Son about to be 17!

[ocallen]

Wonder if anybody can help me here ? Son about to be 17yrs old, unfortunately through my interest he is a car fanatic and I need to get insurance and buy a car. Would love to get him a 924 that needs work and he gets it on the road with my help but buying t is the easy bit. I need to get him a car that insurance is realistic and I need the insurance company.
Can anybody please advise ?

 

[tref]

Play around with different permutations on confused.com?

 

[sawood12]

What about a good old fashioned proper Austin Mini? A good 'fixer upper' project, cheap parts and widely available, not particularly fast but feels fast as hell, handles well so bags of fun, cheap tax, petrol and insurance (was in my day anyway) and a classic.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I think you'll have problems at 17. Might be easier to get a car that's simple to insure and build up a few clean years, then try at, say, 21 with 4 years no claims?

Insurers always want an "average" customer. Throwing a classic Porsche in the mix with a 17 year old might frighten them a bit! Worth a try though, it'll certainly teach him to handle a car properly and he'll be the envy of his peer group.

 

[dann944]

they'll insure him if you are on the insurance - however...... his premium would be £4100

 

[ChasR]

A friend of mine who was 19 was paying £1400 TPFT on his 924 living in Worthing when he had his.

Now he's got a rusty S2 and 2.5, and plans to strip the 924 to the shell and transfer the brakes off the S2 onto his and the suspension (renewed where required off the 2.5 and S2) and then tune either the S2 (pricey!) or the 2.0 already in it, in additon to getting the Carrera GTS look on the car. He's hoping for around 300BHP and a tidy car by the end of it. In case you are wondering his 924 is pretty tidy being a 1 owner car with 120,000 miles

 

[Peter Empson]

Does he need a car as such, and if he does can you justify two cars? How about getting a £200 runabout and letting him build some NCB on it whilst he works on the project 924, perhaps getting it ready for road use in a couple of years time? There's also nothing to stop you insuring it so you can drive him to airfield days or track events where he can learn to drive it properly (where insurance isn't normally needed, although I guess they may insist on him being 18 yr+).

 

[mik_ok]

How about something like an early MX5.

 

[homesea]

The scirocco would cost about the same as the 924, I had one as my 1st car! All I can think of is putting it in your name.

 

[tref]

Lets face it, anything interesting is interesting because in the hands of a 17year old, things could get, er, interesting!

With regards to a 2 year project to fix up a 924... does any 17 year old have that kind of attention span? I have come across a couple of kids in that situation that have not been able to resist the temptation to take it out when dad's not looking, obviously without insurance as a result.

I'd say a moped or a 125... great for learning road-craft... but you did specifically say "car"...

No slur on your kid intended... I just know what I was like... how many others wrote off their first car within the first six months or what-ever the statistics now suggest?

 

[ChasR]

What a generalisation the above is. When I was 17, I bought an MGB which I started to work on, but then my father gave it to a 'restorer'to finish, which made things worse than what they were. Now it's pretty much finished and all good with a number of different but period (where possible) additions. Again, another mate when 17 got a rotten Mini Pickup which he finished 2 years ago (took him 5 years to restore) which he got pretty much mint and original, down to the tyres (70s spec Dunlop Aquajets) and many trim details that simply are not available off the shelf today.

I didn't prang my car within 6 months of driving either. It took me 5 years to do that and a hideous week of work (my fault, I never drive in a tired state now), and again, majority of my mates didn't prang their cars either (one slid off the road as their electric steering decided to die LOL). As for what the stats suggest, it doesn't suggest that the majority of youngsters smash their cars up.

Another mate of mine had his parent's MG ZTT 160 as his first car for 3 years, again that was fine. There is a bit too much stereotyping present these days IMO.

 

[A.Wang]

Just a "trick" for young petrolheads not yet mentioned in this thread...while it is ridiculously expensive to insure a 17 year old guy on the lowest displacement Fiat/VW/Vauxhall or whatever, it is relatively cheap to get fully comp insurance on a 7-type kit car. I'd suggest a cheap-ish used Caterham/Westfield 7 clone for a few grand; it'll serve the dual purpose of teaching your son car control in a RWD car, and he'll get all the thrills he wants in something that's not massively over-powered. And he'll also learn how to fix it when it breaks, picking up valuable mechanics skills along the way!

