Interesting Father and Son Car

[SWoll]

My lad turns 18 in a weeks time, at which point he'll be getting a relatively substantial CTF drop into his account. The original plan for the money was that it would go towards supporting him through university, but as he will instead be starting an apprenticeship and earning a tidy sum he's decided he'd rather put a decent portion of it towards a car purchase.

He's a big car fan like his dad and is dismayed by all of friends choosing the usual route of small engine Corsa's, Fiesta's etc. and is looking for something rather more interesting. As I'm running an EV as a daily we've come to the conclusion that pitching in with him on something we can both enjoy both driving and working on would be a good idea. It would be a regular use car for him and occasional for me.

Open to all suggestions. Nothing crazy powerful as he's obviously very new to driving, but don't worry too much around perceived insurance costs as I've been quire surprised so far at just how cheap rather more left field ideas are in comparison to the usual suspects.

Budget is £5-10k for the car, so let your imaginations run wild.

[trevalvole]

A BMW with a na petrol straight-six - they aren't making any more of them. I recall they did an E9* 320i with a 2.2 litre engine, which might be a good balance between performance and insurance. There's a thread on here about them.

ETA: Here's the thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by trevalvole on Sunday 20th February 11:51

[Another project car]

How about a classic mini? Decent parts availablity, slow enough to keep your boy out of trouble and fun to drive

[ZX10R NIN]

Keeping things sensibleish the Kia ProCeed GT Tech is a good steer & could be something you could work on (if you ever needed too) together:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201291...

GT86

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201231...

208 GTI you'll get one at the lower end of your budget & they're a very good steer:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112040...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201030...

RCZ GT:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109287...

[SWoll]

trevalvole said:

A BMW with a na petrol straight-six - they aren't making any more of them. I recall they did an E9* 320i with a 2.2 litre engine, which might be a good balance between performance and insurance. There's a thread on here about them.

ETA: Here's the thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by trevalvole on Sunday 20th February 11:51

Funnily enough I've been running a few quotes through compare the market and have just looked at the price for a Z4 3.0. £1500 fully comp with a £250 excess and no black box, which I find staggering. A 2.0 Audi TT came back as £3k+.

An SL350 is £2k per year, but probably a bit big.

A proper voyage of discovery this as haven't worried about insurance costs for 20+ years.

Another project car said:

How about a classic mini? Decent parts availablity, slow enough to keep your boy out of trouble and fun to drive

Not really what he's looking for, and as we are both 6ft plus a bit wee.

ZX10R NIN said:

Keeping things sensibleish the Kia ProCeed GT Tech is a good steer & could be something you could work on (if you ever needed too) together:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201291...

GT86

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201231...

208 GTI you'll get one at the lower end of your budget & they're a very good steer:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112040...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201030...

RCZ GT:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109287...

Donlt worry about "sensiblish" ZX, with insurance being the real kicker what I'm finding is that choosing something more sensible makes little difference so by all means throw in some left field ideas.

GT86 was on the list but is top end of purchasing budget for the cheapest available and £3.5k+ to insure unfortunately.

[RoVoFob]

trevalvole said:

A BMW with a na petrol straight-six - they aren't making any more of them. I recall they did an E9* 320i with a 2.2 litre engine, which might be a good balance between performance and insurance. There's a thread on here about them.

ETA: Here's the thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by trevalvole on Sunday 20th February 11:51

The E46 320i had the 2.2-litre six-cylinder engine. The E9* 320i engine was a 2.0-litre four-cylinder from launch, I think. It was only the 325i, 330i and 335i petrol E9*s that had six-cylinders.

[SWoll]

Finding this whole thing fascinating as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to insurance costs.

Throwing everything at the quote tool and getting some very odd/amusing results.

Alfa Brera 2.2 JTS - £4.5k per year
Alfa Brera 3.2 JTS - £3.5k per year

And how about




or




Madness.

[ZX10R NIN]

Leftfield it is.

Monaro:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165187262638?hash=item2...

Fiat Coupe 20V

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134016593566?hash=item1...

2.0i GTV

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224741945635?hash=item3...

Infiniti G37 coupe for some these are cheaper to insure than the 370Z:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201081...

SLK 250 Sport

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201291...

SLK300

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202102...

SLK 350

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109067...

E350cgi:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201191...

Z4 23i M Sport

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201051...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202110268...

135i M Sport

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112280...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202142...

3.2 A3 nicely under budget understated with a sweet 6 pot:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112210...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201111...

[Dingu]

SWoll said:

Finding this whole thing fascinating as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to insurance costs.

Throwing everything at the quote tool and getting some very odd/amusing results.

Alfa Brera 2.2 JTS - £4.5k per year
Alfa Brera 3.2 JTS - £3.5k per year

And how about




or




Madness.

