As a lot of the others are saying, go for the odd choice, something most of the age bracket doesnt buy.
Personally (although i was 19 not 17) I was torn between a Fiesta Zetec S and a ford capri. Same performance from both power and 0-60. But the capri was about 2k cheaper to insure.
So mid-small family car, or something unsual for a young person (Saab/skoda/land rover) would be your best bet.

Get something small and cheap to maintain, it's only your first car. You most likely will crash it, and then move on.

After you have driving experience, move on to the cars you would like to own.

Multipla is an automotive icon

Multipla will probably look nicer after crash...so yeah, go for it.

Multipla is like ugliest car I ever saw
Can't understand people driving that

Anyway, why are you all so negative that he will crash his car etc...
Whatever you get just try to drive as carefully as possible. New drivers usually after few days/months get too much confidence and try to prove themselfs... I would suggest you not to drive friends (especially girls ) first few weeks as they can usually distract you from driving. Ask someone older/experienced to go with you and give you advice/help you.. And just remember, no matter if you have driving licence you don't know to drive atleast first year.

People drive it because you don't have to see it from the inside.

What's really boggling is that someone actually signed off on that as the design. Either that or there wasn't a design team at all.

Off topic (Multipla): It's damn ugly on the outside, but the inside is... It's... It can't be explained by any word. Or a sentence. You have to see it for yourself. WARNING: These pictures are disturbing. #1 #2

On topic: I mostly drive a '95 1.2L 33kW Opel Corsa (Since it's 18 years old, the power has probably dropped to around 25kW. ) and it's a pretty good car for young driver, as you can't prove anything to anybody in it. And it's unbelieveably reliable (unbelieveable considering it's a '95 1.2L 33kW Corsa) since it survived 170k km of abuse (Actually, the first 120k km were driven by an old man so it wasn't abused but since my brother got it has been abused a lot.).

Quote from matijapkc :

Off topic (Multipla): It's damn ugly on the outside, but the inside is... It's... It can't be explained by any word. Or a sentence. You have to see it for yourself. WARNING: These pictures are disturbing. #1 #2

Even uglier
Can't understand speedo and stuff anywhere else than behind wheel
Maybe thats just me, but normal car.... pls
I can go over a lot of things but this. no thanks

Quote from matijapkc :

On topic: I mostly drive a '95 1.2L 33kW Opel Corsa (Since it's 18 years old, the power has probably dropped to around 25kW. ) and it's a pretty good car for young driver, as you can't prove anything to anybody in it.

33kW does this even exist?
and you are wrong that you can't "prove" anything to anybody in it, its not a big science to go fast even in underpowered car. People do that. Problem is when young and unexperienced drivers do that, thats why here in Croatia we have so many cases of deaths in traffic.

Quote from DANIEL-CRO :

Can't understand speedo and stuff anywhere else than behind wheel

It can be done right It actually looks uglier on the pictures than it is in RL.

Quote from DANIEL-CRO :

33kW does this even exist?
and you are wrong that you can't "prove" anything to anybody in it, its not a big science to go fast even in underpowered car. People do that. Problem is when young and unexperienced drivers do that, thats why here in Croatia we have so many cases of deaths in traffic.

Yep
Believe me, I know what am I saying. You simply don't try to prove anything in a Corsa.

Quote from Racer Y :

God I had all sorts of fun in that car.

Translation: Lost virginity.

Ferrari 458 is best car for 17 year old.

Even better idea, get 1000cc i4 superbike.

Yeah, don't ride on your parents insurance if the car is primarily driven by you. The insurance will be invalid in the event of a claim.

F the cost of insurance in the USSGB,

Your paying more for insurance per year than the cost of the fing car....

Legal answer: go for an old escort, at least it will be fun.

Off the wall complete fantasy answer: get a false licence for far less than your insurance, don't insure it at all and if you crash do a runner, if you get caught, provide false name on false licence, then do a runner.........

How do they justify the cost of insurance ? Really, is there some massive scam on repair costs that the insurance co's get a cut of ?

Most of my cars are under 4000NZ and full insurance is under 400NZ per year. And as my company buys and runs them that's actually more than private insurance. Third party would only be just over 100NZ per year. Which for a cheap car is well worth doing. Especially when you factor in the insurance co's right down.

My first car was a Fiat 126 which was swapped for a microwave.

My first accident was a week later. Not my fault, but older and wiser me would have been able to avoid it easily.

I really wouldn't bother spending much cash on your first car, the freedom of having a car in and of itself is great - it doesn't need to be a great car to give you that, it just needs to have some wheels and an engine.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

F the cost of insurance in the USSGB,

Your paying more for insurance per year than the cost of the fing car....

Legal answer: go for an old escort, at least it will be fun.

Off the wall complete fantasy answer: get a false licence for far less than your insurance, don't insure it at all and if you crash do a runner, if you get caught, provide false name on false licence, then do a runner.........