A 924 will attract silly insurance premiums from insurance companies that are prepared to quote (most probably won't) - Bell and Elephant are best for young male drivers but I doubt the quotes will come in at anything vaguely resembling sensible.

 

[ChasR]

Peter Best *may* be doable for a 924 and youngsters, as may Lancaster. I pay £100 on the MGB via PB, and the Porker is insured via Lancaster for £600, both being Fully Comp and I am 24 too.

 

[mr brightside]

Aside from insurance costs you should consider the fact that in the first 6 months of driving he's at severe risk of crashing due to inexperience, i don't know what the statistics are but they're not in his favour. Imagine spending £1000 on a really nice well maintained car to hear it's been stuffed up the arse end of an Astra in the rain which is what happened to me within 2 months.

He needs to learn how to drive properly and handle a car in all conditions before moving to one with 120bhp and i'd second the suggestion of a Mini of a Mk1 Golf. Remember also a 924 is rear wheel drive.

Please don't think i'm being patronising because i don't mean it this way, but a rear drive car with 120bhp in the hands of a new driver is pretty dangerous.

 

[Mark Elder]

ORIGINAL: tref

... I just know what I was like... how many others wrote off their first car within the first six months or what-ever the statistics now suggest?

Yep, me too, and it was an Austin Mini. Just lucky it was a tree I slid off into and only one of the passengers had a minor injury.

They are great fun and teach you loads about handling - you can really feel the road through them.

 

[Fat Albert]

I used to drive a 924 at 17.......Unfortunately it was my Mum's and I used to 'borrow' it occasionally and take my mate out in it.[]
Funny, I now have a 944 and he has a 993....

I have often discussed the first car situation with Mates, if you look at the accident statistics for young drivers many of them are in small hatchbacks with 5 kids in, ie massively overloaded with a lot of distraction and not having a particularly high dynamic ability to begin with.

Putting your kid into something like an MX5 means that there will only ever be 2 people max in it, it will never get overloaded and they have better dynamic ability so they are less likely to get into a situation where they go beyond their handling/braking capabilities compared to a metro/saxo/106

There is also the question of pride, a kid in an MX5 (or Porker) will most likely take more care over their driving and their car, especially if they have some blood/sweat/tears in it, than someone given a Corsa.

It is a tough one, my eldest is 9 so a little way off, but I am starting to discuss it with my wife already

 

[si30boxsters]

Have you had any quotes yet?

Have you considered a chevette!? Front engine, RWD, cheap to run and insure, 80's cool..........................thinking outside the box of course!!

 

[tref]

... very safe because it'll spend more time off teh road being welded or tappets being adjusted than it will on... and then something will break before it'll let you do anything dangerous! (yes I had one...)

Tell me you put the "awesome!" after the wrong car on your signature line?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

how many others wrote off their first car within the first six months or what-ever the statistics now suggest?

I did with my Allegro after trying very hard. [][]

Trouble was they repaired the thing so I had it for years....[:'(]

 

[poprock]

Insuring new drivers can be an absolute pain on any car, let alone an interesting one.

Firstly, a classic policy is out of the question, because your son's just not old enough. Secondly, insuring it in your name with him as second driver is probably a bad idea because it stops him from building up any no claims of his own (which will be essential in bringing the price down over the coming years).

A lot of companies won't insure you on a Porsche under the age of 25, which is a pain.

I think you'll struggle to get insurance in your son's first year for less than twice the cost of the car. Peter's suggestion of a cheap runabout to drive while you restore the 924 seems sensible to me"”try and build up a little no claims in the meantime. For the cost of a wee banger and insurance, you might save a fair amount on the eventual Porsche insurance.

One last thing"”I think it's a great idea and wish I'd been lucky enough to have a Dad willing to help me get a Porsche on the road as a first car at that age! It's just a shame that there's no easy answer for you where insurance is concerned.