For the millionth time, it’s broadly claim statistics based. Not looking at the car and going oooh it’s got 300hp and making a number up.

Otherwise it would cost tens of thousands to insure a supercar despite owners doing low mileage and being on the whole exceptionally careful with them.

[SWoll]

Dingu said:

For the millionth time, it’s broadly claim statistics based. Not looking at the car and going oooh it’s got 300hp and making a number up.

Otherwise it would cost tens of thousands to insure a supercar despite owners doing low mileage and being on the whole exceptionally careful with them.

Thanks for the condescending and slightly aggressive post, I was expecting at least one as this is PH after all.

Feel better now you've got that off your chest?

[Dingu]

SWoll said:

Thanks for the condescending and slightly aggressive post, I was expecting at least one as this is PH after all.

Feel better now you've got that off your chest?

You’ve lived a blessed life and are a bit fragile it seems.

Maybe take the information on board.

I enjoy the accusation of being condescending from someone who goes on to be condescending, 10/10.

[PH User]

An 18 year old insuring a 135i is going to be interesting!

[SWoll]

Dingu said:

SWoll said:

Thanks for the condescending and slightly aggressive post, I was expecting at least one as this is PH after all.

Feel better now you've got that off your chest?

You’ve lived a blessed life and are a bit fragile it seems.

Maybe take the information on board.

I enjoy the accusation of being condescending from someone who goes on to be condescending, 10/10.

Go and have an argument somewhere else precious, no-one here is interested.

[Dingu]

SWoll said:

Dingu said:

SWoll said:

Thanks for the condescending and slightly aggressive post, I was expecting at least one as this is PH after all.

Feel better now you've got that off your chest?

You’ve lived a blessed life and are a bit fragile it seems.

Maybe take the information on board.

I enjoy the accusation of being condescending from someone who goes on to be condescending, 10/10.

Go and have an argument somewhere else precious, no-one here is interested.

You clearly were. You are welcome for the information, do try not to post such nonsense in the future. Just point out that they need a run a quote to see the price rather than try and second guess it.

Maybe there is a reason that people who know what they are talking about on here are short with those who don’t.

[SWoll]

PH User said:

An 18 year old insuring a 135i is going to be interesting!

That's partly the point of the thread, it's very surprising which cars are expensive to insure for an inexperienced 18 year old and which aren't once you throw them at the quotation engine. I appreciate there will be some variation due to the way these things work but the margins I'm seeing are vast.

Another example

Z4 3.0i - £1600
Boxster 2.5 - £5k

Both worth around £7k

Take my son off the quote and they both come in at around £500.

Then you have different variations of the same vehicle

2010 SL300 - £2k
2010 SL350 - £4.5k

That's a hell of an increase for what is essentially the same car with an additional 80bhp?

[ZX10R NIN]

Any of my suggestions coming up with sensible numbers OP?

[SWoll]

Dingu said:

You clearly were. You are welcome for the information, do try not to post such nonsense in the future. Just point out that they need a run a quote to see the price rather than try and second guess it.

Maybe there is a reason that people who know what they are talking about on here are short with those who don’t.

As above I just find it intriguing how these things are weighted, especially within variants of the same vehicle. All seems rather random and it's an appealing challenge to try and find something that beats the system.

It's keeping me amused on a wet and windy Sunday anyway.

[Dingu]

SWoll said:

As above I just find it intriguing how these things are weighted, especially within variants of the same vehicle. All seems rather random and it's an appealing challenge to try and find something that beats the system.

It's keeping me amused on a wet and windy Sunday anyway.

As a rule of thumb cars which aren’t typically driven by that demographic seem to be better than expected. But you are looking at pretty much exclusively those cars so I expect it will be a lot of plugging in registrations to find the ones in your favour, of which you seem to have found some pretty good options for interesting father son cars.
In regard to random it’s based on human behaviour so to a degree will be quite unpredictable

[PH User]

SWoll said:

PH User said:

An 18 year old insuring a 135i is going to be interesting!

That's partly the point of the thread, it's very surprising which cars are expensive to insure for an inexperienced 18 year old and which aren't once you throw them at the quotation engine. I appreciate there will be some variation due to the way these things work but the margins I'm seeing are vast.

Another example

Z4 3.0i - £1600
Boxster 2.5 - £5k

Both worth around £7k

Take my son off the quote and they both come in at around £500.

Then you have different variations of the same vehicle

2010 SL300 - £2k
2010 SL350 - £4.5k

That's a hell of an increase for what is essentially the same car with an additional 80bhp?

And a 135i? I bet that will be expensive to insure.

[BrabusMog]

How about something like a Volvo C30 T5?