Youngling's first car

[bobski1]

Been asked by a relative to help in car search for his eldest first car.

Budget-3k max (excluding insurance)
Reliable and not likely to breakdown or throw too many bills
Good size hatchback
Petrol, not a lot of miles covered and staying in the local area


Current suggestions I can think of are;
Ibiza/polo/fabia
Suzuki swift
Anything honda
Toyota Corolla

[Scrump]

Scrumplet the elder has a 107, cheap to run and insure plus easy to drive.

[Terzo123]

I've just bought an Aygo for my eldest. Plenty of room up front, adequate performance, meant to be very reliable, and cheap for parts. Insurance is also very reasonable.

I took it a decent test drive and was pleasantly surprised at how it drove. 108's and C1's are pretty much the exact same car.

[AndyD360]

Just bought daughter’s first car today.

Did look at C1/Aygo variants and VW up but she had her heart set on a Mini…

Picked up a Mini First today - drove it a good few miles home and was pretty decent.

Insurance group a bit higher than some (8) but quotes coming back were reasonable

[paul_c123]

You won't get a decent Polo for £3k, their prices are somewhat "inflated" by a perception they are better than the others.

[Elroy Blue]

My 19 yr old son got a 2010 Mazda 3 1.6 Sport (after he wrote off his first car).
It was cheaper to insure than all the other usual contenders.
Weird, but two years later all that's been changed is a knock sensor.

[ZX10R NIN]

Try to look for cars with under 100bhp & maybe look at things like the Mazda3/Vauxhall Astra etc

Mazda3:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312064...

Mazda2 Sport:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202501288...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202412297...

Kia Rio:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202501228...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202502018...

Ceed:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202501308...

Mini Ona:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202407201...

C30:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202411296...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406010...

Use the reg's to get some insurance quotes, with them as the policy holder & parents as the named dtiver.

[bazza1603]

Do dummy insurance quotes for when they pass their test before buying anything.

My daughter opted for a Skoda Citigo SE 18 plate with 93K on clock FSH for a little over £4k
Insurance should be £1150 for this being a group 2.

My son has a Corsa 17 Plate 1.4. His first insurance price was £750, but it is nearly £2k for my daughter on the same car.Hell of an increase in 3 years.

[sleepezy]

Daughter bought herself a Vauxhall Adam - great little car that's proved to be pretty much completely reliable over the last couple of years and cheap to run and insure (and I quite like using it if I have to drive into the local city too)

[Time4another]

Skoda Citigo. Seat Mii. VW Up.

[Deerfoot]

My lad has a Citigo, I must say it's a lot better than I thought it would be. His is the lowest power one with 60 bhp but it goes OK and it's getting 50 mpg on his runs to college and back.

Insurance is reasonable too compared with others (C1s, Aygos etc) we looked at, also the Citigo felt a bit more substantial. Might not be physically big enough though.

[98elise]

Terzo123 said:

I've just bought an Aygo for my eldest. Plenty of room up front, adequate performance, meant to be very reliable, and cheap for parts. Insurance is also very reasonable.

I took it a decent test drive and was pleasantly surprised at how it drove. 108's and C1's are pretty much the exact same car.

Yes they are the same car with different body panels.

My daughter had an Aygo as her first car. They are cheap to insure and tax, and cheap and easy to maintain. The engines are pretty robust as well and chain driven.

The only downside is the basic nature of them makes them a bit crap for long journeys.

My daughters second car is an i10 and it's a massive improvement.

[Oilchange]

Alfa Mito.

5 star NCap thingy, if you get leather it's rather nice plus BOSE stereo possible.

DNA to Dynamic and it hangs on like a friggin' limpet!

Twinair is a thumper but the 1.4 petrol is zingy and that's the one I bought my daughter as a first runabout 7 years ago.

She still has it.

[Countdown]

98elise said:

Yes they are the same car with different body panels.

My daughter had an Aygo as her first car. They are cheap to insure and tax, and cheap and easy to maintain. The engines are pretty robust as well and chain driven.

The only downside is the basic nature of them makes them a bit crap for long journeys.

My daughters second car is an i10 and it's a massive improvement.

I'd agree with that.

Also I'm surprised nobody has recommended a Yaris. Very reliable and economical and incredibly easy to drive.

[eddietiv1]

My daughter as just purchased an Hyundai i20 2014 and it's fantastic for a new driver and 50mpg petrol, I used it for 2 months and just loved its simplicity and a good n cap rating too, just a little more metal around her than the supermini varieties.