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Recommended First Car for the Lad?

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dopplershift

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As us goaters cover a good area of the population I'm after some advice.
Lad is coming up to his 17th birthday and is looking for his first motor.
Looking to spend about £1000 so he's not too gutted when he has the inevitable knocks.
What I'm after is a recommendation for his first car?
Obviously insurance is a major issue so thinking of L/M reg Pug 106 Diesel, Mk2Polo/Golf 1.3 or Pug 205 diesel.
Anyone got any other interesting cars to add to the list?
Thanks in advance
 
dopplershift said:
As us goaters cover a good area of the population I'm after some advice.
Lad is coming up to his 17th birthday and is looking for his first motor.
Looking to spend about £1000 so he's not too gutted when he has the inevitable knocks.
What I'm after is a recommendation for his first car?
Obviously insurance is a major issue so thinking of L/M reg Pug 106 Diesel, Mk2Polo/Golf 1.3 or Pug 205 diesel.
Anyone got any other interesting cars to add to the list?
Thanks in advance
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Fiesta - petrol or diesel. Renault Clio. Vauxhall Corsa.
 
Series Land Rover. He'll learn how to do work on cars, weld and all sorts over the first few years with it. Also cheaper on insurance than the common small hatchback.
 
A thousand pounds and you're looking at a 205 or a 106?!? :PDT_Xtremez_17:
You'll be able to get a better car for that much money. There's plenty of R/S reg Saxos, Puntos etc around for around a grand.

Monty has some good ideas there, you should get a good Ford Fiesta for a grand and they're easy to fix / work on, and clios are pretty good cars too.
(I'm just cringing at the thought of what a 17 year old will do with a Clio! It'll have a whale tail in no time!)
 
I've put a 106 Diesel in an insurance website and got quotes all over £2000!!
What I'm after is a car that is surprisingly cheap to insure.
The Landrover does sounds interesting though......
and he will be doing all his own maintenance!!
 
Get him an original mini mate, tons of fun, cheap as chips and easy to drive.....get the 850 and they're cheap to insure too.
 
Missus doesn't like the idea of a mini for his first car (something about crumple zones), and I don't fancy breaking out my grease gun again!!!
Ideally a diesel cos of the MPG and its hard to damage by over revving (but I'm sure he'd find a way)
 
No prizes for style or street cred but a little Daihatsu, or Daewoo (etc) you will get a far newer car for your grand, low insurance plus loads of MPG or you go for a much older Polo, Fiesta, Clio.
Fiat Cinqucento or Sieciento good value too

Be brave and try Ebay lots of car for little money
 
There is a question of whether or not he likes lots of tractory noise. I ask this, because in a hard top the 2.25 Litre Diesel is bloody noisy and makes your ears ring after a three hour motorway trip in one. :PDT_Xtremez_09: (that's why I've got a thirsty petrol, I value my hearing :PDT_Xtremez_15: ) They also prove very useful for carting rubbish to the trip or carrying rather heavy loads, so if you needed to transport anything rather heavy or something won't fit in your car then just nick your son's LR for a few hours. :PDT_Xtremez_14:

EDIT: Forgot to mention that these vehicles are now only going to be going up in value so no depreciation to worry about. The ones that are hitting rock bottom values are the early coil sprung utility models (Ninety and One Ten), and more often than not are rotten these days.
 
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Cinqecento Sporting can be had for around a grand for a good one.

I f'kin loved mine. Good mpg, nippy as hell and IG2 to boot. As a bonus, it's quite easy to work on and, if the cam belt goes, the pistons don't knacker the valves (don't ask).

The only down-side for me was that as a balding old bloke I looked like I was having a mid-life crisis.
 
My first car was a 1 litre Fiesta. Cheap to insure (well it was group 2, but still expensive for a young'un) didn't drink petrol, easy maintenance and started every time without fail.

To be honest, I ran under £250 cars for some years. Dispose of at MOT time usually though!!
 
monobrow said:
To be honest, I ran under £250 cars for some years. Dispose of at MOT time usually though!!
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I used to do that when i was at marham.....when it was time to get rid there was always a pikey in the caravan park in the village that would buy it !!
 
As stated, whatever you go for if he is to be main driver insured you're going to get raped by the insurance comapnies. An alternative is to insure a car, good examples Matiz 889cc, Fiat Punto, Vx Corsa any small hatch really,under your name with some one like Direct Line or Zurich which allows named drivers to earn a NCB. The advantage to this is that
  1. Insurance is cheaper as YOU are main driver
  2. If he doesn't prang it he builds a nice no claims so that by the time he is 22, he will have 5yrNCD...meaning he can reasonably insure a much nicer car!
I work in the motor repair industry at the moment and have to deal with the vultures, sorry insurers, so pm for more info if you want.
 
Ford Ka if he doesn't mind the image, my daughter got one last year, bullet proof reliability, cheap as chips to insure and service etc.:PDT_Xtremez_28:
 
Take him to your nearest auction and see what takes his fancy. Don't buy a car the first time you go, but just get a feel for the prices.

It's probably not his choice (or anyones for that matter) but I got my Rover 414i for £390 with 6 months MOT and 88,000 on the clock. It's still going fine 2 years later having put nearly 30,000 miles on it.
 
My first car was a 900CC Micra, cant go quick enough for you to hurt yourself in.
Insurance is goign to be the biggest issue for a 17 year old boy.
Try and insure the car for you then have him as a named driver.
 
Insurance is the biggest concern, and with initial quotes at over £2000 it will pretty much decide what he gets.
Considering the named driver on my policy ploy but with 2 cars in the house already it could be tricky to justify if we need to claim.
Have suggested getting rid of my car and investing some of my impending gratuity in a motorbike but that didn't go down to well............

My first car was a 1973 Hillman Avenger. Cracking car, well it was until I clipped a kerb stone that was 6 inches proud of the kerb and bent the half shaft. If it happended now I'd be claiming the repair cost from the council!!
 
ironically, the cheapest cars for young drivers to insure are brand-new ones (in Group 1). IIRC, the cheapest being a Citroen C1. Yours for a snip under 7 grand.

The problem is that older cars worth under a grand have few (if any) safety features or driver aids and are more likely to be poorly maintained and driven badly. SO the insurance premiums reflect this.

All the usual suspects have been mentioned: Fiesta, Corsa, Ka etc but my tip would be a 998cc Nissan Micra. Pretty much bullet-proof reliability, easy to drive/park, difficult to get into much bother with and easy enough to insure for youngsters.

Have you considered one of these 'can't drive at night, or on motorways and only have one passenger' type insurance policies aimed specifically at youngsters?
 
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