That’s the budget for the insurance, right?
I’ve seen those free insurance for 18yo drivers deals, and I’ve wondered how/where they’re absorbing the cost of the premiums, because just on its own the premium costs are eye-watering,
An old Micra might be a good option, it’ll be worth looking at a bunch of insurance quotes, and seeing how the cheapest works out per month, compared to the lease costs, while avoiding the option to spread the cost over twelve months, ‘cos they always cost more doing it that way.
I never paid more than £500 for a car, until I bought my Puma in 2001, and I’d been driving since the late 70’s, so the Micra could be the most viable, plus there’ll be fewer worries about knocks and dings, those have already happened.

Usual tradition of recommending what you know – one of our kids has a 2006 Toyota Aygo too which is one of the lowest insurance groups, £20 pa tax and really economical. Was worrried it wouldn’t be as reliable as normal Toyotas as it’s a joint venture with PSA group but seems fine so far, it’s nice to drive and feels pretty nippy for a 1 litre engine. Can be had for a lot less than your budget too, paid a grand with years MOT, and great if she’s not fussed about street cred etc.

My three (in order of seniority) got a Ford Ka Sport, Fiat Punto 5dr and a Honda Civic 1.6 Sport.

All three cars cost less than the insurance…

There isn’t a lot of difference between low insurance cars and higher ones (in percentage terms), so don’t over pay for ‘low insurance’ cars.

And it goes without saying, but it’s all about the location – youngest (rural Scotland) pays the same as the eldest (urban West Yorkshire) even though he’s been driving 4 years more.

Got my daughter and step-daughter cars when they passed at 17. car budget was £3k-£3.5k with insurance £1k-£1.5k

One chose a 2010 Ford Ka, 30k miles, 1.0 engine, insurance year 1, black box from insurethecar.com = £1050, year 2 (no claims) -£550 on our admiral multi car

The other chose Renault Clio 1.2, 45k miles, year 1 = £1100 with Morethan black box policy, year 2=£600 on our admiral multi car (no claims).

What we found was you really need to shop around and black box makes a difference. Keep the engine size small and dont buy new. We expect to be able to sell them next year for £1k.

A safe one.

FTFY.

Look for cars that are less common, my son quoted over £1500 for 1l Vauxhall Corsa, ended up with Citroen C2 Code, same engine as VTR but insurance £1100. Insurance quotes are based on statistics, there are less than 3500 C2 Codes registered in the UK therefore statistically low risk, other examples were Golf GTi £16k to insure, Alfa Romeo with higher performance was £1600!! It seems the insurance is based on how many claims are made vs that vehicle more so than the performance of the car.

998cc Picanto here
After 2009 new NCAP rating scheme applies
After 2012 will have more safety features as standard, e.g. TPMS, due to EU legislation

Direct Line don’t change the premium after the driving test is passed

We just sold our 12 year old polo 1.2L to a first driver for £500, think her dad said insurance would be £1.5k. It’s an ideal first car IMO, fairly solid for a small car, reliable and not too gutsy

Not such a bad thing for a young driver.

Mrs-g is about to pass her test so we have been looking at what cheap, small car we could get on the assumption it may well take a few dents and I like the look of the “new” Minis.

They have been around for 15 odd years now so you can grab an old one for 1500-2k, the design hasn’t really changed much in that time so they don’t look obviously out of date in the way an old fiesta or whatever would, and I think they are cheap on insurance.

Have not driven one so would need to test that out, but the lack of a mention for them has me worried now, are they not any good?

Steve-g Mini’s trade at a premium. I would imagine Mrs-G will be less likely to have a bump than a teenager so they may make sense. My eldest drove the Yaris into a Telegrapgh pole wire first day after passing her test. At least she didn’t have a head on collision with the Landy coming the other way 😐

Insurance, long time ago now (12 years for my eldest) but we shopped around and best quote was £650, less than half next best. Worth looking at some “alternatives” like Farmers Union.

As above some gutless smallish car is ideal.

Honda Jazz?

Steve-g: it’s all about engine size. A new driver can get away with a <1.2 engine but above that the insurance rockets. Not sure you’ll find a 1.2 mini.

Obvs you could just pay more and get the Mini though but I’d be wary of a 15yo car. Less safety for starters.

Sharkbait, you don’t need to justify yourself. Unfortunately, Its a sad reflection of how bad this forum has become.

a panda is of course the same as a fiat 500. With a different top.

And slightly less street cred.

but they are half the price.

We went with a 2nd hand Honda Jazz for my daughters first car and it’s still going strong 8 years later (although with some cosmetic challenges) although it’s now been relegated to a spare car. It was an excellent choice for a 1st car though.

Insurance cost is the biggest factor.
For my daughter who passed last year at 17, we found the cheapest commonly available option was the C1 models from 62 plate onwards (the date after which they became zero tax). We paid about £3,400 for a low miles VTR model.
Multi car with Admiral was about £1000 for the first year based on 6k miles and no requirement for any black box.
*** Key though with the multi car policies is that they renew all vehicles at same date, which means that your new addition will fall due for renewal at something less than a year if you already have a policy running. This means you only pay the hefty premium pro-rata for that period, then benefit from early renewal with a year’s NCB (so long as the policy has been running for >3 months).
Renewal was about £700 for the second year.

Toyota Yaris. Bullet proof reliability. Cheap insurance and good residuals.