What new car for my son - any good offers out there?

[anonymous-user]

My middle child (22y/o) has just started his first real/career job following graduation from uni. He's been driving since he was 17 (clean licence, no claims) and has been sharing cars with his sister up until now - but his sister will also be starting her first job following graduation next month, and because we live in the sticks and can't rely on public transport (or lifts) to get to stations/job locations, they now really need to have their own cars. Sister will be keeping the car they've been sharing latterly.

Unfortunately, unlike my eldest son, he's no petrolhead (his main focus outside of work in life is playing footy), so his choice criteria are a little different to my usual, so I'm reaching out to PH to see if anyone might know of something that might fit the bill.

He's looking for a new car, which he will finance, looking to pay £150~200/month (comfortably affordable, London grad salaries are quite something), with a few months up front. He doesn't really care about performance per se, he's more interested in sound/connectivity, kit, comfort, and it mustn't look 'girly'. He's looking for something Fiesta-sized (has to be hatch back for football kit, balls, cones, etc), and there's absolutely no brand snobbery here.

I'm thinking of something like the Fiesta 1.1 Zetec which is currently available at approx £150/month with £1K deposit - but I'd like to understand if there are any other similar type options/offers currently out there that anyone might be aware of?

Of course, I'm doing the Google trawl - but any counsel/direction/sugegstions would be greatly appreciated!

[Phil Dicky]

Seat Ibiza usually have a good kit count per £, with a nice solid feel, my lad has one.

[KomodoWagon]

Another way to look at this (if you haven't already)

Does he need a new car at all, if he's working in London? Might a disposable banger be better?

Reason is, you/he might find, maybe in a few months or a year once he settles in to London work/life, that he wants to leave home and move somewhere more central.

Having a car would be a liability in this situation but he'd be stuck with a lease for another two, three, however many years. It would severely restrict his options in terms of finding somewhere to live.

I only mention this because I was in a sort-of similar position myself years back (a loan, not a lease in my case, this was 20 years ago!) and I lost thousands because I had to get rid of my car at a loss in order to move to the city where my work and all my friends were.

He's 22, he's surely got to have an eye on moving out soon, no?

[ZX10R NIN]

If he has no interest in cars then does he need new? The reason I say this is because you can buy a very good low mileage Clio/Fiesta/208 with all the connectivity he'll require, a loan from the bank for between 5-7k will see him land something appropriate & in all honesty something just as good as what he'll buy new:

Clio 1.2 Dynamique Media Nav

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

GT Line Nav

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Allure

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Fiesta Titanium X

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Zetec S

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Titanium

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...