good car for 17 year old new driver

[digdilem]

http://www.fancyacar.co.uk/car-insurance/cheapest-cars-to-insure/

Spares costs factor heavily on insurance costs, and jap stuff is expensive that way.

That said, so many cars are designed to practically explode at the first decent ding to protect the occupants it's ridiculously easy to write them off as uneconomic to repair, especially when airbags are concerned. (Wife's Rav4 had a low speed ding a few months ago, deployed both airbags and the passenger one smashed the windscreen - great!)

This has a huge impact on the insurance costs.

First car choice should (IMO) be a very small and underpowered banger. Don't waste money on a good car for an inexperienced driver.

 

[CWESPARK]

As stupid as this may sound when I passed my test 5 years ago I bought a classic car.
1972 Ford Cortina Mk3, pimped it out with big wheels and a decent sound system, it cost me only £500 to insure!

Taught me everything i needed to know about cars. Did p**s poor fuel economy though.

That's the spirit, my first at 17 was a '75 3 litre Granada Ghia, quickly followed by a '78 V8 SD1, and then a '78 Chevy Camaro.

My current car is a '75 AMC Pacer X.

CW.

 

[nickso]

i have wanted a mk1 granny for a long time. hard to come by in reasonable condition now though.

 

[thatbloke]

A series three soft top land rover , or a series two. around 28 mpg, no curb appeal , built like tanks and should be cheap enough to insure.
I am insured with Adrian Flux who are about the best insurers if you plan to use it off road.

 

[alfajon]

A classic car, something like a Trumph Dolomite, reasonable economy, insurance will be cheap, lots of room, or how about a Spitfire, not much room or security for tools, but open top motoring in this weather!. You could go for a MK1 Golf on classic insurance. If you do go for a classic, you can learn the basics of car maintenance and parts are normally readily available, however ensure you check engine oil levels regularly as they are not as forgiving as modern cars.