cheap to insure crossover

[V 02]

My sister is turning 18 and is going to learn to drive soon. My mum and I are also in need of a second car in the family as hers is getting on a bit, but she will eventually swap it out to an EV of some sort. Therefore my mum doesn’t want to buy a £500 stbox as she will be driving it.

Both parents (and sister) are insistent my sister gets a larger car than a supermini, as she is quite tall for a girl and not built that small either, and also the car is used regularly to carry a lot of people and st, all of the time. That brings you into Golf territory, but both women want a car with a “raised” driving position as it has been a long time since there was an SUV/MPV in the family.

The problems:

- insurance. There are only a few contenders with cheap insurance (under group 10) and that don’t cost an arm and a leg to buy (remember, it’s only a mediocre carpool bus and likely to be destroyed by my sister). Luckily, our area tends to have low insurance rates
- my sister is learning automatic. Don’t ask, she doesn’t care about driving in the slightest and I can understand why as manuals are dying - and if she isn’t driving a £500 stter then there’s a lot more choice in the gearbox.
- my sister is a clumsy person - therefore, parking sensors etc is a must. But this is not really an issue in this class of car.
- Ulez.

So I’ve had a look, and narrowed it down to a couple of options: Spoiler to prevent the post being too long.


Nissan Juke. Can be had in a good spec for around £7,000, which makes it the most affordable car. Honestly I don’t mind the looks of the Juke. The “Tekna” has leather seats, sat nav, sensors, climate control, camera… looks pretty loaded. CVT gearbox sounds a bit crap. Group 9 insurance.


1st gen Mini Countryman. Looks alright, but all seem to be povvo spec for the prices they command. Look dated now aswell.


Renault Captur. Cheap, but I don’t see what this achieves over the Clio. Looks cheap as well, but commands high prices.


Vauxhall Crossland. Looks crap, again suffers from the same problem as the Captur, but you get a lot of kit for your cash, and it has a turbocharged engine so might feel less asthmatic. The newest option.


MG ZS 1.0 T-Gdi. I’m not sure on this - it must be too good to be true, or absolutely terrible as a car. The best equipped and the best value, but I am not sure I fully trust it to be an adequate car. Remember how st the MG 3 was? Cheapest insurance.


Open to other options and suggestions. Just out of boredom at the moment, as mum and I have been browsing AT casually for a little while. Probably to buy in the summer or early autumn. I will be chipping in a not insignifcant amount so I don’t want to drive something truly horrible

Edited by V 02 on Monday 29th May 01:44

[carlove]

The only one I have real experience with is the Captur, I had one (a 2018 model) as a hire car, and it was by far the worst car I have ever driven, and is the only time I've ever asked the hire company to swap it for something else. It was incredibely uncomfortable, the steering was completely dead, to the point where you steered and hoped it would go where you wanted it to go, and was cheap and tinny. Looking back I can't think of a single redeeming feature of the Captur.
The current one may be better, I've not driven one, I have driven the current model Clio and was pretty impressed(though my expectations were very low).

I've been a passenger in the Juke, very cramped, very cheap feeling inside, looks ridiculous (though looks are subjective) I'm also aware of reliability issues with the 1.2T.

Would a Honda HRV be in budget? I've never driven one I'll admit, but they're ok looking, should be reliable, and I can't imagine they'd be too bad on insurance.

[Silvanus]

Juke is no bigger than a Micra inside, my ex has one and it's tiny inside.

How about maybe a Kia Soul of. Citroen Cactus.

[V 02]

carlove said:

The only one I have real experience with is the Captur, I had one (a 2018 model) as a hire car, and it was by far the worst car I have ever driven, and is the only time I've ever asked the hire company to swap it for something else. It was incredibely uncomfortable, the steering was completely dead, to the point where you steered and hoped it would go where you wanted it to go, and was cheap and tinny. Looking back I can't think of a single redeeming feature of the Captur.
The current one may be better, I've not driven one, I have driven the current model Clio and was pretty impressed(though my expectations were very low).

