Car options for a teenager…
Discussion
I’m looking to buy a car for my 17yo son, budget £8-£12k.
Needs to be:
- insurable for a newly qualified driver
- safe
- safe
- something that should last him 5 years or so through uni etc
- big enough to manage two sets of golf clubs, or two cricket bags
- something with proper hands-free ‘phone integration
- parking sensors
- no more than 6 years old, 50k (say) miles
The preferred local solution (ie most of his friends) is a low-spec VW Polo. Fair enough, but I suspect there’s a degree of brand cachet in this. And I’m not convinced that 60-something BHP and a 15s 0-60 time represents safe. Not in any way looking for “performance” but recognising that under-powered can be a safety issue in itself in certain circumstances - joining motorways etc
So what is a similar size (or a little larger), perhaps closer to 100bhp than to 60bhp, similar build quality etc?
Or do people buy the 1.0 Polos because they are the best all-round option at this price point?
I’m sure this (what car for my teenager) is a recurring question! Just interested to understand why VW Polos are so popular, and what the alternatives are…
Needs to be:
- insurable for a newly qualified driver
- safe
- safe
- something that should last him 5 years or so through uni etc
- big enough to manage two sets of golf clubs, or two cricket bags
- something with proper hands-free ‘phone integration
- parking sensors
- no more than 6 years old, 50k (say) miles
The preferred local solution (ie most of his friends) is a low-spec VW Polo. Fair enough, but I suspect there’s a degree of brand cachet in this. And I’m not convinced that 60-something BHP and a 15s 0-60 time represents safe. Not in any way looking for “performance” but recognising that under-powered can be a safety issue in itself in certain circumstances - joining motorways etc
So what is a similar size (or a little larger), perhaps closer to 100bhp than to 60bhp, similar build quality etc?
Or do people buy the 1.0 Polos because they are the best all-round option at this price point?
I’m sure this (what car for my teenager) is a recurring question! Just interested to understand why VW Polos are so popular, and what the alternatives are…
Kia Rio 3 spec:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406110...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403187...
Mazda2 Sport Nav+
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405310...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406050...
Clio RS Line:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405250...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404279...
GT Line:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404098...
Ibiza FR Sport:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406040...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405119...
A1 if you want to one up the badge snobs
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405109...
All are between 90-100bhp & sensible number insurance wise.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406110...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403187...
Mazda2 Sport Nav+
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405310...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406050...
Clio RS Line:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405250...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404279...
GT Line:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202404098...
Ibiza FR Sport:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406040...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405119...
A1 if you want to one up the badge snobs
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405109...
All are between 90-100bhp & sensible number insurance wise.
I am no insurance expert but a low insurance group will not automatically mean it is reasonable to insure.
I was speaking to my mate and his soon to be 17yr old boy about this recently. The cheapest car he can insure that he has found so far is a Boxster which was £3000. Fiesta 1.0, Clio 1.2 etc are all crazy prices (£5-6000) which I can only assume is because they are popular and claimed against in this age group.
I think there needs to be a lot of playing about to find the right recipe these days, factoring in the car purchase price, safety, insurance, maintenance etc.
Do not envy young drivers one bit these days.
I was speaking to my mate and his soon to be 17yr old boy about this recently. The cheapest car he can insure that he has found so far is a Boxster which was £3000. Fiesta 1.0, Clio 1.2 etc are all crazy prices (£5-6000) which I can only assume is because they are popular and claimed against in this age group.
I think there needs to be a lot of playing about to find the right recipe these days, factoring in the car purchase price, safety, insurance, maintenance etc.
Do not envy young drivers one bit these days.
My daughter is 17 in two months time and I have already started doing insurance quotes. What I have discovered is that the choice of car is largely driven by the cost of insurance.
A Hyundai i10 or VW UP!/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo are the cheapest cars to insure at around £2K.
I have an old Renault Megane 1.4 Tce (130 BHP), the insurance for a 17 year old girl was £7000 (I pay £269 fully comprehensive)
All the teenagers that are driving around in nice cars, I can only assume they are insured on their parents policy which is fronting. All fine until they have an accident and the insurance company start asking awkward questions.
A Hyundai i10 or VW UP!/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo are the cheapest cars to insure at around £2K.
I have an old Renault Megane 1.4 Tce (130 BHP), the insurance for a 17 year old girl was £7000 (I pay £269 fully comprehensive)
All the teenagers that are driving around in nice cars, I can only assume they are insured on their parents policy which is fronting. All fine until they have an accident and the insurance company start asking awkward questions.
