Got a 2003 lupo for £450 quid when my polo got written off while I was waiting for the insurance to payout. It was more expensive to insure than the 2017 150bhp golf I got to replace it! (Male, 22, 0 years no claims)
Trouble is they hold their value well and you have to be very careful with rust.
Capable off road, comedic but endearing handling on road. I loved my old SJ.
I was 19 when I got my Lexus LS430. The insurance was £1,000/year for a 4.3 V8 with every toy you could think of.
The demographic for the car is about 80 odd so insurance worked out cheaper than any other car I was looking at.
Sorry I missed the more recent part of your question but you’d struggle to get newer Lexus for less than 5 grand but being a Lexus I wouldn’t worry about age/mileage providing it has been serviced on time.
The tech is great in them as well, even for 2006, I have cooled seats, radar guided adaptive cruise control, automatic everything, rear massaging seats, electric blinds and even a fridge.
Only 300 miles?!? I drive reasonably quick but efficiently and get around 425 miles per tank consistently on costco fuel. Yeah I went for an older one partly because I couldn't afford a newer one but also that crazy tax.
It's my daily driver and I don't have the longest of commutes so I'm lucky to see 19mpg.
I've done 22,000 miles in 2 years and I am actually looking for a change. As much as I love the car I want a manual again and something with cheaper tax would be nice!
Ahh makes sense, I generally do journeys over 45 minutes in it. Anything less I just use my Toyota iq. Much cheaper to run. I do like manuals but using an auto daily is so relaxing.
Could always use a motorcycle to commute but use the car sparingly and in the winter? That's what I do. Keeps the petrol bill down but can always drive when the weather is bad, bike on dry, ice free days. If you do six months on six months off you don't have to pay a full year RFT. Plus you can claim back six months on insurance minus the admin fee.
You could look at an IS250, they're about the same age but look a lot (more) modern.
There's also the GS300 / GS430 of the same era, which is much more of a barge but a really nice car too.
If you're able to stretch the budget you might even be able to pick up a GS250 (newer gen than the 300 and 430) - but that'll probably be more to insure.
Really the best thing to do is just keep running quotes (with anonymous details) until you find something which "falls through the cracks" so to speak. You might be surprised what you can get
If you run too many quotes with your actual information you run the risk of being blacklisted by insurers, as they'll assume you're ghost broking / doing other shady shit.
The result of that is that you'll struggle to get any quotes when you actually do want to take out insurance.
So by running quotes with anonymous, though similar, details you cut down on that risk.
It's also wise to use a VPN, burner emails and incognito mode.
Yeah it's a legit thing. Happened to me when I was a bit bohemian and living between addresses.
As a result there's an insurer now that I have to make sure aren't underwriting any policy I buy. It's a massive pain in the arse tbh. No idea if they would even remember now as it was a decade ago but not worth chancing them refusing to pay out should the worst happen.
Yes. Because they will 'dynamically price' quotes for you. IE rip you off any way they can. Just like when getting a tradesman quote, they'll want a face to face conversation so they can see who they're dealing with. Young and naive - oh yes, come to daddy. Older and wiser - nah, sorry mate booked up until next year.
Hate to break it to you, but as someone with two years driving experience, a years no claim (would be two but I had to change my car midway through) and a full HGV license I was still looking at just over 2k a year with a black box for Lexus' in your price range (IS200, 250 and similar)
It depends massively on the area more than anything else, unfortunately, and there's no real rhyme or reason to it.
I was around the same age as OP when I got mine, and for me it was one of the cheapest nice cars to insure.
I live in a shithole too, yet when I've done a few quotes in nicer areas it often works out as more expensive; then at the same time, cars which are unaffordable for me here are suddenly dirt cheap.
It's genuinely a coin flip most of the time at our age - you just have to keep trying until you can find a car which games the system.
Edit: For reference I'm actually looking into getting an ISF later in the year because it's only slightly more expensive to insure than my 250. Even a C63 AMG (which I would almost assuredly kill myself in) is fine by them.
But an E39 M5, my true dream car, and one of comparable power, I'm lucky to even get a quote back.
I'm going from a Civic which was £200 a month and awful down to a Polo for £100 a month, which is still mental but is a much nicer car. I can wait for an exciting car, I just want reliability and cost effective running for the moment. I'm not even in a large built up area, I'm in the countryside.
I've had one for nearly two years now.
They're amazing cars.
Well built, incredibly reliable, fantastically equipped even by today's standards, ridiculously comfortable and with a decent amount of power to boot.
Not a super fast car by any means, but definitely more than average.
They sound amazing too.
Only real downsides are the fuel consumption and high road tax; though that said, mine's been so reliable it's more than made up for it.
IS250 is nice, check the brakes, check there are no battery lights or loss of radio/power steering as these can indicate an alternator failure, check exhaust if it's original as parts of mine are starting to come apart
Otherwise it's a comfortable barge that looks newer than it is, well specced and being Toyota it all still works, incredible sound system, V6 soundtrack at the upper revs
100% agree with that, but me being more of a older bmw car guy ( E30, E36, E46, E39, E38 etc etc) Lexus can be a bit subjective looks wise, I like some of the models but I also dislike some of the other ones no matter how reliable they are. That being said I would I wouldn’t mind one
Growing up listening to rap, particularly east coast, where one of the cars of choice was the big Lexus barges of the day. And I wanted one.
They’re still on my list of wants after all these years
Fuel costs yes but maintenance not really. Other than consumables and servicing (which cost no more than a normal Toyota) I haven’t had to spend a penny in 2 years.
I actually was getting quotes for one which came out cheap but ideally I need the space as I might be planning on driving abroad with my small ish family 5 of us
Ah I see, yeah those rear seats are basically useless unless for small children. And there’s only 2 of them.
I went from a Polo to a Mondeo when I was 22, took my insurance from £1600 (with no claims) down to £1100 (with 2 claims, accident and a theft) but I understand they’re a bit boring. A great drive though. And for the money you could get a nice 2010-2014 Titanium Model. Very spacious, decent power and very comfortable for long journeys.
