Suggestions for a small car for new teenage driver?

[Hades]

My daughter will be old enough to start driving soon. My son will be too in a few years. We currently have a few cars including Peugeot 206 diesel which I inherited last year and my wife and I use as a shed car which we can park anywhere. But the 206 is really on its last legs. So I am thinking of replacing it with something else which my wife and daughter would use and my son could in the future.

So I'm looking for:

Small. It won't need to fit the whole family
2 or 4 door
Manual
Petrol preferred
Cheap to service and maintain
Likely to be cheaper to insure for my daughter (I appreciate nothing will be cheap)
£3k to £5k

I'm open to suggestions. My daughter would love a Mini but when I was looking at them a few years ago they seemed a little unreliable and expensive to maintain, especially at this price point. Again I appreciate that not much at this price point will be guaranteed reliable.

Thank you.

 

[ShiWarrior]

Fiesta

hands down

 

[adam cool dude]

Fiat Panda 100HP is a cute little thing and the thinking mans Fiat 500. Also the Suzuki Swift Sport can be had pretty cheap. My daughter still has 4 years to go till she can drive but have been looking already

 

[Shadowness]

Clio

 

[Hades]

Thanks all. Any other ideas welcome. I must admit the Fiesta was the one which came to mind.

 

[Rroff]

Check around on the insurance - sometimes small cars aren't ideal because the insurance is crazy compared to something a little bigger - especially for younger people but it can be really hit and miss as well - sometimes very similar small cars can be oddly different to insure.

(Sometimes it is just odd - a GT-R would cost me 1/3rd the price to insure of a Honda Jazz! - I have no idea why)

 

[Robzere31]

Fabia, 1.2tsi

 

[On Holiday]

Vauxhall Corsa
Peugeot 108
Citreon C1
Toyota Aygo
Ford Ka

All under 25,000 Miles, less than 5 years old and under £5000.

 

[ShiWarrior]

Check around on the insurance - sometimes small cars aren't ideal because the insurance is crazy compared to something a little bigger - especially for younger people but it can be really hit and miss as well - sometimes very similar small cars can be oddly different to insure.

(Sometimes it is just odd - a GT-R would cost me 1/3rd the price to insure of a Honda Jazz! - I have no idea why)

this is true, it is because there are "less" of them, so "less" accidents on a GT-R (for example

i can get insurance on a Ferrari for LESS than a Fiesta !

 

[iamdjdz]

Depends on how interested in cars she is, I'd consider the following based on what she likes the look of:

Yaris
Corsa
Jazz
Fiat 500
Micra

 

[wedrum]

Fiesta all day

 

[ShivP]

Fiesta

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Fiesta, get the simple 1.2 engined one about 2010.

Great wee cars.

 

[~Dockie]

Personally I'd say avoid the likes of a fiesta and a corsa and go for an older focus or astra, reasoning being 80% of new young drivers tend to go for these and as such, insurance is usually extortionate. You'll get an older 1.8 focus really cheap, it wont be any faster than a modern fiesta, barely much bigger, respectable mpg (i got ~30 when i had one.) and the insurance could* be a lot cheaper.

*obviously do quotes before buying, but you could be surprised choosing a bigger engine focus over a smaller engine fiesta.

 

[ShivP]

Personally I'd say avoid the likes of a fiesta and a corsa and go for an older focus or astra, reasoning being 80% of new young drivers tend to go for these and as such, insurance is usually extortionate. You'll get an older 1.8 focus really cheap, it wont be any faster than a modern fiesta, barely much bigger, respectable mpg (i got ~30 when i had one.) and the insurance could* be a lot cheaper.

*obviously do quotes before buying, but you could be surprised choosing a bigger engine focus over a smaller engine fiesta.

From my experience, this cheaper insurance for less popular cars idea works in theory but not in practice

 

[~Dockie]

From my experience, this cheaper insurance for less popular cars idea works in theory but not in practice

Depends on the car i suppose, it worked for me. Going from a 1.8 Focus to an RX8 it came down by a third. The RX8 was newer and double the power, same NCB, no claims/convictions but how many do you actually see on the road.

Cant hurt to check atleast

 

[fastwunz]

Fiat uno turbo.

 

[inflames]

Focus? But if it has to be Fiesta size, I would add Yaris, polo, I think the C30 would be a call.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Renault Twingo 1.2tce

 

[Diddums]

Aygo for days. Cheap as chips to run, very low on the insurance scale too.