Cars which are cheap to insure new drivers in?

[Helpagirlout222]

I know NOTHING about cars and drive an old inherited banger. It's going to be lucky to pass it's next MOT, and at the same time i have DC about to learn to drive.
As much as it pains me I think I'm going to have to buy something which will be mainly my car, but they'll need to be insured on.
Reckon I could stretch to c£8k.
I need to narrow my search a bit; could anyone in very simplistic terms give me an idea of what is important to bear in mind? Is is engine size, or age of car that insurers will look at for example? Are there any makes in particular that are good to look at?

My ds got a Citroën C1. It's about a 1L engine

Look at a chart of insurance groups. Makes and models of cars are put into these groups. Groups go from 1-50. The car my kids drive is in group 1: see link for list of group 1 cars

Car Insurance Group 1 | MoneySuperMarket

Oh this is really useful thank you.

Does the age of the car have any bearing on insurance costs?

I agree with. c1.

How expensive a car is affects the insurance. It's worth.

There bound to be something on this on Martin Lewis' website.

Maybe, because age affects value. Value, engine size and horsepower willl all be relevant. Insurance Group guidance will help you. We found a Toyota Aygo was a good first car for our teens when they first learnt to drive.

Aaah right! Thank you. Suits me not to spend too much!

Oh thank you yes I don't know why I didn't think of that. Very out of my comfort/knowledge zone!

Suzuki Alto
Hyundai i10
Citreon C1

Small engine seems to be the key factor in keeping insurance cost down

It's really going to be my car, so I want something I feel comfortable in too, but definitely can't afford 2!

We bought a 1l ecoboost fiesta about 3 years old for my son. Went on happily for 6 years with us - passed onto his girlfriend when she was taking her test. It was one of the cheapest vehicles to insure,

What I did was decide on a type of car and then I looked on Autotrader using the filters.

I wanted
Under 50 thousand miles
Less than four owners
Not grey or black (harder to see)
Not a private seller
Full service record

After a few weeks you get to understand things a bit more and know if something looks like a good deal. You start thinking 'only a partial service record but two owners'. Whereas before I started I was 'red=good'.

Also be aware of insurance. We have an 11 yr old Citroen C3 for our DD to learn in. The car and us are insured on it through our normal car insurance. DD is insured as a learner with Adrian Flux and costs about 85p a day fully comp. However, once she's passed we are expecting it to go up to in the region of £1,800 a £2,000 a year.

Thank you, I am not even at the red=good stage yet, so that is really helpful.

I keep hearing horror stories as their friends pass, about horrific insurance costs. It's a very expensive age!

I would look on autotrader, that will give you the insurance bracket and road tax. Both of these can vary hugely, even on small cars.
I would want to buy from a dealership that offers a warranty, and also look at the reviews.
You can look at a cars MOT history for free online.

We have a Toyota Aygo as a second family car, dh or I use it on a day to day basis, dd uses it maybe twice a week to go to work or her friends , ds uses it approx the same to go and do a hobby he has.

so we are all insured on it, and its not that expensive to insure us all on it .

Both DCs had their own used VW Polo's whilst learning to drive and after passing their tests carried on driving them for several years.

DS has a Skoda Citigo...it's 1l so is cheap to insure (under £1k with a black box). Even though it's 10 years old it's reliable and nippy, tax is only £20 and it's exempt from congestion charging in most cities.

They look very nice wee cars @Gumbo ! My only issue is whatever i buy is essentially the family car too, and a lot of these feel really small. I don't think I can have it all though, if I go bigger so does the cost!

You can probably get a bigger car, just not a "hot hatch"
So potentially Vauxhall Astra type size shouldn't be too expensive. DS friend has a Renault Laguna, decent size car, not too high on insurance.

No, definitely not a family car! Fab for teens though 😁

Ford fiesta. Get a 2016+ though.

C1 Aygo and 107 - all the same car, made as a collaboration between the companies. Apparently cheap to fix if problems arise.
Likewise VW UP, Skoda Citigo.
Also Hyundai i10.
1 litre engines.

All the above are on the lowest insurance bracket - give or take, £1000 a year.
Also zero or £20 road tax.

My tick list for ours was....

• reasonable miles (under 70k)
• good mpg (all the above cars so 60+ mpg)
• lowest insurance
• long mot

For any car you consider, check the insurance costs by putting the details in money supermarket.com.
Also check mot history using the 'vehicle smart' app.

We ended up with a 1.3l fiesta as something with a bit more space was needed. It was probably 7/10 on each of my criteria above. Insurance wasn't actually much higher (maybe 1200?).