Mini one as first car?

[Thrustyjust]

My daughter has a T reg Polo ( 7 years ago now nearly) , and was a bit of a dog, but I brought it back to health. It was a 1.4 and we paid £1100 for her to learn to drive in. Wife ( latest and best so far) taught her to drive in it, as jacked driving instruction by then. It went up to £1400 when she passed.  She used to drive it to Plymouth Uni which scared me , so we bought her a focus hatchback , as being a bit more structurally sensible for motorway miles. We found out that the 3 door was more expensive to insure than the 5 door. It was considered more sporty on 3 doors , for the same otherwise car . She is down to £350 a year now , but its a frightening cost for insurance. She could have a black box, as she worked early mornings in the local Next superstore and also as my driving is shocking, I would be sending the machine loopy , if I was behind the wheel 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

All those quotes are black box only. Cheapest non box policies are 1600+. He's actually a pretty sensible lad and happy to have one fitted. Unlike his older brother who point blank refused.

[TAFKARM]

For the love of god don’t buy a MINI - we had a cooper (still have it actually, sat with a multitude of faults and won’t move under  its own power)

one of the most unreliable cars I’ve ever owned and expensive to fix too.

dont do it!!

[jeff oakley]

We got our daughter a Yaris to start with as they were not trendy cars and as a result did not attract a cool insurance hike. She then has had a couple of mini coopers as has the wife and they have been fine.

Parts are more expensive than other small cars and certain ones, like power steering pumps do break regularly.

What I find strange is young kids these days are not prepared to have an old banger to start with, they expect and want almost new cars to start with on day one. Even though we could easily afford to buy Charlotte a new one we didn't and made her save up to buy her first mini from her part time job. She appreciates that others have to work hard and not everything is on a plate for everyone.

[SootySport]

12 hours ago, sdh2903 said:

All those quotes are black box only. Cheapest non box policies are 1600+. He's actually a pretty sensible lad and happy to have one fitted. Unlike his older brother who point blank refused.

Teenage Boys do pay more than Girls, even though there's supposed to be no discrimination.    My daughter's first year policy was £750 on a 1.2 Corsa and dropped the second year to £450 and that's with no Black Box.   I would imagine you live in a semi rural area so should be a low risk area. 

[TAFKARM]

12 hours ago, sdh2903 said:

All those quotes are black box only. Cheapest non box policies are 1600+. He's actually a pretty sensible lad and happy to have one fitted. Unlike his older brother who point blank refused.

To be fair to the older one, I'm not sure I'd want big brother knowing where I am every minute of the day.

[pistonbroke]

17 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

One of our apprentices had a Volvo V40 estate 1.6 petrol. Full leather, air con, cruise yadda yadda and was cheaper to insure than a basic corsa. 

As for the lad in the Audi, its the way of the world. I wont get drawn into this as we are skint  The Skoda will be 4 years old and we will have known most of the history of it when he has it. We did the same with the daughter. I dont wont an older car I need to be fixing all the time. Also newer cars are safer , cheaper to run and tax.

Insurance Co. would have to pay me to run a Volvo 

[Lyonspride]

On 2/5/2018 at 08:00, jeff oakley said:

We got our daughter a Yaris to start with as they were not trendy cars and as a result did not attract a cool insurance hike. She then has had a couple of mini coopers as has the wife and they have been fine.

Parts are more expensive than other small cars and certain ones, like power steering pumps do break regularly.

What I find strange is young kids these days are not prepared to have an old banger to start with, they expect and want almost new cars to start with on day one. Even though we could easily afford to buy Charlotte a new one we didn't and made her save up to buy her first mini from her part time job. She appreciates that others have to work hard and not everything is on a plate for everyone.

Every young person I know or have known, who had a car bought for them, ended up crashing it within a few months.

You don't appreciate something until you have to pay for it..... Which I think one reason why standards of driving are so bad right now, nobody actually owns their cars these days, all rented/leased.

[Alan France]

Agree about the mini. My daughter has had two Cooper S. She loved the cars but in the end just got fed up with the poor reliability.

[frubpato?]

On 04/02/2018 at 19:13, sdh2903 said:

 

Doesn't help when his spoilt s**t of a mate turned up the other night in a brand new audi A1 after deciding he didn't like the 2012 corsa he'd been bought, he doesn't even work . Age 17 and been driving 3 days. How does that help the kids learn the value of anything?

Whoops, that sounds as if the spoilt child is my nephew whose mum works for Audi. Have to agree as I was stunned to see the pics on fbook. There is a back story but even so when I was a 17 year old in BoW I hated those who got bought a car , my first car was a 50 quid scrapper which my dad decided would be a good way of me learning how to maintain and fix a car so avoiding garage bills.