Buying Your First Car | Episode 1

[@ashley_neal]

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[@patrickdonaldson6221]

The story of my first car kind of splits in two if you will. Because the first car I bought was a VW Polo MK5 1.4, but the first car I ever owned was a Jaguar XJ40 Gold.

[@Mph_cars]

I was looking at getting a 1.0 litre Kia Rio or cee’d for my first car. Insurance is quite expensive but I will get insured under someone’s else’s name as a second driver. This is a lot cheaper considering it’s only a 1.0 litre engine

[@ibs5080]

Love the 4th choice of "4 A Bicycle". Made it even more tongue in cheek that you didn't actually say it.

[@smilerbob]

@@ibs5080 I wanted to see public transport in the list as well. We need more cars off the road in central areas and more cycling (that can) or using public transport. More needs to be done to retain public tranport in all areas and re-establish the public transport infrastructure in more rural locations

[@shm5547]

at least he didn't recommend one of those ghastly e-bikes this time 😉!

[@johnbooth5199]

​@@smilerbobWhat's this "Public Transport" thing, you talk about? Aparrantly it exists, but is a bit elusive in some areas. (As much as the government wants to punish drivers, we need better, more reliable public transport, first.)

[@ibs5080]

@smilerbob Good point Bob. I know in places such as London, folding bikes in particular are very popular, as they can be taken onto public transport that much easier. Not sure though if there are restrictions on this during rush hours. Back in Vancouver, the buses there have a bike rack on the front end and I believe each rack can take at least two full size bikes. The rider is responsible for mounting their bike on the rack, though the driver will get out and help if they see the rider is having difficulties. I haven't as yet seen that arrangement here in the UK but maybe it does exist.

[@TestGearJunkie.]

@@smilerbob Public transport is fine if it goes where you want to go when you want to go and at an affordable price. Which isn't the case for many people.

[@truckerbradd]

4k for a year is a joke these days for new drivers

[@bjthedjdutchdude1992]

It depends on the person. I bought a 2014 Fiat Panda. I wanted a car that has done mostly highway miles, less than 10 years old and was still being manufactured. I still drive it today with nearly 200,000 km on the odometer

[@ilikechickensausages2075]

As an Australian i don't get paying more for insurance than what the car costs you in the first place

[@Bruno-gp4mt]

You're insurance pays for cars you crash into, they will be more expensive than your car

[@zahkgames5812]

I wrote a Land Rover off last Feb, my insurance is currently £368 a month. I need my car to work, as I work by appointment in the countryside. I drive like a fucking nun now.

[@kenshinwarriorX]

The lack of licence info is what’s shooting it up. I found this between provisional and full licence.

[@juddy_1997]

It’s good to see you’re recommending ‘realistic’ first cars. Many people who have made similar videos to this one seem to forget that most young people in school can’t afford a 10,000 pound car…

[@philipsmith9688]

@@juddy_1997 completely agree, the only way you’d get a £10k car would be from savings or bank of mum and dad

[@douglasreid699]

when i was at shool in 6th year in 2004, quite a few of the pupil's had cars costing around the £2 to £4k mark bought by mum and dad for them. i had a £800 1980s 125cc motorbike for my transport that i sold my off road motorbike and drum kit to aford it. some people are happy to live in debt and pay it off over time, others like to buy what they can afford.

[@hiddentreasure2161]

You can even see it with the reliability recommendations - Ashley tones it down a bit by going for model years within the price range, but there's no way a new driver is going to afford a 2017 reg

[@ricequackers]

This is why I didn't actually start driving until I was 21, the difference is that back in the late 2000s teens were only being quoted £1000-£1500 on cars like a Fiesta or Punto. No wonder there's an epidemic of uninsured drivers out there. The biggest factor in insurance after the car you choose is the one you have least control over - your postcode. A few years ago I had a 1.4 turbo Astra, when I moved from NW7 (one of the cheaper London postcodes) to AL4 and my insurance dropped from £600-odd to just £270.

[@sgkingly8392]

I'm 22 with 4 years no claims and a 1.2 fiesta and my insurance is still the best part of £1000. It's ridiculous

[@ibs5080]

At 0:31, I have to say, that dealership has been quite creative with it's wall mural as well as parking all those cars in a "creative" way to maximize their forecourt space. I'd imagine if a customer wants to test drive any of the cars "at the back", the dealership would want to feel pretty confident the customer would buy it.

[@rustydusty2992]

@ibs5080 Hi Ibrahim. I would critisise them on one thing though and thats just a general critisism and that it's that I found out recently they overstuff forecouts with to many vehicles (obviously to give more variety) giving far fewer places to park when you want to view cars. And if you by a car from anywhere you do want to follow Ashey's advice and use car vertical as this overstocking is usually acheived with finance called unit stocking so make sure the dealer does remove that on your purchase.

[@ibs5080]

@rustydusty2992 Thank You kindly for the tips and feedback.

[@rustydusty2992]

@@ibs5080 Your welcome, I only found this out recently when I went to purchase another used car (Skoda Karoq) with 10,000 miles on it and therefore used car vertical and on the finance it flagged up although I previously had an ex demo Dacia Duster with 285 miles it could have had the same but without car vertical being around then? I wouldn't know for sure. Ended up with another ex demo karoq with 1,250 miles on it so it's better for me now anyway now that I'm retired now from the 4x4 response so only being in a couple of social 4x4 clubs did not need more of a working 4x4 anymore but at 174,000 miles the Dacia had served it's purpose both to me and the community.

[@skylarius3757]

That should also make people think... How long has that car been sitting there at the back?

[@martinbutchers9497]

I've been running a Hyundai i10 for my driving school for the last nearly 10 years. My older one which I gave to my son has done over 100,000 miles when he received it. He's now had it 4 years so I'm not sure what the mileage is now but it's still going strong as. My new one, I've done 70000 miles and the only thing I've had is a new is a windscreen wiper motor, which lost its memory and now the screen washer bottle motor seems to be starting to lose power. Think about it that's something thats had quite a lot of use and misuse. I would highly recommend the i10. As for my insurance as a driving instructor I've just renewed it for under £500.

