Young driver first shed

[oldbanger]

I’m starting to think about what car to get my eldest. She’s been on the Admiral Young Driver scheme so I am hoping she’ll be ready to take her test quite soon after turning 17

Budget is around £1-2k, and it needs to be a petrol automatic plus the usual, cheap to run, cheap to insure and reliable.

I had considered an automatic mx5 but she hates mine so I guess it would need to be something sensible.

The roads are pretty awful here (rural Midlands) so good solid handling and build are also a must.

For some reason there are loads of Smart FourTwos available locally but I hear they’re not the best handling car.

Otherwise I am considering a Peugeot 207 or 206, VW Up or similar

I’ve got time on my side with this so thought it would be worth getting some ideas together. Suggestions would be very welcome

Edited by oldbanger on Sunday 12th January 23:14

[gmaz]

I'm in the same situation looking for cars for my 18 y.o. son. Shortlist is.

Toyota Yaris
Skoda Fabia
Ford Fiesta
VW Polo

Nothing french (too unreliable)

[ZX10R NIN]

Beetle's sometime come up with very sensible numbers insurance wise:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

206

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[RazerSauber]

The Aygo will invariably come up. The automatic is.. alright. It works. There's a quite hilarious delay between gears. From what I can see, they're nigh on invincible, buttons to repair, buttons to run and never fast enough to have a massive crash.

[designforlife]

Early 2000s Yaris, the 1NZFE is pretty bomb-proof and the 4 speed auto is decent for what it is... parts are cheap and easy to source.

the only things to look out for would be rust, and they have a tendancy to eat front droplinks so its worth fitting polybush uprated ones.

[nobrakes]

Focus

[oldbanger]

ZX10R NIN said:

206

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I’d buy that one for myself if I had any room!

A 1.6 is probably a bit juicy for the kid though, unfortunately

[ZX10R NIN]

Check with your insurance you may be surprised on the 206.

[oldbanger]

ZX10R NIN said:

Check with your insurance you may be surprised on the 206.

I was playing around on aggregator sites, and if she was already 17, she could insure an automatic 206 1.6 sport with Collingwood for less than £350.

That's on a learner driver policy with her as main driver, and me as second driver. Not sure how it would look with a normal (i.e. full licence) policy. But considering how cheap 206s are around here in comparison with comparable VW or Hyundai models, for example, that's me sold. I had my 206 for 7 years and it ran faultlessly until right at the end

[oldbanger]

Just by way of an update. We found her an '04 plate 107 with only 42k on it via Facebook marketplace. She elected to go for the manual test, rather than automatic so it's a manual.

I've had a couple of good cars from Facebook!

[Alfa Pete]

My son and daughter share a 2011 Corsa 1.2.
It’s done 130k miles but cost £1500 . Has passed one not in their ownership with only the need for 2 tyres. Pretty solid cars and cheap to fix.