Thank you ZX10R - I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to do that.
Regarding “fronting” I heard an interesting take on this from a friend. He suggests that many must be driving around in their VW Polos as named drivers. However he observes that this is so widespread that insurers are essentially complicit and policy pricing likely reflects the reality that there’s a grey area. That many families have multi-car policies, parents purchase a new vehicle perhaps registered in the mother’s name but driven primarily by their son/daughter. Whilst insurers might seek to assert soft definitions such as “named driver can’t be the one doing the most miles” this is almost impossible to evidence. If the named driver does (say) 4k miles per year in the car, the mother doing 5k to “validate” the named driver situation only increases the overall risk of a claim. Insurers concerned about this could apply explicit mileage limits per driver in their policy conditions. That this practice isn’t widespread indicates they have likely set premiums to reflect their genuine claims history from similar named driver policies.
Regarding “fronting” I heard an interesting take on this from a friend. He suggests that many must be driving around in their VW Polos as named drivers. However he observes that this is so widespread that insurers are essentially complicit and policy pricing likely reflects the reality that there’s a grey area. That many families have multi-car policies, parents purchase a new vehicle perhaps registered in the mother’s name but driven primarily by their son/daughter. Whilst insurers might seek to assert soft definitions such as “named driver can’t be the one doing the most miles” this is almost impossible to evidence. If the named driver does (say) 4k miles per year in the car, the mother doing 5k to “validate” the named driver situation only increases the overall risk of a claim. Insurers concerned about this could apply explicit mileage limits per driver in their policy conditions. That this practice isn’t widespread indicates they have likely set premiums to reflect their genuine claims history from similar named driver policies.
Always interesting to read other people's thoughts on buying cars for children, my son is 17 in a couple of months and desperately wants a car. I live in a fairly high crime area, and the insurance quotes (even on group 2 and 3 cars) are horrifying. If he was on my policy as a named driver, I'm assuming he wouldn't accrue any a claims bonus?
Cprrect, with my son we got him a 1.4 N/A Mito & that came in at £3200 fully comp, I looked for my friends son & couldn't get the Mito for any less than £4500 & he live in a quiet part of Kent.
We got him a 1.4 N/A astra for the same money as the Mito.
Also check the price difference on him having his own policy (the difference was only £400) we decided it was worth the extra.
We got him a 1.4 N/A astra for the same money as the Mito.
Also check the price difference on him having his own policy (the difference was only £400) we decided it was worth the extra.
Jimjimhim said:
A 60bhp car isn't unsafe, but its driver certainly can be.
Absolutely, my mums, friend's grandson passed his test and had a 1 litre polo. Day 1 he is out in the car with his friends driving at 30 MPH, applied the brakes and the car slid into a traffic island setting off the air bags and wrote it off. Thing is his grand mother bought this bulls
t, said "Poor (insert grandson name)" and helped him buy another car.My next door neighbour managed to write two cars off in six months, one of which ended up in someone's front garden. He also nearly crashed into me as I approached the end of our road and he came screaming around the corner cutting it and narrowly missing me.
Jimjimhim said:
A 60bhp car isn't unsafe, but its driver certainly can be.
Of course. But greater engine flexibility affords a greater margin of safety. The same (safe/careful) driver joining the M3(N) at Thorpe - where there’s a relatively short stretch of slip road and frequently a lot of fast-moving traffic on the motorway already - will be intrinsically safer in a car that doesn’t need to be red-lined through the gears to get up to a safe joining speed in time.A normal size/weight car with 30-40bhp is likely capable of cruising at 70mph. I wouldn’t want to be pulling out into 70mph traffic in it though. Not without a 5 mile long slip road anyway!
WindyCommon said:
Thank you ZX10R - I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to do that.
Regarding “fronting” I heard an interesting take on this from a friend. He suggests that many must be driving around in their VW Polos as named drivers. However he observes that this is so widespread that insurers are essentially complicit and policy pricing likely reflects the reality that there’s a grey area. That many families have multi-car policies, parents purchase a new vehicle perhaps registered in the mother’s name but driven primarily by their son/daughter. Whilst insurers might seek to assert soft definitions such as “named driver can’t be the one doing the most miles” this is almost impossible to evidence. If the named driver does (say) 4k miles per year in the car, the mother doing 5k to “validate” the named driver situation only increases the overall risk of a claim. Insurers concerned about this could apply explicit mileage limits per driver in their policy conditions. That this practice isn’t widespread indicates they have likely set premiums to reflect their genuine claims history from similar named driver policies.