[@armchairgeneralissimo]

Another thing to consider in the search for cheaper insurance is to look for cars young people don't typically drive and write off. When I passed my test 14 years ago it was cheaper for me to insure an old 2.0L Mercedes C-Class than it was a 1.25L Ford Fiesta. You might find cars like Ford Focus 1.6L non turbo being cheaper to insure than a Fiesta, you've also got old man cars like the Rover 75 which no boy racer would be seen dead in and thus get cheaper insurance. Play around with odd ball cars in the comparison sights and you just might find something that's slipped under their radar.

[@khalidacosta7133]

Similar but I ended up in a 2.0 turbo diesel Peugeot 306. Which with a remap (shhh) had plenty of power and a very reasonable fuel economy!

[@JamieEC96]

this is so true I would love to see what the quotes look like for cars like this for the same driver as in this video

[@Tibialstone7]

What a brilliant idea Ashley! The one thing I will say though is if you’ve just passed your test, look for cars which are non conventional (I.e. not often driven by 18 year olds). Ford Focus, Fiesta, Yaris, etc, can actually return much higher insurance rates than cars which are more uncommon on the road. This is because insurance is largely about statistics. You may be able to shave off £1k from the quote for insurance. Also, if you go for a more common car, like the Ford Fiesta, they can be subject to theft , because of how much of a demand there is for parts, etc. Just some food for thought if any recently passed drivers are reading.

[@ibs5080]

Although not as high as insurance cost, also check how much the annual VED is. And if you are likely to drive inside the M25, check if your potential purchase is free of ULEZ charges. I realise this might only be an issue for older cars but there again, a younger driver may very well be looking at buying something older, attracted by the low purchase price.

[@cmartin_ok]

Im in my 60s and am horrified at the size of those premiums for youngsters. No wonder so many aren't learning to drive, and it must go a long way to explaining the high number of uninsured drivers on our roads

[@Valthasarlol]

I passed first time at the age of 31, I was lucky to get a 2009 Mazda 3 1.6 petrol off a relative for cheap, the insurance was £1500~. I thought that was bad so I really feel for the younger lot with their quotes. All I can advice is to newer drivers is look at any car quotes you can and really think outside the box. I ran a quote on my brothers V70 R before he sold it just to see how expensive it was be to insure and have a laugh... it turned out to be £1000! £500+ cheaper than my 103bhp hatchback for a 300bhp wagon that could get my inexperienced self into serious trouble, madness!

[@funkyuk1]

4. A bicycle 😁👍🏼 Nicely done

[@jackedrussell]

The thing about running costs, is it depends. If your choice is a Volvo V70 that's going to cost £1200 to insure but running costs (including maintenance) is £800 a year, you'd be better off getting that over something like a Ford Fiesta with insurance costs that are £2000 alone. It's exactly what I did. My first car (in 2010) was a 2.5L Volvo V70. The purchase cost of the Volvo was the same as the Fiesta. Obviously it used more fuel because it's a 2.5L instead of a 1.4L but I worked out that taking fuel, maintenance and insurance costs into account, I ended up being £200 better off with a much larger car.

[@AndyFletcher-m9p]

If I was an 18 year old once again there is no way in hell I'd be forking out for that insurance. I'd be using my cash to live it up and enjoy myself and not be worrying about a car for at least another 5 years. My daughter's 23 and recently bought her first car, fully comp insurance with all bells and whistles was just under £1000.

[@i3d3]

My advice: insurance premium is money you won't get back, so if you have a total budget of say £5000, it's better to buy a car that's £4000 + £1000 insurance than it is to get a £1000 car + £4000 insurance... When you're looking to upgrade, the more expensive car will get you back more of the money you spent

[@hudders11]

How on earth are ANY 18 year olds going to find that kind of money for insurance? The insurers, i think, are fully aware that they can't and that the bank of mum and dad will be helping out. At those prices, theyd probably ask you for a grand a year to drive a shopping trolley. Glad i passed a little later in life. I was paying about a grand a year in my 1st year for a ford fiesta when i was 30.

[@smilerbob]

My first insurance over 20 years ago was just over £800. That was for a Bedford Rascall van and the next vehicle, a Vauxhall Nova wasn’t much more at £830. This was Third Party Fire and Theft as fully comprehensive was just over £2,000. As nice as it is to have fully comprehensive insurance, if you are careful with your driving in the early years it might pay to drop down to Third Party Fire and Theft. It can shave a large amount off the insurance as shown with my experience Obviously for the purposes of the video a base line had to be set and fully comprehensive was a good one as a “top price” benchmark, would you do a follow up video showing the cost of the other insurance options and details of what is not covered? Something that often confuses some new drivers Sometimes as well, if the other person has a large no claim period, adding an driver that has more years as a full license holder _could_ reduce the cost but no guarantee in all cases. It depends on the insurance company. Additionally, if you are in a certain trade (a nurse as mentioned in the video or working on a farm for example) then there could be unique insurance companies for those industries that understand the needs better than mainstream insurance

[@philipsmith9688]

@@smilerbob I’m not suprised £830 for a Nova, car criminals knew to remove the hazard light button and put it in upside down and it’d start with a flathead screwdriver

[@smilerbob]

@ That was the later model wasn’t it? The button used to fail as well as they got older and the platic got brittle from UV light being high up on the trim, going over bumps would eventually cause the hazards to come on…possibly one of the first vehicles to have auto collision hazard lights 🤣 If I remember correctly, the earlier model that I had didn’t have an easily reversible hazard lights switch. Might be wrong, it was two decades ago when I owned that vehicle

[@ibs5080]

When taking up car insurance, make sure it's not set to "auto renew" the next year via your direct debit details. Some insurance companies default to "auto renew", so just make sure you turn that setting off once the current years' payment has gone through. You want to give yourself the freedom to shop around every year.

[@leeholden8658]

I make sure that mine is set so it doesn’t auto renew. This year will be my fourth time getting insurance and it will probably be a fourth change of insurance companies. The renewal quotes have been ridiculous and for that reason I jump ship. Hopefully this year I will get a reasonable quote with me having three years no claims. So far I’ve paid £995 for the first year, £1050 for the second year (these were for a 2003 Honda CRV 2.0i petrol auto) and last year was £1,500 (due to us getting a newer car,2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 1.5T petrol auto) I did retake my test last year in a manual and passed so maybe that might bring the premiums down a bit.

