Free Driving for a 20 year old

[Tom Cruiser]

My Partners son is a petrolhead with a £12k budget. What car for enjoyment,reasonable insurance,and good resale to move up that car ladder.

[Strudul]

Chimaera
VX220
Supra
XKR
Monaro

No idea what insurance is like on any of those at 20 though, probably high, but maybe not that excessive compared to everything else at that age.

[Tom Cruiser]

Thanks for the very good examples,I think with insurance and the added Government 12% insurance tax,he would be unable to take any.

[Pistom]

Sadly, if the cost of insurance is a barrier for him then he needs to get a car cheap to insure and get the pleasure from the freedom motoring will give him.

After a couple of years of claim free motoring, he will be able to jump into any of the above at significanly reduced insurance rates.

[danzman1991]

Pistom said:

Sadly, if the cost of insurance is a barrier for him then he needs to get a car cheap to insure and get the pleasure from the freedom motoring will give him.

After a couple of years of claim free motoring, he will be able to jump into any of the above at significanly reduced insurance rates.

Gobbledygook


I bought the fastest car I could afford to buy & insure when I was 20, never regretted it! If I’d have driven around in a scrapper telling everyone via my adenoids that ‘I’m building up my no claims bonus to one day in the distant future get something exciting’ - that I would have regretted!

Life’s short.

[anonymous-user]

Volkswagen Golf R32 MK4
BMW M3 E46
Toyota Supra
Nissan Silvia
Honda Integra Type-R
Honda Civic Type-R
Audi S3 (first gen)
Audi RS6
Lotus Elise


All should be relatively easy to insure, especially the Hondas, but the RS6 on the other hand...


Super easy to insure:

Peugeot 106 GTi
Peugeot 106 Rallye
Peugeot 306 GTI-6
Peugeot 306 Rallye
Peugeot 306 DTurbo
Ford Puma
Ford Focus ST (MK1)
Audi S3 (MK 1)
Honda Civic Type R
Honda Integra Type R
Mazda MX-5
Nissan Almera GTI
Renaultsport Clio (any kind)
VW Golf GTI/R32

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 1st October 07:23

[ambuletz]

if he's a petrolhead he should have an idea of what car he wants to get. none of us will be able to tell him what's reasonable to insurer as it's so individualistic.

It's just a question of whether he wants to be sensible and buy something like a ford fiesta/Mazda2 sport, which is still fun to drive and might have about £2000 in insurance
or
buy something older, with more miles and spend £3000-5000 in insurance.

personally I think spending £500-1000+ just so you can drive something that is one trim level higher (i.e an ST instead of a zetec S) is rather daft as it's money you're never getting back.

If i was in their position I'd see if I can insure a suzuki swift sport. if not then get a mazda2 sport/fiesta. or I'd spend much less on a car (like £3k) and spend the rest on life.

[SidewaysSi]

Chuck a few more quid at it and get a 996 Turbo. Anything else is just slow junk.

[justanother5tar]

ambuletz said:

personally I think spending £500-1000+ just so you can drive something that is one trim level higher (i.e an ST instead of a zetec S) is rather daft as it's money you're never getting back.

Eh?

Poor example there.

ST’s are performance variants. Zetec S is a trim level.

Completely worth the extra cash in your example.

[James_B]

danzman1991 said:

Gobbledygook


I bought the fastest car I could afford to buy & insure when I was 20, never regretted it! If I’d have driven around in a scrapper telling everyone via my adenoids that ‘I’m building up my no claims bonus to one day in the distant future get something exciting’ - that I would have regretted!

Life’s short.

If you’d waited a bit, could you not have had something better by now than you’ve got, though?

I agree with the other approach, don’t blow all that you’ve got early on if it means that you have to compromise too heavily later.

I drove a Celica in my 20s, then a cheap-ish Élise, which were both great fun for sensible money.

Edited by James_B on Sunday 1st October 10:32

[Gareth1974]

justanother5tar said:

Eh?

Poor example there.

ST’s are performance variants. Zetec S is a trim level.

Completely worth the extra cash in your example.

Not necessarily, for the mk6 Fiesta, the Zetec S had a larger engine than other trim levels (1.6), and I believe a different suspension set up too.

