What Car?

[singapore54]

What do people think the best starter car is for a 17year old. Bearing in mind Insurance etc.

[TWR]

Fiesta / 106 Peugeot / Saxo / check out the insurance on these to start with, I think you will still find it expensive due to his / her age, it would help if the person went on an advanced course, also get a black box fitted to his can through the Insurance to monitor his driving.

[sunny-dave]

You have to think :

Cheap, Small(ish), Slow - then you'll be in Insurance groups 1-3 which will be about all 17yr old (or more realistically his/her parents) can conceivably afford.

This is a decent list - http://www.uswitch.com/car-insurance/the-cheapest-cars-to-insure/

I'd personally be looking at a Skoda Fabia as my pick from those - well built, reliable and good crash protection.

[singapore54]

Thanks I'll look into those , I've resigned myself to the expense sigh.

[singapore54]

Thank you very much, appreciated.

[Titehead]

My advice to a 17 year old is get the cheapest group 1 you can get, then get the cheapest third party only insurance you can get and park it on the drive for at least 2 years.

[SlackAlice]

Titehead
Are you saying leave it parked up and not used?

[jake-the-peg]

There's also the matter of maintainance and purchace price.

Ka's are very popular in the UK you'll find an awful lot of them about which drives down the purchase price and parts are cheap compared to some.

Try and get one with a service history

[Titehead]

yes alice, then, hopefully with some NCB insurance may start to get affordable. teenagers on the road hit things, inivitable, hence sky high premiums even if you can get insurance.

[bednobs]

not much point in paying thousands of pounds in insurance, then not driving the blooming thing though is there? Say the insurance was £1000 py for those 2 years, even though you might get good NCD on the 3rd year, in reality, a lwer price will have cost you and extra 2k!

[Zacs-Master]

Safety has to be a consideration. We avoided the small hatchbacks and went for a 10 y.o. VW Golf for our daughter. I preferred the thought of her being encased in somehing a little more solid that a saxo / corsa or the like

[TWR]

There is nothing wrong with the Saxo / Corsa Zac, it's the clown behind the steering wheel that's the problem, especially the right foot. as regards parking it up for two years, that's the best yet, do you know the complications of doing that Titehead?

[jake-the-peg]

This might be of interest to you too

http://www.confused.com/car-insurance/articles/how-a-black-box-means-cheaper-car-insurance-for-young-drivers

[TWR]

Just renewed my insurance Jake, they ask me would you have a Black Box fitted, 40+ years driving, no accidents, no points, full NCB and they ask me that.

[jake-the-peg]

Got any named drivers?

[TWR]

My wife, under 10000, parked on drive, all the reduced price issues, Tracker etc.

[jake-the-peg]

Probably just a standard question then - when they plug the answers in the computer the quote would probably just come out pretty much the same.

I wouldn't take it personally!

[TWR]

After a lot of searching, £60+ less with the same cover as M&S, as said on a previous post regards Car Insurance, Loyalty mean sod all now.

[ayabrea38]

Don't know how true this is,but when OH got collected to get his hire car the other week,the lad driving said he had a poshish BMW,and was able to insure it quite cheaply because statistics proved that fewer of these where crashed by young drivers,so the insurance company,working on statistics,gave him cheap insurance,compared to a mate of his who drove a Ka.

[ToraToraTora]

If that was true then a Veyron would be £2.95 to insure!