Does buying a brand new first car for a 17-year-old make sense?

[TheAzurePeer]

This came up in conversation with DH and I’m interested in others opinions.

A family we know, grandparents have bought their 17 year old grandson a brand new small car to learn to drive in.

DH was saying how ridiculous this is. I initially agreed but thinking about it I’m not so sure. Logic seems to be he’ll bash/scrape it so no point buying new. But why does it matter if you bash a new or old car? End result is the same no? And 17 year olds (boys in particular) do tend to crash so surely want them in the newest car possible (if finances allow) because newer cars are safer?

And the parents drive larger cars (SUV) so he couldn’t learn in their car cause of insurance. It’s not as if grandparents can’t afford to buy the car.

Am I missing something or does this seem to make sense?

Well it was in response to "I'd be surprised if they could afford insurance for a 17 year old in a brand new car", meaning if you can afford a brand new car then £ obviously isn't a big factor when getting your kid on the road. If it was, you'd be pretty daft to have spent the such a large proportion of the car fund on a brand new car.

Generally people consider all the costs for a new driver - the lessons, the car, the insurance, the services, the fuel, not just the cost of the car itself.

Not a brand new car definitely not, they’re likely to have a very scraps or knocks.

We don’t all need to have an opinion on everything 🤷‍♀️