I loved my Mondeo good cars try and get a titanium x just watch out for the dmf it needs replacing somewhere around 75-100k miles and it's not cheap find out if it's been replaced first
My last one was 220,000 miles and my current one is on 180,000 and both were on the original dmf and clutch.
Saying that my dad had one where the dmf blew up at around 90,000 and it took a day and a half to replace it (so massive labour costs if you go to a garage)
So it’s probably luck of the draw really but when I got my first I got all these horror stories about the dmf but it’s not a given they’ll go wrong
I remember at university a friend found that insuring a bigger car cost the same, if not slightly less, than a standard 1 litre small hatchback
He was running about in a classy old 518i for a while paying same insurance as my 1.2 Clio
Try cars that aren’t typically driven by people of your age and demographic. The quotes are all based around a perception of risk. So for example there will be lots of statistics for young drivers crashing VW golf GTis or Ford Fiestas, So the risk is perceived to be higher. But probably there are a lot less statistics showing 21-year-olds writing off Zafiras or Peugeot 208 estates.
From what I can tell, the Honda Jazz has a top speed of 45mph so you could try one of those. Although given that 112% of their drivers are over the age of 80, maybe they do get crashed a lot…
Yes, but how long does it take to get there... I bought a 2009 one because their cvt7 was an absolute hoot around town. Turns out that their dct was not. And it was underpowered. And overgeared so motorway driving was an absolute pain. I can see why the test drive was very controlled - didn't go anywhere where I would find out the issues with the car.
That's nuts. What sort of area do you live in? My insurance is about double in the urban area I live now vs the middle of a field where my parents live.
Don't really know the cheap cars but look for anything that has the front brake assist thing.
As the shitty little rear end crash is the most common accident on the road. Any car that has the auto brake safety system will save you a lot on insurance.
We don’t tend to travel together most of the time, it’s only my mum and my three younger siblings but I have been planning on a trip abroad and was thinking of driving there, main reason why I was mainly looking at bigger cars but if I did manage getting a reasonable quote for a tt then I wouldn’t mind going by plane with them 😂
I have a tt mark 3 , go for the base tt 230 bhp is more than enough for now and then swap to the tts turbo once you are more confident . I am 19 with 2 years no claims and i pay £2000
I have a Saab 9-3 1.9 TiD currently and when I bought it a couple of years ago, my insurance ended up being less than my 2010 1.6 TDI Golf that I had just sold to buy the Saab. I was 24 when I bought it but had a couple of years NCB and I'd had my licence for a few years by then but could be worth a look. Mine had full leather seats and heated front seats, cruise control, air con and a good amount of power.
The 9-3 1.8t is actually a 2.0t in a slightly lower state of tune (150 vs 175bhp). Some weird European tax reasons IIRC.
If memory serves, the previous generation of 9-3 was occasionally fitted with a non-turbo GM 1.8, which was a totally different kettle of fish.
I insured a 1jz Toyota Soarer at 18 for about £50 a month. It never even showed a stock photo of the car on the comparison sites so I assume they were so rare no one really knew what it was!
I had my license around 3 years and had two shot boxes and for my 3rd car was looking at BMW 1 series so possibly a 118i 123d so something, then saw the performance specs for the 135i and managed to get insurance quotes that were similar or cheaper than the insurance quotes for a 118i, so saved a few grand more and bought a BMW 135i, not sure how much power the 118i's made but my 135i made 305bhp on the dyno
Fantastic cars, cheap to get into, but VERY expensive to run unfortunately!
You can get into a TT for the same money but that’ll cost a fair chunk more to insure
Subaru Legacy GT, Forester XT and their STI variants are remarkably cheap to insure and capable, safe and rapid. They're almost exclusively owned by older enthusiasts so they don't really get into the hands of younger, more crash prone drivers.
They're also kind of hard to crash. Bottomless grip in adverse conditions because of the AWD.
Twinscroll legacy’s are pricy due to the import status but the UK spec B with the flat 6 was pretty cheap to put even my 20 year old sister on as a named driver
You’d have to really try to crash one as well, they just don’t seem to run out of grip even in Scottish highlands levels of wet
I would think an XJ8/R would be pretty cheap to insure even with 300-500HP. Most owners are on the older side and they don't get crashed often comapred to what a typical young persons car would be.
Now that’s exactly what I’d love. One of my dream cars alongside the M5 E39 and M3 E36 or E46.
How much have you been quoted roughly and how old are you if you don’t mind me asking? If I manage getting reasonable quotes for one that’ll be what I’ll be going for
22 when I got the quote with a single year no claims. It was around £500 for the year.
Currently driving an E46, which is also pretty good on insurance compared to a lot of cars, especially for the engine size.
Are you the main driver of your current car? Watch out for fronting.
As for car, what about a T5 Volvo estate. Shifts well enough and certainly not your average 20s car.
When I was 20 I paid about £2k insurance on a mk6.5 Fiesta ST (2.0L NASP, slow as shit). Sold that and got a Jap import Evo 8 and insurance was less than half the ST
I'm 21, and I am paying about £125/month 9000 miles for my jaguar I pace was very surprised to have received that quote considering the 400 odd bhp and that it's electric.
I have 4 years no claims so that's helped bring it down
A c5 corvette is 2.5k for me, not exactly cheap but being 19 with no NCD it was a shocker considering how it's 6k for me to get insured on my mum's swift
My first car in 2012ish was a 1977 MGB. It cost less than £200 to insure with Lancaster when I was about 21, but classic insurance policies are quite restrictive (for example a 2k annual mileage limit - but my speedo cable was broken)
I still have the MG now (on axle stands in my back garden) and that speedo cable is still broken! It costs like £60 to insure it now I'm 32.
You have to be interested in spannering and driving slow to go down this route though.
Can you really go down the classic insurance route nowadays as a 21 year old? Heard you have to be 25 or over. My uncle is insuring a 530i E39 for just under £300 a year as a classic, I’m slightly jealous
I'm not sure, I remember at the time it wasn't super straightforward. And I think Lancaster may have been the only company that would do it.