[@thomaselliot2257]

Hello Ibrahim. Hope you are feeling well. With my last car, I had taken out a guaranteed fixed insurance for 3 years from Saga.

[@ibs5080]

@@thomaselliot2257 Hello Thomas. How goes it? Interesting regarding your insurance with SAGA and taking out a policy that's guaranteed for 3 years. This is the first I heard of such an arrangement actually. I've learnt something new from you. I'm feeling ok and went to a home show at Farnborough exhibition centre yesterday. It was around 200 miles round trip, including a side trip to Bluewater on the way home. My very dear Mum and I did the exact same trip last year. Much of my solo trip yesterday was in her honour. At Bluewater Mall, I even parked in the exact same parking place as last year, all in her honour. I've done this at various other locations too. I still have a long road ahead in terms of my treatment schedule and it's really very time consuming. I'll be very pleased when it's all finished, hopefully around July or August. In the meantime, I intend to remain active. Hope all is well with you and family.

[@ibs5080]

@leeholden8658 It certainly pays to shop around and not necessarily go with the same insurer every year. Just make sure you are comparing apples to apples in terms of coverage and terms.

[@ibs5080]

@@thomaselliot2257 I replied to you earlier but it's disappeared.

[@ibs5080]

Seeing all those high quotes for young drivers is one thing that makes me feel glad I am of more "mature" years. Though my understanding is that when you get further into those mature years, premiums start to go up again due to age. I can't imagine it's anywhere near as much as those eye watering quotes for young drivers though. At first I thought you were quoting the price of buying those cars!

[@joespittle1]

Cars themselves are much more expensive here in the states but you could insure (comprehensive insurance) a '18 VW Golf for $1060 for 12 months. Once you've had your license a good few years that number drops to almost $600/year. When I was 21 I was paying roughly $150/month for a '14 Porsche Cayenne

[@FistOfFiori]

3:39 - The premium difference when it comes to ages is absolutely insane. I finally passed age 39 last January (originally learned from 17 years old, got disheartened after 2 test fails, came back to it in my later 30s and passed a few months shy of my 40th), and before adding my voluntary excess it was little over £1k fully comprehensive, eventually about £930 with the voluntary added. Mine's a 62 Plate 2012 Yaris, 1.33 5dr VVT-I TR like this one and isn't even parked on the drive/path (it's on the street just outside), though admittedly 60k miles for a car the age of mine may have helped slightly. £4k is excessive! Even for the new and young drivers.

[@johnbooth5199]

Your experience is similar to mine. I first tried learning to drive when I was 21, but struggled. So I tried again, in my mid 40s. My 1st years insurance was just shy of 1k, fully comp on a 2017 Hyundai i20. There was a discussion in parliament, regarding the collision rate of young drivers. The Lords were proposing putting restrictions on young drivers, preventing them from having passengers of the same age, and of driving during the hours of darkness The Lords, obviously have not heard of shift workers, giving lifts to workmates.

[@UnipornFrumm]

3500 to insure a car? these insurance companies are insane

[@calciumkid0568]

My dad always told me to get a first car you don’t mind crashing, which was good advice cause I rear ended someone about year after I bought it

[@khalidacosta7133]

and that's why insurance is £4k a year.....

[@calciumkid0568]

@ my first year was only 1800 and I managed to get that down to 1k for my 2nd, this year

[@radishpea6615]

Are crash test results are also a consideration? Cars that could be purchased, Rover 25, Vauxhall Corsa, older and cheaper. How much work can one do on their on car will help with repair costs.

[@demil3618]

My 1st car was a Wartburg 353W: 3-cyl two stroke. Bought it as the owner wanted to scrap it- and I didn't like the idea. Turned out it was perfectly preserved as people back then had to wait 14+ years for a new car. 2nd one was a Gold diesel- just to get my head around running it on used cooking oil for free. Both were extremely low cost, so didn't worry about having to do some repairs...

[@k9dashcams]

I waited until I need a car for work. My parents just would put me on their car's insurance for a week or 2 or if on holiday. Once I started working that required me to need a car I bought at the time a 6 year old Skoda Citigo which was a £5K car. I did everything to get my insurance down, black box, parents as named drivers & used the same insurance company as my parents to get a multi car discount (as lived at home with parents) and paid just less than £1K including breakdown cover. I still own the Skoda & pay very little to insure it now.

[@AbsoluteTVYT]

I'm glad my first car was much older than any of the ones you looked at here. I am insured fully comp, plus legal and breakdown cover for about £1070 on my 2003 Skoda Fabia with no prior experience. Sure, some might say it looks like a grandmother's car, but I couldn't care less as it's so cheap to run.

[@leeholden8658]

After passing my test three years ago at the age of 54 (in an Auto) I didn’t have enough money for anything newer than our purchase of a 2003 Honda CRV 2.0i (£2995) don’t forget used car prices went up that year (2022) and the cheapest I got insurance for fully comp,social only,9K miles was £995 (£50 more expensive than a FIAT 500😂) the following year insurance went up to £1,050. Last year we decided to get a newer car a 2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross at a cost of £12,795 and even with all the added safety features that the CRV didn’t have it still cost £1,500 to insure even with two years no claims. For fun I did an insurance quote for a brand new VW Buzz and it was £150 less. I just don’t get how insurance works. I know it goes off your area but it’s crazy.

[@rustydusty2992]

@leeholden8658 Catagories are yet about to change again using different criteria to base this on as well as being phased into the market, that will be another excuse by the insurance companies to whack it up yet again. But they have always been bastewards when it comes to the volunteer response sector, nothing is ever clear from them and they are heavily reluctant to put what you ask for into words and just say it's ok we just need to know what you are doing with you car or have attached to it to carry out your operational need as a response driver.

[@rustydusty2992]

@lee8658holden The catorgories are about to change again with different criteria involved for the insurance purposes, this is due to be phased in and will no doubt be another excuse by the insurance companies to whack up insurance yet again. They have always been barstewards anyway but they are exceptional barstewards for the volunteer sector of response drivers as they are exceptionaly reluctant to put anything we ask for into writing, and always just say it's ok we just need to know how and what we use out cars for and what we have attached to it to carry out our operational duties alway been a problem with the insurance bureau with the interaction with the various council resiliance teams/emergency planning officers and the voulunteer teams across the country in all response sectors.

