New young drivers - second hand car or finance

MilduraS

I have only recently returned to the UK after living in a city abroad and have no NCD. I was planning to buy an old car to start with but the insurance quotes were well over £1,500 a year with a high excess, some were more than the car itself. Instead I have opted for a new Citigo with insurance quotes coming back at just under £500 with an excess of £100 rather than £400. I suspect in part because newer cars have better safety features.

I would suggest looking into 2/3 year old cars where finance is still an option but the full price is much lower. Do keep an eye out for offers on new cars though. When I ordered mine there was a £1,500 deposit contribution which meant the 9 month old car I initially had my eye on was more expensive than the factory order I ended up with.

tiggerbodhi

Agree with the buy second hand, my Daughter has just got her first car, perfectly good, safe and reliable Astra for £730, insured for £1200 with a black box.

No worries about the inevitable alloy kerbing, that "pillar just jumped out in front of me in the car park" moments that on a new car have to be repaired if not now but at the hand back moment.

Also with a lot of the "insurance included" deals for new drivers they are a form of fleet policy and you do not gain NCD.

In theory if she can avoid wrecking it will be able to sell it for not much less than she bought it for in a couple of years and will have some NCD to play with.

The other advantage is she is going to learn how it all works and service/maintain in herself, easy to do on a 13 year old Astra, not possible on a new car on lease where the main dealer has to do it and charge £150 for an oil change.

Korkyb

Completely agree with the second hand route.


My 18 year old daughter passed her test 2 months ago.


She now has a 2011 Nissan Pixo (49K on clock) which cost £1700. She bought this from her savings.


- £20 road tax
- Reasonable MPG
- £600 insurance (Admiral multicar policy)


I didn't even consider buying her something new.

onomatopoeia99

Buy used, maybe a decade old or more, so under £1000 and make her pay for it (purchase, road tax and insurance). She'll be way less likely to write it off that way (looking at experiences of friends with teenage children)

I bought my first car at 18, a £500 shed of a Morris Marina, insured it myself, maintained it myself etc. Kept it until the floor rotted out. Nowadays I pay a garage for the maintenance, but as a student I didn't have the cash to splash around, so learned how to use a spanner and read a Haynes manual.

watfordwend

Many thanks everyone for taking the time to share your experiences - it's been extremely helpful

JP1978

Buy a 2nd hand car that has a few bumps and scrapes already - a, it will be cheaper and b, the driver wont be as paranoid about hitting it and actually concentrate on driving, so probably wont hit it - if that makes sense!