First Car !

[dram]

Folks
My 18 yo son is looking for his first car - about £4 - £6k budget - he loves driving and for a youngster is reasonably sensible. This will be his pride and joy and the car needs to be reliable [ for shift work ] / lowish insurance / FSH / been obviously well cared for/ bit 'sporty looking' !!!
We are in the north east of Scotland in Moray
Apart from Pistonhead and Autotrader Ads any other ideas where to look apart from the usual franchise garages ...?
Thanks
Brian
PS
If anybody puts me in touch with a decent car a bottle of fine single malt whisky may be offered as a small thank you !

[Curry Burns]

dram said:

Folks
My 18 yo son is looking for his first car - about £4 - £6k budget - he loves driving and for a youngster is reasonably sensible. This will be his pride and joy and the car needs to be reliable [ for shift work ] / lowish insurance / FSH / been obviously well cared for/ bit 'sporty looking' !!!
We are in the north east of Scotland in Moray
Apart from Pistonhead and Autotrader Ads any other ideas where to look apart from the usual franchise garages ...?
Thanks
Brian
PS
If anybody puts me in touch with a decent car a bottle of fine single malt whisky may be offered as a small thank you !

I think one of my customers was looking to get rid of a 1.4 Polo Twist 2005. I fyour interested PM me and I'll get in touch with them.

[nigelonich]

Land Rover Defender for endless reasons!

[istoo]

dram said:

Folks
My 18 yo son is looking for his first car - about £4 - £6k budget - he loves driving and for a youngster is reasonably sensible. This will be his pride and joy and the car needs to be reliable [ for shift work ] / lowish insurance / FSH / been obviously well cared for/ bit 'sporty looking' !!!
We are in the north east of Scotland in Moray
Apart from Pistonhead and Autotrader Ads any other ideas where to look apart from the usual franchise garages ...?
Thanks
Brian
PS
If anybody puts me in touch with a decent car a bottle of fine single malt whisky may be offered as a small thank you !

insurance at that age is horrific. My youngest brother got around it buy getting a classic landrover, so it was reasonable. But then classic fail when he bought a £6k A3 1.8 and was.... £2200/anum for insurance at 19, with a clean license! TDi are generally lower insurance groups.

Older cars I woudl plump for a mint:
BMW E30/E36 318is
VW mk2 golf Gti
Audi coupe

Other consideration, parent head on is safety?
which would take in the recent clio's being specifically good on the NCAP front, and their sports/cups are very good but will be hefty on insurance.
How about a mini cooper, shoudl be in range for a 5-6 year old one?
My sister has a lupo gti and had a 1.4 sport version previously both great fun to drive and cheap to run.

The pistonheads cars generally speaking are owned by enthusiasts so are often good/ sporty variants but there are a few which break that also. Buy a parkers guide and skim through i buy one even if i dont want a car, gives you a quick summary of insurance groups, MPG, engine sizes, safety and general reliability at a glance. Or a day round the garages to get an idea of what he does/doesnt like.

Then again i am not 18 anymore, maybe ask my little brothers what they would go for.

edit:
no idea on insurance but i drove the last generation toyota celica and liked it.
The base 140bhp model isnt blindingly fast but is light, nimble, practical, toyota reliable, i think its pretty.
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/988982.htm

Edited by istoo on Wednesday 22 April 16:49

[mark_mcd]

Focus mk1.5 (first generation facelift) 1.6 Zetec or 1.8TDCI Zetec. Insurance for the diesel is cheap considering the performance on offer over the petrol Plenty of Ford Focus's going about as well so shouldn't be hard finding a good one.

Edited by mark_mcd on Wednesday 22 April 17:15

[OlberJ]

Puegeot 106 quicksilver.

Reasonably reliable, 1.4 engine, looks good, easily modifyable with suspension and brakes to make them better without humping insurance.

Great way to start off motoring.

[ih8thisname]

OlberJ said:

Puegeot 106 quicksilver.

Reasonably reliable, 1.4 engine, looks good, easily modifyable with suspension and brakes to make them better without humping insurance.

Great way to start off motoring.

You'd have thought that, but we had a young chap (17y/o) in for work experience once and I remember he had just got one of these.

Great little motor, but would you believe he was paying in excess of £2K on 3rd Party F&F insurance policy?!

Edited by ih8thisname on Wednesday 22 April 18:42

[OlberJ]

3rd party Fast and Furious?

That is steep, strangely he might have been cheaper with F.Comp (It's long winded why, but it happens quite a lot)

18 yr old on their own car i'd not be paying anymore than £1,200 for insurance, unless it was something special.

It's only a Group 5 after all.

[Andrew[MG]]

Surely the old 'parent insures the car and the young chap goes on as a named driver' trick is the way to go here?