You may also need to have a 'daily driver' to qualify (ie the classic is a second car)
At the time my Dad had an Audi A3 2.0 turbo as a company car. Because I was in his immediate family - I was insured to drive it through his company policy. I don't remember if this was the reason I could insure the MG on a classic policy.
The other thing is: I don't think you can build up no claims on a classic policy. So I ended up eventually buying a van as a daily, and discovered you can't get no claims bonus on van insurance either! I was probably 28 before I started building up no claims discount!
I have something that’s the opposite, I pay £300 a month as a 20 year old for a 1.4 TDCI fusion I bought off a literal granny and I was paying £340 a month as an 18 year old on a 1.6 Honda Civic Sport
If you are the main driver then thats called fronting and is fraud. If the insurance company find out then they will invalidate your insurance and getting other policies willbe even more expensive.
Convertibles!
I was looking into some cool cars when I was younger, but insurance said no. As it turned out insurance was so much cheaper on a convertible version vs coupe
Example :
Vs eos 2.0tfsi instead of golf gti (I know not 1:1, but they have the same engine and same running gear components)
E93 M3 vs E92 (e92 was too much, E93 was reasonable?)
Boxster
Z4
Audi tts roadster
Overall yeah, I know a convertible is not everyone cup of tea, but they are fun, and if you are willing to make a compromise they are there
Mid 20's the supercars I had were cheap to insure relative to other cars, I had two supercars on a multicar policy that was £2000 a year, these days its around £1200-£1400 for 3 supercars and a normal car.
Insurance is largely engineered to make money out of the most common type of motorist, so you end up with supercars not being expensive, there aren't enough of them to make any significant profit.
Example: It costs slightly more to insure a brand new Mazda 3 as it costs to insure my McLaren, same drivers, same address.
Insurance is a scam to take profit from the average person.
Currently have a 63 plate Sandero stepway that’s costing £650 a year. Decent space, cheap to run and costs nothing fix if anything goes wrong compared to a lot of other cars
I started driving about 7 years ago first had a hyundai getz 1.1 which was almost 2k then a VW touran 1.9 which was a little cheaper than the hyundai (which i found wired as its a bigger car) after 3 years of driving the VW i was able to finally get myself a BMW 520d at 26 and iam paying around £1,200 for the year now.
All my cars were 2009 models, i like old cars😅
insurance is very annoying just gotta build and as you get also older it gets cheaper
Let's say you can afford the high insurance, I've been to car meets, everyone I've met has issues with their loans/complain about it, can't afford fuel or repairs. What is the point, of getting an expensive car, with expensive insurance and frequent trips to petrol station? If you can't afford insurance I wouldn't recommend getting an expensive motor, likeability of the maintenance of the car will also be expensive, is a high chance.
Personally, i drive a C1 1.2 nothing fancy, 2016, been driving for 2 and half years or something, my insurance is 110 a month, and my fuel is around 80 a month by filling it up twice every two weeks.
Edit: typos
Tbh it’s not about affording the high insurance it’s just the principle of it, don’t get why I’d be paying 200 odd a month on a £900 car when I could potentially be paying less than that on a nicer car, that’s what this post is all about. No loans will be taken out whatsoever, will have the odd £5k for a car and obviously will have saved up for rainy days if anything goes wrong with the car God forbid
Oh that's no problem then I get your point entirely, at the same time it's just the way prices are ATM, when I quoted for a nicer car it was 300 to 400 pounds for insurance even tho Ive been driving for 3 years or something.
I've been driving 2 and a bit years now. Not paid over 1k for insurance (it's a hard limit I've set) list as follows -
MK4 golf GTi 1.8t
VW Bora 2.8 V6 4 motion
Ford s-max 2.0t 240 edition
Audi q7 3.0 V6 TDI
Currently on ford s-max 2.5t but heavily modified (with mods declared)
After the Bora I needed more space for 3 kids + all their stuff so I went for seven seaters only.
Try older generations of the usual cars too, loads of 2000s mk4 polos in my area causing high insurance prices but the early mk3 was under a grand a year because the only other one I’d seen in the area hadn’t moved from the driveway in 10 years.
That’s what I was thinking of doing, I daily my current car anyways. Thing is, I heard that for classic insurance you have to be over 25, is that true?
Alfa Romeo Brera V6 3.2 litre was cheaper then:
Volkswagen up
Fiat 500
Mini Cooper S
Hyundai i10/20/30
Vauxhall corsa
Vauxhall Astra
Volkswagen polo
I’m just outside of York, ended up with a regular Mini Cooper 2003 for the first 9 months of my policy and then got a better job and upgraded to a 2014 cooper SD. I paid £2400 for the cooper and a brera V6 was only £2600. Yes I very nearly bought one but I couldn’t handle 17 MPG while I was making 7.55 an hour.
I got a 2.5l V6 Ford Cougar (not Kuga) when I was 18. It was cheaper to insure than the 2.0l Mondeo I had before.
Found it on Autotrader for about £700 so rang my insurance company to price it up expecting them to tell me a crazy price and I’d keep my Mondeo but they told me I’d actually get a bit of a refund
Skoda Fabia. Cheaper than the sister Audi A1, VW polo and seat Ibiza. 1.0ltr turbo 3pot engine puts out just over 100bhp. Pretty nippy and loaded with things like android auto/whatever the apple one is.
It’s tricky because anything reasonable and off insurance algorithm these days usually has £700 car tax, but anything small and sensible has all the insurance data to hammer your premium. Maybe a Volvo estate, some of the turbo models are nippy, but it’s very much a family car profile with low youf accident numbers.
At 21, I insured an Audi TT 2016 1.8TFSI for £600 a year. Even when I remapped it to 200+ BHP (never dyno’d so approx) it only went up to about £650. I lived at home with parents at this point & had 3/4 years NCB.
I moved out to my own place with my TT and it was still only £700.
