Car for new driver?

[Grandadwasthatyou]

17 year old dd embarking on driving lessons and is seriously saving towards a car. I really don't know how to help her researching the best way forward to getting a little car. Should she get a cheap little run around ( which could possibly go wrong) or go for a pcp scheme? Would I have to apply for the pcp assuming she would be too young?
Also insurance, how can she work out what a ball park figure may be for insurance as you normally need a car registration in the first place?

Does anyone know of any pcp offers at the moment which would cover the insurance as well for a starter driver?

Sorry, no experience of PCP (always buy old cars outright), but bear in mind that the more expensive the car, the dearer the insurance - so you end up having to pay extra twice over. Personally, I'd go for a runaround, but not a really cheap one, if you're able. If you pay £2-£3K, you're likely to be able to get something decent, but once you're heading down towards (or sub) £1K, that's when lemon-hood frequently kicks in - you may get lucky, but you may not.

To get an idea of what car insurance premiums you may be looking at, have a look on Autotrader/eBay or wherever, find the closest match to models you're considering (same engine size, power, age etc) that you can (that have a photo showing the number plate); then go to GoCompare or CompareThe Market and go to 'get a quote'. It's all automated and the quotes appear on screen at the end - you don't have to 'make contact' as it were or speak to anybody.

Put a line of zeroes for your phone number; you don't even have to give the exact info at this stage if you're concerned. Feel free to amend her name, house number, date of birth by a few days if you prefer - it's only a general quote-finding exercise at this stage. Just don't change anything significant, otherwise your result could vastly differ! Pay attention to the 'occupation' field - obviously, don't lie, but try different options from the drop-down menu that could legitimately apply to her situation, as this can heavily skew it. e.g. don't put unemployed if she's not actively seeking work just yet; we also found that certain descriptions can trigger panic when wording the same thing slightly differently (e.g. 'Research scientist' can give them the vapours that you might possibly work in a vivisectionist facility and thus could become a target for violent/dangerous animal rights activists - when you might 'just' work in an NHS hospital lab).

Once you have a registration number of a comparable car that you're considering, just use that and it will ask you 'date you bought it' OR 'not yet bought'/'considering purchasing'. Obviously tick the second one. You're doing nothing at all untoward or unusual by researching how much the insurance element of a car would cost you, were you to buy it, any more than you are by looking online for actual purchase prices in the first place.

that the more expensive the car, the dearer the insurance this is not always the case. I went from a 9 year old car to a brand new car and my insurance went down. Then I queried this I was informed that being a new car spare parts were more readily available and also most people tend to drive more carefully in a new car.

In terms of looking for a car, keep the engine size below a 1.4, the bigger the engine the more potential for too much power for an inexperienced driver to control. Age wise, don't go too old as the price starts going up due to replacement parts being too hard to come by so they know they'll write it off instead. Anything within 10 years is still good to get parts for. Don't go for the typical 'teenage trendy car' as company statistics for them mean prices are hiked to cover the claims that come in for them. When getting quotes, flip between comprehensive and third party, fire, theft as often now comp is cheaper. Reason being is that (statistically) those who have comp are careful and want to protect their car more. Those who go for tpft (statically) have old bangers and don't care if they ding it even more. When choosing annual mileage, go too low and the price is high (statistics again), so play about with the number to get the optimum number. Give 'Insure the box' a try for quotes, they're quite good for young drivers starting out!

that the more expensive the car, the dearer the insurance

this is not always the case. I went from a 9 year old car to a brand new car and my insurance went down. Then I queried this I was informed that being a new car spare parts were more readily available and also most people tend to drive more carefully in a new car.

Ooh, that's interesting to hear. I suppose the world of insurance and assessed risk is one massive melting pot of seeming contradictions! I'm sure it's all backed up with statistical data, but I wonder how far they take that? If somebody who happened to be called Alan was responsible for a multi-car motorway pile-up and resulting colossal payout for the insurance company, would they charge an entirely unrelated Alan more than his twin brother Kevin who lived next door, did the same job, passed his test on the same day and had an identical car?!