Need to buy a car for 17 year old DD - no idea what I should be looking for?!

[FoamyBanana]

My DD is about to turn 17 and we are buying a 2nd car which will be owned by us, but that she will be able to use. We are looking to spend between 2 and 3k but want something that will be as cheap as possible to insure and tax. Has anybody done this for their DC recently that can offer any advice? Any particular things to look out for? What is the cheapest option in terms of road tax etc? And is it better to add them to your insurance or for them to have their own? I realise the insurance is likely to be extortionate so want to make sure I'm minimising the costs with choice of car etc! Thank you!

Look at the insurance groups for cheapest cars to insure.
We named dd as a learner driver with dh as main driver & policy holder. It took her a year to pass. We then put her as main driver but dh still policy holder. This gave dd 2 years ncd for her next car which she bought & insured herself.
Also check car tax rates. Small cars with stop/start option can be £20 per year, as opposed to £150+.

DD has a little Toyota Aygo and pays no tax. She has her own insurance with box and DH is added as a driver.

Lovely little car.

We've just bought DS his first car. Our choices were limited as he's 6'4, so had to go with a bigger car than we would have liked to. But whilst we were looking Ford fiestas came up well. They are not too expensive to buy, tax is around £20/30 per year and insurance is reasonable. We did as the pp did and got the insurance in his name so he can accrue the NCD for when he's passed his test and is paying himself. It's much cheaper before they pass, DS is £35 per month on his Ford Focus. With me and my Dad on as named drivers (Dad/Grandad is teaching him). We did quote at the same time before buying, imagining he had just passed at it goes up to £80 per month then, which I was still quite impressed with. A fiesta would be less than that. Interestingly I had to remove my Dad when he passes to get that lower rate, so something to watch out for after she passes. Not sure if it's his age or more people on the policy!

The ones with £0-30 per year tax were before April 2017, but that's what you'll be looking at with the amount you're spending anyway.

Sadly used car prices are high at the moment, but you might be able to get one of Skoda Citigo/VW Up or Seat Mio (all the same car) or the Toyota Aygo, or Peugeot 107(?) or another one (maybe a Citroen) that again are all the same car. All these are good cars and as cheap as you'll get for running costs.

Or maybe something like a Ford Fiesta, because there's a lot of them about at the right age/price.

I’d get her a smart car, you could pick up a nice one for that sort of money. And they are sooo easy to park :-)

Both DC started with a Peugeot 107 , DS still has his after recently passing . Only £20 road tax . Don't go for anything over a 1.2L or anything that's been modified it adds to the insurance. Both children insured in there own name ,learners insurance is reasonable, with me and DH as named drivers . Make sure you declare the correct main driver to avoid "fronting"

Thank you all so much!!! This is exactly the info I needed so I'm very grateful for the responses. I had assumed it would be cheaper to add her on our insurance and hadn't thought about her accruing NCD etc.
I am off for a browse on Autotrader this afternoon and at least I can now filter by a few different makes/models.

Just the fear of letting her actually drive the thing now!

We bought a Peugeot 107 recently, low mileage, fabulous little car, pretty basic, but very economical. Apparently the 2nd hand car market has gone bonkers recently, hope you find a bargain.

You may already know this OP (I didn't) but when you find a car you are interested in, you can go on the gov.uk website and see the MOT history for the car. We ruled out quite a few that had repeated advisory's. It really helped us making a decision.

When looking for insurance one company quoted on a policy that didn't increase once they passed . It was one of the more expensive, also a bit of a gamble how long it takes to pass . DS paid around £300 learners then 1100 once he passed (9 months and four tests latter )

@afromom also have a v tall DS - how are you/is he finding the Focus?

Also quite interested in a hybrid but need to get one to fit.

The focus is a good fit for him, he's not just tall but all leg too! He fits absolutely fine. There's not much room in the back behind him, but to be honest the less friends he can drive around currently the better!
The fiesta was just about ok, but not comfortable and any others that size were just a bit ridiculous. His friend of similar height had a corsa and looked so uncomfortable in it.
I was really surprised how low the insurance was to be honest as it's a 1.6 engine. But it's really reasonable. Around £10 per month more than the fiesta though.

We bought a VW Polo for our kids to learn in. It wasn’t expensive to insure really and we knew they’re safe and reliable.

@riverpebbles DS2 is 6’5 he has a VW Polo. He lives in a city so didn’t want a big car. He, also, drives DDILs Audi A1. We’ve still got the Polo we bought and DH (6’4) drives it to work a couple of times a week.

DS just bought a Kia Picanto. Low insurance and low tax. We also checked out that website mentioned for the advisories.

We were advised my our relative to look at Suzuki Alto and Toyota Yaris (he said he has found there are lots of problems with many of the older Aygos). The Yaris insurance is a fair bit higher. Also Hyundai i10 is a good one.

@thefairycaravan we didn't try any VW Polo's, couldn't find any locally within the price, so they may be fine for taller lads. I loved mine that I had a few years ago. Solid cars!

We just got our dd a Ford ka. Cheaper than a fiesta and 20 pound a year to tax. We managed to get one with under 50k miles for nearly 3 grand. She wanted to insure it herself to build up her own no claims bonus