Confused about insurance

Hi I'm 17 (18 in a week) and just passed my driving test. We have an old 1974 Land Rover Defender which I am planning on using as my first car but I don't understand any of this insurance stuff. Do you need comprehensive insurance or is only third party insurance necessary? Also what is a reasonable price to be paying as my mum has no idea as the prices are completely different nowadays. I had a look for a quote and it generally seems ~£5,000 but that seems an awful lot considering I doubt the car is even worth that much. It's a manual, diesel 2.5L if that helps. Thanks.

Well, first things first.. put basically third party cover is the most basic and covers you damaging other property and fully comp covers damage to your own vehicle. It varies between companies what extra perks you get for fully comp, so a bit of research there is always useful.

The rest of it is all then based off of risk. This post has a whole load of flags and it's not suprising to be quoted around £5k, if not more.

- Your age is the first flag. Having only just turned 18 and all that is associated with that age will ramp up the price from any insurer. There's not really a lot you can do about that unfortunately.
- Gender - whilst according to the EU, insurers have to be fair with their quotes, young males were (and probably still are) faced with higher premiums. Again, there's not a lot you can do but you can affect othr things..
-.. The car itself isn't particularly a typical 'first car.' The age of it isn't going to help, it's going to be generally considered to be less safe considering it's forty years old. The size of the engine is also a consideration. Typical first cars will be around 1.0-1.4L so that's another factor.
- It would be slightly cheaper if you're named on your mums policy, but then (very rightly) may not be happy about doing that.

In all honesty, there's a vast ocean of advice about car insurance out there. But the short of it is, think about the car you'll be using as that's what is costing so much.