First car for 17 year old son

[Feyra25]

Any tips for buying a first car. My son recently passed his test so.is keen to get a car. I'm a single mum who doesn't know a great deal about cars and hasn't got anyone I can call on to help us. Have found a couple of cars one private one at a used car dealership. Obviously trying to get a decent deal for him. It's stressing me out .

Definitely one with a smaller engine, like a 1.0 litre. It makes a massive difference in their insurance. DS bought a mini which is 1.6L and it's been very expensive to insure.
Nephews both have 1L VW Golfs.

What is your budget?

Things to look for:
Small engine - 1.0 litre or less
Low mileage - less than 10,000 miles pa since registration ideally
One or two previous owners
Full service history, ideally at a main dealer ie Ford/Vauxhall/Toyota etc
Look at the MOT history - you can check online on the gov.uk website - see if it’s failed any MOTs or what advisories it’s had. A clean MOT history suggests it’s been looked after whereas failures and advisories suggests it hasn’t.

When you’re looking at a car, look at its general condition, if it looks clean and tidy inside and the bodywork doesn’t have dents or scratches. Ask to see the service book and see if the car has been serviced regularly.

if you’re buying from a private seller, you can get an inspection done by the AA or RAC which costs about £100 and gives peace of mind re the condition of the car.

Don’t let a sales person pressurise you. Take your time and when you’ve found a car ask if you can test drive it.

Dealers have to offer a 3 month warranty on cars they sell, a warranty that you have to pay for in addition is generally not worth having. The car must be roadworthy and they can’t sell a car with known faults.

What's your budget?

Some suggestions would be a toyota aygo or yaris for reliability. Also consider a hyundai i10, vw up, skoda Fabia.

I'd advise against a corsa, polo, golf or Leon as they're likely to be higher insurance and are popular with young males generally.

Dealers have to offer a 3 month warranty on cars they sell, a warranty that you have to pay for in addition is generally not worth having. The car must be roadworthy and they can’t sell a car with known faults.

No they don’t. You’re covered by CRA 2015 but a dealer doesn’t have to offer a warranty of any kind.

Check the insurance costs before you choose. The insurance will cost more than the car.
Get a black box fitted for both your own peace of mind and to reduce insurance costs.

On autotrader there is info on the insurance group, tax and fuel economy. You can also use insurance group checking sites - money saving expert has one. The same type of car may have slightly different models which are under different insurance groups. An older car with low ish mileage is often better than a newer car with high mileage. Long MOT date is good, as is a decent service history and not too many owners. Imo you can’t beat the Citroen C1/Peugeot106/Toyota Aygo type car as a first car. They are relatively cheap to insure, cheap and easy to repair etc as they are so common, easy to park and decent enough on the motorway as well as being good in towns. They are cheaper than other small cars such as Yaris, Fiat 500, Corsa or Polo.

Cheapest 10 cars to insure for new drivers 2025 | RAC Drive

Thank you all for your comments much appreciated and helped

Ds got a Citroën C1. Think it's about a 1L engine