Car recommendation for 18 year old

Sagalout

Sagalout

Sagalout

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Joined
13 Nov 2003
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Harrogate
Hi there, my son is looking to buy his first car. He's 18 so biggest issue is going to be insurance. He has a budget of about £3K to include car and first year insurance.

The Mondeo 1.8 petrol seems to be coming up as the cheapest to insure at about £1k, leaving £2k for the car, of which there is a plentiful choice. Typical 18 year old small cars such as Fiesta / Corsa etc seem to be more at closer to £1400!

Any other recommendations of left field cars which are relatively good value on insurance? I realise that's a broad spec, but it's really the insurance that's the biggest driver here!
 
my gf just passed her test, she doesn't like any of the usual "boring" looking cars so she's very much in love with -;

Hyundai coupe, is200 lexus, na mx5 etc..

coupe seems to be very cheap to insure compared to usual corsa, fiesta etc..
 
I would personally just get insurance quotes for as many cars as possible and make my decision from that.

a lot of bigger family cars come up cheap on insurance for younger drivers
 
As above. Thats what I did. I ended up with a Polo 1.2. :)

In fact insurance is still a major factor when choosing a car for me... :(

If he wants something different, then I'd see what he gets quoted for an NB 1.6 MX5, they are cheap as chips to insure IIRC. :)
 
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This would be a good first buy. Cheap insurance, low running costs. :D:p:D

Seriously though, I really wouldn't like to be a teenager these days who has just passed their test. I was staggered how much next doors daughter is paying for insurance on just a 1L Fiesta. When I passed my test many years ago I bought a MK4 Cortina 1.6L which only cost me £180 a year to insure. These days insurance takes a huge chunk of the budget for a first car.
 
grudas said:
my gf just passed her test, she doesn't like any of the usual "boring" looking cars so she's very much in love with -;

Hyundai coupe, is200 lexus, na mx5 etc..

coupe seems to be very cheap to insure compared to usual corsa, fiesta etc..
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Coupe is a good car. Thirsty though, hard to see out of and has a very poor turning circle. Loved mine though!
 
Anything slightly interesting will be unobtainable without paying utterly ridiculous amounts for insurance.

I would still check a 1.6 MX5 though as I said. They're famously cheap to insure. In fact, a modified 1.8 S is significantly cheaper to insure than my 89HP Octavia.
 
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At 18, i'd rather have paid the extra £400 on insurance and had a fiesta over a Mondeo.

Also factoring in things like road tax, fuel usage, maintainance, etc, a fiesta will be cheaper over a mondeo, so that £400 saving may turn out to be next to nothing depending on mileage.

I suspect a £2000 mondeo will be a little harder to sell than a £1600 fiesta too. So possible less loss when it comes to selling on.

Have you added yourself to the insurance as a second driver, this normally brings the quotes down a fair bit. Until i started insuring my car through a modified car specialist 3 or 4 years ago, this still helped bring my quotes down a little.
 
Why? A Mondeo is a better car. Neither of them are cool, so why not have the better one? :p
 
Corsa Bs were almost half the cost of Corsa Cs to insure when I was looking at first cars last year, admittedly at 24, but perhaps the same principle will apply.
 
Acme said:
Anything slightly interesting will be unobtainable without paying utterly ridiculous amounts for insurance.

I would still check a 1.6 MX5 though as I said. They're famously cheap to insure. In fact, a modified 1.8 S is significantly cheaper to insure than my 89HP Octavia.
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A RWD is probably not a good idea for a new driver though :P
 
Acme said:
Why? A Mondeo is a better car. Neither of them are cool, so why not have the better one? :p
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Better in what way that would matter to an 18 year old?

The fiesta will be more fun to drive, and cheaper to run in every other way other than insurance i'd have thought.

I've always preferred smaller cars though.
 
Darryl_1983 said:
Better in what way that would matter to an 18 year old?

The fiesta will be more fun to drive, and cheaper to run in every other way other than insurance i'd have thought.

I've always preferred smaller cars though.
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You certainly get a lot more car for your money with the Mondeo in terms of age and equipment....but then I'm not 18 haha
 
Acme said:
Anything slightly interesting will be unobtainable without paying utterly ridiculous amounts for insurance.

I would still check a 1.6 MX5 though as I said. They're famously cheap to insure. In fact, a modified 1.8 S is significantly cheaper to insure than my 89HP Octavia.
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Will take a look at MX5's too :)
 
New drivers are usually timid creatures and believe they have a lot less room when manoeuvring than they probably do. A Mondeo would be rather overwhelming I think for a new teenage driver.
 
Having only passed 2 nearly 3 years ago myself getting myself a cheap as chips fiesta was the best decision I ever made and I would recommend. You look around at 70% of new drivers my age, the car gets ruined. If I were him I'd do what I did. Get a cheap fiesta. Insure it for a year or two to get experience and respect for the road. In thy time save up. Then drop a bit more money on a nice car. I know countless people my age thy have written off nice cars or damaged them within the first year.

If he really wants something a little bigger than a fiesta go focus. The old fords are pretty bullet proof and repairs don't come much cheaper.

Edit: make him get a telematics box. It depends on the insurer but directline who I went with in the end the black on literally just recorded. Nothing happened if I driver poorly or well. At the end of the year they MAY offer a slight discount if you renew with them. I had a 1.3 1999 fiesta finesse, and drove it every where pushing it as hard as the little car could physically go and stil ended up with 90% both years I had it. For young drivers you don't insure a car quick enough to get bad ratings with a black box.
 
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Whatever is cheapest overall, including insurance and purchase. There's no way of us knowing what that will be other than generic suggestions (Fiesta/Focus/Yaris/Clio/etc).

My first car was an R reg Mondeo. I'm still driving one now, 7 years later.
 
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