As the title says, don’t want to spend more than a grand. Also where to insure?

1999 Fiat 900cc

A scooter.

A scooter if you don’t like your kid.

Other than that, anything that’s cheap, old, light and with a small engine and not even remotely interesting to theives.

Motorbike, more likely to kill himself, but not anyone else, insurance ~£300, tax £15 and 100mpg.

1k for the car

3k for insurance

or you could try http://www.youngmarmalade.co.uk or an insurance company that will fit a tracker and time barr the useage

Peugeot 106 1 ltr to 1.1 ltr and look at insurance through Adrian Flux.

coffeeking +1. Don’t expect to pay less than a grand, go for third party as the cars likely to be worth less than his excess.

Next door neighbour was doing this for their (slightly older) son a year or so ago. I’m sure in the end they found a deeply unfashionable big old volvo estate worked out cheaper to insure that the usual small light first timer cars that you would expect to go for. Something they/you could have a stab at maintaining themselves like a triumph herald (with added bonus of hamster wheel power and top end speed) could be fun but probably unreliable.

Oh and weirdly 3rd party also often quotes more expensive than fully comp for drivers with this level of experience – makes no sense….

If you go 3rd party just prey they don’t have a serious accident!

If the 17/18/19-year old who lives a few doors from me is anything to go by I would get him a bus pass. In a very short space of time he has farked up more cars than I’ve owned – latest one was a Seat somethingorother that had been T-boned by a Range Rover.

Range Rover 1, Seat nil

I’ve been insured on a nissan pickup with a fairly big engine. Insurance because we work in the agricultural industry when with NFU and said I would use it for work purposes only and its only £200 a year

with NFU and said I would use it for work purposes only and its only £200 a year

Yes do this, or insure them as a named driver on your insurance. Both of these options work out much, much cheaper (until they have an accident) than getting them their own insurance.

Insurance companies are getting hot on a named driver actually being the prime user of the car.

with NFU and said I would use it for work purposes only and its only £200 a year

Yes do this, or insure them as a named driver on your insurance. Both of these options work out much, much cheaper (until they have an accident) than getting them their own insurance.

Until the insurance company does their homework in the event of a claim and your insurance is invalid. NFU only works for certain postcodes.

Personally I’d spend the Grand on a RTW air ticket at that age but you do what you like.

Check the Martin Lewis guide on money saving expert – one of their tips is to add yourself as a named driver to his/her policy as that can sometimes reduce the extreme costs. As opposed to the highly illegal practice of making them a named driver on a policy in your name, when they are clearly the cars main user.

I think it is the Co-op that are doing a car driving monitoring system that can offer reductions in the insurance if it tracks their driving as sensible.

Maybe a nice bike, make him/her pedal about. No insurance requirement, no petrol costs and it’ll keep him/her fit. (cost a darn sight less too)

Are electric cars cheap to insure – just wonderign if over say, 3 years the premium differences woudl offset the extra costs.

They can always put exhaust noises on the stereo to impress their mates…

I was thinking about this the other day, not that I have any kids yet. Bumped into a young lad and girlfriend pottering down a green lane in an old landie.

Cheap(ish), slow, fun and good for taking a lady-friend to a quiet spot in the countryside… what’s not to like?

I had a 1987 mini, friends had novas, polos etc but we seemed to spend a lot of time bombing around in a friends suzuki jeep that smelt of horses…

slow, uncool would be my requirements… ideally reasonably safe too just in case – probably as difficult set of requirements to meet.

Mind you I got a beige 2CV when I was 17 – seriously slow and uncool but it didn’t stop me doing a few stupid things in it…

Some student test pilot ran into the back of me in October, I was turning right into a street and he tried to overtake me in his Mini. It did a good job of my avensis which was only three days out of the bodyshop after being hit from behind by someone on their phone.

The Police very quickly established that his dad was the policy holder and the son wasn’t main driver. Written off mini now not paid for (or the damage to my car and associated costs) and the dad now facing about a £15K bill. Not worth it.

Buy the kid a Volvo estate, something he’ll drive sensibly and with the garbage MPG it will deliver he’ll think twice before using the car unnecessarily thereby reducing his chances of an accident.

The IAM has being doing some research with the aforementioned Young Marmalade and has just issued a press release on this very subject.

Young drivers are often bought old wrecks, couple that with their inability to drive and you help keep up the “car crashes the biggest single killer of males under 25” stat

Their advice is basically summed up as Get them the best car you can

When they can afford to buy a car, they can choose what they want.

That’s the line I’ll be taking.

look up Renault Clio 172, fast little thing and around a grand. The things used to cost around £18,000; and the insurance shouldnt be more than around 3k.:P

This is my lads car. We were given it as a project for him to restore – it’s been great so far, he keeps a blog, goes and works on it when he gets a chance and he’ll end up with something that he’s proud of and knows how to fix. I help him out with heavy lifting, stuck bolts, knowledge and funds! Insurance if he were 17 now is £1900, but we might be able to reduce that via the owners club and proof that he’s restored it.

There’s no right answer, other than something desperately underpowered and horrible.

Any actual need for a car at the moment? If not, ensure your kid gets through their driving test and then does PassPlus, insure them on your car (which will be expensive but much cheaper than buying a separeate car with a seperate policy), and make them wait until they’re 20 for their first car.

By then they’ll be much better on the road, and insurance will be half the cost.

Sometimes some odd larger vehicles are cheaper with some companies, but it’s rare as they generally do more damage to other peopes cars when they crash, leading to larger payouts.

When I started driving some ungodly number of years ago it cost me 900 quid to insure my 800 quid 1.1 pug 205 5 door. But within 5 years I could insure a 200hp sports car for half that so it’s worth getting on the ladder cheap and slow to build up.

When I started driving some ungodly number of years ago it cost me 900 quid to insure my 800 quid 1.1 pug 205 5 door. But within 5 years I could insure a 200hp sports car for half that so it’s worth getting on the ladder cheap and slow to build up.

Ahhhh the spending money to save money argument. Bit like my missus buying shoes in the sale!

Get something that is not in the “boy racer” class to avoid stupid insurance costs. My son ended up with a VW Jetta which was a much better car than a lot of his mates who were running the usual Fiesta, Escort, Peugeots etc. Son also did his A.M.I. course immediately after passing his test(youngest member locally at that time).He reckoned it was the best thing he ever did, tutored by a police traffic cop!!

Sideways Tim

Liking that car, served my time on Triumph, Rover, Land Rover, Daimler/Jags of the era 😆
Helped brother-in-law restore one the very same colour, stripped down to the very last bolt and rebuilt.