Small Car for Learner

[Super7]

My 17yo daughter has an Up, insurance last year (her car and her policy) £377 for 6kmiles fully comp, renews next month for £290.
It will go up if she passes her test next month, I guess about 50%

[kerryxeg]

My 17yo daughter has an Up, insurance last year (her car and her policy) £377 for 6kmiles fully comp, renews next month for £290.
It will go up if she passes her test next month, I guess about 50%

thanks, that is a really useful reference. who is the policy with?

[Super7]

Forgot to add, the Up is a superb car, really pleased with it, maybe not been around long enough to get down to £2k yet though.
The policy is with sabre who is also go girl. I used go compare and initially put a dummy name in but with the correct information and a birthdate which would correspond with being 17yo, and a made up email address, this stops all the spam with inevitably follows.

[David]

My two both learnt in a Yaris, and both passed first time. IIRC the insurance was with Liverpool Victoria (LV) and was around the £300 mark which doubled after they passed their test.

[Corranga]

On the small car front, don't forget the Fiat Panda

Insurance wise, cars are odd. Recently helped my brother in law get his first car. He's 24, but only just passed. We were looking at the usual suspects, his g/f is pregnant, so 4 seats and back doors were a must. Fiesta was 50% more to insure than a Grande Punto, 1.4 Citroen C4 even cheaper than that. Settled for a 2005 Honda Civic Executive 1.6. Heated leather seats, alloys, climate, 4 electric windows and cheaper to insure than a 1.2 Punto, AND without a telemetry device!

[kerryxeg]

I put various options through the insurance comparison last night, anything 1.0 - 1.2 4000miles with a couple of named drivers and the learner as policy holder gave £300 - £320. Some oddity on the make and value, in that a higher value fiesta 1.2 gave the lowest rate. I also checked out some odd choices, like Subaru Justy and some Asian look alikes, no difference what so ever.

So does putting the policy in the learners name actually help get a better deal when they pass their test ie is there insurance less than it would have been, or would it be just the same if it was in my name?

Given the learner policies are all approx. the same price, does that follow through when they have passed - all be it at a higher premium as they are now solo?

[Corranga]

I run various cars through for my brother-in-law.

So, 24 year old male, just passed, wasn't insured on a learned car.

Approx. prices from memory, all cars around the 1-2k mark, so age wise 2005/6/7..:
C4 1.4 - 777
Panda - 800
Punto Grande - 850
Fiesta - 1000
Focus / Mondeo / Alfa 147 - 1200
Jag S Type - 1600

Those were all from confused.com and were with telematics (or whatever) device fitted.

I ended up quoting directly with Admiral (who come out cheapest or nearly cheapest in all cases)
Civic EX = £760 with NO telematics box!

Moral - don't necessarily trust quote engine websites!!

[smoo25]

The C1/107/Aygo family could be worth considering? They're cheap as anything to run and have Toyota running gear.

My other half had one from new for a few years and it was a great car.

Only weak point I'm aware of is the clutch - as long as that's fine you should be all good.

I'd also consider a Picanto/i10. I bought a 95k mile Picanto for £950 a few years back as a temporary car for my mum. She loved it and nothing ever went wrong with it in the 3 years I ended up keeping it.

+1 for c1 I had one which my Dad then kept when I got a company car and is now used daily by my girlfriend. Great wee car, surprisingly fun to drive a cheap as piss to run