[SportsLibre]

Andrew[MG] said:

Surely the old 'parent insures the car and the young chap goes on as a named driver' trick is the way to go here?

If he not named as the "main driver" then it is likely the insurance will be invalid when the inevitable bump occurs.
The insurance companies are clamping down on that old money saving scheme and it usually quite obvious and easily spotted by their assessors.

The cost of the insurance is based on the main driver, not the owner.

[funnyimpreza]

Get a BMW318iS or an MR2

[Curry Burns]

Andrew[MG] said:

Surely the old 'parent insures the car and the young chap goes on as a named driver' trick is the way to go here?

Are you serious......

That is the quickest way to invalidate your insurance and give both him and his son a bad name with insurers.

[BigAlinEmbra]

dram said:

Folks
My 18 yo son is looking for his first car - about £4 - £6k budget - he loves driving and for a youngster is reasonably sensible. This will be his pride and joy and the car needs to be reliable [ for shift work ] / lowish insurance / FSH / been obviously well cared for/ bit 'sporty looking' !!!
We are in the north east of Scotland in Moray
Apart from Pistonhead and Autotrader Ads any other ideas where to look apart from the usual franchise garages ...?
Thanks
Brian
PS
If anybody puts me in touch with a decent car a bottle of fine single malt whisky may be offered as a small thank you !

Try Neville at Pickwick Performance, really nice bloke and should be able to source you something if you let him know what you want and what your budget is.
He's in Moray too.
http://www.pickwickperformance.co.uk/index.php?pg=...

[Andrew[MG]]

Curry Burns said:

Andrew[MG] said:

Surely the old 'parent insures the car and the young chap goes on as a named driver' trick is the way to go here?

Are you serious......

That is the quickest way to invalidate your insurance and give both him and his son a bad name with insurers.

I did it from 17-21 and I don't have a bad name. It probably saved me thousands of pounds as well. Maybe they are more strict on this kind of thing now. I think the car actually had any driver insurance and this was before they made it clear that the other drives had to be over 25.

[ferobert]

do your 'pass plus', saved me 50% or £700 on my first car. counted as 1 year no claims and only cost £200 to do.
generally id say its best to have your own policy from day 1. Start small an work your way up, untill you can afford and have the experience to drive bigger more powerfull cars.

[dram]

Thanks for all the replies...
Insurance quoted via the internet sites for up to Group 8 cars is horrendous ranging from £1400 to £6000 !!!!!!
Suppose he needs to start sometime and start gaining his own no claims ..[ pay monthly ..]
Will give Pickwick at Cullen a call - know a guy who has had a couple of excellent Audis from there - see if he has any decent trade-ins to buy..
Regards
Brian..

[a11y_m]

Andrew[MG] said:

I did it from 17-21 and I don't have a bad name. It probably saved me thousands of pounds as well.

Apart from the legality of it, it's a false economy putting kids on a parent's insurance as a named driver. Say a kid is on their paretn's insurance as a named driver for 3 years and manages to keep a clean record. They get to 20 and fancy a nicer, sportier, higher insurance group car. In the eyes of insurers they're still a 20yo with 0ncb. But, if they'd bitten the bullet, bent over and taken the high premiums at the age of 17, they'd have had 3 years of their own insurance and 3 years ncb, and be able to get (more) affordable insurance on something nice.

I was a named driver on my parents insurance until I was 21, but I was only driving the car when not at uni so was truthfully not the main driver. But it left me in a crap situation at 21 trying to insure a half-decent car at a reasonable cost.

[dram]

Ally
Agree
As a young single male going into a decent job he does have the disposable income now to 'take the pain' of the higher premiums..
I am aware of Insurance companies by the very nature of their business that would attempt to 'wriggle out' of any claim if there was doubt as to who the main driver was if his parents were insuring a car for him .
By the time he is 21 he will want something a bit 'more intresting' and at least have some no claims to lessen the pain
We are all in the same boat..
Brian..

[chrisdougan]

hey all,

Im insured with direct line under my dads policy, they offer named drivers no claims bonus, the premiums are a bit higher but im 20 and have got an impreza. Only paying around £500 a year fully comp so its not a bad way to get a start with insurance if your just passed.

Chris

[a11y_m]

chrisdougan said:

hey all,

Im insured with direct line under my dads policy, they offer named drivers no claims bonus, the premiums are a bit higher but im 20 and have got an impreza. Only paying around £500 a year fully comp so its not a bad way to get a start with insurance if your just passed.

Chris

Chris, just checking what you say: drivers who are named on (for example) a parent's policy can also gain their own NCB? That sounds OK. But I guess the NCB would only be valid with the same insurer, i.e. Direct Line? Even still, sounds a good idea.

£500 on ANY Impreza at age 20 is decent, but if it's a turbo then even more so