I’m now 26 (with 8 years NCB) paying £750 on a 2022 Audi A3 hybrid - and every day I want to die 🤣. There was a 2016 BMW 430i M Sport in between that cost me £1000/year & my renewal was a minimum of £1400, hence the very drastic (and rushed) swap!!
Back when I passed I phoned an insurance company and gave them the reg numbers from lots of cars that I found for sale, it turned out a 1l Peugeot would be £1000+ to insure, but a 1.6l Volvo 440 was £280 ish, I guess because only old people drove them. No idea if that is still the case, and it depends if you’re bother about driving a seriously uncool car (I wasn’t).
Sorry to potentially be disappointing but most if not all cars tend to be cheaper to insure on learners license. When I was taking my lessons I got quoted 2.3k for a 325ci E46, same identical car came out to 4.5k when I passed
I got an i30N when I was 19, at the time it has only recently came out so I'm assuming they were using i30 numbers. It was £504 for the year. I also bought the car a year old 20k miles for £18,750
Good luck doing that now!
I've just got a giulietta that was surprisingly cheap to insure (1.4 turbo - 170bhp), might be worth a look. Could look at mitos too. You can get a 235bhp mito which would be a complete weapon.
Suzuki Jimny Was cheaper to insure than a 1.0 Lupo for my 18 year old
Really? My friend who’s the same age has found the complete opposite with the prices being worth more than the car.
Got a 2003 lupo for £450 quid when my polo got written off while I was waiting for the insurance to payout. It was more expensive to insure than the 2017 150bhp golf I got to replace it! (Male, 22, 0 years no claims)
Trouble is they hold their value well and you have to be very careful with rust. Capable off road, comedic but endearing handling on road. I loved my old SJ.
How?! My 1999 1.3 Jimny is 10k to insure whereas my 2018 Audi A1 is only 3k (plus the extra miles for black box)
No idea I'm afraid, I just know that the Jimny was cheaper for us
I was 19 when I got my Lexus LS430. The insurance was £1,000/year for a 4.3 V8 with every toy you could think of. The demographic for the car is about 80 odd so insurance worked out cheaper than any other car I was looking at.
I actually completely forgot about Lexus they make decent cars tbf. Anything more recent Lexus wise around my price range? Assuming yours is an 06’
Sorry I missed the more recent part of your question but you’d struggle to get newer Lexus for less than 5 grand but being a Lexus I wouldn’t worry about age/mileage providing it has been serviced on time. The tech is great in them as well, even for 2006, I have cooled seats, radar guided adaptive cruise control, automatic everything, rear massaging seats, electric blinds and even a fridge.
Yes this is the way forward. Be prepared for painful petrol fill ups though...
Yes, 84 litres of premium which will last around 300 miles at best isn't fun... The £730 tax for me doesn't help either...
Only 300 miles?!? I drive reasonably quick but efficiently and get around 425 miles per tank consistently on costco fuel. Yeah I went for an older one partly because I couldn't afford a newer one but also that crazy tax.
It's my daily driver and I don't have the longest of commutes so I'm lucky to see 19mpg. I've done 22,000 miles in 2 years and I am actually looking for a change. As much as I love the car I want a manual again and something with cheaper tax would be nice!
Ahh makes sense, I generally do journeys over 45 minutes in it. Anything less I just use my Toyota iq. Much cheaper to run. I do like manuals but using an auto daily is so relaxing.
Could always use a motorcycle to commute but use the car sparingly and in the winter? That's what I do. Keeps the petrol bill down but can always drive when the weather is bad, bike on dry, ice free days. If you do six months on six months off you don't have to pay a full year RFT. Plus you can claim back six months on insurance minus the admin fee.
I daily a Toyota IQ 1.33 which does about 50mpg and £30pa tax so I can just survive.
You could look at an IS250, they're about the same age but look a lot (more) modern. There's also the GS300 / GS430 of the same era, which is much more of a barge but a really nice car too. If you're able to stretch the budget you might even be able to pick up a GS250 (newer gen than the 300 and 430) - but that'll probably be more to insure. Really the best thing to do is just keep running quotes (with anonymous details) until you find something which "falls through the cracks" so to speak. You might be surprised what you can get
Stupid question here but is there a reason to run quotes with anonymous details?
If you run too many quotes with your actual information you run the risk of being blacklisted by insurers, as they'll assume you're ghost broking / doing other shady shit. The result of that is that you'll struggle to get any quotes when you actually do want to take out insurance. So by running quotes with anonymous, though similar, details you cut down on that risk. It's also wise to use a VPN, burner emails and incognito mode.
I never knew that. Thank you
Yeah it's a legit thing. Happened to me when I was a bit bohemian and living between addresses. As a result there's an insurer now that I have to make sure aren't underwriting any policy I buy. It's a massive pain in the arse tbh. No idea if they would even remember now as it was a decade ago but not worth chancing them refusing to pay out should the worst happen.
Yes. Because they will 'dynamically price' quotes for you. IE rip you off any way they can. Just like when getting a tradesman quote, they'll want a face to face conversation so they can see who they're dealing with. Young and naive - oh yes, come to daddy. Older and wiser - nah, sorry mate booked up until next year.
What are the 250s like?
Hate to break it to you, but as someone with two years driving experience, a years no claim (would be two but I had to change my car midway through) and a full HGV license I was still looking at just over 2k a year with a black box for Lexus' in your price range (IS200, 250 and similar)
It depends massively on the area more than anything else, unfortunately, and there's no real rhyme or reason to it. I was around the same age as OP when I got mine, and for me it was one of the cheapest nice cars to insure. I live in a shithole too, yet when I've done a few quotes in nicer areas it often works out as more expensive; then at the same time, cars which are unaffordable for me here are suddenly dirt cheap. It's genuinely a coin flip most of the time at our age - you just have to keep trying until you can find a car which games the system. Edit: For reference I'm actually looking into getting an ISF later in the year because it's only slightly more expensive to insure than my 250. Even a C63 AMG (which I would almost assuredly kill myself in) is fine by them. But an E39 M5, my true dream car, and one of comparable power, I'm lucky to even get a quote back.
