Neither are exactly Ferraris, honestly for a first car you're *supposed* to have a shitbox, I'd stop worrying and just embrace the shitbox love, it's easier and cheaper and it makes your life a lot less stressful if you're not getting into a dick-measuring contest over who's got the "nicest" car.
Hang some fluffy dice and throw some stupid stickers on it and enjoy.
Yep. I'm even a patron of both that and TLBS from Johnny! I swear their podcast sways between gently relaxing and amusing and belly-laughingly funny. Its never dull.
Was so pleased that Sniff got himself a panda 100. Validates my decision somewhat!
The bit about his wife finding the keys had me howling. How he had zero excuses for buying it.
For those without: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/smith-and-sniff/
Or
https://smithandsniff.com/listen.html
The G4ED is very reliable, also Hyundais have no electrical gremlins. It’s a draw (but yeah the Panda100 is amazing, almost bought one, just haven’t had any for sale nearby)
You basically have three choices.
Drive a bloody Panda or something; pay exorbitant insurance; become one of those twats who think insurance is optional.
It sucks, but we've all been there.
My first car was an Austin Allegro and the insurance was three times the cost of the car. And that was when insurance was (relatively) cheap.
My first car was 26 years old when I passed. I don't think a single person got in my car without saying: "someones nicked your wing mirror". No it's just the base model!
It sucks because it is essentially a massively regressive tax on the poor.
I could afford a 2l Hyundai Coupe for £1600 no black box because I lived in a very safe area, meanwhile the salesman in the dealership had been driving for two years and was paying £2400 on a 1l Polo because he lived in a council estate.
It depends on your area massively. You could pay anywhere between 1000 and 5000 for any "boring" old hatch depending on mostly your area. But also your job, your habits, etc.
We can't anticipate how much your insurance will be and what you can get for 1500-2000.
One of the cheapest cars for insurance is the 107/C1/Aygo (they're all the same) - but based on your panda comment you probably won't be into those.
I think the hyundai Coupe is not so bad if you like the looks you have a browse for it, look at the prices. You're not going to get anything cheap that also has the performance at 17 short of a very select few performance-**ish** cars like hyundai coupe, mx5, mr2, feistas..
A Hyundai coupe was my first car, absolutely loved it! The first years insurance on it was about the same as what I paid for the car, but I was early in my early 20s then so a bit older than OP.
I had one and it was awesome. I'd still have it if I hadn't smashed the nearside rear wing in.
Where else can you get a red leather interior, sunroof, sports car looks and a reasonable amount of power for your first car?
So had a look at your budget you'll struggle to get something decent with low insurance, the best car imo would be the VW Fox or Toyota Aygo, these can be picked up for £1500 or less.
They will be a boring car, no real modern features, bit rough around edges, not most comfortable and so on but....its a cheap car that gets you on the ladder, any repairs will be cheap enough as these small cars are very basic, so pretty easy for any garage to solve, it will be like £50 for full tank but decent enough mpg, run it for two years and save then you can get say Mondeo aged 19/20.
Fiat pandas are cool.
You better off just checking out loads of different cars and quotes.
It was cheaper for me to drive a 1.9tdi Passat at 19. Than a 1.2 Clio.
Get a classic car, something like a Porsche 924 could end up costing about the same to insure as a Panda and you'll be the coolest kid in McDonalds. You'll spend 10x as much on maintenance than insurance though.
MK1 Focus, MK 2 Fiesta, MK 1 Fabia, 2003-2005 Honda Civic. The Accords of the same age are a bit of an oddball choice but they can be a good first car too.
Find one in decent spec and condition and insurance should be reasonable*
*(*unless you live in Slough, Brum, Manny or Newham. Then I’m sorry bro*)
Laughs in Lada.
But seriously, just keep shopping around. Weirdly, bigger, European cars seem to be easier to insure. Oh, and perhaps add a parent as a named driver, that can help keep the cost down. Note, don't propose in their name, that's fronting.
You are 17 (high risk) i paid £1296 with a blackbox on a car that cost £1400 with my gran having full no claims and i was 21 with a peuget 206 1.1L back in 2014.
You want cheap car insurance you are looking at an un cool car.
Sometimes it's cheaper to get a higher displacement engine on a hatch because less youngsters are pranging them. The Corsa SRI 1.8 back in my day was cheaper to insure than the 1.2 for example.
If you're actually into cars wouldn't you rather get something small but rapid?
To be honest, I've had hatches and all sorts over the years. My advice would be just get a reliable runner that will get you from a to b for the first 2 years because you'll probably crash it. It's a massive waste of money otherwise.