[tonyb1968]

Hes a petrolhead so needs rwd

Ok, that aside, insurance will kill him on anything with a big engine (its cheaper for me to insure my RCZ R with 270bhp than it is for my 3008 SUV 2ltr BlueHDi).

Look at some fun cars like the Fiat 500 Abarth, 1.4 and a 180bhp output would do most people, it may be a little cramped but most people like them, I would not advise one for long journeys though.
An older Corsa VXR?
An Astra 1.4 turbo?
Peugeot 208 GTI?

[anonymous-user]

justanother5tar said:

ambuletz said:

personally I think spending £500-1000+ just so you can drive something that is one trim level higher (i.e an ST instead of a zetec S) is rather daft as it's money you're never getting back.

Eh?

Poor example there.

ST’s are performance variants. Zetec S is a trim level.

Completely worth the extra cash in your example.

Think he meant ST line, which is a trim level.

[mikey P 500]

Gt86 (or brz) just about on budget can insure for under £1000 even at 20 depending on circumstances. Rwd, and good residuals from 5yrs on I would guess as limited numbers sold and most importantly fun to drive.

[Pistom]

danzman1991 said:

Gobbledygook


I bought the fastest car I could afford to buy & insure when I was 20, never regretted it! If I’d have driven around in a scrapper telling everyone via my adenoids that ‘I’m building up my no claims bonus to one day in the distant future get something exciting’ - that I would have regretted!

Life’s short.

If anyone has to be justifying their choice of car to anyone but themselves, they've already missed a big chunk of their life. And nobody was talking about driving a scrapper but the OP has already said he doesn't want to hand a big wadge of his hard earned to the insurance industry and the Government. If that's what your choice was then good for you.

[lucido grigio]

If the OP has a crap postcode ,a sensible ish car might still be the answer.

[Gareth1974]

Is getting a classic an idea? A Chimeara was suggested in an early post, which
I believe you can insure as a classic, along with other interesting cars from the 80s/90s (205GTi?) Something like this would also retain its value quite well too. In addition to this, a daily shed would also be required to build up no claims and due to mileage restrictions on most classic policies.

[Pistom]

Gareth1974 said:

Is getting a classic an idea? A Chimeara was suggested in an early post, which
I believe you can insure as a classic, along with other interesting cars from the 80s/90s (205GTi?) Something like this would also retain its value quite well too. In addition to this, a daily shed would also be required to build up no claims and due to mileage restrictions on most classic policies.

The problem with that is that the OP may not want the costs or other issues of running a daily shed. Add the costs of running the shed and they may not be far off the costs of running something they want in the first place.

Edited by Pistom on Sunday 1st October 14:57

[Strudul]

Don't disregard cars based on power / engine size. Demographics and crash stats play a massive role, so it's worth getting quotes just in case. It only takes a minute on a comparison site to swap the car and re-run the quote.

I bet something like an XKR or Monaro is cheaper to insure than something like a Golf GTI / Audi S3 / CTR.

[Integroo]

sleepera6 said:

Volkswagen Golf R32 MK4
BMW M3 E46
Toyota Supra
Nissan Silvia
Honda Integra Type-R
Honda Civic Type-R
Audi S3 (first gen)
Audi RS6
Lotus Elise


All should be relatively easy to insure, especially the Hondas, but the RS6 on the other hand...


Super easy to insure:

Peugeot 106 GTi
Peugeot 106 Rallye
Peugeot 306 GTI-6
Peugeot 306 Rallye
Peugeot 306 DTurbo
Ford Puma
Ford Focus ST (MK1)
Audi S3 (MK 1)
Honda Civic Type R
Honda Integra Type R
Mazda MX-5
Nissan Almera GTI
Renaultsport Clio (any kind)
VW Golf GTI/R32

Edited by sleepera6 on Sunday 1st October 07:23

I'm not sure why you think the likes of an M3, a Type R, imported Japanese sports cars, an RS6 or an Elise will be cheap to insure for a young chap, but they won't, they will be very expensive. I am 25 with two years ncb and my Type R is 850, with renewal discounts - the initial quote was 1650. My brother, who is 20, is paying 1200 on a 1.6 MX5.

I'd recommend an MX5, and not spending the whole budget.