Ist car for a new (young) driver

Sues48

After a bit of advice. My 22yr old DS has recently started to learn to drive, he has had a few lessons with an instructor and has some more booked. My dad has had to give up driving due to medical reasons and is looking to sell his car, a 1.4 04 reg Toyota Corrola, we were considering buying it for DS but looking at the insurance it doesn't seem financially possible as the lowest quote I've been able to get is £1400 on a provisional licence rising to £1700 when he passes his test. We also considered letting him have my car,1.2 07 ref Fiesta, and me getting a new car, but the insurance for this was even higher. We have got a budget of around £3500 for the car and the insurance, any ideas what we could get for this sort of money?

opinions4u

Look for a Corsa or similar with an engine size below 1 litre.

khiller1988

My advice would to go for a cheaper car with cheap insurance for the first year. with one years no claims, the difference is huge, and most accidents happen in your first car. look at corsa's, clio's, etc. My first car which want that long ago was a seicento, but they are kind of girly. avoid toyota's, suzuki's and sports version of cars such as MG's as the insurance is expensive on all of these

Kilty_2

First year's insurance is always very expensive and IMO I don't think you'll find it's that much cheaper for a 1.0 supermini than the Corolla you've had quotes for.

Hintza

In my view those quotes are cheap and you will be getting a car that hopefully you know has been looked after.

I wouldn't look any further, surely your father will help out here?

King_Nothing

£1,700 is cheap for a new driver in a 1.4 car.

Ignore people saying get a 1.0 litre, or a Corsa etc. engine size is having less effect on car insurance now (well 1.0 - 1.6 is anyways, I wouldn't recommend a 5.7L V8 for a first car anyway, lol), what has more of an effect is the car model itself. Bumper car favourites which everyone gets when they pass their test (e.g. Corsa, Saxo, Clio's) are crashed more statisitcally as more young people drive them, so command a higher premium from the insurance companies, how many teenagers, or early 20's new drivers do you see driving around in Toyota Corolla's, so the price is lower by a small margin. Try quotes for different cars.

rev_henry

King_Nothing wrote: »

£1,700 is cheap for a new driver in a 1.4 car.

Ignore people saying get a 1.0 litre, or a Corsa etc. engine size is having less effect on car insurance now (well 1.0 - 1.6 is anyways, I wouldn't recommend a 5.7L V8 for a first car anyway, lol), what has more of an effect is the car model itself. Bumper car favourites which everyone gets when they pass their test (e.g. Corsa, Saxo, Clio's) are crashed more statisitcally as more young people drive them, so command a higher premium from the insurance companies, how many teenagers, or early 20's new drivers do you see driving around in Toyota Corolla's, so the price is lower by a small margin. Try quotes for different cars.

Seconded. Get him the Corolla. They're good cars, 1700 is quite good really, although as he's 22 do just put a 1.0 corsa through gocompare to make sure - my insurance is much less than that and I'm 18. For a 22 year old I'd expect it to be about half that if you asked me, but I'm not an insurance broker! He'll like the corolla too - bigger and a bit more powerful than a silly 1.0 corsa, which btw is a 3 cylinder and is generally a bit rubbish, albeit economical. I drove my mum's for a while when learning/just after, before buying my own car.

[Deleted User]

I also agree that you need to think out side the box. An old Mondeo for example can probably end up cheaper to insure than a 1 litre Corsa or Saxo.

rev_henry

Deleted_User wrote: »

I also agree that you need to think out side the box. An old Mondeo for example can probably end up cheaper to insure than a 1 litre Corsa or Saxo.

I've also heard such things about vectras and volvos. Corolla probably also fits that category as a bit of an old persons car. Fyi I have an old Hyundai accent 1.3, which is bizarrely (old) insurance group 7, but is far cheaper to insure than any other group 7 car. Groups seem to mean very little these days. I do know for almost certain though that THE cheapest cars to insure are Citroen 2CVs or old VW beetles.

Sues48

Thanks for the advice. The more we think about it, the Toyota is the best option, especially as my parents have said they aren't in any rush to sell and are prepared to keep it safely tucked up in their garage for a couple of months until DS has had a few more lessons.We will manage to scrape together the extra cash needed by then.

I have to admit I was surprised that it was cheaper to insure a 1.4 Toyota than a 1.2 Fiesta but then again car insurance does seem to be a bit of a law unto itself!

bigjl

We have been very impressed with the wifes Clio DCi, you may even get one of the newer shape ones, 55 plate onwards, for the budget, or one of the late older shape models that where sold as a Campus model for a while alongside the new shape one.

Don't underestimate the advantage of buying a used car that is a known quantity though, which makes the Corolla that you are looking at a very sensible choice, not too flash and almost certain to last for many years. These facts alone make it a good choice.