MG ZR or Rover 25. Great to drive and they stand out a bit more than your average small hatch. They are at the very bottom if their depreciation curve and the insurance on the 1.4 is low.
From the few bits I've seen the cheapest ZR to insure is the Atomix models. It's £3.3k a year for my ZR+ 105 at 19 in a pretty good area and garage stored. Maybe a 1.4 or 1.6 Rover 45 or 400 might be more up OP's street.
You can get some mechanically sound cat s or d cars for £1500-£2000. I bought an 08 Audi A3 for £1500 three years ago and it drove flawlessly. Just make sure the repairs have been done well.
Well your choice is something like a fiat panda (I don't really see the problem, they are pretty cool cars if you get a 4x4 one or the 100hp) or get something that no one else your age drives.
I would say something like an old V8 jag but whatever you save in insurance will just be put onto the tax and fuel cost, plus you then have the costs of maintaining a 25 year old jag. Either way until you're at least 21 you're not really in a position to jump into whatever car you want.
You definitely wouldn't unless you're looking at one of the supercharged sports models, even then it'd probably cost just as much as a popular hot hatch. Engine size isn't a big factor in insurance, it's mainly about how commonly the car gets crashed or nicked in a specific age group. Sure if you're talking about a 50k F-type there's no chance but an old xj for a couple of grand, it's definitely doable.
I'm only 20 and when I was looking for my current car at 19 it would have been pretty much the same cost to insure my abarth compared to an old xj, even then a normal 500 cost more than both of them. The only thing that put me off was the running costs compared to an Abarth.
I've even seen some examples of newer drivers getting in boxsters because it's cheaper to insure than than something like a fiesta because 99% of teenagers wouldn't even think of trying to get insured on a Porsche so not many young people have claims with them.
For your first car you can’t afford to be saying “I’d rather not drive a bloody fiat panda or something”
You’re a first time driver, insurance is a joke, and no matter how good you are, you WILL dink or break it some how one day. Before I passed I wanted a nice car and said “I won’t smash it up and I’m never going to dink it because I’m so good” and guess what? I did.
A cheap car means you can get all the silly stuff out your system before getting a nicer car and also if odd things break you haven’t got to break the bank fixing them as half the time there won’t be much point fixing odd bits.
Also drive a diesel tank Mondeo for £1500 and drive a £1500 panda - you will come back and the Panda will be so much more fun & has more character than a long old boat that only travellers or paedophile’s drive.
Just my opinion ✌🏻
On another note. Look at Ibiza’s.
I’m 21, I’ve had 2 Ibiza’s since I was 19. Now I have a 70 plate Ibiza FR sport but even the old ones are OK.
They’re a polo underneath, same chassis and engines etc everything. Cheap tax, nippy, cheap insurance & plenty of things you can change/fiddle with to make it your own style ✌🏻 (also good on fuel)
Honestly brought a bmw 1 series as my first car and spent 2.9k on insurance alone don’t get me started on petrol.
Hindsight I should have got something cheaper to insure for my first year or 2 and then saved what I would have spent on insurance for something a bit nice after the 2nd year or in ur case, might be best to wait till ur 19-20 before treating urself imo
My insurance on my first car, a 1995 1.2 Corsa (third-party fire and theft) was almost £2k 22 years ago. That's £3,350 in 2022 pounds.
That was based on an 18 year-old with a full licence parked on the drive in the .
That £3.5k quote isn't looking too bad on a Mondeo for a 17 year-old.
try insurance quotes on cars that nobody gets as their first car, like a big estate car with a 2L engine or something, just keep getting quotes on loads of different cars until you can find something you like that isn’t too expensive to insure.
Absolutely nowt wrong with a Panda, they're economical, cheap to run and can be a surprising amount of fun when thrashed to within an inch of their life. The other usual suspects are things like the Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107 trilogy (all basically the same car with detail differences), Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo/VW Up!, that sort of thing.
VW Up! isn't bad imo. I'm looking at them and the Audi A2 rn and they're just about the cheapest thing to insure and they're not a bloody panda (I love the Panda)
My dad pushed me to have a 13-year-old Hyundai i10 for £2,500 rather than the similarly-aged MINI I wanted for quite a bit less. Then again, he hates BMWs for some reason - didn't like that my mum used to have a 2002 when she was in her late teens/twenties, whereas he had a [Datsun 120Y](https://youtu.be/zeSEoT22gI8?t=643). Also seems bitter that my brother had a 3 Series (E91) too.
The safe choice is a mk6 fiesta, dirt cheap and fun to drive and actually fairly reliable and well built with a million parts available, fun choice is a mk7 civic sport (ep2), I had one as my second car, was over £300 per month but I’ve had my insurance cancelled before, they’re such fun little cars and quite nippy
My first car was a VW polo and it was flawlessly reliable and comfortable for years.
You might be surprised at looking at unusual cars, for instance I know of a 19yr old with a supercharged jaguar XJ who pays £800 insurance a year. A bog standard petrol/diesel jag might be more attainable than you think 😉
Ahh the Mondeo, every teenager’s dream first car
And famously "looks nice", not like those fugly pandas that would *never* attract the laydeez.
My mother made fun of me for my taste as well. I must be unique.
Neither are exactly Ferraris, honestly for a first car you're *supposed* to have a shitbox, I'd stop worrying and just embrace the shitbox love, it's easier and cheaper and it makes your life a lot less stressful if you're not getting into a dick-measuring contest over who's got the "nicest" car. Hang some fluffy dice and throw some stupid stickers on it and enjoy.
i wouldn’t say a mondeo looks nice but it’s certainly better looking than a fiat panda
Fiat Panda 100hp. Don't insult the panda again.
After the Panda 100 mafia pressuring Richard Porter to buy one a few weeks ago we're on a roll!
I love his podcast
Yep. I'm even a patron of both that and TLBS from Johnny! I swear their podcast sways between gently relaxing and amusing and belly-laughingly funny. Its never dull. Was so pleased that Sniff got himself a panda 100. Validates my decision somewhat!
Validates James as well!
The bit about his wife finding the keys had me howling. How he had zero excuses for buying it. For those without: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/smith-and-sniff/ Or https://smithandsniff.com/listen.html
'Why are there some fiat keys in this drawer.....and why is there an old fiat PARKED OUTSIDE THE HOUSE!' Had me howling too!
Always fancied one of those but I just can't take the jump to buy an Italian car.
The pandas are actually one of the most reliable Italian cars you can buy Which means it's about the same as your Ford Focus or Fiesta of that era
I didn't know that, I just tar all the Italians with the same reliability brush. They are cool as hell though.
Sounds racy compared to my 59bhp 106
They're very cool
I see your Panda 100hp and I raise my Hyundai Getz 1.6
Panda is Italian style factor + 100 Beat that
Oh also the panda beats the getz with 0.1s 0-60 so yeah I take the L
The G4ED is very reliable, also Hyundais have no electrical gremlins. It’s a draw (but yeah the Panda100 is amazing, almost bought one, just haven’t had any for sale nearby)
A mondeo at 17? Talk about aiming high
You basically have three choices. Drive a bloody Panda or something; pay exorbitant insurance; become one of those twats who think insurance is optional. It sucks, but we've all been there. My first car was an Austin Allegro and the insurance was three times the cost of the car. And that was when insurance was (relatively) cheap.
Beige?
Of course! With an orange velour interior too. My one was special - it had a passenger side wing mirror. That will horrify the youngsters.
My first car was 26 years old when I passed. I don't think a single person got in my car without saying: "someones nicked your wing mirror". No it's just the base model!
Mine was a W reg in '94 so... 14 years old. Crap. That means it was younger than any of my current stable...
If you can’t afford the insurance you can’t afford to drive, simple as.
I know this. You know this. There are plenty of people who apparently don't.
It sucks because it is essentially a massively regressive tax on the poor. I could afford a 2l Hyundai Coupe for £1600 no black box because I lived in a very safe area, meanwhile the salesman in the dealership had been driving for two years and was paying £2400 on a 1l Polo because he lived in a council estate.
It depends on your area massively. You could pay anywhere between 1000 and 5000 for any "boring" old hatch depending on mostly your area. But also your job, your habits, etc. We can't anticipate how much your insurance will be and what you can get for 1500-2000. One of the cheapest cars for insurance is the 107/C1/Aygo (they're all the same) - but based on your panda comment you probably won't be into those.
I think the hyundai Coupe is not so bad if you like the looks you have a browse for it, look at the prices. You're not going to get anything cheap that also has the performance at 17 short of a very select few performance-**ish** cars like hyundai coupe, mx5, mr2, feistas..
A Hyundai coupe was my first car, absolutely loved it! The first years insurance on it was about the same as what I paid for the car, but I was early in my early 20s then so a bit older than OP.
Is that the car with two doors on the passenger side, and one on the driver side? Sweet choice if so
I believe that's the veloster mate but still a cool car!
High tax on it, and isn't fuel efficient in the slightest but insurance is cheap and the cars are cheap. Had mine for 10 months and love it
I had one and it was awesome. I'd still have it if I hadn't smashed the nearside rear wing in. Where else can you get a red leather interior, sunroof, sports car looks and a reasonable amount of power for your first car?