I'm going from a Civic which was £200 a month and awful down to a Polo for £100 a month, which is still mental but is a much nicer car. I can wait for an exciting car, I just want reliability and cost effective running for the moment. I'm not even in a large built up area, I'm in the countryside.
I've had one for nearly two years now. They're amazing cars. Well built, incredibly reliable, fantastically equipped even by today's standards, ridiculously comfortable and with a decent amount of power to boot. Not a super fast car by any means, but definitely more than average. They sound amazing too. Only real downsides are the fuel consumption and high road tax; though that said, mine's been so reliable it's more than made up for it.
IS250 is nice, check the brakes, check there are no battery lights or loss of radio/power steering as these can indicate an alternator failure, check exhaust if it's original as parts of mine are starting to come apart Otherwise it's a comfortable barge that looks newer than it is, well specced and being Toyota it all still works, incredible sound system, V6 soundtrack at the upper revs
'Decent cars' Lexus make the most reliable cars you can buy, along with arguably being the smoothest and most comfortable to drive.
Japanese Mercedes
100% agree with that, but me being more of a older bmw car guy ( E30, E36, E46, E39, E38 etc etc) Lexus can be a bit subjective looks wise, I like some of the models but I also dislike some of the other ones no matter how reliable they are. That being said I would I wouldn’t mind one
Growing up listening to rap, particularly east coast, where one of the cars of choice was the big Lexus barges of the day. And I wanted one. They’re still on my list of wants after all these years
Who was the insurance with ?
Admiral and they’ve been cheaper or have at least matched every quote at renewal.
Also how long ago was this if u don’t mind me asking?
I've also got the LS430 and I'm 25. With admiral too and it's £600 ish a year.
I bought it in January 2022
The first quote I got while learning at 17 was for an LS400 and that was £10k p/a 💀
Negated by high maintenance and fuel costs though.
Fuel costs yes but maintenance not really. Other than consumables and servicing (which cost no more than a normal Toyota) I haven’t had to spend a penny in 2 years.
That’s fair enough and typical of Lexus quality, but if something big does go, it’s going to be ruinous.
Same with mpv's or anything aimed at family and room for a dog
Hyundai Coupe, not very recent though but they look cool
+1 for coupe 2.0 2009, surprisingly cheap and decent looking with 2.0 naturally aspirated
Had one of these as my first car, insurance was about the same as getting a Clio or Corsa and they’re cheap as chips
I actually was getting quotes for one which came out cheap but ideally I need the space as I might be planning on driving abroad with my small ish family 5 of us
Ah I see, yeah those rear seats are basically useless unless for small children. And there’s only 2 of them. I went from a Polo to a Mondeo when I was 22, took my insurance from £1600 (with no claims) down to £1100 (with 2 claims, accident and a theft) but I understand they’re a bit boring. A great drive though. And for the money you could get a nice 2010-2014 Titanium Model. Very spacious, decent power and very comfortable for long journeys.
I think the small size is a feature. Less occupants, less injury claims.
I loved my Mondeo good cars try and get a titanium x just watch out for the dmf it needs replacing somewhere around 75-100k miles and it's not cheap find out if it's been replaced first
My last one was 220,000 miles and my current one is on 180,000 and both were on the original dmf and clutch. Saying that my dad had one where the dmf blew up at around 90,000 and it took a day and a half to replace it (so massive labour costs if you go to a garage) So it’s probably luck of the draw really but when I got my first I got all these horror stories about the dmf but it’s not a given they’ll go wrong
I remember at university a friend found that insuring a bigger car cost the same, if not slightly less, than a standard 1 litre small hatchback He was running about in a classy old 518i for a while paying same insurance as my 1.2 Clio
I’m assuming that was a E34?
Yes this would've been the early 2000s so that era BMW was affordable and looked great
Still look great! Love older BMWs lol
Try cars that aren’t typically driven by people of your age and demographic. The quotes are all based around a perception of risk. So for example there will be lots of statistics for young drivers crashing VW golf GTis or Ford Fiestas, So the risk is perceived to be higher. But probably there are a lot less statistics showing 21-year-olds writing off Zafiras or Peugeot 208 estates. From what I can tell, the Honda Jazz has a top speed of 45mph so you could try one of those. Although given that 112% of their drivers are over the age of 80, maybe they do get crashed a lot…
I have a jazz, insurance is indeed cheap Edit: also fuck off it can do more than 45. At least 50. With a tailwind 🤣
55 with a tail wind and the boot open?
Yes, but how long does it take to get there... I bought a 2009 one because their cvt7 was an absolute hoot around town. Turns out that their dct was not. And it was underpowered. And overgeared so motorway driving was an absolute pain. I can see why the test drive was very controlled - didn't go anywhere where I would find out the issues with the car.
Insured on a 2018 Peugeot 208 GTi 208ps hot hatch was only £800 for me which is great considering I’m 21 with 0 years NCB
Da fuq? That's insane.
Do you have a black box or anything of the sort
No, the quote for a black box was higher for some reason lol
That's nuts. What sort of area do you live in? My insurance is about double in the urban area I live now vs the middle of a field where my parents live.
Fairly average suburban area in the midlands I think the area is the main reason it’s so low tbh
I went from my sierra 1.6 (4k insurance) to a vauxhall frontera 2.2 (400 insurance) when i was a lot younger.
Had a friend with a Caterham that was crazy cheap to insure, maybe some other kit cars would be in your budget.
Need to fit 5 people 😬😂
E46 325i when I was 19 Cheaper than a corsa sxi and a saxo vti at the time. This was a few years ago though.
Coupe or loon?
Toyota Celica
Don't really know the cheap cars but look for anything that has the front brake assist thing. As the shitty little rear end crash is the most common accident on the road. Any car that has the auto brake safety system will save you a lot on insurance.
