First car for 17 yr old - advice sought!

[Tinkywinky112233]

Evening all- have been researching metal for the eldest who turns 17 shortly. I’ve got a budget of approx 4K to buy the car - the caveat being he’s got to insure and maintain it ( think I got the better end of the deal!). He’s tall - 6’ 4” so just wondered what realistic options were available given crazy insurance prices and car values.
Must haves:
Big enough for him to fit in and drive
Reliable ( or as possibly can be )
Low insurance group ( preferably gp 10 or lower)

Not concerned re age or mileage , but would be looking for something that’s been maintained and isn’t red flagged all over past MOTs. Am I expecting too much for £4K?

[dunc69]

Probably. If you can find £5.5 to £6k, find the best VW Up / Skoda Citigo / Seat Mii you can locally and you will be good.

Decent room for your tall lad too!

[Stick Legs]

BMW 114i

I was astonished at how low the quote was for my daughter. Proper car as well.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314838961665?mkcid=16&a...

[Rockets7]

107 Sportium

[daqinggregg]

Volvo C30; get an insurance quote before dismissing it. Supposed to be very spacious in the front seats.



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312164...

[Stick Legs]

daqinggregg said:

Volvo C30; get an insurance quote before dismissing it. Supposed to be very spacious in the front seats.



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312164...

And a Mk.1 Focus underneath, so they are a fun drive too.

[alscar]

All my children ( 3 boys -tallest was " only " 6ft 1in though ) were bought Fiesta 1.25's of varying ages and conditions and from all the perspective of running costs , servicing , tyre cost and most importantly reliability and of course Insurance costs seemed a pretty decent starter car.
No idea where your £4k sits today with them but imagine perfectly possible.

[lost in espace]

Up/Mii/Citigo for my lad, buy a cat n as most have been damaged at least you will know about it. Make sure you check the tax cost if you buy anything newish, used to be £20 now £180.

[Cambs_Stuart]

I was looking at quotes for my son yesterday, a panda 100 hp is Group 10, which works out at £3800 PA insurance, TPFT only.
So, I'm going to have to manage his expectations on how sporty his first car will be.

[heisthegaffer]

Honda Civic. Well built, reliable and cheap to run. Unlikely to be bought by youngsters so hopefully a positive impact on insurance costs.

Loads to choose from

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

[boyse7en]

heisthegaffer said:

Honda Civic. Well built, reliable and cheap to run. Unlikely to be bought by youngsters so hopefully a positive impact on insurance costs.

Loads to choose from

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

Or in a similar vein, a Toyota Yaris which is actually a pretty good steer but is seen as an "old man's" car so doesn't have the youthful following that crash them into the scenery on a regular basis.

[Terry Tibbs]

My lad (aged 17) paid £800 for the year on his Peugeot 107. I thought that was pretty good.
In the 9 months he’s had it it’s been very reliable and cheap to run.

[Silvanus]

Other than the usual suggestions, there a few people on here that have gone for an Alfa MiTo for their kids first car. I've owned. MiTo and it was a great little car, cheap, reliable and fun to drive.

[GreatGranny]

alscar said:

All my children ( 3 boys -tallest was " only " 6ft 1in though ) were bought Fiesta 1.25's of varying ages and conditions and from all the perspective of running costs , servicing , tyre cost and most importantly reliability and of course Insurance costs seemed a pretty decent starter car.
No idea where your £4k sits today with them but imagine perfectly possible.

Fezza is always a good shout.

We bought a 1.4 diesel MK7 a few years ago for the kids and it is about to go to my youngest (out of 3) who has just turned 17. It gets abused but refuses to die.
He's 6' 7" and fits in it ok.
We got the Titanium and it's got auto lights, auto wipers, cruise, climate, mobile connectivity but no DAB etc..
Also height adjustable drivers seat which is handy.
£20 per year tax.

[duckson]

I’d just do some made up quotes to get an idea on prices.

I’d used plenty of cars mentioned here (even the Volvo) and prices didn’t seem overly cheap, well over £2k and into £3k for mundane stuff.
Best we found was a 1 litre Kia Picanto which was £1800 with Direct Line Driveplus (no physical black box, they use an app on a phone to monitor).
I found that if he was a student and he wasn’t employed it seemed to knock a large chunk off the quote! Not that we did put that (used his proper job role), a friend mentioned his sons quote on a similar car and it was a lot cheaper than my sons for some reason and so it turns out it was the student vs employed element!

[Shabaza]

Daihatsu Terios.
They have a Yaris 1.5vvti engine, so quite bulletproof.
And being taller will accommodate the extra height

[Zetec-S]

Tinkywinky112233 said:

Not concerned re age or mileage , but would be looking for something that’s been maintained and isn’t red flagged all over past MOTs. Am I expecting too much for £4K?

Could be worse, my niece is looking for a first car, budget of £1500. Her mum (my wife's sister) wanted us to drive them from Dorset to Norwich to look at a ropey old Seat with 1 month's MOT remaining. I've found a Nissan Micra round the corner from them with a years MOT and a good history, but she doesn't like how it looks

[alfabeat]

1.25 Fiesta here for the kids. Been a great first car. Cheap to maintain and reliable. Ours is a 2007 model and I fitted a double din Android Auto head unit into it for £200 and its brought it up to scratch in the ICE department (most important!).

I was lucky and only paid a couple of hundred for ours 3 years ago, but it has done 175k miles with zero history/lots of dents. I just wanted the cheapest car I could find for them to bash about in reliably.

[biggbn]

Many years ago now but we bought our daughter a Golf mk4 tdi match SE. Due to whatever algorithms the insurance industry uses it proved cheaper than usual much lower insurance group cars both pre and post her passing her test. This WAS 10 years or so ago, but having her in a decent solid feeling car certainly helped. The big 1.9 tdi was ideal for a learner, not many confidence sapping stalls and so easy for low speed maneuvering. She is now a died in the wool VW fan and has now had a 1.9tdi beetle convertible and a 2.0tdi new (new) beetle...

[Downward]

daqinggregg said:

Volvo C30; get an insurance quote before dismissing it. Supposed to be very spacious in the front seats.



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312164...

Yeah plenty of room.
However check insurance as this past 6 months quotes have been out at around £4k