First cars are more than £1,000 cheaper for young drivers than they were for their grandparents, according to new research.
The average spend on a first car today is £4,627 compared with £6,026 (after inflation) in the 1960s, car classified ad website CarGurus said.
Analysis of car prices in recent decades found that people who started driving in the 1990s secured the lowest first car prices, at an average of just £3,264.
READ MORE: Aberdeen is Scotland's congestion hotspot
The most popular model for first cars has varied from the Morris Minor in the 1950s, the Mini in the 1970s and the Ford Ka since 2010.
Just over half (56%) of drivers aged 18-34 paid for their first car with their own money.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of young people buy a second-hand model to get on the road for the first time, compared with 91% of their grandparents’ generation.
READ MORE: Aberdeen is Scotland's congestion hotspot
CarGurus spokesman James Drake said: “We were surprised to find that new drivers today spend less on their first vehicle than their grandparents did.
“It would seem that the UK’s large used car market is helping first drivers to acquire more affordable vehicles, such as the Ford Ka, which is currently the number one first car of choice.
“While there is a growing trend for new cars amongst first time buyers, probably because of finance deals, there remains a significant proportion of young people funding their first car purchase on their own.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here