[@alexflowers5730]

yikes insurance has got silly nowadays. the hyundai i10 was what i learned in, good practical car, didn't feel underpowered for its size and the smaller engine at least seems to keep the insurance slightly lower.

[@johnbooth5199]

I also learned in an i10. It's a nice, modern car. It's got most of the features and gadgets you'd expect of a newer small car. It struggled a bit on the motorway - could have done with a little more power. So when I passed I got an i20. Sad, I know, buying a similar car to the one you learnt to drive in, but It's a nice tidy, practical, little motor. It's also got four cylinders, thats one more than the i10, it's a 1.2 as opposed to a 1.0

[@ColossalDave]

Those Mini side lights are always failing. Moisture gets inside them so easily. Surprised it was selling for over £1k though, I should look at getting rid of mine.

[@dawnlewis6298]

Soo happy to pass my driving test on Xmas eve. I am 55 yrs of age+had no interest in driving until couple of years ago. Now looking for cheap run around for road experience+had many quotes between £728-£850 for 1.6 engines+some even convertibles. Glad I waited until late age as from risk point of view for insurance my age group is the cheapest insurance. Hope this is helpful for anyone over 50 thinking of learning to drive 😀x

[@benjiaj1963]

Great video Ashley! A couple of things that come to mind watching were: Imsurance doesn't change for 'written off' vehicles. You will just likely receive less for a claim if you had to make one. Written off doesn't mean it's no good or not safe, just that the insurance didn't see it as economicallt viable to repair (this could be for as little as a wing or bumper) Category S would warrant a deeper look for sure though. Insurance varies massively (for unknown reason) even on the same year/make/model/spec of car without changing any driver details, so it's best to check with registration before purchasing. There's many larger vehicles with bigger engines that are cheaper to insure than your typical 1L, and generally a 5 door version is cheaper than a 3 door of the same model and estates even more so. Many small 3 door cars are seen as 'boy racer' type cars so try to think outside the box. If you dont require the features that come with 'newer' cars or have an interest in older vehicles there's plenty thet benefit from 'classic insurance'.

[@fatwalletboy2]

Oh at those sort of premiums i really would not bother......if you can save that money up each year on top of other running cost plus the cost of the car youll have a pretty decent house deposit in 5 yesrs.

[@Cheeseberry69]

I'm really surprised you didn't suggest an Aygo/C1/107. Lovely little cars, cheap as chips, free road tax (low emissions), low insurance, cheap to run and repair, great visibility for the driver, reliable, nippy at lower speeds, great handling, they sip petrol, they're fun to drive and they are ridiculously easy to DIY simple repairs & in car mods (stereo, etc). I've never met anyone who's owned one and disliked it.

[@davem9204]

Agreed. I recently bought one for my OH as a cheap runaround. Only £20 a year tax, very low insurance group, 50+mpg and easy and cheap to repair. My oldest offspring is coming up to the dreaded age of learning to drive, and I'll certainly be looking for another one of those cars.

[@TheJononator]

Points against: The manual is notoriously crap, the boot will just about fit a couple's weekly shop and it might have 4 seatbelts but good luck using all 4 seats on any journey over 15 minutes if any occupant is over 6ft.

[@sgkingly8392]

I had a 2009 Aygo and I really enjoyed that little car until the gearbox synchro went kaput and I had to rev match everywhere and with kayaking I really needed something that bit bigger

[@Chambers36TheEnter]

I don't think it has changed that much tbh. I remember buying a car for £1000 20 years ago as a new driver and paying £1500-£2k insurance which in today's money is approx £3200. We used 50cc and 125cc scooters to get to work from the ages of 16-20, even so we were still paying £1k+ insurance, a lot of that being TPO. The majority of new riders I see are not British born, they tend to be Eastern Europeans. Us Brits are too scared to ride a bike. Insurance companies are there to make profits, it's business. The high costs is because you're a higher risk and they don't need your business and don't really want you due to you being a liability.

[@barryjohnsonz]

There are plenty of young people (like me) who want to ride a motorcycle but we've been priced out by the cost of training (which didn't used to exist) and insurance, which did not used to be so high. Motorbikes used to be the cheapest way to start getting on the road for previous generations, now that's been turned on it's head. Cars are now cheaper to start on so the motorcycle industry is dying.

[@davem9204]

I passed my test over 30 years ago, and spent around £1000 on my first car, but the insurance was only about £350. So since then the insurance has gone up a lot more than the price of second hand small cars. I did live out in the sticks, so car crime was very low where I lived.

[@GeorgeWat]

Insurance for drivers these days is crazy. I didn’t learn to drive until I was 21, I bought a 2015 Corsa as my first car and my insurance was £1,400 for the year with a black box. I’m kinda glad I waited to learn, the 17 year olds are getting battered with insurance at the moment

[@Pulsarnix]

I bought my first car recently. Saved up a year of my wages to be able to get a car that I knew would be good and went for a Seat Ibiza FR 1.0 (EZ). It's absolutely brilliant! You can't go wrong with a VW group vehicle IMO. I'll definitely send this video to a friend when she passes her driving test, hopefully she'll find it useful.

[@izzyr3231]

I didn't learn to drive until 27, and it blows my mind people can afford it as teenagers. My insurance was 980 for the first year

[@danieltesfaye8517]

No one can afford it Izzy. It’s usually through the bank of mum and dad. I don’t know a single young person that’s 17-18 being able to buy their own car with their own money. On your own money at that age is difficult and doesn’t make financial sense as you would be trapped and be a work slave to the car. You would have to be working and saving every penny for months straight to be able to afford the car at cash price then you would have to give like half or most of your income for the next few years towards insurance which is ridiculous. The car is parked 4% of the time but 50% of the salary is going to one single cost of running it. After 25 when the pre frontal cortex is fully developed the insurance drops which explains why you aren’t paying those high prices. £980 is a bit high if you aren’t driving a powerful car and that is probably because you weren’t driving for very long.

