Choosing your First Car - Driving Instructor’s Check List (+ VW Polo TSI - 2011 walk around)

As a driving instructor I am often asked, “What first car would you buy?” Having just answered that question for the first time with my own daughter, in this video I summarise the key elements of our decision making process as we narrowed down our consideration set of the brands & models available within my daughter’s budget. Presented in an ‘OLD Top Gear’ style, where Angela Rippon, Chris Goffey and a young Jeremy Clarkson lifted bonnets and crouched by wheels! 🤣

Cars are pretty complex pieces of equipment, marketed in a range of specifications. So, to explore & evaluate them at anything more than a superficial level does take a bit of time. The following time codes will help you navigate the key areas covered in this video, enable you to watch it in bite-size chunks, along with links to sources/information:

3m20s The importance of driver training; understanding the scope and limitations of the L-test; post L-test training & development options.

8m10s ‘See & Be Seen’

Blind Spots - cars not permitted on DVSA L-Test:

Colour Choice & Collision Rates:






18m50s Tyres, Brakes, ABS, ESP & associated electronic stability systems







25m55s Engines & Transmissions

30m10s - 3 or 5 Door

31m35s Spare Wheel-v-Puncture Sealant Inflator Kit

32m50s Infotainment Systems & Phones - ‘Eyes on the Road!’



36m15s Insurance Black Box Telematics

Advanced & Performance Driving:

We can only hope that we have been lucky with our purchase!

Drive Safe, Always!

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Taking the average of 10 stops from 62 mph, the VW Polo 1.2 recorded a Stopping distance of 34.16 meters; just 1.14 meters behind the mighty Nissan GT-R. So, if you retain the factory specification tyres, brake pad friction material, and change the brake fluid regularly, the diminutive Polo will give the Novice Driver every chance of stopping if their Observations & Thinking Time have taken a bit longer due to inexperience.
Source on Stopping Distances: Which? Car

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While the wheels are off the car for new tyre fitting it’s a great opportunity to inspect the other vital safety component: BRAKES, measuring disc & pad thicknesses.

This VW Polo came factory fitted with Ferodo pads:

‘Once formulations are approved, the pads go into production within the onsite factory, which currently produces in excess of 24 million pads each year for vehicles such as the VW Golf and Ford Focus. Largely, production is for OE – although everything that goes into the OE box also goes into the aftermarket Premier range box, with the aftermarket bound products made on exactly the same lines, only the car maker’s mark and sticker on the box differentiates them.’ Ferodo

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We have found the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A to be very well suited to the Polo, so stuck with this known quantity. Age cracking does seem common on the Potenza, from our experience on another summer use only car; however you would perhaps expect a UHP tyre’s tread to have been worn out many years sooner!


We also run Continental & Michelin tyres on our cars, and rate both brands highly, depending on specific tyre model & size.

Living on the south coast of England harsh winters and snow days are very limited, so ‘Summer’ Tyres with A-Wet braking rating meet most of our driving needs. ‘All Season’ tyres may be worth exploring if you have harsher winters. Full ‘Winter’ tyres, denoted by the ‘Three Peak & Snowflake ❄️’ symbol on their side wall do make an incredible difference in real snow conditions. ⛄️

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Ferodo Brake Pads OEM:

‘Once formulations are approved, the pads go into production within the onsite factory, which currently produces in excess of 24 million pads each year for vehicles such as the VW Golf and Ford Focus. Largely, production is for OE – although everything that goes into the OE box also goes into the aftermarket Premier range box, with the aftermarket bound products made on exactly the same lines, only the car maker’s mark and sticker on the box differentiates them.’ Ferodo

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DVSA L-Test Tyre ‘Tell Me’ Questions:

DVSA Question: ‘Tell me how you’d check the tyres to ensure that they have sufficient tread depth and that their general condition is safe to use on the road’.

DVSA Answer: ‘No cuts and bulges, 1.6mm of tread depth across the central three-quarters of the breadth of the tyre, and around the entire outer circumference of the tyre’.

DVSA Question: ‘Tell me where you’d find the information for the recommended tyre pressures for this car and how tyre pressures should be checked’.

DVSA Answer: ‘Manufacturer’s guide, use a reliable pressure gauge, check and adjust pressures when tyres are cold, don’t forget spare tyre, remember to refit valve caps’.

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Happy New Year, 2024!

We must all live in our current time and navigate the world as we find it at that moment in time; arming ourselves with enough knowledge to avoid becoming ‘victims of current circumstance’. A car or motorbike remains the thing most likely to end a young person’s life prematurely, or do them Life Changing Injuries (KSI).

Road Safety Campaigner Dave Taylor, MBE, highlighted what was needed to make a difference in the high-risk years of my own novice driving:

1. Compulsory Basic Training for Car Driving
2. A stiffer driving test
3. P-Plates (‘Probationary’ period)

30 years on this November 2023 Guardian Article, in response to 4 teenage deaths in one car, summarises contemporary Road Safety research / collective wisdom highlighting essentially the same points (albeit within the context of modern technology):

1. A a minimum learning period (minimum number of ADI hours as required in other countries).
2. More extensive training & testing, including high-risk rural roads.
3. A Graduated Driving License system, which could include a probationary period when new drivers are not allowed out late at night, & restrictions on the age of their passengers. (i.e. a ‘P’-plate PROBATIONARY period, because newly qualified drivers are up to four times more likely to die in a crash when carrying passengers of the same age than when driving alone).
RAC Foundation Research 2023:
“A phased approach to licensing, with a minimum learning period and passenger and night-time rules for young drivers, could reduce casualties from collisions involving teenage car drivers by as much as 20%.”
The AA, said it believed the government should restrict passengers for about six months after a driver passes their test. It highlighted research from the AA Charitable Trust showing that 71% of fatal car crashes involving young drivers took place on rural roads. “There needs to be much more of an awareness about the dangers of rural roads, ” Edmond King said. “We advocate that even learners in cities take a couple of lessons on rural roads.”


The statistics are stark: In 2022 in Britain, about a fifth of all fatal or serious injury crashes involved young people. Young male car drivers aged 17 to 24 are four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured than over-25s.

RAC Foundation Research, published November 2023:


In a turbulent political environment policy change & implementation is unlikely within your driver training period, although the Insurance Industry does seem to be changing their policies on ‘Black Boxes’, Curfews, Limited Passenger Numbers, etc.

You can, however, address these 3 points for yourself, if you chose to:

1. Seek out a driving instructor who refuses to teach you how to ‘Life Hack’ your Driving Test; it’s your LIFE you are hacking with this approach!


3. Set your own Passenger Limits & Curfews, and embrace the Telematics feedback your insurance ‘Black Box’ can give you. Pride yourself on achieving high-scores reflecting smooth application of the major controls and functions: smooth steering/cornering, braking & accelerating. Though understand thier limitations, ‘Black Boxes’ don’t see the full picture and make no judgement on your (‘legal’) speed being appropriate for the prevailing weather / traffic conditions; something we demonstrate in this video:

If, like me, you are dyslexic and find reading a bit of a chore, in this video I cover most of the points made above:



As we begin 2024 you have life’s journey ahead of you and, as young adults, must decide for yourself the road you chose to travel!

Drive Safe, Always!

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Choose your FIRST CAR’s TYRES 🛞 carefully too, as an inexperienced novice driver you need all the help quality A-wet rated tyres can give you.
This is an expert driver (you aren’t!), hitting a foam person is amusing, hitting a real person is horrific…. ….at that moment you’d wish you’d spent a few more quid at the tyre fitters: