Car for 21 year old

Hi all, looking for collective ideas on a car for a 21 year old 6ft male.

My nephew has had a rough year, father took his life at home 20 weeks ago and my nephew found him and conducted CPR whilst awaiting emergency services. It was a few weeks before his uni finals which I got shifted to end of August.

He wants to train as a medical doctor but missed the intake year now so plans on hold for 12 months.

We are looking to get him some paid work experience as father had no life insurance, had just left his job and had no will in place so family finances are strained whilst we sort out intestacy and probate etc. Obviously they are quite proud and don’t want hand outs so a little paid work experience gives him the opportunity to contribute.

Likelihood though is he will need to travel in a 25 mile radius to a job so he needs a car.

He is adamant he doesn’t want a black box and wants a bit more pep than a 60 bhp town car. Obviously we cannot go crazy here but he deserves something nice and he is a lovely caring young man so why not.

What ideas do people have? Car budget £5k to £10k, manual, big enough for a 6 ft lad, 10 to 11 sec 0-60 etc.

Insurance no more than £1500 per year.

Thanks in advance.


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Condolences to you and your nephew, hope things work out for him.

WRT the car, I think insurance will be the crucial factor, as you seem to have a decent budget.

Something like a UP/Mii/Citigo will certainly fit a 6ft adult and insurance should be low. Not sure it will fit the "street cred" criteria though.

Something like a 1.0/1.2 Peugeot 208 or Renault Clio might fit the bill too.

Good luck.

The ford 1ltr eco boost engine sounds like a good fit.

Not quick but fun and plenty for a first time driver.

The fiestas are in your price range, anything from 2015 to 2017

The st line looks to come with some nice options and looks a bit more interesting than other trims.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...sort=relevance

We have a VW Up! and I’m 6ft and can drive it fine.
It doesn’t have the power he might like but I’m sure there is a sportier version as well.
Pretty low insurance.
Or in the same vein but a bit bigger and more powerful, how about a Polo?

Or, left field, is it worth seeing what the insurance would be on an older BMW 3 series? Thinking spend less on the car and more on the insurance?

Condolences and best wishes. Personally I think the Seat Ibiza; especially as a 3 door with its almost Coupe-like good looks in FR trim and a small 1.2TSi engine should tick all boxes. They are fun cars, I had one as a hire car in Spain, plus it’s available with the DSG gearbox if he wants an auto.

Sorry to hear about his situation, that must have been a immense ordeal for him.

If you’re looking to keep the insurance low then you’ll need to use a few comparison sites, the general advice unfortunately is to stick to cars that are unappealing to the younger new driver.

So for example Honda Jazz or Civic, Skoda Fabia or Roomster, Mercedes A class, Ford Focus.

It’s also worth comparing quotes to Fiestas, Corsas or Minis to give an idea of the differences in cost, it might be worth pushing the boat a bit in this case.

No idea how much insurance would be but a cracking car for very little money.

https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...2-OT-Cheap-SUV

You could put the money saved towards insurance maybe.

Cheers,
Gary

There's a few Honda Civics 1.4, 1.6 diesels 0-60 circa 10 seconds, 0 road tax. Circa 4k to 5k.

I got both of my sons Ford Focus 1.0 eco boost’s when they passed their tests at 17. Think they were just under 10k at the time and around 3 years old (can’t quite remember). Solid cars. Not fast but easily adequate. One son is 5.10, the other is 6.2 and fine for him. Quite a nice sized car too and can take 4 people no problem. Have driven them myself at times. Eldest son sold his as he’s moved to London but youngest still has his after 3 1/2 years and no intention of selling. Has taken it to Cardiff Uni this year.

Big VW Up! fan here. (Perhaps a Honda Jazz is a better car, but the Up! looks nicer, I think).

For your price bracket, there must be a lot of those for sale. If you go the Up! route, a few pointers:

• Larger people will fit easily. (I'm 6ft and the seat was more or less 'halfway')
• Powerwise, there are some easy upgrades (software)
• Very early cars suffered from a leaky front window; check the carpets.
• When buying a second hand car: check the airco and the g'box oil level. Both systems/reservoirs are filled to the lowest possible level when the car came out of the factory!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rod

There's a few Honda Civics 1.4, 1.6 diesels 0-60 circa 10 seconds, 0 road tax. Circa 4k to 5k.

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Civic is a good shout, got good 'cred' with the yoofs and very reliable.

Ford Fiesta or Focus with the 1.0 Ecoboost engine. Should be insurance friendly, maintenance and servicing won’t be too bad, fuel economy decent… but they do them in sporty trims with this engine, so it has a degree of street cred and ‘wow’ factor (in the context of a 21 year old) with the nicer wheels, body kit, spoiler, etc.

You should be spoilt for choice with these too, so hopefully you can find a really good example comfortably in budget.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by r.dawson

The ford 1ltr eco boost engine sounds like a good fit.

Not quick but fun and plenty for a first time driver.

The fiestas are in your price range, anything from 2015 to 2017

The st line looks to come with some nice options and looks a bit more interesting than other trims.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...sort=relevance

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Depends on what you call quick my mrs has a fiesta 1.0 eco boost and its very nippy with almost sports car handling

My wife has recently bought a Suzuki Ignis, top of the range model with loads of gizmos, it was 15.5k on the road, so sub 10k should get decent ones. I'm 6ft and it's perfectly comfort me and it averages over 60mpg from its hybrid motor, we have seen it return over 80mpg on a gentle run. Its nippy and great fun to drive. Insurance, servicing etc all cheap also.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...95573db52d.jpg

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WRT to Ford's 1.0 Eco boost engines - that's a good shout but avoid early ones as they had issues IIRC. From around 2014/15 should be fine, again IIRC. Anyway, for your budget your probably looking at 2/3/4 year old car anyway.

My son - over 6 feet tall - just passed his test and drives a VW Street Up which cost about 5k used from a vw dealership. It’s a great car, looks sporty and drives well and when he passed his test a couple of months ago the insurance was £1300, no black box. His mates who have Corsa’s and Fiestas pay almost double the insurance and all like his car. Amazingly it can carry four 6 foot lads, has a decent sized boot and even a full size spare! I’m very impressed tbh


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Here are some left field choices that are not too bad in insurance

- Suzuki Swift Sport (2012 to 2016 model)
- Alfa Romeo Mito (95 or 105 BHP model)
- Fiesta Zetec S/ST Line - 2008-2017 models but specifically the 1.4 for lower insurance

Also a far out choice that is different but may pleasantly surprise him on insurance is a Mercedes W124 E220 CE pillarless coupe. Built like a tank with classic styling and will get you your money back when you want to change.

Thanks all for the advice. I will research each option and then see which takes his fancy.


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My car is on SC right now - if you want to check. It will be available in October - do PM if you want. So sorry about the circumstances.

https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...2010-59-plate)

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...VRVCXMv-XL.jpg

Selling for £3,500

Skoda Fabia? I’m 6ft and can drive my wife’s no problem at all.

My 6 ft 4” mate used to drive a Skoda Citigo quite comfortably as well.

Skoda’s are still great bang for buck cars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by r.dawson

The ford 1ltr eco boost engine sounds like a good fit.

Not quick but fun and plenty for a first time driver.

The fiestas are in your price range, anything from 2015 to 2017

The st line looks to come with some nice options and looks a bit more interesting than other trims.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...sort=relevance

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I ended up driving a Focus 1.0 ST Line for a year and it was a really nice car - constantly returning 39.9 mpg and very well equipeed with everything you could want really.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by r.dawson

The ford 1ltr eco boost engine sounds like a good fit.

Not quick but fun and plenty for a first time driver.

The fiestas are in your price range, anything from 2015 to 2017

The st line looks to come with some nice options and looks a bit more interesting than other trims.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-det...sort=relevance

---

I ended up driving a Focus 1.0 ST Line for a year and it was a really nice car - constantly returning 39.9 mpg and very well equipeed with everything you could want really.

Possibly a silly answer but just consider it a different viewpoint.

By 21 insurance has dropped to a level where you can actually get something a bit more interesting especially if you're/he's flexible on what he wants.

In my case & circa 20yrs ago I really wanted a, BMW coupe, Supra, Impreza, Cossie, etc... but the insurance was £2k+.
Fortunately I found if you looked a bit more niche i.e. cars the young don't really drive the insurance was "only" £900 examples included Celica Gt-Four & 328i Tourings.
Ended up a mega mile e36 328i Touring and genuinely one of the best cars I've ever owned despite the mileage.

Edit - This is in a very average area of Manchester so insurance isn't cheap

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paulpsz008

Possibly a silly answer but just consider it a different viewpoint.

By 21 insurance has dropped to a level where you can actually get something a bit more interesting especially if you're/he's flexible on what he wants.

In my case & circa 20yrs ago I really wanted a, BMW coupe, Supra, Impreza, Cossie, etc... but the insurance was £2k+.
Fortunately I found if you looked a bit more niche i.e. cars the young don't really drive the insurance was "only" £900 examples included Celica Gt-Four & 328i Tourings.
Ended up a mega mile e46 328i Touring and genuinely one of the best cars I've ever owned despite the mileage.

Edit - This is in a very average area of Manchester so insurance isn't cheap

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Agreed- lots of more interesting cars in the slightly more elderly bracket. E36 BMWs are cheap as chips now, some might make it to classic status at some point (318iS maybe)?

When way daughter hit 18, we bought her a mini - the really odd thing was that the one we bought her, a diesel Cooper, was waaaay cheaper to insure than the car we had originally gone to buy - a bog standard Mini One. It was 3 years old at the time and we paid £7k.

She still has it 3 years later, at 21, and paid £390 this year for insurance. It’s easily big enough for me at 6’2 and goes pretty well too.

Worth a look?

Thanks all, some good ideas here. I think I will set up insurance quotes for each option and go from there.


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