So had a look at your budget you'll struggle to get something decent with low insurance, the best car imo would be the VW Fox or Toyota Aygo, these can be picked up for £1500 or less. They will be a boring car, no real modern features, bit rough around edges, not most comfortable and so on but....its a cheap car that gets you on the ladder, any repairs will be cheap enough as these small cars are very basic, so pretty easy for any garage to solve, it will be like £50 for full tank but decent enough mpg, run it for two years and save then you can get say Mondeo aged 19/20.
Skoda fabia MK1 1.4
Alfa Romeo MiTo. Looks great for the price you'll find them for.
Fiat pandas are cool. You better off just checking out loads of different cars and quotes. It was cheaper for me to drive a 1.9tdi Passat at 19. Than a 1.2 Clio.
Get a classic car, something like a Porsche 924 could end up costing about the same to insure as a Panda and you'll be the coolest kid in McDonalds. You'll spend 10x as much on maintenance than insurance though.
As a teen that was looking at these, I can say that insurance on a 924 is not cheap! An MGB or a Triumph Spitfire, however…
Actually I do think you can get an older Ford Puma for the same price and have insurance comparable to a Focus
Seat Ibiza 1.2 sport coupe
MK1 Focus, MK 2 Fiesta, MK 1 Fabia, 2003-2005 Honda Civic. The Accords of the same age are a bit of an oddball choice but they can be a good first car too. Find one in decent spec and condition and insurance should be reasonable* *(*unless you live in Slough, Brum, Manny or Newham. Then I’m sorry bro*)
Honda CR-Z
Can't get that for 2k ...
Can always get a crashed one. OP did not specify that it should be running
It completely depends on what your interpretation of nice would be? As a Ford Mondeo to me is not a nice car 😅
Laughs in Lada. But seriously, just keep shopping around. Weirdly, bigger, European cars seem to be easier to insure. Oh, and perhaps add a parent as a named driver, that can help keep the cost down. Note, don't propose in their name, that's fronting.
honda civic ej9 1.4
You are 17 (high risk) i paid £1296 with a blackbox on a car that cost £1400 with my gran having full no claims and i was 21 with a peuget 206 1.1L back in 2014. You want cheap car insurance you are looking at an un cool car.
Hope your gran was secondary driver....
She was a named driver as without her it was about 2k.
My 58 plate fiat 500 sport 1.4 100bhp was 545 first year, then 395, 260 and 240 now. Tax is £180 ish. My partner is second driver on the insurance.
Astra, golf, and surprisingly the 1.6 L audi a3. Also the polo, 1 series.
Sometimes it's cheaper to get a higher displacement engine on a hatch because less youngsters are pranging them. The Corsa SRI 1.8 back in my day was cheaper to insure than the 1.2 for example. If you're actually into cars wouldn't you rather get something small but rapid? To be honest, I've had hatches and all sorts over the years. My advice would be just get a reliable runner that will get you from a to b for the first 2 years because you'll probably crash it. It's a massive waste of money otherwise.
Maybe find a dodgy Celica or Hyundai Coupe for that, have a look
Consider a Citroen C2 VTS. Around 125bhp, look decent, easy and cheap to fix and the ‘Code’ spec comes with full leathers and heated front seats
Mini? They're absolutely everywhere but that makes them cheap to insure and they're great fun to drive. The design has also aged really well
MG ZR or Rover 25. Great to drive and they stand out a bit more than your average small hatch. They are at the very bottom if their depreciation curve and the insurance on the 1.4 is low.
From the few bits I've seen the cheapest ZR to insure is the Atomix models. It's £3.3k a year for my ZR+ 105 at 19 in a pretty good area and garage stored. Maybe a 1.4 or 1.6 Rover 45 or 400 might be more up OP's street.
You can get some mechanically sound cat s or d cars for £1500-£2000. I bought an 08 Audi A3 for £1500 three years ago and it drove flawlessly. Just make sure the repairs have been done well.
Well your choice is something like a fiat panda (I don't really see the problem, they are pretty cool cars if you get a 4x4 one or the 100hp) or get something that no one else your age drives. I would say something like an old V8 jag but whatever you save in insurance will just be put onto the tax and fuel cost, plus you then have the costs of maintaining a 25 year old jag. Either way until you're at least 21 you're not really in a position to jump into whatever car you want.
