Safe as houses except in a side impact or a roll over incident or a decent head on thanks to the steering column that although colapsable is still a spike heading for your head.

Also has anyone tried to insure a 110 as a first car for a 17 year old ? Mega money these days .  Not longer seen as a safe slow sensible option by insurance largely due to silly numbers of them being stolen.

Let me solve this problem for you.

Hyundai i10 1.2 – Reasonably quick for a little shit box and better built than the most popular ones! Guess what the insurance is cheap too even for the more powerful 1.2, avoid the 1.0. Pretty reliable, all have Aux sockets, AC. Most have electric windows all round, are reasonably roomy and probably the best all round visibility out of those city cars. The gear change feels more solid and positive than the C1 derivatives. The clutch operation is a bit on the stiff side, but other than that they are pretty decent for the money.

@binners I was thinking someone would post a picture of that car!!

I’d be buying a £1000 tops.

Let’s face facts. It’s gonna get wrecked. It’ll be reversed into a post or another person’s car etc.

Mileage shouldn’t matter too much at that price.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201805036152585?atmobcid=soc3

Like that.

Cheap. Safe enough. easy to fix.

As for the Ka. The 2009 Ka falls into the price range given. It is not the same car as the MK1 rust bucket. It’s a fiat 500 in all but name. Same engine. Same chassis. Same running gear. Same factory.

I’d rather a MK1 for the fun though.

We’ve got an Aygo, had since new in 2011 and done 80,000 miles.  Total maintenance costs so far (excluding services – which are fixed price and cheap) have been front discs and pads which was only a couple of hundred and obviously tyres every 20K or so (again incredibly cheap at around £50 for good quality tyres.

A perfect car for a new driver.  Does 60MPG however you drive it, good visibility, easy to park etc,.

Engine has a “characterful” sound but at least you can hear when you are thrashing it.

Again thanks all. Food for thought. I’ll do some internet research this weekend and start to see what’s close by and in our budget…

As long as you avoid anything ridiculous (or known chav wagons) the car shouldn’t be the dominant rating factor.  My son had a 1.6 focus nice car tbh, now at 20 he has a bmw.

I would also go for a telematics device, the feeling of being monitored and hopefully good feedback will  help your offspring safey through the first couple of years of driving that mainly what both the insurance co and you  both want.

Up’s citigo & mii either come with or are very easily retrofitted with a satnav pid unit (maps and more) that has Bluetooth, microsd etc and integrates with the canbus stuff so it provides loads of features normally only found on more expensive cars

Fiesta – the 03 plate we got gave 7 years of good service, then we scrapped it but used the Ford scrapage scheme which allows petrols to buy a new one..

Great thread this, my lad is 17 soon. I like the Landy idea. His uncle is a farmer and has a fully kitted out mechanics garage with lift etc so they can fix it together. And I want one.

Oldnpastit- you couldn’t be more wrong about the Morris Marina, very few cars can go sideways around a wet corner at such low speed.

She wants something just big enough to get four people in and not an inch bigger!

Seats for 2 may be cheaper for the young. Fewer people to egg the driver into silly manoeuvres.

Nealglover opined – Perfect.

For some new value of perfect!! 😉

Seats for 2 may be cheaper for the young. Fewer people to egg the driver into silly manoeuvres.

Friend had a Triumph GT6, another had a Spitfire. (this was in about 2002/3 and 2007 respectively, both were about 19 at the time) Two seater on classic insurance was really really cheap. Bit more expensive to buy but dirt cheap to run, no depreciation and so easy to fix there were next to no garage bills, just the MOT really.  Could get 12 in my 110 but noone was egging me into silly manoeuvres

“see if you can do a ton”

“It won’t, this is as fast as it goes, and that’s just because it’s a tailwind.”

“Oh.”

There’s a franchise dealership near us who have Hyundai, Toyota and Suzuki. Had a look at the I10, Aygo and Swift.  Of the three, I prefer the Suzuki but the (red) Aygo is currently winning it in the daughter stakes. We’re going to test drive all 3 next week.

At no point did I suggest a Landrover might be a good alternative 😉

Seats for 2 may be cheaper for the young. Fewer people to egg the driver into silly manoeuvres

I’ll see if I can find it, but there’s a statistic about number of passengers within the first two years of driving along the lines of:

+1 passenger = double chances of an accident

+1 more = double the raised  risk *again*

+1 more = double *again*

+ After 9pm = double all them again….

Can thoroughly recommend LV, they don’t insist on black boxes and seem reasonably priced. Have used them for all 4 kids now.

Number 4 has just passed, he’s now enjoying his freedom in a Skoda Fabia. Not the most exciting, but it’s not meant to be.

And just remember, whatever premium you get whilst they’re learning goes UP once they’ve passed their test…..

Of the three, I prefer the Suzuki but the (red) Aygo is currently winning it in the daughter stakes.

That, right there, is the most important thing! She is the one going to drive the bloody thing, not a bunch of middle-aged, MALE mountain bikers! I met my g/f from work this afternoon, and we walked past a dealership, Kia, Citroen and Peugeot, and they had an Aygo parked out front for sale. That was the one car she picked out as the one she liked the best, looks-wise. The fact that there are Citroen and Peugeot cars that are identical mechanically and internally means that looks are everything, and having driven all three, I’d have the Aygo every time, it’s just a much nicer looking car.

I thought about this a bit and kind of came down on the @CZ way of thinking. I’ve done what I aways do with any big purchase, made a list of priorities, budget, reviewed everything that meets the criteria and ended up with ‘Well the i20 is a better car for the money because…’ of stuff she doesn’t care about.

The only thing that’s fixed is budget. She talked about contributing which I was fine with, her mum less so.  But I shouldn’t for one minute think my criteria carry much weight. I might think its nuts to spend more on a car that’s ‘not as good’ as another one, but hey you’re only young once.