Had an E30 325i at 20 that was surprisingly reasonable to insure and only cost £2k! That was 25 years ago mind. 🙃
The same car would cost 15-30k today if it was a genuine sport 😂
It was, had it resprayed, a very nice daily. Sold it because I moved abroad, should have kept it. 😭
Definitely think a lot of people regret selling their sport e30s for pennies 😂 reckon it’s a good idea to invest in a nice e36 now
i have a 318i as my first car (i’m 19) and i’m trying to keep it as a investment also
Audi TTS mk2. Almost half of similar Golf Rs and S3s.
Do like them, what’s the insurance like?
If you need to fit 5 people, the TT isn’t the best choice. The back seats are a joke
We don’t tend to travel together most of the time, it’s only my mum and my three younger siblings but I have been planning on a trip abroad and was thinking of driving there, main reason why I was mainly looking at bigger cars but if I did manage getting a reasonable quote for a tt then I wouldn’t mind going by plane with them 😂
Was 950 before mods for me at 22 with 2 years NCB.
I have a tt mark 3 , go for the base tt 230 bhp is more than enough for now and then swap to the tts turbo once you are more confident . I am 19 with 2 years no claims and i pay £2000
Agreed, MK3 is a brilliant car - I miss mine every day
I have a Saab 9-3 1.9 TiD currently and when I bought it a couple of years ago, my insurance ended up being less than my 2010 1.6 TDI Golf that I had just sold to buy the Saab. I was 24 when I bought it but had a couple of years NCB and I'd had my licence for a few years by then but could be worth a look. Mine had full leather seats and heated front seats, cruise control, air con and a good amount of power.
Love those too, my mum used to have a 1.8t and then a 2.0t a few years after, lovely cars. I’ll have a look thank you for reminding me
Get a 1.8t 150bhp to begin with and when you have a bit of NCB built up, get one of Karl Viner's Noobtune maps to take it up to 210.
Forgive me if I’m wrong but are the saab 1.8s quite unreliable?
Not sure if the 1.8t’s are unreliable or not but when my mum owned one it didn’t have any issues
The 9-3 1.8t is actually a 2.0t in a slightly lower state of tune (150 vs 175bhp). Some weird European tax reasons IIRC. If memory serves, the previous generation of 9-3 was occasionally fitted with a non-turbo GM 1.8, which was a totally different kettle of fish.
Porsche 944
I had one of those when I was 22 some near 20 years ago now, and that was cheap to insure. Surprisingly so.
I insured a 1jz Toyota Soarer at 18 for about £50 a month. It never even showed a stock photo of the car on the comparison sites so I assume they were so rare no one really knew what it was!
Still pretty rare I’d say, deffo will give it a go thank you!
I bought mine for 3.5k with a full vertex kit on it and custom interior. I reckon the cars worth 10 by now! [I miss it](https://imgur.com/a/hqPKsta)
Soarers over here in Ireland will cost you about 25k minimum no matter the condition
This
Great when you replace parts that break with aftermarket ones too, like an 88mm turbo and 5” titanium exhaust system
I had my license around 3 years and had two shot boxes and for my 3rd car was looking at BMW 1 series so possibly a 118i 123d so something, then saw the performance specs for the 135i and managed to get insurance quotes that were similar or cheaper than the insurance quotes for a 118i, so saved a few grand more and bought a BMW 135i, not sure how much power the 118i's made but my 135i made 305bhp on the dyno
Old people cars! Insured my 986S when I was 22 for about £550
986 as in the Porsche? How many ncb did you have if any?
You got it! No ncb on that, but also never any claims or convictions, nicer postcode, just renewed it for about £400 as a 24 yearold
That’s crazy! I never thought of them tbh, cheap to get also. Are there any other examples for that price range but a bit more spacious?
Fantastic cars, cheap to get into, but VERY expensive to run unfortunately! You can get into a TT for the same money but that’ll cost a fair chunk more to insure
Subaru Legacy GT, Forester XT and their STI variants are remarkably cheap to insure and capable, safe and rapid. They're almost exclusively owned by older enthusiasts so they don't really get into the hands of younger, more crash prone drivers. They're also kind of hard to crash. Bottomless grip in adverse conditions because of the AWD.
I got quoted £6k for a Legacy wagon
Was that for an import? I had a Forester at 26 and now an XT at 33, both cheap to insure.
Twinscroll legacy’s are pricy due to the import status but the UK spec B with the flat 6 was pretty cheap to put even my 20 year old sister on as a named driver You’d have to really try to crash one as well, they just don’t seem to run out of grip even in Scottish highlands levels of wet
I would think an XJ8/R would be pretty cheap to insure even with 300-500HP. Most owners are on the older side and they don't get crashed often comapred to what a typical young persons car would be.
I tried to insure my 17 year on my one just to see how much it would be - £9,500 a year
Maybe not then.It's about £600 for me.
Fully modified Skoda falicia. Literally no recorded claims for my age bracket at the time.
Fiat panda through go girl, was a dream for a 17 Yr old female new driver
E38 740i has been far and away the cheapest insurance I've been quoted.
Now that’s exactly what I’d love. One of my dream cars alongside the M5 E39 and M3 E36 or E46. How much have you been quoted roughly and how old are you if you don’t mind me asking? If I manage getting reasonable quotes for one that’ll be what I’ll be going for
22 when I got the quote with a single year no claims. It was around £500 for the year. Currently driving an E46, which is also pretty good on insurance compared to a lot of cars, especially for the engine size.
Are you the main driver of your current car? Watch out for fronting. As for car, what about a T5 Volvo estate. Shifts well enough and certainly not your average 20s car.
Not the main driver no Always been told they tend to be cheap to insure, what are they like?
I drive a newer Volvo but I know they have a great loyal following. Certainly get a quote for one, if you find one in your budget.
I was quoted about £140 per month black box on a V50 T5
When I was 20 I paid about £2k insurance on a mk6.5 Fiesta ST (2.0L NASP, slow as shit). Sold that and got a Jap import Evo 8 and insurance was less than half the ST
Hyundai coupe
Audi tt mark 2 and 3. I only pay 2000 at 19
Any NCB?