Sounds made up to me, you would likely find a 17 yo named driver would be the one being rated on as if they were the main driver. So it wouldn’t be materially cheaper to have them as named driver and just delays their NCB. So there isn’t any “must” be driving as named drivers. Regarding “fronting” I heard an interesting take on this from a friend. He suggests that many must be driving around in their VW Polos as named drivers. However he observes that this is so widespread that insurers are essentially complicit and policy pricing likely reflects the reality that there’s a grey area. That many families have multi-car policies, parents purchase a new vehicle perhaps registered in the mother’s name but driven primarily by their son/daughter. Whilst insurers might seek to assert soft definitions such as “named driver can’t be the one doing the most miles” this is almost impossible to evidence. If the named driver does (say) 4k miles per year in the car, the mother doing 5k to “validate” the named driver situation only increases the overall risk of a claim. Insurers concerned about this could apply explicit mileage limits per driver in their policy conditions. That this practice isn’t widespread indicates they have likely set premiums to reflect their genuine claims history from similar named driver policies.
Also they couldn’t provide explicit mileage limits because it’s simply not measurable and therefore not enforceable.
WindyCommon said:
Jimjimhim said:
A 60bhp car isn't unsafe, but its driver certainly can be.
Of course. But greater engine flexibility affords a greater margin of safety. The same (safe/careful) driver joining the M3(N) at Thorpe - where there’s a relatively short stretch of slip road and frequently a lot of fast-moving traffic on the motorway already - will be intrinsically safer in a car that doesn’t need to be red-lined through the gears to get up to a safe joining speed in time.A normal size/weight car with 30-40bhp is likely capable of cruising at 70mph. I wouldn’t want to be pulling out into 70mph traffic in it though. Not without a 5 mile long slip road anyway!
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
My daughter is 17 in two months time and I have already started doing insurance quotes. What I have discovered is that the choice of car is largely driven by the cost of insurance.
A Hyundai i10 or VW UP!/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo are the cheapest cars to insure at around £2K.
This mirrors my recent experience looking for a car for my 18 year old son. We opted for a Peugeot 108 1.0 which cost around £1.4k to insure with my son as the policyholder and main driver and parents as named drivers. The best quote for a Fiesta or Corsa was £2.8k which ruled them out.A Hyundai i10 or VW UP!/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo are the cheapest cars to insure at around £2K.
I disagree about the lack of speed/bhp being an issue. I still remember my first car. A 1994 Ford Fiesta 1.1LX with 50bhp and a 0-60 of 16.3 seconds. I never once felt like the lack of bhp was going to get me into trouble, and in fact, I think a faster car would have been a bad idea in my 17 year old hands. 17 year old boys are immature, at best. Talking from experience.
If I have my way my son's first car will be something very cheap to run, something like an Aygo. The car will likely have a few scrapes within weeks of him taking ownership. Plenty of time for nicer machinery once they get more experienced. Just my opinion though.
If I have my way my son's first car will be something very cheap to run, something like an Aygo. The car will likely have a few scrapes within weeks of him taking ownership. Plenty of time for nicer machinery once they get more experienced. Just my opinion though.
I just sold our Audi S4 and replaced it with a VW UP! beats.
Picked it up from Inverness and drove back down to Edinburgh. Fantastic little car and great fun using all of its 75bhp!
Car is for my daughter to learn to drive in but will mainly be used by the wife. She was a bit upset about the Audi going but she likes driving it too now.
Used it for a couple of dump runs with the seats down and the flat tailgate it’s like a van so you can get plenty gear in the back.
Picked it up from Inverness and drove back down to Edinburgh. Fantastic little car and great fun using all of its 75bhp!
Car is for my daughter to learn to drive in but will mainly be used by the wife. She was a bit upset about the Audi going but she likes driving it too now.
Used it for a couple of dump runs with the seats down and the flat tailgate it’s like a van so you can get plenty gear in the back.
You can't beat plugging multiple low IG cars into comparethemarket and see what they will cost.
Having recently done this for my eldest it had the Micra and Fiesta the lowest for where we live, less than equivalent offerings from Renault, Toyota and VW.
Had a similar budget to you and went for the latest generation Fiesta (from 2018) in 1.1Ti (85 bhp) guise. No guarantee that will be the cheapest for you though
Having recently done this for my eldest it had the Micra and Fiesta the lowest for where we live, less than equivalent offerings from Renault, Toyota and VW.
Had a similar budget to you and went for the latest generation Fiesta (from 2018) in 1.1Ti (85 bhp) guise. No guarantee that will be the cheapest for you though
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