The ‘first car’ that motorists are driving today is very different to previous generations - with the humble runaround a thing of the past for most, according to new research. The research - from cinch, the online used car marketplace - shows how the ‘first car' has changed rapidly in recent years.
Today, the average first car (bought in the past 12 months) costs a significant £6,600 and is just four years old. In fact, 27% of new drivers now step into a new motor as their very first car, while a further 22% get a ‘nearly new’ vehicle less than a year old.
In the 2000s, just 12% got a new vehicle as their first car and in the 1980s the figure was just 5%. The average age of a first car has changed from 7.2 years in the 1990s and 6.7 years in the 2000s to just 4.3 years today. This is reflected in changes to the average spend for a first car buyer - which was £1,980 in the ‘90s and £1,266 in the ‘80s.