I've been a passenger in the Juke, very cramped, very cheap feeling inside, looks ridiculous (though looks are subjective) I'm also aware of reliability issues with the 1.2T.

Would a Honda HRV be in budget? I've never driven one I'll admit, but they're ok looking, should be reliable, and I can't imagine they'd be too bad on insurance.

I’ve seen the HRV, they don’t seem too common around the UK though. I have travelled extensively in Asia though, and they are literally everywhere around there (called the Vezel). They don’t seem too bad but I’ve heard Honda’s are tough on insurance.

Noted on the Captur. I guess my presumptions were correct. The whole car looks hateful.

Shame about the Juke. From the picture at least the interior didn’t look too crappy:






It was the only car that actually caught my eye so far

[V 02]

Silvanus said:

Juke is no bigger than a Micra inside, my ex has one and it's tiny inside.

How about maybe a Kia Soul of. Citroen Cactus.

The Soul has previously been mocked by my mum so probably has no chance.

The Cactus looks interesting. Only Group 7 insurancd. And the panels look cheap to fix. But 0-60 in 15 seconds (in a stodgy automatic) probably is hopeless

[Macron]

Is group 10 a hard limiting factor to being able to be insured? Or are you just assuming that has some link to the cost? Gen question, I don't know how yoof are treated these days. Certainly with age the group matters far less.

Fiat 500X btw, or try a Suzuki. SX4/ Cross.

[V 02]

Macron said:

Is group 10 a hard limiting factor to being able to be insured? Or are you just assuming that has some link to the cost? Gen question, I don't know how yoof are treated these days. Certainly with age the group matters far less.

Fiat 500X btw, or try a Suzuki. SX4/ Cross.

Just assuming. Insurance all seems a bit blurred. Golf 1.4 tsi came up as over 4000 to insure and that it isnt a huge insurance group. But an astra is considerably less.

[edc]

What about the VAG DSG 1.0 Seat Arona, Skoda Kamiq, VW T Cross etc.

[V 02]

edc said:

What about the VAG DSG 1.0 Seat Arona, Skoda Kamiq, VW T Cross etc.

Too expensive.

4 year old T Crosses are going for nearly £18,000 at the cheapest. Absolutely comical for what is basically just a hacked together Polo, with worse interior quality (no soft touch materials at all!)


Seat Aronas are a lot cheaper, and Kamiq’s are too new to be affordable. £10K is the budget, little bit more little bit less. An 18 plate Crossland is going for about £11,000, as well as a 19 plate MG ZS.


I like the Fiat 500X suggestion. You can even get them in a realtime 4x4 variant. That’s quite good, like a more practical Panda 4x4!

[Silvanus]

V 02 said:

edc said:

What about the VAG DSG 1.0 Seat Arona, Skoda Kamiq, VW T Cross etc.

Too expensive.

4 year old T Crosses are going for nearly £18,000 at the cheapest. Absolutely comical for what is basically just a hacked together Polo, with worse interior quality (no soft touch materials at all!)


Seat Aronas are a lot cheaper, and Kamiq’s are too new to be affordable. £10K is the budget, little bit more little bit less. An 18 plate Crossland is going for about £11,000, as well as a 19 plate MG ZS.


I like the Fiat 500X suggestion. You can even get them in a realtime 4x4 variant. That’s quite good, like a more practical Panda 4x4!

Much bigger inside than a Juke too.

[C69]

A 1.5-litre petrol Ford EcoSport would tick the automatic and insurance group boxes.

However, for a £10k+ budget you'd probably be looking at a 2016 or a 2017 model, which might be too old? Also, finding one could be difficult as there aren't many automatics for sale.

[OutInTheShed]

Dacia?

[V 02]

OutInTheShed said:

Dacia?

Dusters are nice little cars but the cheapest petrol auto is £18,995, which seems steep for a 2 and a half year old Dacia.

[Jakey54]

Sandero Stepway? I’m in a similar boat and so looking for similar but haven’t got as far as insurance quotes yet - just getting shortlists of acceptable machines by the women.