1st car for teen - help steer me thru this journey

[ServeBacon]

See what I did there

Teen DD turns 17 next month and thus so will start her driving lesson journey if we can find an instructor will free slots

And so we will need to look for her first car - where to start? We really havent a clue apart from fairly tight budget for the car itself. Teen DD has saved around £3.5k towards a car and we are happy to help towards insurance - I'm guessing insurance will probably match this in her first year? Am I right ? Currently guessing wildly - asking Mumsnetters for their experiences please.

TIA

I had a mini as a first car, absolutely loved it. Insurance was about £800 or so (no black box) but insurance is such a variable thing...
It considers where you live, where its parked during the day, where it is at night, if it's social or if its social/domestic/commuting ect..There's so many factors that can affect it.

For example when we moved a few years ago my insurance went up by £100... We were no more than a five minute walk from our old house, start of the postcode was the same and all other factors (me as main driver, parent as second, kept on the road were all the same) but it was enough to push the insurance up

[quote ServeBacon]@littleowls83 - thankyou for your consideration - she'll have her car once she's around half way thru her lessons so we can take her out to get loads of practice in ahead of her test. We have thought this through .

I think we are well placed to know when she needs her first car and the practicalities of having it, whether or not she pursues university or other avenues after college.[/quote]
We are doing the same.

Dd has passed her theory and had about 6-8 lessons. Test is booked for later in the year.

She can’t practice with us as our cars are too big so we need a smaller run around.

It will fit on our drive and will be used for dd2 to learn in too in a couple of years

Nissan Note petrol 50mpg an excellent car

My DC didn’t/don’t have a car to practise in. They have to rely on driving lessons with an instructor only. I do think it’s a bit of a disadvantage.

Very helpful thread, DS has a car going to look into admiral for his insurance.

My first car was an Skoda Estate. Loved it, and it was cheap to run, insure and pretty problem free.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking a first car has to be small!