[@Paulsmithmini191]

Incase anybody is looking to buy a category car, i work in a bodyshop and can confirm you can get a brilliant deal on crash damage repairs especially on first cars as these are usually written off for small damages that most cars on the road have had. Bumpers, wings ect. However if you do buy one and you end up in an accident again, the Insurance company will value your car likley alot less than you paid which could result in you loosing out in the long run

[@gordon861]

Are bodyshops still extremely busy? Not sure what it is like now, but I tried to get some bodywork damage fixed on my car a couple of years ago and most places I went to were not taking on private jobs, it was all insurance only, and the ones that would take on the work were booking you in for two months time. In the end the cost of the repair was more than the 13 year old car was worth so I just part exchanged it. But yes, you have to assume if you are buying a car for £1.5k it is going to be written off for very minor damage.

[@Paulsmithmini191]

@ i work for a classic car restoration company that also does modern cars. So we always have long going resto jobs on but usually can book jobs in within a few days to a week

[@gamesmaster1060]

But how do you tell between something that's had small damage and something thats been damaged in a way that could effect the reliability of the car. Or had a botch repair. I assume all the signs would not be obvious to a lot of people

[@Paulsmithmini191]

@ best bet would be to buy it with its damage still and then you know where you stand. However i appreciate thats not ideal for most people. So check its mot history and then basic checks in person. Lift boot floor up and remove spare wheel. Make sure it all looks good and not pushed in. Look for any bad paintwork around the car. Its quite common for the headlight mounts to break so check they are properly attached. And most importantly test drive and make sure it doesn’t pull to one side or feel unsafe

[@bob_obba]

Passed recently at the ripe old age of 41 _(lived in cities all my life and walked to work)_ - £1300 a year on a family members car. Out of curiosity I checked how much it would be to put myself on their insurance as a named driver - £130 a year 🙃

[@douglasreid699]

after you finish this series for the car, would you be tempted to do one for motorbikes and compare the differences between car and motorbike for a mode of transport overall? when i was in 6th year in roughly 2004, i had a motorbike and everyone else that drove to school used a car, most likely thanks to mum and dad helping out. i sold my off road 100cc motorbike and my drum kit to get my 1980s £800 125cc first road bike. its was cheap to run, insurance then was less than £1200 for me, i had it until august 2006 when i bought my 500cc bike for my birthday to get to college. great first bike it was, sold it on to someone else learning to ride and it likely was sold on again after that.

[@MrLunarlander]

Is it still the case that adding an experienced driver as a named driver on the policy helps lower the cost? It certainly made a big difference a few years ago now when I had a new driver in the household.

[@philipsmith9688]

My first car was a Ford Ka 53 plate but it was given to me when my Gran gave up driving, first car with my own money was a Ford Fiesta 03 plate and that had a ding on the bonnet. After 6 months of owning the fiesta the heater packed up and bonnet became difficult to close.

[@OldSkoolLover1996]

The prices for insurance where you live are bonkers... How can a young student driver afford that? I forgot how much it was for me here in Belgium when I started driving at 21, but I'm sure it was less than €100 per month back in 2017...

[@douglasreid699]

in 2004 to 2006, for my 125cc motorbike 2004 and 2005 i was £1200 or less per year, then my new 500cc in 2006 i was around a £1000 for the first year. even now in my mid to late 30s the motorbike is £600 to £800 for my insurance. those insurance prices for new drivers just passed their test are so high, and what i reckon most of those new drivers drive better than some drivers that have had their licence for years. as for car choice, my suggestion before you even said it would be an I10. my aunt has one and i have driven it a few times, pokey enough to get up to speed, small and cheap to run, from what i have seen straight forward to work on to repair things yourself to save some money too.

[@nataliedebiase5089]

Surprised you didn't mention some other brilliant first cars like the fiat 500 or the Volkswagen Up which I have, really cheap to run and insure and fun to drive.

[@gordon861]

I expect spares on those will be expensive, especially the VW.

[@smilerbob]

Need to ask Ashley, I notice you went for 1.2L to 1.4L engines, was there any difference dropping down to a 1L engine for the first car? Just thinking a smaller engine could mean a lower insurance group

[@ashley_neal]

It was quite interesting to find that a 1.4 for one model Honda Civic was so much more than the Mini with the same engine size. It is a factor, but not as much as looking at the whole package. My best advice would be to spend a good amount of time looking at all different options. A more powerful, less popular car may very well be cheaper to insure than a smaller engine popular one.

[@smilerbob]

@@ashley_neal Agreed with that one as I went from a 1L “popular” vehicle to a 2L Turbo Diesel “less popular” but larger and it was less. I thought it was just me having 4 years clear driving but oerhaps not. And there are many other factors for insurance, including postcode. I know someone that had a vehicle for many years and never paid more than £300 for insurance until they moved house. It was an area where no issues occurred but the main postcode number changed (not the actual postcode but an example, they went from TN1 to TN2) and the insurance went to £1,400 because of one housing estste on one street in that postcode range

[@philipsmith9688]

@@smilerbob a 15 plate Ford Fiesta 1.5 diesel was about £100 cheaper on insurance than my parents 13 plate VW Golf estate and it’s 1.6 diesel with me as an only driver. I had to get rid of one and my mums mobility issues at the time meant it was the Fiesta that went. The week after the gearbox on the Golf failed so that went too.

[@stephandolby]

@@ashley_neal With that in mind, would a 1.8 or 2.2 Civic of that vintage be cheaper to insure?

[@JamesJSA]

Perfect timing! I just passed my test on Thursday, with a lot of the advice from the channel helping! Thanks Ash

[@aaronjden]

With Auto trader you can also filter by insurance group. My first car was a Skoda Citigo. When you consider the first year of ownership as the cost of the car, road tax and first years insurance, it came out a lot cheaper than trying to insure an older car. Martin Lewis also has some great tips for reducing car insurance prices.

[@micheals1992]

I passed in January 2015 I bought a 2012 Toyota Aygo with 10,000 miles on the clock in 2014, the insurance was cheap and I still drive it now 10 years later with 123,000 miles on the clock. Used car prices now though are allot higher then they was in 2014. Looking at the prices of my car it's only lost around £1,000-£2,000 in value.

