Starter car for teenager

Pmansconst1

My daughter turns 18 this year. I would like to get her a good starter car that wouldnt cost a fortune to tax or insure. Any suggestions?

Peatys

Fiat 500

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/fiat/500/used-2008-fiat-500-1-4-16v-lounge-cork-fpa-1493180883272140170

Pmansconst1

!.4 might be high insurance?

colm_mcm

They come in 1.2 as well

Default choice would be something like a Toyota Yaris or Toyota Aygo 1.0

Depends on budget really.

Peatys

Pmansconst1 wrote: »

!.4 might be high insurance?

At 18, insurance will be high anyway

bazz26

What's your budget for the car otherwise you could get suggestions all night.

Lantus

Smallest possible car and engine.

Insurers would class Yaris, seat Mii, Skoda citigo etc as very low to insure cars. Ring up and get quotes on a variety of cars to get an idea.

Larbre34

A good option is previous model Fiesta 1.2. Its only 60hp and glacier slow but unlike some of the tinny ultra mini cars, its very solid and well rated for safety. In other words , i wouldnt put my kid in a tiny car as a beginner.

I did a dummy quote for you there on a 2012 Fiesta for 18 yo woman living where i live near Leixlip, on the Axa monitored SafeDrive scheme and it came out of €3,600 for the year

Shefwedfan

Nissan Leaf or Renault Zoe would be good option

Cheap fuel at home
Free fuel from public charger
Colleges have charge points
Grant to install Home charger
Cheap tax
Cheap insurance
Cheap servicing
Cheap tolls
Automatic which is huge plus

All are high spec and come with high safety

Resale value increasing due to increase in demand

Just an idea outside the normal petrol/diesel

selectamatic

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Automatic which is huge plus

Not for a learner driver unless of course they're going driving autos for the rest of their lives.

Which of course is quite possible but I'd certainly be of the opinion that learning and doing the test in a manual is the best course of action.

Shefwedfan

selectamatic wrote: »

Not for a learner driver unless of course they're going driving autos for the rest of their lives.

Which of course is quite possible but I'd certainly be of the opinion that learning and doing the test in a manual is the best course of action.

Unless you plan to drive trucks or tractors a manual is a waste of time these days...

Manual is so 80’s......

bazz26

There are still a large amount of manual cars driving around so limiting yourself to doing your test in an auto is just daft.

CiniO

In oppose to what many are suggesting, and what our laughable insurance industry seems to be pushing for young people, I would strongly encourage op against buying a small car for his/her daughter.

Young, inexperienced driver is more likely to be involved in accident, and you definitely not want your daughter to be in tiny sh1tbox deathtrap during such potential accident (like Aygo, Mii, citigo, etc).

Buy your daughter something large and safe.
You might need to swallow high insurance cost, but is buying tiny deathtrap worth the risk?

Lantus

CiniO wrote:

Buy your daughter something large and safe. You might need to swallow high insurance cost, but is buying tiny deathtrap worth the risk?

Putting the little snowflake in a big high powered car isn't necessarily safe. With a quote of 3600 for the fiesta, albeit notional most well paid employees would baulk at 300 a month to buy a car, nevermind the insurance. A few years in a small car are not the end of the world. Get the NCB and move on when costs allow.

colm_mcm

Larbre34 wrote: »

A good option is previous model Fiesta 1.2. Its only 60hp and glacier slow but unlike some of the tinny ultra mini cars, its very solid and well rated for safety. In other words , i wouldnt put my kid in a tiny car as a beginner.

I did a dummy quote for you there on a 2012 Fiesta for 18 yo woman living where i live near Leixlip, on the Axa monitored SafeDrive scheme and it came out of €3,600 for the year

Most cars in that class have great safety ratings to be fair and a lot will be rated on the much tougher 2009 NCAP which AFAIK the Fiesta wasn’t tested on.

Fiesta is a great choice by the way, but I wouldn’t be singling our safety as being anything special.