My daughter is fast approaching driving age and I was wondering if anyone has any recent experience of what they chose in that situation. I will have an absolutely maximum budget of £5000 and may well use the car myself for a period of time purely to work and back (possibly in lieu of my mx5 but keeping a bmw 1 series as a social/long trips car). My current thinking is a Toyota aygo 5 door (I’m not sure if 5 doors are slightly dearer to insure for a young driver but prefer the smaller doors and practicality). Currently I can get around a 13 plate from smaller garages with 6 months warranty. Would be keen to hear other ideas but please remember it will be for a fairly style conscious daughter and I wouldn’t consider Skoda (current ongoing issue with my daily car that Im Struggling to get rectified with my
dealer).
Ford Fiesta is popular with that demographic though it’s now discontinued (not a factor at your budget point though), horror stories related to ecoboost engines too.
For my money it’s hard to see past Toyota, last two ‘other’ cars have been from them and they’re solid.
Suzuki Swifts are worth a search. Insurance can be high as the parts situation borders on Richard Turpin territory though. But they are very popular amongst the younger sect and generally very reliable. Fast , fun, cheeky and quite frugal. Peppy revvy engines and the after market mod /bling market is a hoot.
So, maybe the best recommendation is to tell her you intend to buy a car for her, give her the budget and ask her to browse car sales till she sees the one for her. After all, I still have the one I chose (knowing nothing about cars) in addition to the MX-5.
Brought my daughter a Aygo to learn to drive in ( it was horrible, no go, 3 cylinder engine that you have to rev silly to get moving, I thought it was a good idea but I hated it ) , it was her first car so she loved it.
But then brought her a 2014 Corsa 1.2 excite, insurance was nearly identical , it drove like a proper car, had heated seats and steering wheel and never cost us a penny in the next 2 years she ran it ( other than basic servicing ). Paid £3400 for it sold it with 60k miles on for £3800 2 years later, a couple of months ago.
They are cheap to buy, cheap to run and cheap on insurance , ideal first car.
Thank you to everyone for the help so far. @Scottishfiver i will have a look at swifts - I do like the look of those but will take on board the parts concern. @Das68 apart from No go (which I’m expecting from anything I buy really) what didn’t you like about the toyota? Re insurance how long did you keep the toyota before swapping to the corsa as just doing a quick comparison quote the corsa is £700 more to insure than the aygo using No years driving with no no claims etc.
My Daughter kept the Aygo for about a year including teaching her to drive it, if the Corsa is now £700 more then I’d get an Aygo !.
It was about £50 more when she changed cars and the Corsa was a much better car, I have 3 daughters I brought them all there 1st cars the eldest had a Nissan Micra ( early type ) , only cost me £600 with 18,000 miles from new and was excellent, then 2nd Daughter had a Ford Ka this was good except poor brakes. ( and after a few years rust )
I recommend you drive an Aygo, they have so little torque you have to rev them to death which makes learning the clutch control hard, the one I brought is the only car that has broken down on me in the last 30 years!.
You can check insurance groups on Autotrader , an Aygo is group 3e , and so are some of the 1.2 Corsa’s ( not all ) which should then give same insurance price.
Thank you very much. Very helpful. I will certainly drive anything before deciding. I worked for vw when they launched the up! Which was a 1.0 60bhp engine so have a reasonable idea what it will be like.
£5000 is a really good budget for a manual car, absolute barrel-scraping for auto, so hopefully she has a manual licence. In fact, the main reason to learn manual these days is to be able to buy an affordable first car, since by 2030 nothing new will be manual.
Fords are easy to drive but the Ecoboost engines can wreck themselves, as already said. Either of the two “wetbelts” strips its teeth and that’s the end.
I despise Vauxhalls - they always seem about a decade behind in build quality.
Nothing French, obviously.
VWs are overpriced and not all that reliable.
She might be attracted to a Fiat 500 so she looks exactly like all the other “individual” girls, but the TwinAir drinks petrol and they have the usual Italian “reliability”.
Any Japanese or Korean brand will be most reliable. Suzuki Swift is a good suggestion. Yarises are ok if you get a good one (mine was unreliable, but that was 1st gen). I don’t think Micras are what they used to be - too big and heavy now.
My daughters first car was a Picanto, the insurance side of things, ideal as it was just 1litre. It was difficult then to get insurance as a new driver, more so now I guess. She’s moved on now to a 2 litre diesel 7 seater Kia (3 kids) There are many cars now with the 3 pot 1 litre engine commanding high prices such as it is these days.
Another one and I owned one for 2 years, the Skoda Citigo or stable mates VW Up and SEAT Mii. Ideal for a young person and probably insurance friendly too.
Disagreeing somewhat with Roger above, based upon our experience I suggest a Skoda Citigo. My wife’s from-new 13 plate is now run by our son. We replaced it with - another Citigo, this time a from-new 19 plate.
It has a 1.0 litre 3 cylinder engine and is good on fuel and insurance for younger drivers. I enjoy driving on the occasions that I have to as if you rev it up you can have quite an enjoyable driving experience within the speed limit. Parts and servicing are, in my view, reasonable.
In the time it has taken me to write this I see that Mick has also given it a recommendation.
Yep that was a smashing little car, owned from new. I had to change it for more rear seating, it only had two proper seats/seatbelts in the rear only a 4 seater. That wasn’t good for me when I have numerous grandkids wanting to fit in. A minibus is probably in order these days though😁
I have just re-read the thread and the OP has specifically exempted Skoda from consideration, which I think is a pity. Plenty of small, safe, economical 5-door cars out there within budget, so I am sure that the OP will find something to suit.
Yes it’s a shame when you get poor service.
I’ve heard a few stories about Skoda service or lack of it and I think Mazda can be awkward too reading on these forums.
Not good when you get a bad one, a problem that they turn their back on when it comes to customer service.
I wouldn’t go near a Vauxhall again when I had a bad one, well it was ok but things kept going wrong. I think it was a jinxed car anyway, nothing really to do with Vauxhall dealers or customer service as it was well out of warranty.
It’s all perhaps a subject that’s probably been discussed many times before but good to know about various makes/models etc…