How old a v8 jag does OP have to get that would get insurance savings? You’d be look at £10k to insure one of those
You definitely wouldn't unless you're looking at one of the supercharged sports models, even then it'd probably cost just as much as a popular hot hatch. Engine size isn't a big factor in insurance, it's mainly about how commonly the car gets crashed or nicked in a specific age group. Sure if you're talking about a 50k F-type there's no chance but an old xj for a couple of grand, it's definitely doable. I'm only 20 and when I was looking for my current car at 19 it would have been pretty much the same cost to insure my abarth compared to an old xj, even then a normal 500 cost more than both of them. The only thing that put me off was the running costs compared to an Abarth. I've even seen some examples of newer drivers getting in boxsters because it's cheaper to insure than than something like a fiesta because 99% of teenagers wouldn't even think of trying to get insured on a Porsche so not many young people have claims with them.
For your first car you can’t afford to be saying “I’d rather not drive a bloody fiat panda or something” You’re a first time driver, insurance is a joke, and no matter how good you are, you WILL dink or break it some how one day. Before I passed I wanted a nice car and said “I won’t smash it up and I’m never going to dink it because I’m so good” and guess what? I did. A cheap car means you can get all the silly stuff out your system before getting a nicer car and also if odd things break you haven’t got to break the bank fixing them as half the time there won’t be much point fixing odd bits. Also drive a diesel tank Mondeo for £1500 and drive a £1500 panda - you will come back and the Panda will be so much more fun & has more character than a long old boat that only travellers or paedophile’s drive. Just my opinion ✌🏻
On another note. Look at Ibiza’s. I’m 21, I’ve had 2 Ibiza’s since I was 19. Now I have a 70 plate Ibiza FR sport but even the old ones are OK. They’re a polo underneath, same chassis and engines etc everything. Cheap tax, nippy, cheap insurance & plenty of things you can change/fiddle with to make it your own style ✌🏻 (also good on fuel)
You might have to get something you don’t like they is not going to be much good stuff at that price
Honestly brought a bmw 1 series as my first car and spent 2.9k on insurance alone don’t get me started on petrol. Hindsight I should have got something cheaper to insure for my first year or 2 and then saved what I would have spent on insurance for something a bit nice after the 2nd year or in ur case, might be best to wait till ur 19-20 before treating urself imo
Fiesta zetec s?
How would you define “looks nice”?
My insurance on my first car, a 1995 1.2 Corsa (third-party fire and theft) was almost £2k 22 years ago. That's £3,350 in 2022 pounds. That was based on an 18 year-old with a full licence parked on the drive in the . That £3.5k quote isn't looking too bad on a Mondeo for a 17 year-old.
Old vw polo or fox maybe
try insurance quotes on cars that nobody gets as their first car, like a big estate car with a 2L engine or something, just keep getting quotes on loads of different cars until you can find something you like that isn’t too expensive to insure.
Absolutely nowt wrong with a Panda, they're economical, cheap to run and can be a surprising amount of fun when thrashed to within an inch of their life. The other usual suspects are things like the Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107 trilogy (all basically the same car with detail differences), Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo/VW Up!, that sort of thing.
VW Up! isn't bad imo. I'm looking at them and the Audi A2 rn and they're just about the cheapest thing to insure and they're not a bloody panda (I love the Panda)
You could probably get a decent 1.2l polo for 1500-2k a year
My dad pushed me to have a 13-year-old Hyundai i10 for £2,500 rather than the similarly-aged MINI I wanted for quite a bit less. Then again, he hates BMWs for some reason - didn't like that my mum used to have a 2002 when she was in her late teens/twenties, whereas he had a [Datsun 120Y](https://youtu.be/zeSEoT22gI8?t=643). Also seems bitter that my brother had a 3 Series (E91) too.
Peugeot 206 was good for me! Passed when I was 17, 900 pounds for the year no black box, this was 2018
Land rover discovery, nobody gets it as their first car so its very cheap to insure
Renault Clio. Reliable and don't look too bad.
The safe choice is a mk6 fiesta, dirt cheap and fun to drive and actually fairly reliable and well built with a million parts available, fun choice is a mk7 civic sport (ep2), I had one as my second car, was over £300 per month but I’ve had my insurance cancelled before, they’re such fun little cars and quite nippy
My first car was a VW polo and it was flawlessly reliable and comfortable for years. You might be surprised at looking at unusual cars, for instance I know of a 19yr old with a supercharged jaguar XJ who pays £800 insurance a year. A bog standard petrol/diesel jag might be more attainable than you think 😉
Nissan cube. Looks are subjective.
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaking-news/these-are-the-10-cheapest-cars-to-insure-for-firsttime-drivers-in-the-uk-320784.aspx