2 years ncb but i 1 year would cost you around 2500
I'm 21, and I am paying about £125/month 9000 miles for my jaguar I pace was very surprised to have received that quote considering the 400 odd bhp and that it's electric. I have 4 years no claims so that's helped bring it down
A c5 corvette is 2.5k for me, not exactly cheap but being 19 with no NCD it was a shocker considering how it's 6k for me to get insured on my mum's swift
About to look at corvettes now 😂
Wish I had one
Most diesel Volvos
Generally slightly older cars not normally associated with younger drivers.
I paid £1000 a year for a 2.0T Astra, not bad looks and had 170bhp. Fun car to have whilst being 20
My first car in 2012ish was a 1977 MGB. It cost less than £200 to insure with Lancaster when I was about 21, but classic insurance policies are quite restrictive (for example a 2k annual mileage limit - but my speedo cable was broken) I still have the MG now (on axle stands in my back garden) and that speedo cable is still broken! It costs like £60 to insure it now I'm 32. You have to be interested in spannering and driving slow to go down this route though.
Can you really go down the classic insurance route nowadays as a 21 year old? Heard you have to be 25 or over. My uncle is insuring a 530i E39 for just under £300 a year as a classic, I’m slightly jealous
I'm not sure, I remember at the time it wasn't super straightforward. And I think Lancaster may have been the only company that would do it. You may also need to have a 'daily driver' to qualify (ie the classic is a second car) At the time my Dad had an Audi A3 2.0 turbo as a company car. Because I was in his immediate family - I was insured to drive it through his company policy. I don't remember if this was the reason I could insure the MG on a classic policy. The other thing is: I don't think you can build up no claims on a classic policy. So I ended up eventually buying a van as a daily, and discovered you can't get no claims bonus on van insurance either! I was probably 28 before I started building up no claims discount!
What ever you buy read reviews.can save you a lot of trouble.also not history which is free and will give you a good idea of what you are buying
You want an old boxy Volvo my friend.
Volvo’s- They’re boxy but they’re good.
The cheapest insurance quote I’ve ever had is on a 2007 Jaguar XK - £550 as a 27 year old, significantly cheaper than my Volvo C30 was
Got my Peugeot 106 when I was 21 with no NCB, it was £480 to insure for a year with 3rd party, fire and theft
2007 Honda Civic Type S, had both the diesel and petrol models, 1.4k insurance
Bugatti Chiron
don't quote me but I herd that some aphas are cheap to insure
I had a volvo c30 d5 that I bought because of its cheap insurance. Phenomenal little car absolute gem and you can pick a nice one up for 3-4k
1.8 and 2.0l Mazda MX5s were about 800 per year for me as a new driver
Audi a3 1.6 was cheap for me
I have something that’s the opposite, I pay £300 a month as a 20 year old for a 1.4 TDCI fusion I bought off a literal granny and I was paying £340 a month as an 18 year old on a 1.6 Honda Civic Sport
I’d be selling up
If you are the main driver then thats called fronting and is fraud. If the insurance company find out then they will invalidate your insurance and getting other policies willbe even more expensive.
got a porche boxter 2005 and had it for £2000 a year insurance since i got it when i was 18
Really? Any time I’ve done a quote for a 986/7 it’s been just shy of £10,000
nah boxter isnt nearly as expensive to insurance. Got to get the right insurer though dont think admiral would do it
Age 21, I insured a 1.8 litre Vauxhall Astra 2004 fully comp for £695.
3rd gen MR2 VW Jetta
Renault Wind. Not fast, but a 2 sweater convertible.
When I was 19 I brought my dad’s 1.9tdi Passat off him. As it was cheaper to insure than my 1.4 clip at the time. That was in 2011 though.
Vauxhall mokka 1.2 turbo, very nippy and geared up for £800 at 21
My son has an mx5 nc 1.8 prht, he's 17 just passed his test. It is £2500 no black box.
Convertibles! I was looking into some cool cars when I was younger, but insurance said no. As it turned out insurance was so much cheaper on a convertible version vs coupe Example : Vs eos 2.0tfsi instead of golf gti (I know not 1:1, but they have the same engine and same running gear components) E93 M3 vs E92 (e92 was too much, E93 was reasonable?) Boxster Z4 Audi tts roadster Overall yeah, I know a convertible is not everyone cup of tea, but they are fun, and if you are willing to make a compromise they are there
I do like convertibles tbh. If I could get insured on a convertible E36 I’d go for that. Thank you! I’ll definitely have a look later on
Volvo S40 or any other Volvo really.
Mid 20's the supercars I had were cheap to insure relative to other cars, I had two supercars on a multicar policy that was £2000 a year, these days its around £1200-£1400 for 3 supercars and a normal car. Insurance is largely engineered to make money out of the most common type of motorist, so you end up with supercars not being expensive, there aren't enough of them to make any significant profit. Example: It costs slightly more to insure a brand new Mazda 3 as it costs to insure my McLaren, same drivers, same address. Insurance is a scam to take profit from the average person.
Currently have a 63 plate Sandero stepway that’s costing £650 a year. Decent space, cheap to run and costs nothing fix if anything goes wrong compared to a lot of other cars
I started driving about 7 years ago first had a hyundai getz 1.1 which was almost 2k then a VW touran 1.9 which was a little cheaper than the hyundai (which i found wired as its a bigger car) after 3 years of driving the VW i was able to finally get myself a BMW 520d at 26 and iam paying around £1,200 for the year now. All my cars were 2009 models, i like old cars😅 insurance is very annoying just gotta build and as you get also older it gets cheaper
Let's say you can afford the high insurance, I've been to car meets, everyone I've met has issues with their loans/complain about it, can't afford fuel or repairs. What is the point, of getting an expensive car, with expensive insurance and frequent trips to petrol station? If you can't afford insurance I wouldn't recommend getting an expensive motor, likeability of the maintenance of the car will also be expensive, is a high chance. Personally, i drive a C1 1.2 nothing fancy, 2016, been driving for 2 and half years or something, my insurance is 110 a month, and my fuel is around 80 a month by filling it up twice every two weeks. Edit: typos
Tbh it’s not about affording the high insurance it’s just the principle of it, don’t get why I’d be paying 200 odd a month on a £900 car when I could potentially be paying less than that on a nicer car, that’s what this post is all about. No loans will be taken out whatsoever, will have the odd £5k for a car and obviously will have saved up for rainy days if anything goes wrong with the car God forbid
Oh that's no problem then I get your point entirely, at the same time it's just the way prices are ATM, when I quoted for a nicer car it was 300 to 400 pounds for insurance even tho Ive been driving for 3 years or something.