[@gordon861]

I owned an Aygo for about five years, really fun car to drive, a bit small but you can get a weeks shopping in there.

[@rarvlogs786]

1:48 Toyoyo? 🤔 Never heard of that brand 😆

[@nickneek80]

I wouldn't bother driving if my insurance was 4k ..ridiculous price.

[@johnbooth5199]

The thing is, you might have to, if you live in a rural area, or the job you have / want, requires you to drive. "You will be expected to pass your driving test at the earliest oppotunity" is not unfrequenty found on job adverts aimed at school-leavers.

[@korero1]

Thank you very much for this video Ashley. I'm a bit of a late bloomer and don't know my arse from my elbow when it comes to cars. Your videos give me more confidence.

[@johnatherton71]

Buy a Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1, or Peugeot 107. (they are all Th same cars with same engine just different badges.) All are cheapest group to insure, very very reliable and cheap to run. Only thing to look for is corrosion on MOT history. If its been sorted fine. These are 100% the cheapest cars for first time drivers. Can find good example under £2k with dealer and around £1k privately.

[@ashley_neal]

If you're not 6 foot two and don't drive on your own these can be a problem.

[@philipsmith9688]

@@johnatherton71 I hired a 60 plate Fiat 500 and my knee was on the steering wheel when I let the clutch out, I had two options little steering and no clutch or clutch and an ability to turn the wheel a full 360 degrees. I tried an 06 plate Citroen C1 later and explained to the dealer why I wanted to try this. That too caught my knee. Following a car accident I was then leased a 19 plate Toyota Aygo which had an adjustable steering column that moved up, down, in and out which I loved! My dad winged at me saying his 70’s Escort had a fixed seat meaning you couldn’t go forwards or backwards.

[@bordersw1239]

But don’t buy with the 1.2 Citroen/Peugeot engine, make sure it’s the 1.0 Toyota engine.

[@lordbungle6235]

Interesting point here, On the insurance get a quote on a larger high end make. A few years ago I had the choice of 2 cars for peanuts. a !996 Vauxhall Tigra 1.4 Auto and a 1995 Mercedes C220 Saloon. Ok I passed my test long before both were built, but I was shocked to discover the Mercedes was a lot cheaper to insure than the Vauxhall. A couple of years later I had an Audi A4 Cabriolet 2.4 sport and this was cheaper by 40% than a Ford Mondeo 1.8 Estate. Sometimes a premium make will be cheaper and that could offset the maintenance costs or fuel costs especially as a new driver.

[@armchairgeneralissimo]

14 years ago when I passed my test one of the cheapest cars for me to get insurance for was a 1996 Mercedes C200.

[@lordbungle6235]

@@armchairgeneralissimo yeah, sometimes it doesn't make sense.

[@tubularcandy812]

My first car was older than me. Great memories. You never forget your first car.

[@luisluis5306]

My first car was a 95 punto 1.1 with 80-90k miles on the clock it cost £1k and the insurance was about £2k in 06. I did the pass plus and got a discount on the 6 lessons from government and got about £550 off my insurance.

[@Foxii-86]

As long as it can do handbrake turns around a council estate and has a bangin stereo for your tunes, then it's the perfect first car lol

[@lvpvsmalvm522]

I have a 3L Toyota and I’m only £1000 a year for insurance compared to my first car which was a 1.4L and £1500 insurance. I actually think engine size is pretty irrelevant, the make of the car makes more of an impact as certain males are more typically “boy racer” cars.

[@kevincross9206]

Jeez, those insurance quotes are shocking! I know it’s different times, but the most I’ve ever paid was £800 in the late 80’s for an XR4i when I was in my late 20’s.

[@TheOwlman]

My 06 Fiesta diesel, which I bought in 2009, was a stunning little car - very cheap to tax and for me it was cheap to insure. It was just something to get me to and from work so it did basically did 50 miles day and odd trips beyond that when I needed to be somewhere my wife wasn't going, otherwise we went in her much nicer car. After I retired it didn't do that many miles and it was simply a reliable second car that any old mucky junk could go in without tarps over every single surface, and it finally succumbed to age in December 2023. Strangely enough I replaced it with a 10 year old Yaris and after a year I can heartily recommend them. Mine is a 1600 diesel and has plenty of power when required yet it happily gets 60 to the gallon (much the same as the Fiesta did) though it has a lot more bells and whistles, despite being a lower spec model (things like cruise control, bluetooth to phone and traction control); also, for reasons I can't fathom, it costs £0.00 road tax - not even the £30 that the Fiesta cost. Both of those were considerably cheaper than my mid-life Porsche, that cost £350 in road tax alone - I used to wonder if I should just be investing all that cash for my old age but now that I am here I don't regret a thing 😁

[@Joshyg02]

I'd definitely include the Mazda 2 in this, it's based on a Fiesta and definitely on par with reliability. Only problem is rust but unlike the Suzuki, they don't suffer with gearbox faults. More for your money than the equivalent Corsa

[@chrisf9377]

If you want to lower your insurance then consider paying for an advanced driving course or getting a black box installed. And remove any features from the car insurance policy that you don't need or can get cheaper elsewhere (E.g. Breakdown cover).

[@jonathonedwards6741]

Big advocate for the Suzuki swift. We’ve had 5 now (4 sports 1 1.2) and they’re amazing little cars, fun, reliable and cheap.

[@ashley_neal]

Hiya Jon! Yours is a little different than most!!

[@jonathonedwards6741]

@ yeah wouldn’t recommend mine specifically XD but the other half had a 07 Sport as his first car and I’d leap at the chance of a 1.2 SZ-L Nav like my old swift. Actually had a friend years ago weighing up an i10 and an SZ2 Swift (base Model), my advice was that he had 2 great cars in front of him but which one made him smile more? Answer was Swift. He still has it, needs a good clean, and it doesn’t cause him any issues.

[@Bin-The-L-Plates]

My son’s first car when he passed his test 8 years ago when he was 18 yrs old was a 1.4 Alfa Romeo Mito, and the insurance was £910…. Massive hike in premiums, it’s no wonder fronting is rife and so many cars are in the road uninsured.

