First car

username5228768

What’s a good first car that reasonably inexpensive, cheap insurance and can handle frequent journeys on the motorway?

P45.

Ferrari

When I was looking for a cheap car, I always checked insurance before buying.
A lot of my friends didn't and they weren't very happy they were paying through the roof for insurance.
I was looking a cars ~£800 - £1000, but by paying up an extra £100 here or there on the car could reduce the insurance by more than that.

In general for low insurance
Small engine, small car.
Also look at ways to get insurance cheaper (without fronting).
The easiest way to do this is add as many people you know (in reason) who are experienced to the policy.
I added my parants and my sister to my first one, which brought the insurance down by ~£500

The cheapest insurance cars are usually more obscure cars or what would be considered "old people" cars. I had a 05 Picanto as my first. Car cost £800, insurance was about the same for the year.

In general, Corsas and Fiat 500s which you see everyday can be "reasonable" for insurance, but because the only people who really own them are <25, then that will mean the premiums will be higher.

For cheap cars, just go on gumtree and use the filters to put in your requirements and budget and just see what comes up.
Really depends on what you mean by reasonably inexpensive though.
Rule of thumb though is insurance on cheap cars will be roughly the same price as the car itself. If not more.

Reply 4

username3518358

Get something small, with as small an engine as you can tolerate! I’ve been looking around as well but anything with even like a 1.2 or 1.4 engine is crazy to insure. Go 1.0 for a bit I would say... Japanese cars are always reliable from what I hear although they are not the best looking!

Reply 5

rae52

My C1 was a solid little car, did plenty of motorway driving in it with no issues other than it being hella noisy and the mpg is fantastic. My first year of insurance was a lot but dropped by over half after a year when I switched insurers. Definitely use the comparison websites and check a few which don't show on there like direct line.

Definitely have a look at the price of insurance for different cars, when my C1 got written off I nearly bought a 208 before realising the insurance was ~£500 more than the Yaris I ended up buying instead. As far as I can see the main difference was that the Yaris is an old person car which brings the premium down whereas lots of younger people choose the 208.