First car for young dd

[rocky1705]

Looking for an automatic small town economical car for my dd who only just passed her test. Reliable, cheap to insure, cheap to run, cheap to repair, safe obviously.

Not sure about electric cars just yet.

Advice please.

We are giving DS our old Ford focus, cars are so much bigger these days we think something more this size would be better for learning and confidence, and honestly smaller cars make me nervous now with the monstrosities on the roads these days!

My son and all of his friends have had VW Polo's- great cars.

Try Hastings for insurance with their black box and despite the astronomical cost get insurance in their name to start building up no claims.

I’m going out on a limb to say the OP would care about safety more than cost to insure etc. it would be weird if they didn’t.

Less powerful doesn’t necessarily mean less likely to be involved in an accident - they may need to the speed to get out of the way. They only want they would be more likely if they were driving poorly which can be done in any engine.

Not only when compared to an SUV… there are many SUVs that have a low safety rating and don’t fare well against smaller high rating cars. I wouldn’t let DD drive anything less than 5star but I also wouldn’t want her in a tiny thing.

A MINI One shares its running gear with other MINIs. Suggesting that a One should be avoided because of overheating is complete nonsense.

I wasn't the one saying that, I just clarified that Mini One was a type of mini.

I just know that generally Minis have very high reliability and safety ratings.

Older 4 and 5 star ratings from a few years ago, would be a 3 or 4 now.

So unless buying new, you re not getting 5 star, which wont be cheap to insure, buy or repair.

The best thing anyone can do for their adult child, concerned about safety, is get them on an advanced driver training course.

Lovely to read everyone’s comments and thanks for taking your time to respond.

We are planning to get a nearly new used car may even be an exdisplay. Just from our own experiences once a car reached more than 7/10 years old we started spending increasing money on repairs and replacement parts. Safety is the most important obviously.
DD s friend got a cheap and cheerful sweet little Ford KA which was bought for her by her parents without her own involvement. Anyway dds friend has been spending many hundreds of pounds on repairs every so often. I think that’s just false economy. I rather spend more money on a newer car earlier to save the hustles and stresses.

For right now I would let her share my Clio until we have found one for her.

Also she doesn’t want one that is girly looking. There are still alot of annoying boys/men have ridiculous road rages or try to take advantages of (especially young) women drivers. Ikr most men re not aware of this problem.🙄

Make sure you check the insurance before you buy. Some cars have much higher insurance due to being “cool” for boy racers eg Fiesta. You want something “uncool” to keep the insurance down.

Fiat 500. They look cool and have super cheap insurance as associated with female drivers and they can no longer make boys insurance higher

We bought a 2nd hand Hyundai i10 for dd and I share it with her now, when my car gave up. Ds will also learn to drive in it. It’s really easy to drive and park. Ours was still in warranty when we bought it.

I think this means “Buy a Mini, but don’t buy a Mini One….”.

Mini One is a model in the Mini Range.

Hyundai i10 or i20 is on the top of our list atm. We will visit a few more shops as dd finds it fun to look at cars and talk to the sales people to compare cars.

Yes, “cool” is not that important. We just want something subtle and reliable. It s more likely we will share cars. It may just depends on who’s car is at the end of the driveway. Last in first out policy on our driveway.

Make sure you check the safety rating, I'm not sure these are very high.

Picanto, aygo, yaris, up, citreon c1

@BewareoftheLambs yes will do thanks.

it s not as easy as it seems though as it does depend on which articles you read. The same cars can get anything from 3 to 5 stars depending on the various reports.

If new/nearly new then Aygo or Hyundai i10 or Dacia (Dacia is the low-cost Renault!). You need something in a low insurance group otherwise the insurance costs will be insane for the first few years. Lots of older options too including citroen c1/2/3, peugeot 106, Fiesta, Nissan Micra.

Plenty of online options for research, i.e. top 10 "safest" cars, or top 10 "reliable" cars, and lists of the cheapest for insurance, etc.

A big yes to getting them to do the advanced motorists training/test. The standard driving test is only a test of basic competence, it doesn't make you a good/safe driver. Advanced driving does a lot more on risk and observation so helps protect yourself against all the other idiots. The advanced driving methods also reduce wear and tear on the vehicle so likely to reduce risk of breakdown and expensive repairs in the long term.

Yes that's true, I'd say you mostly want to pay attention to the NCAP ratings for safety.

Indeed, but the post was nonsense.

Clio 1.2? 5 door?
Cheap as chips
We went with marmalade for learner insurance and then Hastings once passed. With a black box. Now on second year with Hastings, no black box and premium reduced by about 60%

Ok but then the same fits. Don’t get an old 3 if it means it’s a 2 now. I’ve not heard of this but either way, just get the safest standard you can.

I agree that everyone should have advanced driver training but as I do 25k business miles alone a year, I can confirm that other people are the problem. I just had a crash where I was a sitting duck. No amount of driver training could have helped but my safe car, did. I’ve also had a few near misses of oncoming cars losing control, randomly on the wrong side of the road towards me and not noticing I’m at the back of the traffic jam. That’s the last month alone.

The only relevant safety report is the ncap safety. I’d always suggest Volvo for safety. Maybe the Volvo hatch would be good. They’re quite old now.

My dd always wants a mini but I m not sure.

DH has a VW Up and I hate it. It just doesn't feel safe for anything other than running around town. It was MIL's car and she gave him it after FIL had to give up driving as she also had a Fiesta. There's no way I would have let him buy it and I am desperate for him to replace it. MIL suggested at one point that one of our DDs might take it from him but I made it clear that that wouldn't be happening (it's manual and DD2 is learning automatic so she couldn't). If my car was off the road and I needed to get into the office I would spend 2 hours each way on public transport rather than use the Up.