What is the pistonheads approved car for a 17 year old learn
What is the pistonheads approved car for a 17 year old learn
Author
Discussion

NelsonP

Original Poster:

243 posts

162 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Mini, fiesta, polo or something else? Which engine / spec?

ThingsBehindTheSun

3,155 posts

54 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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People on here seem to think you can get "something fun" as a first car, my experience says it will be the cheapest thing possible to insure as you will no doubt be looking at between £2 and £3K for the first years insurance once they pass.

scot_aln

687 posts

222 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Drive past wherever the 6th form at your local school park. Seems to be UPs, UPs & more UPs. Oh and the odd Seat Mii for the parent trying to be different smile

t.boydy

249 posts

85 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Peugeot 107
Citroen C1
Toyota Aygo

PK0001

352 posts

200 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Another vote for the VW Up.

Fantastic little cars, plenty of choice.

Not fast, handle really well, cheap to insure and run and very reliable.

Jayho

2,394 posts

193 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Back in school we had a guy who seemed to find the "Insurance Hack" earlier than the rest of us. Majority of us were in little 1.0-1.2 Clio / Corsa / Polo / Saxo / 106's etc. He had a Xsara VTS and was insuring it for cheaper than we were.

Something left field which doesn't cost more to insure than the run of the mill every other child has thing would probably be the "coolest" in my opinion.

venster70

107 posts

61 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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I would consider the insurance grouping above anything, because learner insurance is fairly reasonable, but once they pass, oooooooooff!

And they certainly need to resign themselves to a black box for the 1st year after passing!

SAS Tom

3,727 posts

197 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Vote for a polo or fabia from me. Not particularly exciting but big enough to get your mates in and it’ll just work.

blueST

4,789 posts

239 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Jayho said:
Back in school we had a guy who seemed to find the "Insurance Hack" earlier than the rest of us. Majority of us were in little 1.0-1.2 Clio / Corsa / Polo / Saxo / 106's etc. He had a Xsara VTS and was insuring it for cheaper than we were.

Something left field which doesn't cost more to insure than the run of the mill every other child has thing would probably be the "coolest" in my opinion.
This is going way OT, but if I recall, Citroen were giving free 1 year insurance on new VTRs for even really young drivers. My Mate had a succession of new VTRs for just that reason. I was paying nearly £2k then for battered old Porsche 944. That would have been mid-90s It think

ThingsBehindTheSun

3,155 posts

54 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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PK0001 said:
Another vote for the VW Up.

Fantastic little cars, plenty of choice.

Not fast, handle really well, cheap to insure and run and very reliable.
The only thing I have read about is rust around the filler cap on older cars.

Speed 3

5,198 posts

142 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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scot_aln said:
Drive past wherever the 6th form at your local school park. Seems to be UPs, UPs & more UPs. Oh and the odd Seat Mii for the parent trying to be different smile
That's us ! Better VFM than the UP for essentially the same thing. Insurance was still £2k+ for daughter #2 when she passed last year (no black box as the rest of the family also drive it).

Interestingly a friend of ours got an MX-5 insured cheaper than his initial Mii, not sure if he was 18 at the time though.

Skodillac

9,017 posts

53 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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My choice is an e110 Toyota Corolla (1995-2002), 1.4 petrol manual. Better sized car to learn in than the usual micro city cars, gets them used to proper sized cars. As cheap to insure as lots of smaller things if you stick to the 1.4. Bombproof reliability. Can usually find one which some old Doris has had since new, mechanically looked after but with pre-installed exterior battle scars for very little money. Like mine, which I got for very little with 58k miles on the clock and FMDSH. Rust free. It's about to be deployed on the second teenager.


Jayho

2,394 posts

193 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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blueST said:
Jayho said:
Back in school we had a guy who seemed to find the "Insurance Hack" earlier than the rest of us. Majority of us were in little 1.0-1.2 Clio / Corsa / Polo / Saxo / 106's etc. He had a Xsara VTS and was insuring it for cheaper than we were.

Something left field which doesn't cost more to insure than the run of the mill every other child has thing would probably be the "coolest" in my opinion.
This is going way OT, but if I recall, Citroen were giving free 1 year insurance on new VTRs for even really young drivers. My Mate had a succession of new VTRs for just that reason. I was paying nearly £2k then for battered old Porsche 944. That would have been mid-90s It think
Yeah that was just slightly before my time. But do know people in that era who were pretty much doing the same. Think it was 18 and over for the Saxo VTR free insurance, and Saxo VTS needed to be 21 and over.

Been driving for nearing 20 years now and have never paid over £1k for insurance. I think I'm in a relatively low risk area and <£1k insurance was always a factor when buying a car. Mad to think that I now pay <£500 for 2 cars combined.

Terzo123

4,649 posts

231 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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I'm waiting to pick up a Toyota Aygo that I've recently purchased for my 17 year old daughter to use. Group 7E if memory serves me right.

She recently passed her test and can get a policy through Hastings fully comp for around £1050, that's with telematics.

However I've opted to use Admiral through my multicar policy with her having the policy in her name. Fully comp. Its a similar price to Hastings, but it only runs to November. The plus point is no telematics and they will give her a full years NCB come November, and i can use the car for commuting. Business for all is only an extra £50

As an aside, a colleague of mine has just today insured a BMW Z3 1.9 for his 17 year old son through Adrian Flux. Fully comp for just over £400. I think that's with the 17 year old only have a provisional, but still seems decent.



Edited by Terzo123 on Monday 10th February 18:03

Nickp82

3,813 posts

116 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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MX-5

UKsandman

3,153 posts

161 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Just bought a Fiat 500 1.2 for my daughter. Group 5 insurance and girls her age like the look of the car.

CG2020UK

2,869 posts

63 months

Monday 10th February 2025
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Skodillac said:
My choice is an e110 Toyota Corolla (1995-2002), 1.4 petrol manual. Better sized car to learn in than the usual micro city cars, gets them used to proper sized cars. As cheap to insure as lots of smaller things if you stick to the 1.4. Bombproof reliability. Can usually find one which some old Doris has had since new, mechanically looked after but with pre-installed exterior battle scars for very little money. Like mine, which I got for very little with 58k miles on the clock and FMDSH. Rust free. It's about to be deployed on the second teenager.

My mate had one back when he was the first one driving 11 years ago. Affectionately known as the gains train carrying 5 lads to the gym. We loved it!

Rob 131 Sport

4,409 posts

75 months

Tuesday 11th February 2025
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Alfa Mito. My daughter (now 19) loves her red 2012 version that’s been in the family for 10 years.

bennno

14,914 posts

292 months

Tuesday 11th February 2025
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Nickp82 said:
MX-5
As odd as this sounds , our son got one shortly after passing his test - insurance cheaper than a Corsa.

Lefty

19,800 posts

225 months

Tuesday 11th February 2025
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My son at 17 had a 106 rallye s2, under a grand to insure in his name. Turned 18, started uni and of course it’s not LEZ compliant so he now has a 2012 Suzuki Swift Sport which is a cracking little car, cost £2500 and is £1000 to insure in his name.

Basic superminis were more expensive to insure! Shop around, you may be surprised at what is insurable.