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We’ve all been there.
Learning to drive is a rite of passage. As an experienced driver, when you see those L-plates, you give a little more space and a little more leeway. We remember that learning to drive a car can be stressful, and everyone has to start somewhere! Whether you’ve taken to it like a duck to water and passed the first time round, or it took you a dozen halting attempts to master your driving test, you’re now the proud owner of a new driving licence.
Before the real fun can begin, there is a second right of passage to follow - your first car! While some people might be lucky enough to have the use of something decent and fairly new, many new drivers will be starting on something older, perhaps a little dated and (if you’re lucky) roadworthy.
Call us psychics, but chances are that in the year of 2024, you’re probably used to having a world of entertainment on your smartphone. However, it wasn’t that long ago that car stereos were not set up to accommodate phone connectivity. Disaster! Unless you have a store of old CDs somewhere, you’re making do with the (analog) radio.
This is where a new stereo can be worth its weight in gold. For the fraction of a price of the car, you can bring your car’s entertainment system right up to the latest models, making all those exciting first drives even more enjoyable.
Unable (or unwilling) to leave those carefully-curated playlists at home? An older stereo likely won’t have Bluetooth, and some won't have an AUX in either. If you want to play all your favourite tunes on the go, you’ll need a stereo with Bluetooth streaming at the very least, or even 4G connectivity if you plan on making the most of it.
Let’s be honest, the cheaper the car, the weedier the stereo is likely to be. A new head unit can improve the performance of ageing systems and offer older electronics a new lease of life. Luxuries such as sound systems may be under-spec’d at the lower end of the market, which is why putting your money into the entertainment can make sense.
While you can go all out with spoilers, trims, led underlighting and window stickers, we think that a new entertainment system is a more sensible place to spend your hard-earned cash. It’s both relatively affordable and can give you a significantly upgraded experience. A new stereo is also simple to install, and leaves the crucial mechanical parts of the car untouched! It’s probably the best bang-for-your-buck area to swap out.
Car insurance for young people can be prohibitive. In fact, it’s a huge hurdle to car ownership for a lot of new drivers. Sadly, it’s one of those things - you need experience to prove that you’re a safe driver, but you need insurance to drive…this means an expensive few years.
A great way to get your insurance premium down is by the use of a dash cam. These cameras record the scene from your windscreen as you drive, providing verifiable proof of what happened if you get into an accident. This means that if you were driving safely and something bad happens, you can easily prove it. Not only does this vindicate you in an accident, having this source of proof in the cab makes you much less risky to insure; they can always check what happened, removing a variable that would shoot your insurance up.
If you’re just beginning to drive a car, you’re just beginning to learn about all the problems that cars can have! They’re complex machines, and the older they are the more chance there is of something going wrong (though a new car is never a guarantee either…).
While it won’t fix anything, an OBDII scanner can help you diagnose a problem, going into a mechanic armed with knowledge. Knowing what a dashboard light is telling you can be the difference between changing a small fuse and going about your day, or pulling over immediately with a huge problem. You’re not expected to know, as most experienced drivers only have a vague idea, but it’s a good education in how cars work.
Ultimately, driving should be both a utility and a pleasure. You’ve spent a lot of time and probably a lot of money learning, so why stop there? Customise your dashboard to get the most out of your new freedom. Perhaps XTRONS makes exactly the thing you’re looking for?