as said above look at 10 yo cars that some of your peers wouldn’t be seen dead in. the less bodykits available the less the insurance.

i would be looking at a passat/ 306/ astra estate etc.

vans are a no go – private insurance for commercials is mental. commercial insurance for under 25s is mental too. no win.

Pass plus doesn’t save money, social and domestic doesn’t always save money vs commuting / business use, third party typically costs more than comprehensive.

At least that is how it worked out for me.

The best thing you can do is get a licence as early as possible, and get a car as late as possible – even 6 months on your licence makes a big difference compared to 0 months (it was 1400 to 700 for me)

Don’t do dodgy things lying about occupation or who is the main driver, as if you get caught on those you are buggered.

If you’re living with parents, check out how much a multi-car policy including your car would cost (obviously with you as main driver for your car ).

I found that type of car made little difference except for newish ones or the obvious hot hatches / powerful engine things being dead expensive.

The best thing you can do is get a licence as early as possible, and get a car as late as possible – even 6 months on your licence makes a big difference compared to 0 months (it was 1400 to 700 for me)

Back 10 years ago this didn’t make much difference, my other half learned to drive and then waited 2 years before getting a car and her first insurance was extortionate – they’re smart, they realise you haven’t been driving in that period and therefore are probably juts more likely to have forgotten what you learned.

My advice is buy a cheap, simple small car, get in it and get driving it ASAP.

FWIW a 306 is a good plan but unless you’re planning mega miles I’d go with a small petrol engine not the D, as the D’s are slow as hell, but still higher insurance, the Dturbos are worse still on insurance but nbippy and the HDi’s are great but possibly higher again insurance. Diesel insurance goes up because you’re heavier and tend to do more damage to a 3rd party when hitting them. A little 1.1 petrol thing is ideal, I had a 205 as a first car 🙂

Back 10 years ago this didn’t make much difference, my other half learned to drive and then waited 2 years before getting a car and her first insurance was extortionate -they’re smart, they realise you haven’t been driving in that period and therefore are probably juts more likely to have forgotten what you learned

I dunno, possibly depends on age (i’m 33), or is possibly just a difference between then and now (insurance particularly for new drivers is totally different now to ten years ago) , but like I say, for me, with the same car and insurance company, 6 months made a massive difference, 50% cheaper.

It is easy to check anyway, just bung in your details and change the months driving and you can see what they do in response to it.

My first car was a 1.8 TDi Escort Estate. Cost 900 quid to buy, 500 quid to insure, and did 3 bikes and 3 people + gear easily. Pretty nippy too as whilst only 90bhp, it didn’t weigh a great deal.

However, I think insurance companies are now on to the fact that diesels can be quite nippy. Back then if you were young and had to pay for your own insurance, it was either a big diesel estate, or a 1 litre petrol noddy car. Not sure if that’s still the case, but it was certainly a lot cheaper to insure my big diesels than when I went to a petrol Golf…

Don’t get a classic car. It’ll cost a ton to keep running, in money and time, it’ll be rubbish and you’ll die if someone bumps you in a supermarket car park.

I bought an MG midget.

£350 for insurance, 40mpg, looks cool, makes lots of noise, and is actualy fun to drive unlike a modern box.

Maintenance can be a problem if youre not spanner savy, but the only things that have gone wrong on mine are either routine bits that any car has (points(ok, these only happen in old cars but are 5 minute job to replace and cost £2/set), clutch, brake pads, bearings, etc), or went wrong through lack of use, eg it was faultless for 2 years commuting, but lots of stuff went wrong when I didnt use it for 6 months.

Wouldn’t want to crash it at any speed though, there really is no protection.

It is easy to check anyway, just bung in your details and change the months driving and you can see what they do in response to it.

Indeed, and that’s the easy way to find the best car. Make a database of all the cars you fancy, run them all through the comparison sites and then run one of them with a few different variations in circumstance, bingo – you’ve mapped the insurance landscape and can make a sensible choice. Any car will carry bikes, my old 205 regularly fitted 2 MTBs, a bunch of kitesurfing and camping kit all at once.

haven’t read the whole thread here but I also just passed my test and couldn’t see why it would be £4k to get insured Third Party Only. Yes, £4k! Admittedly it was on a van but all the same. And then I tried changing it to fully comp and adding a £500 voluntary excess. Insurance fell to £999. Bargain.

So my advice (and what I’m going to do) is buy the cheapest thing (under a grand) you can get away with that seems reliable enough, put a £500 excess on it and do it fully comp.

Let me know if it works…