I just passed my driving test here and I am thinking about buying my own car. But which one would be best for a new driver?

I have actually tried quite a lot of cars because I had several instructors both here and back home, and I also practiced with my husband's car. So in total over the period of two years I have tried several manual diesel cars (Golf 4, Skoda Fabia, Opel Corsa, Peugeot 308, BMW 3, BMW 5) as well as two petrol manuals (Opel Astra and Fiat Punto) and two automatics (Fiat Punto and new Opel Agila).

I passed the test on Peugeot 308 and I have clocked in many hours on my husband's BMW 5.

In many ways all cars are similar, but I found that I did not like the Peugeot very much, well, at least in comparison with the BMW (which I nevertheless find too big and would rather not drive it every day). I was quite impressed with the new Agila because it is very spacious inside in spite of it small size and very comfortable to drive (but it was also an automatic, so who knows).

What I really want is a small car to drive around town, which is child-friendly but also gives you a smooth and comfortable ride (sort of like in a BMW). So can one get all that? And at what price (used, not a new one)?

I thought I could ask experienced drivers on this forum -- what would you recommend?

Many thanks in advance!

Well, personally I would go for the Toyota Prius. Its extremely easy to handle and better on the environment. GO GREEN!

LOL you joking right? the prius is about as far from green as you can get! just check out the mpg it gets, less then a Jeep on a long run, where do the batteries come from?, what do they contain?, can they be recycled? etc etc etc

somthing like a diesel polo etc thrashes the pruis on mpg.

From a whole lifecycle point of view its one of the WORST cars for co2

Before buying a car definately look at the insurance quotes as it seems a seemingly "normal" car here can cost a small fortune to insure, especially for a driver with no driving history so to speak.

Get an RS6. Go on, just for the hell of it.

No I am not kidding. The Prius does fantastic mileage for its size - 3/4 of a tank was all i needed on a drive once from the Nederlands to London. Electric engines are just much more efficient for urban driving, especially in a city like Zurich.


And carbon dioxide emission is only one aspect of the car's environmental appeal. Diesel engines produce relatively large amounts of other pollutants harmful to the environment too.

I did my driving test here in a Fiat Punto. I was surprised to read that the safety test findings said that the side collision rating was "mortal danger"

Look at Volvo. Their cars give you a lot for your money.

What about Honda Jazz?

It is a surprisingly comfortable and incredible spacious car!
Try an automatic and check the trunk; it has a larger trunk than a Toyota Rav4.

It s quite handy (very small car), relatively speedy (not an RS6 though) and thrifthy.

On the negative side, the small size should not be beneficial in terms of safety but you will drive it in town anyway

I would recommend going Mini... Relatively small car, very nice to drive in the city. Enough space for children... Good mpg, a bit "greenish" with conventional approach...

I suggest you read up a bit more, check out the sotries and pictures of the canadian mercury mines, check how just how long those batteries last, and if they can be recycled. Electric engines are efficient, but charging the batteries (using your engine and petrol) is very very inefficienct, and all the time your not using them the petrol engine is lugging about 1 tonne of extra weight.

The prius does shocking bad mpg concidering its size, in independent road tests the jeep patriot and a bmw m5 both BEAT the prius on MPG.

Yes I think electric cars are the future, but not battery powered one.

First congratulations on passing your test, and second i would go for a peugeot

What is your budget? That is the question when it comes to cars as the choice gets wider the more you can afford

My wife made her license here some years back and I teached her a bit in the TT I had back then - not a good choice for the poor visibility.

I would go for a hatch back as they are easier to park, manual transmission to really learn driving and a petrol engine as I personally hate the smaller diesel ones, but that is a matter of taste.

If you are on a small budget go for a well maintained Golf 3. If you got more to spend, you can look around more. The Audi A3s are nice but "keep the value well" which also translates in a high price for you. Skodas became quite good but only in recent years, so do not buy a too old one. VW was good the last decade, the older Polos are not that great. I like the Seat Leon quite a lot, but the small window in the back will not help you at parking...
I personally had a Honda Civic for a long time which never let me down. They are great to drive and cheap to run, but quite expensive to buy. As this is the English Forum I guess you need to think about a Mini as well. My wife loved the one from her driving teacher, but their prices are way off the scale...

Honda Civic.

End of.

Just to recommend a car

We recently bought a new suzuki swift, we checked out all the small cars available and the swift was the best for the price etc, seems well put together, nice and simple so little that can go wrong, pretty good level of equipment (satnav, aircon, abs, electric windows all round etc) we went for the 4x4 version, I really liked the fiat 500 but a similar spec'ed one was 10k chf more!! and they have no space in back or boot, the swift can fit a set of golf clubs in its boot!

A Peugeot like this one perhaps?

Wow sex on wheels i want 1

Oh boy...another new driver on the road???
Just kidding...Congats and enjoy the summer driving on the roads of beautiful CH.
Audi A2 is what I recommend. Small, good looking, reliable.

Be careful Sutter, with an desire like that, you may get more offers than you can accept

Weird, I came into this thread with similar thoughts. My current dream car is a Fiat 500, but looking at similar cars and other options like 4x4 which are really useful, Suzuki Swift 4x4 is ridiculous value for money. I'll probably get one late this year or next year.

It just remindef me of this part of the joke ...

From: Jeff Peters
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.25pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Is that you being a smartarse or agreeing not to email me again?

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.32pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

The middle one.