First Car

[Mumtooneboy]

Son is 16 and planning his first car. He has his heart set on a Triumph Spitfire, to do it up for when he hopefully passes his test in the Autumn.
Of course, I would rather he had a modern car with airbags, ABS, MoT requirement etc etc. The flip side is, though, that a Spitfire will not be capable of the speed of a more up to date car, and with only one passenger seat, maybe less potentially drunk unruly passengers.
What would you do? I realise I cannot do him up in bubble wrap but dread to think what happens to a Spitfire when it's rolled.

Will he be able to get it insured? if I was you I would do a quotation first before he invests money and time . What is he going to do with only one seat if he gets a girlfriend ? 😂

I think the insurance would be eye watering on that.

Personally, and my Ds1 is almost 17, it would have to be a 5 star Encap car, with airbags. Minimum. He is looking to learn with an instructor and then drive mine for practise but my car is worth less than £4.5k and is a very economical no power whatsoever car and the insurance for him on mine increased it by £300 per year. That is as an additional driver not as the main driver.

All the modern day technology that goes into making a car safe is a must for me.

Have a look online at the car he wants, put an insurance quote through for it.

I would get him to find out the insurance cost for him as a new driver. Often people make the mistake of getting quotes for the provisional license but the cost shoots it once the go to take out the insurance on a full license.

Can he afford to insure this?

Shoots up

I had a triumph spitfire as a first car when I was 18, but I'm 53 now!! It was very fast and very cool but I guess it would cost £1000's to insure for a youngster now. At the same time someone I knew at school had an MG open top rolled it and was killed aged 17. Certainly not the safest or easiest option ... I didn't think you could even get one anymore. Mine went to the big car park in the sky decades ago.