[@olivertate8223]

How much time between quote and "live" did you allow? Massive savings on insurance for 20-25 days in the future.

[@xvqb4826]

I recently have purchased a Peugeot 208, I'll be 18 when my insurance policy starts, for the year it's £2200.

[@gamesmaster1060]

Avoid the 1.0 ecoboost fiesta. It looks good with the 0 road tax and economy and it is a fun car to drive but look into the wetbelt issues. If you are set on getting one make sure the wetbelt is changed and the engine isnt making any excessive noise. Make sure theres no coolant leaks either.

[@GeorgeThoughts]

Crikey, that's the cost of insurance for an 18 year old!? I mean, I understand why, but it's still surprising seeing it especially as I didn't buy a car until I was 25. As a 29yr old, I just insured my Zoe (which was actually my "first car" albeit bought once I was older and had a salary) for £666

[@joebloggs3629]

My first car was an M reg 1.3 Polo in 2006 with 110k on the clock the cheapest insurance I could get with pass plus through Swinton was £1310 the car cost me £250... minimum wage back then that I was paid was £5.90p/h

[@philipsmith9688]

The Suzuki Swift looks like a cracking little car. The £1500 max price means one that Top Gear said was an agile tough runaround when tested with the game of car ice hockey in the Winter Olympics special. Definitely be my pick! Put a stripe on there and the kids got a set of cool wheels.

[@123MondayTuesday]

SmilerBob's first car was a 1977 Ford Capri

[@smilerbob]

Please, it was a Capri Ghia 😁

[@manoryx4426]

Passed my driving test at 26 years old. Bought my first car with £1200. My insurance was £2700. Second year the insurance was still higher than the price of the car: £1500. I am afraid that next year will be the same....

[@ethanleighton9060]

im 19 and have had a fair amount of cars for my age and my recommendations for a car would be check every document and make sure everything has been done for it, and look for maybe a more unusual car for a young driver. ive had a yaris, focus, navara, and now an octavia. and the octavia is the cheapest on my insurance even with 2 claims. i wouldnt recommend a black box unless you only plan on using the car around midday. although with my record i cant even get insurance quotes without a black box! but when you buy a car you definitely have to think about how long you plan to have the car. such as in my case i recently moved job and house. both of which increased my insurance policy by £350 upping my insurance to well over 2000.

[@danieltesfaye8517]

2 claims in that time frame is crazy. Good on you on moving out. It is still. A good price considering you have made 2 claims in the past five years. I wonder if others are subsidising the prices

[@ethanleighton9060]

@@danieltesfaye85172 claims is a lot but i was also doing upwards of 600 miles a week back then. first claim was my fault. 2nd claim someone T boned me on a roundabout which really screwed everything up as i couldnt get insured for under 3 grand!

[@The_Noticer.]

Swift '94 -> Swift '01 -> 04 Accord -> 10 Accord, -> 18 Civic for me. Sorry VAG, you aint selling me a vehicle.

[@jackhamilton7732]

My first car is a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 SE. Heated Seats and steering wheel, sucha lifesaver for Scottish temperatures. Its very nice to drive its comfy, surprisingly roomy its just slow. Im waiting for the insurance policy to time out before I start driving my second car, a Smart Forfour Brabus. A bit older but much faster and it still has heated seats!. I am gonna miss the heated steering wheel though. Insurance on the Corsa was terrible £2000 (with blackbox) for third party fire and theft because I was confident I wouldnt crash it. For the smart i got a quote at £1200 same stuff but without the blackbox. Point is, rarer and obscurer cars get crashed less so the insurance companies can't charge as much. But you do have to know where to get parts for rare vehicle like that, And pay premium prices for parts even if the car isn't all that premium, purely because such parts aren't made anymore and theres a limited amount left. Better for insurance though.

[@sydneycarstensen-hoehn8138]

Why are we spending £4000 to insure a car that costs £1500, shouldn't we be going with Third party property insurance?

[@ashley_neal]

It's the damage you can do to others, so third-party insurance is often not much cheaper.

[@sydneycarstensen-hoehn8138]

@ashley_neal interesting, in Australia comprehensive is about $1500 and third party is only about $500, the claim amount might be similar when you get into an accident but the yearly fee is much lower

[@childishtombino1275]

@@sydneycarstensen-hoehn8138 I've run quotes before and I've actually had third-party come out more expensive than comprehensive. Insurance over here is very factor dependant and is certainly not fixed.

[@SamilyRose]

Third Party only is often way more expensive nowadays.

[@Kennyl10UK]

Got my test in 6 days at Norris green, I think I will be fine but any advise on nerves. I just ordered my new car I got a 2024 corsa 1.2 turbo ultimate.

[@craig559]

I waited to drive until I was 26 got myself a 1.5 civic 10th gen and still have it. PCP isn’t the best but it was okay for me. I was kinda weary of buying something cheap due to safety features.

[@sameyers2670]

My first car in 2006 was a 1.3 Fiesta Equipe, one company quoted me £3k to insure it which they were basically saying go away we dont want the business. I got insurance for about £1000 in the end which I suppose is about comparable with todays prices allowing for inflation

[@robblake8999]

definitely get a black box. for those that drive rarely, i recommend marmalade pay as you go insurance

[@freddieandrews3471]

£3-4k a year in insurance for a car with a small engine that's worth under £1.5k is just insane

[@Chambers36TheEnter]

That's my final offer, take it or leave it.

[@r3h4n786]

When i passed in 2016 i thought 1-2K was bad enough...

[@chrishart8548]

Would take me 5 years to save up £4k

[@chrisl1797]

The maximum NCD could be as much as 70%, so if you divide £4000 by 3/4 [3 quarters] (75% to make it easy) that is £1000. On the other hand my insurance of about £400 would rise to £2800 if I lost my NCD (30 years driving exp). People forget that the NCD is a discount, and a massive one at that.

