First cars!

[CultraSloan]

What did everyone do re: their teenager’s first car? DD passed her driving test a few months ago and is currently sharing my car but really this isn’t sustainable in the long term and she does need her own. Ideally I want something relatively new and good quality that will last her through uni and hopefully beyond. I will be financing it and she will be paying the deposit + insurance and any maintenance. Any suggestions/experience? She is desperate for a Mini but I’m put off by rumours of unreliability and hefty BMW prices for parts

I certainly wouldn’t have a Mini as a first car. They look good, true, but they’re a hard ride and expensive to maintain. My experience was generally that the customer service in the garage was excellent, but pricy. Parts are expensive as well.

I’d look at Japanese like Toyota, Mazda or Hyundai. Or Skoda. They have a range of small to medium cars and are thought to be reliable. Vauxhall, Renault, Peugeot and Citroen perhaps not so much. The insurance will be the big thing too.

Does she have any clue about how expensive it is to maintain a car?

A set of tyres will cost at least £500. Disks and pads will be £700. Fuel, repairs. If it's out of warranty and has LED headlights, she had better hope she never cracks a lense or has a LED burn out, she will be looking at £1000 pounds minimum for a new unit. if she can afford to maintain a car then surely she would be better off getting an all inclusive lease deal or a PCP.

I think there are cheaper, or certainly more cost effective way of getting her behind the wheel.

Can’t find any lease deals on cars that would suit her but PCP is a strong contender, plus at the dealership we’ve mainly been looking at they come with a year’s warranty which does comfort me. By getting a newer car instead of a run around I’m hoping to save on maintenance costs for her

After a lot of research we got DD a Hyundai i10.
It’s a great little car and although insurance is expensive, it was one of the better options!
It’s easy to drive and park etc and she loves it.
I agree that minis can be trickier to drive, and you are a bit lower down, maybe not the best first car but I suppose you get used to whatever you get!

I had a mini (in my 30s!) and I was fab, reliable, but costly parts.

DS isn't quite old enough to drive, but it's in the horizon. A lot of teens round better we know seem to have Toyota Aygos.

The tiny Toyota or Ford Ka. Check insurance prices as they vary massively.

We went for a VW Polo for DS. A used one from a VW dealer and it came with a warranty. It’s still going strong 6 years later with no issues.

I agree that a polo is a great, reliable option but unfortunately not for us despite me doing all the convincing in the world. My car that we’re currently sharing is a very similar build to a polo (Audi A1) and she’s really not a fan - finds it very uncomfortable, sadly!!

@CultraSloan that’s a shame. She should try sitting in one though. She may change her mind. And I’d say if she finds your Audi uncomfortable she will struggle with a Mini!

It’s more the seats of the Audi, she has a spinal condition so sensitive to that sort of thing and felt the same way when we test drove a polo. She thought that the Mini was much more supportive for her, no pain etc so we could end up with one yet..

@CultraSloan ah I get that. Well hopefully she will find something that suits.

Don't get a mini

They're utter shit 💩

DS had a vw Lupo to learn in and as a first car, that was pretty shit too tbh 😂 constantly needed work. we have just sold it

I'm place marking as I want to get him something else for his 18th birthday which is not too far off

I don't know what type of car you drive but I have never paid £500 for a set of tyres - all 4 tyres rarely need replacing at the same time anyway. Similar for brake discs and pads. In 30 year of driving I have never paid for a new LED headlight either although I appreciate that these were not around 30 years ago.

Car ownership isn't cheap but I think some of the costs that you have quoted are way out for a young person with their first car!

4 tyres on a small car will probably be more like £300. But insurance is the most important factor with young drivers.

If you're wanting to minimise the cost, the Toyota Aygo (there's a Citroen and a Peugeot that's the same car) or the Skoda Citigo/VW or Seat version are probably the cheapest to insure.

If you get an older one, you'll save at least £150 per year on tax as before 2017 it will be about £20, after that it's close to £200.

Thanks for this - I was amazed at how much the prices of the Aygos have gone up!! £23k for a second hand one 😵‍💫 It’s a minefield..

Look for the lowest insurance groups and put the exact car registration into insurance comparison sites. Sometimes a generally low insurance group car comes up mega expensive to insure because it’s a special edition.

Before you spend a fortune, check if she will definitely be able to take a car to university. Many don’t have much parking so students in halls aren’t permitted to take their own cars.

15 year old small engine ford Fiesta bough from an area with lots of "old lady" cars
I own it and tax and insure it.
Kids put up with my choice of tracker to control their driving

You obviously skimp on basic maintenance. Any decent new tyre will absutely cost a minimum of £100, and tyrse should always be replaced as a full set, otherwise grip and handling will be compromised.

Brake discs and pads must be cha ged in pairs, and if the fronts need changing, the rears will need to be done too, again, if you spend less than £100 a corner you are being very silly and chosing cheap parts over your (or someone elses) life.

NEVER mess around with cheap tyres or brakes, the few quid you save won't pay for your funeral.

I assume you mean a black box? Although if I am perfectly honest I don’t think that your kids should be on the road whatsoever if you feel the need to track them and ‘control their driving’

is this your first teenager to drive?? You may change your mind, teenagers are knobs on the whole when they get the rush of freedom that a car of their own brings.

lol, my first car was a mini - aged second-hand in about 1990. Never had any issues with it at all. How things change 😃

First and only teenager but if I did not feel that she was sensible or responsible enough to appropriately drive a car then she wouldn’t have access to mine or be getting her own full stop. If you feel the need to control your child’s driving then there is something very wrong.

DD will have a black box on her own car but only for the purpose of bringing insurance premiums down for the first year or two. Having a black box for insurance purposes vs having one because you feel that they need it/ will do something stupid without it are two very different scenarios.

She’s a careful driver and we live in a part of the UK where they’re limited to 45mph for the first year after passing her test, or else risk being disqualified. She couldn’t speed even if she wanted to

Any decent new tyre will absutely cost a minimum of £100

Absolute nonsense. Just did a 4 corners of a civic, 17 inch with Goodyear asym5’s, a decent tyre. £270 fitted from quick fit.

could have been easily sub £200 for 4 if I went for budget ditchfinders.

DS had DH's old Aygo - lucky for him DH was given a company car soon after DS passed his test, so the Aygo was available. We let him use it for free the first year, then, once he was working full time he bought it off us in installments and started to pay insurance. He's since traded up to a BMW.

DD1 shares my car at the moment (Yaris) but I am expecting to pass that on to her soon and, like her brother, we will give her a free year before she starts paying.

DD2 also uses my car, but is at university in a city where it's very difficult to keep a car (Brighton), so won't need her own for a while.

Bloody hell they saw you coming didn't they?

Remember we're talking about very small cars, so tyres at least cost less.

My garage does a perfectly good quality safe tyre for my Citigo for about £70 and if they're wearing I'll probably change a pair and they'll put them on the front and put the front ones on the back if they've still got decent life left in them.

Plus a lot of the time people have to replace tyres because they've got a nail in them so only one needs replacing.

A lot of the cost savings in car maintenance is from running a small car not a larger model from a prestige brand that screams 'I have more money than sense', finding a good local independent that won't rip you off vs paying main dealer prices, searching for deals from Black Circles or similar for tyres and even doing some of the work yourself (DP will often replace things like brake pads, change oil etc on older cars where a garage service history is unlikely to add to the resale value) not buying cheap unsafe parts.