First car for 17 year old

Flugelhorn

WellKnownSid said:

born_again said:

At the other end look for cars that are out of the norm for a 1st time driver.

My (now 18 year old) just (May 24) renewed the insurance on his brown 163hp 5 cylinder Volvo estate for £945 (first year was £1250-ish).

The trick is to think outside the box…

that's the sort of outside the box car you need ... 

Arunmor

Why not try things like Rover 75, Vauxhall Insignia, old Volvo (as already stated) and see what prices they throw up.

daveyjp

Look for cars you don't see many of.


For example on Autotrader at the moment,  Toyota  Yaris almost 5,000 for sale, Mazda 2 about 1700.  Both equally as capable.

Others to consider: Chevrolet Kalos, Nissan Pixo. Mitsubishi Colt.

531063

Vauxhall Corsa

jimbo6977

Nissan Note / Renault Modus. Same as a Clio but with all the "cred" siphoned out. 

caprikid1

1998 Mk4 Golf, Built very strong, low mileage, £1100 for the car £2000 for the insurance, probably not the cheapest first car but as it's a 1.4 aswell quite strong and safe.

Older Brother Toyota MR2 MK2 2.0, insurance was less ! No idea why !.

theoretica

When considering old cars do consider if they would ever need to be driven in a Low Emission Zone - there are more and more of the things.

DullGreyGuy

Lorian said:

Start by looking at cars of insurance group 3 or less (not actual sure you'll find anything less than 3) i10 base model or similar. It will still cost a huge amount.

The thatchams insurance groups measure mainly the cost of repairing the car with some element of security features. Insurers dont use them for rating. At the end of the day if you hit a pedestrian it doesn't really matter if you are in a group 3 or group 50 car.

When looking to buy our last car we were looking at a sensiblish car, Group 25,  and a blow the budget option, Group 50. One is a little bit of a boy racer but 1.6L, the other is a grand tourer exec car with a 4.7L engine. The group 50 was much cheaper to insure and even more so when adding a learner driver wife. 

ontheroad1970

531063 said:

Vauxhall Corsa

Only if you want a high quote.  It's in the same bracket as a fiesta  for young driver insurance price yikes

Goudy

The Fiat Panda is a good shout, it was our lads first car.
It's utilitarian rather than stylish trendy youngsters car so tend to come with far cheaper insurance than it's sister, the 500.
The basic Pop 1.2 is in a low insurance grouping and they are pretty cheap to run and repair.
These also have far less niggly faults that the 500.

My nephew is around the same age and has been eyeing up a base spec Skoda Roomster, another utilitarian, unstylish motor that's not really associated with your average teenager as he wants a biggish boot.

But as already mentioned, the major risk factor for an insurance company probably isn't the car it's self but the driver.
Which will tend to cause cars within a few insurance groups are all very similar.

You just need to shop around and see if you can find a car and insurance policy that are acceptable to the wallet.
You might also find checking out the specialist motor insurance brokers helps.