[@gordon861]

Ouch on the insurance, if you are driving a car worth £1500, is it worth spending over double that on comprehensive insurance? With repair costs as they are now you can pretty much guarantee that they will write it off if you have an accident, so at best you will get £1000 back due to the excess and you will be £2000 down. Did you do quotes for third party only? It's been a while since I owned an older car but when I did Ford/Vauxhall were often the way to go due to numbers of vehicles in the UK so cheap spares and plenty of junkers in the scrap yards. French cars often worked out expensive/difficult to get spares for, and Japanese cars were similar. But things have probably changed now with the internet as you seem to be able to order most parts online. I would have assumed that spares for the mini would be expensive being BMW, but there are so many about now that the breakers should have the parts available. The information you found about the Mini, most of it would be available free just from the MOT history. The constant left side bulb being out could just be a case of cheap bulbs from Amazon/Ebay. And the economic write off was probably a caved in front wing/bonnet where the headlight alignment was bad at the the MOT, and based on the value of the car could easily write it off. A quick Google shows a new bonnet install costing over £1k, so there's an economic write off. If you know what you are doing or had a friend to do the work you could do it for a fraction of the costs.

[@thecloughnetwork]

Great video - just a tiny detail - it's the attention to detail in me - In the graph where you have the green to red - the i10 magically changed to i20. Sorry Ash but it's that's the analyst in me.

[@skylarius3757]

I passed my test in 2005 and my 1st car was a used Ford Ka from 2003. I took my dad with me when I got it.

[@nickhoughton7025]

I'd been driving about 6 years when I got my Alfa Romeo Giulietta cloverleaf. It was cheaper to insure than any perfomance hatch and cheaper than my outgoing corsa C 1.4 exclusiv. A lesser performance giulietta worth a look for sure.

[@Nathan-dm9wr]

I’ll throw my recommendation in, my first car was a 2013 Citroen DS3. Lovely first car with a great equipment level as standard. While you’ll struggle to meet the budget of £1,500, if you can stretch to £2,500 or even £3,000, you’d get a great car. And the insurance on them tends to be lower prices because they aren’t so commonly picked and therefore crashed. I was £1,700 for my first year at 19 with no driving experience.

[@The_Noticer.]

Recommending a 1.2 Pureshite wetbelt engine? C'mon man....

[@gamesmaster1060]

​@@The_Noticer. I personally think the wet belt issues could be exaggerated. There tonnes of pure tech and ecoboost engines on the road. A lot of it is caused by people using the wrong oil and using engine flush chemicals.

[@The_Noticer.]

@@gamesmaster1060 but there are countless options with chains available, so why take the gamble, or the hassle when you need to replace it.

[@bordersw1239]

@@gamesmaster1060. If it is exaggerated my have they re-designed the engine so it now doesn’t have a wet belt?

[@BangaBuseslad]

Ashley, this is brilliant. This will help so many others 🙂 car insurance premiums is an utter joke for what you pay!

[@MrBwian]

Those insurance quotes are scary! My 2014 2.0 Mazda 3 at a little over £300 for comprehensive insurance wasn't too bad (50+ experienced driver returning to 4 wheels with NO no claims bonus) I would hate to be a new young driver today Age and experience sure does have its benefits!

[@zahkgames5812]

My first car was a 3.2 Shogun. Probably not ideal for a learner but I basically lived in that truck for the amount of hours I spent driving it.

[@masterbrown8959]

Great video. Was lucky enough to own a Suzuki swift from new for 5 years. Great car, never had any major problems, would recommend the 1 litre turbo booster jet engine as very nippy and more power over the 1.2, both good engines however. A great car to learn to drive in also, especially having a manual option. Had a black box to begin with and sometimes worked nights at the time, but my insurance seemed to be fine with me driving at night, important to read the company terms and conditions before buying insurance. 🙂

[@lfcStu93]

Love the idea for this series ash, i would say though another car that could be an alternative could be a skoda fabia. With skoda being owned by vw theyre basically an Aldi version of a polo 😂😂

[@ashley_neal]

I had a W Reg Skoda Fabia myself and it was a great car. The choices that I have highlighted are not set in stone!

[@philipsmith9688]

@@lfcStu93 Skodas are a cracking alternative if you want a cheap VW though I’ve never liked the styling of the 07-12 plate Fabias, the Seat Ibiza from the same era is a better styled car I think

[@itsaderpyturtle5491]

And here I was thinking it was crazy that I had to pay over £1600 to insure my first car a few years ago (09 fiesta, which also cost 1600 lol) And I've heard it's even worse for new drivers who only drive auto, as much as 2x what it would be for the manual equivalent 😬

[@steveGee5787]

I remember being quoted over £2000 on a Fiat Cinquecento 900cc 20 years ago and I thought that was bad! Looking at the prices now (plus the proliferation of black boxes which were in their infancy back in my day!) you have to feel for those starting out today... 😬

[@Chambers36TheEnter]

Your 2k 20 years ago is equivalent to £3200 given the inflation. I guess people had a bit more disposable income back then but not a lot seems to have changed.

[@sgttoxiiczz]

This couldn't have come at a better time with my test in March. Cheers, Ashley. Legend. Edit: These insurance quotes are insane. For me, a male, in my mid 30's, with 0 no claims, my average quote is around £1500 give or take, for the same cars.

[@The_Noticer.]

mid 30's being the key difference here.

[@Mph_cars]

I was looking at getting a 1.0 litre Kia Rio or cee’d for my first car. Insurance is quite expensive but I will get insured under someone’s else’s name as a second driver. This is a lot cheaper considering it’s only a 1.0 litre engine.

[@ollycollie]

Ashley, did you check quotes with other excess amounts? A couple of years ago when doing my renewal checks, I changed my quote details from my usual zero voluntary excess to two hundred and fifty pounds, since that was offered as a free excess by one of the major comparison sites. I was surprised that it lowered my monthly premium by a mere seventy-five pence. A bit of experimentation revealed that a one hundred and fifty voluntary excess lowered my monthly cost by around fifty pence, while a two hundred pound voluntary excess actually increased my monthly premium by thirteen pence, against having no voluntary excess at all. All other quote request details remained identical. Now I was mid-sixties at the time, so I'm not saying you'd get a similar outcome for a teenager, but it may be worth an hour or two playing with the numbers to to see if there's any pattern, or maybe an unexpected sweet spot, which may benefit your viewers or their family.

[@skylarius3757]

Depending upon where you live, whatever car you drive may need to meet emission targets like ULEZ or Clean Air Zones.