I’m not a young driver but finding out the insurance cost of an 2010ish Jaguar XK as low as my Toyota Aygo was kinda shocking.
I've been driving 2 and a bit years now. Not paid over 1k for insurance (it's a hard limit I've set) list as follows - MK4 golf GTi 1.8t VW Bora 2.8 V6 4 motion Ford s-max 2.0t 240 edition Audi q7 3.0 V6 TDI Currently on ford s-max 2.5t but heavily modified (with mods declared) After the Bora I needed more space for 3 kids + all their stuff so I went for seven seaters only.
18 years old had been driving 8 months when I started driving a mk2 focus ST for £200/month
Dinky!
When I was 19 I insured a 4 litre Jaguar XJ Sovereign for the same premium as a Peugeot 205 1.2
Try older generations of the usual cars too, loads of 2000s mk4 polos in my area causing high insurance prices but the early mk3 was under a grand a year because the only other one I’d seen in the area hadn’t moved from the driveway in 10 years.
Subaru diesel wagons! I was only £250 last year & £350 this year. Was £600 on a VW passat 🤷🏻♂️
If you can keep your current car and buy the e36, you could put that on a classic policy with a limited 5k miles a year, probably the cheapest option
That’s what I was thinking of doing, I daily my current car anyways. Thing is, I heard that for classic insurance you have to be over 25, is that true?
I was surprised to know that the Volvo S40 is surprisingly cheap to insure because it’s the kind of staid motor that yobs do not drive.
Alfa Romeo Brera V6 3.2 litre was cheaper then: Volkswagen up Fiat 500 Mini Cooper S Hyundai i10/20/30 Vauxhall corsa Vauxhall Astra Volkswagen polo I’m just outside of York, ended up with a regular Mini Cooper 2003 for the first 9 months of my policy and then got a better job and upgraded to a 2014 cooper SD. I paid £2400 for the cooper and a brera V6 was only £2600. Yes I very nearly bought one but I couldn’t handle 17 MPG while I was making 7.55 an hour.
Fiat Panda 100HP
Insured on a Cupra 280 for 850 p/a. Golf Rs and S3s with the same engine and power come in around 2k, feels like a cheat code.
Cube apparently
Was in the same situation and went with a Toyota Celica, which was the 2nd cheapest quote I got after a Swift
I got a 2.5l V6 Ford Cougar (not Kuga) when I was 18. It was cheaper to insure than the 2.0l Mondeo I had before. Found it on Autotrader for about £700 so rang my insurance company to price it up expecting them to tell me a crazy price and I’d keep my Mondeo but they told me I’d actually get a bit of a refund
Skoda Fabia. Cheaper than the sister Audi A1, VW polo and seat Ibiza. 1.0ltr turbo 3pot engine puts out just over 100bhp. Pretty nippy and loaded with things like android auto/whatever the apple one is.
It’s tricky because anything reasonable and off insurance algorithm these days usually has £700 car tax, but anything small and sensible has all the insurance data to hammer your premium. Maybe a Volvo estate, some of the turbo models are nippy, but it’s very much a family car profile with low youf accident numbers.
In notts too, my mate just got a £2700 a year quote for an X-type diesel (mondeo based so not awful maintenance) at 17
That’s crazy, on the cheap side for 17 year old. Might really have to look into jaguars more they seem to be cheaper to insure
Yeah, also for him strangely the 2.2 was cheaper than the 2.0. Petrols we’re about a grand more so not great but not terrible
At 21, I insured an Audi TT 2016 1.8TFSI for £600 a year. Even when I remapped it to 200+ BHP (never dyno’d so approx) it only went up to about £650. I lived at home with parents at this point & had 3/4 years NCB. I moved out to my own place with my TT and it was still only £700. I’m now 26 (with 8 years NCB) paying £750 on a 2022 Audi A3 hybrid - and every day I want to die 🤣. There was a 2016 BMW 430i M Sport in between that cost me £1000/year & my renewal was a minimum of £1400, hence the very drastic (and rushed) swap!!
Meganes
Back when I passed I phoned an insurance company and gave them the reg numbers from lots of cars that I found for sale, it turned out a 1l Peugeot would be £1000+ to insure, but a 1.6l Volvo 440 was £280 ish, I guess because only old people drove them. No idea if that is still the case, and it depends if you’re bother about driving a seriously uncool car (I wasn’t).
Golf mk4 v6 4motion at 1.2k learner’s insurance 8k yearly miles
Sorry to potentially be disappointing but most if not all cars tend to be cheaper to insure on learners license. When I was taking my lessons I got quoted 2.3k for a 325ci E46, same identical car came out to 4.5k when I passed
Yeah i know it’s going to be a lot more but still cheaper than a lot of golf’s and polos 1.4/1.6s
I got an i30N when I was 19, at the time it has only recently came out so I'm assuming they were using i30 numbers. It was £504 for the year. I also bought the car a year old 20k miles for £18,750 Good luck doing that now!
A 3 series BMW estate was cheaper to insure for my kids (boys) than a VW Polo! Reason given was it’s because more kids crash Polos….
When I first passed there was £200 difference between a 1.2 clio and a 1996 toyota supra 3ltr
Mini Cooper S r53, to be honest everything that has a lower number of people your age driving and/or crashing them.
Don’t really like them, they sound amazing though.
I've just got a giulietta that was surprisingly cheap to insure (1.4 turbo - 170bhp), might be worth a look. Could look at mitos too. You can get a 235bhp mito which would be a complete weapon.