this time, I was hoping for third time lucky when I found another Smart ForFour - a 1.1-litre Black Edition. I went to view it, did all the checks, managed to get the seller to do the MoT and knock £200 off the £2500 asking price. That will pay for my road tax and a bit of insurance thank you very much. Not bad! Well, Georgie thought so as I had got the same car, with just over 48,000 miles for the same price as she had, except mine is a year younger and has alloy wheels.
Her only upper hand was that her car had less miles on it (about 41,000) when she bought it. I had my first car and I’d managed to get one up on Georgie for the first time in our lives. There are times that I really do love being a twin! Now all I need is to get rid of those L-plates once and for all...
« Earlier: The story so far...
Later: Light at the end of the tunnel »
Updates
After a quick drive in the area around the test centre it was time to put all that practice to use, and take my practical test...
Today's lesson, rather infuriatingly, involved a lot of traffic jams and red lights.
This lesson was at a busy time in town, which was pretty stressful!
Today I drove on some unfamiliar roads, but with my confidence improving that wasn't too off putting
In this lesson I had to deal with various unusual situations, as well as practice on the dual carriageway.
Today we simulated the independent driving element of the driving test, heading to a new little village.
This lesson things were a little different, and the change made me drive in a more relaxed way - so what's new?
I had a bad feeling about this lesson before it even started, and I struggled with some country lanes before learning emergency stops.
After a Christmas break my confidence was booming, with the curious side effect of me speeding by mistake.
After some trouble of the past few lessons I was surprised by the good progress I made today.
Today I spent my lesson trying to maintain a set distance between the kerb and the car. It didn't go all that well.
This lesson involved more reversing around corners, something I'm continuing to struggle with.
Last lesson, Vaughan set me some homework to practice my manoeuvres. Great! Just what I want to do…
After having been on what can only be called a bumpy road for the last couple of weeks, things started to smooth out again today.
After a series of bad lessons, this week I made a breakthrough.
In this lesson I was rather surprised to have to take a mock driving test. But how did I get on?
In this lesson I practiced hill starts and reversing around corners - but I also encountered one of my pet hates.
My leisurely drive along the A27 was ruined by an inattentive - or perhaps impatient - removal van driver this week.
Having started a new academic year, I hadn’t been able to get behind the wheel, so you can imagine how great it felt when I finally got the chance after two weeks, despite tinges of apprehension.
Recently I was very lucky to be invited to Mercedes-Benz World, Brooklands, which became a real eye-opener for me.
27 September 2011: Buying my first set of wheels
It seems some things are never straightforward - like buying your first car. As I found out!
Learning to drive has been hanging over my head since I was 17 but I haven't had the confidence. However, now it's time to bite the bullet.
