1st car for a 17 yr old?

anewman

hm71 wrote: »

we made the mistake of getting a corsa and insurance is crippling!!

Check insurance cost before buying! The reason probably is that the Corsa is the young kids car of choice and lots of them end up wrapped around trees.

sarah_elton

Idiophreak wrote: »

Most main dealers won't have too many cars at that price point, so you may need to be looking privately...

Not quite accurate - in between private market and main dealers are the independent second hand dealers.

Ask for recommendations from family and friends. The car I bought a month ago came from a dealer in a nearby village whom my mum has known for 15 years and had three cars from before. His garage has a great reputation locally for repairs, MOTs etc, and he sells sound cars. From a dealer you should be able to get a three month warranty. Not worth as much as a proper new car warranty, but at least it gives you some comeback.

As for insurance... Couldn't possibly advocate this of course but the cheapest way is to insure it in your own name and have DS as a named additional driver. Some insurers such as Direct Line allow named drivers to build up their own no claims discount. The downside of course (besides the fact that you should really be the main driver with that setup) is that if he crashes it could mess up your own NCD.

Ahhh memories. My parents got me an E-reg Metro Sport for my first car (this was back in 1999). I loved that car. It had manual choke and I knew every quirk in its engine noise. Modern cars are all computers and quiet engines you can't read as well. It was a 1.3 though so damn nippy away from junctions.

Hintza

I have found spreading the word around friends and family can be quite useful in these situations (someones granny is always dying) and they just want rid.

So keep your ear close to the ground..

As for the car insurance group is vital, I think parkers have a search for cars by insurance group function.

I bought my daughter a Cat D written off Fiat Panda 54 plate 2 years ago for £1500 and spent just short of a grand on it. She has been driving around happily in it for the last 18 months by the way her insurance was just over £800 via Kwik Fit which I thought was good value. Did cause problems when we renewed the insurance with a new company and they asked "how long have you had a full licence" needless to say although she had her own insurance for 12 months it took her 2 months to pass her test which they couldn't get their head round.

Son is 17 this year and I'm afraid he is getting Granny's old Rover 25 (which he is thrilled about :rolleyes: ) but he will be moving to London and I doubt he will really need a car.

Edit:- I have a friend who I was at school with in the body repair business so the repairs although very very slow were a lot cheaper than normal. He did bits and bobs to it when he had a minute.

AdrianHi

It is insurance group 1, comes near the top of the chart in JD powers customer satisfaction surveys, very reliable, 47mpg, cheap to service and put tyres on, shame it's lacking in "street cred." but you can't have everything.
You should be able to find a very good Skoda Fabia 1.2 Classic for your budget.
My sister in law has a '51 plate 1.4 Classic worth about £1,500, my mother-in-law has a '52 plate 1.4 16v automatic. They never go wrong and no, neither of them are for sale

Entry level Citroen Saxo and Peugeot 106 are also ins. group 1 if I remember rightly. Bit more street cred. but not as "bomb proof" as the Skoda Fabia.

hm71_2

anewman wrote: »

Check insurance cost before buying! The reason probably is that the Corsa is the young kids car of choice and lots of them end up wrapped around trees.

we did and as a learner it came out best with quinn at £897 but on informing them he had passed his test it jumped to £2200. I spent 4 months researching- didn't just jump on the 1st car I saw. I drive a micra and was shocked that the insurance on that actually came up higher. Don't really like to contemplate teenagers wrapped round trees as my son drives a corsa and I worry enough as it is.:eek:

Lokolo

DirectLine are usually cheapest for younger drivers.

Buy a second hand car, don't buy a new one, look in autotrader or on their website.

Conor_3

Don't bother buying him anything too decent. Usually they go through a raft of minor knocks, scrapes and mirror clipping in their first year or two so no point spending too much.

nickmack

sarah_elton wrote: »

As for insurance... Couldn't possibly advocate this of course but the cheapest way is to insure it in your own name and have DS as a named additional driver. Some insurers such as Direct Line allow named drivers to build up their own no claims discount. The downside of course (besides the fact that you should really be the main driver with that setup) is that if he crashes it could mess up your own NCD.

If it's DS car and he is the main driver, there is no other option, he should be insured as such. It will be expensive but he will hopefully build his own NCB and not have to worry about insurers failing to pay out if they discover fronting.

anewman

There's never really much point in buying someone a car before they have passed a test IMO. Yes it gives the opportunity of practice outside of lessons, but it probably ends up costing more than the extra lessons to pass in the long run - even though lessons are expensive.

A budget of £1000 would still give a decentish car - and you can still get all the stuff like ABS, air bags etc, even air con, electric mirrors and other luxury features.

@lokolo there is no magic insurer for younger drivers, the only sure way to get the cheapest price is to get as many quotes from as many places as possible. I found the ones that people told me would be cheap turned out to be quite expensive.

Lokolo

Really? Well 3 of my friends all went to DirectLine as they were cheapest, they were cheapest for me too.

Could just be my area though!