How do they justify the cost of insurance ? Really, is there some massive scam on repair costs that the insurance co's get a cut of ?

Most of my cars are under 4000NZ and full insurance is under 400NZ per year. And as my company buys and runs them that's actually more than private insurance. Third party would only be just over 100NZ per year. Which for a cheap car is well worth doing. Especially when you factor in the insurance co's right down.

Its clearly Government interference that has caused the crazy numbers, just like it does with their Petrol.

1) You aren't just paying to insure damage to your own car, but damage to other cars, other property and other people.
2) People seem to think they have a right to claim for as much as possible on their insurance (not always just when they've had an accident), which is fraud. Someone (the customer) has to pay for that.

If you crash into three expensive cars, and everyone claims for courtesy cars, damage that was already present, 'whiplash'* injury treatment etc etc then the costs become big very quickly.

So it's not just the fault of young drivers, but that's not to say they are blameless either.

*Suspect the number of people who have genuinely suffered whiplash in a car crash since 1905 in any country could be counted on two hands. But as it's hard to disprove, people claim they've had it. Grrrrrr.

Quote from tristancliffe :

1) You aren't just paying to insure damage to your own car, but damage to other cars, other property and other people.
2) People seem to think they have a right to claim for as much as possible on their insurance (not always just when they've had an accident), which is fraud. Someone (the customer) has to pay for that.

If you crash into three expensive cars, and everyone claims for courtesy cars, damage that was already present, 'whiplash'* injury treatment etc etc then the costs become big very quickly.

So it's not just the fault of young drivers, but that's not to say they are blameless either.

*Suspect the number of people who have genuinely suffered whiplash in a car crash since 1905 in any country could be counted on two hands. But as it's hard to disprove, people claim they've had it. Grrrrrr.

Plus money into the reserve fund for claims made against uninsured drivers. Typically unless the car is worth a vast sum, the greatest risk by far is 3rd party claims as you say, which is why some companies will not quote any cheaper for 3rd party cover only than they do for fully comprehensive cover. Many companies don't seem to do 3rd party only at all now.

I don't think the margins are that high for the insurance companies. Competition is pretty fierce. What gets me are the b.s renewal prices. They'll give a competitive quote for the first year, and then when renewal time comes they hope you're too lazy to bother shopping around. Most people don't give a damn about the standard of cover either they just want the cheapest price.

Insurance isn't actually that bad, at 22 years old I'm paying just under £300 a year, fully comp for myself on my 1.8 2008 Focus. The insurance cost is only 1/16th of the price of the car. Sure, I went through a couple of years of pain, but my first insurance was £1200 and has been going down ever since, but that's only fair with the amount of new drivers who crash. Of course, that's because any ****ing idiot can do 5 lessons and pass our ridiculous driving test, but that's another problem.

Quote from tristancliffe :

*Suspect the number of people who have genuinely suffered whiplash in a car crash since 1905 in any country could be counted on two hands. But as it's hard to disprove, people claim they've had it. Grrrrrr.

I had whiplash. I got rear-ended whilst waiting to turn right by someone doing about 40mph. I heard him locked up just before impact so came off the brake to reduce the judder and looked into the rear view mirror to see his somewhat surprised face looming ever closer.

Whether it was the impact speed (my car was 2" shorter afterwards) or because my torso and neck was turned slightly whilst I looked in the mirror, I got whiplash.

It was a constant feature of my life for several years, and it caused me some discomfort when trying to sleep. To this day I have never gotten used to sleeping on my side again (hey I could blame it for my snoring!).

I got a couple of grand payout for the injury, but I never got the replacement value of the car out of them - despite it having lost over half of its value a month or so earlier when Rover went bust. (It was worth over £4000 two months previously, I got £1100 and £100 of that was for the tow hook!)

Nowadays it rarely bothers me, but I do sometimes get a stiff neck. Although that might be routed in the injury, my general middle aged lack of health doesn't help!

So whilst I do agree there are spurious whiplash claims I think it's a bit misguided to say that it barely ever has happened. That impact was roughly 40mph.

Having said that, I was shocked when they recently announced a ban on whiplash payouts for accidents where the speed was under 5mph! Bumpers absorb that speed effortlessly!

Quote from sinbad :

Plus money into the reserve fund for claims made against uninsured drivers. Typically unless the car is worth a vast sum, the greatest risk by far is 3rd party claims as you say, which is why some companies will not quote any cheaper for 3rd party cover only than they do for fully comprehensive cover. Many companies don't seem to do 3rd party only at all now.

I don't think the margins are that high for the insurance companies. Competition is pretty fierce. What gets me are the b.s renewal prices. They'll give a competitive quote for the first year, and then when renewal time comes they hope you're too lazy to bother shopping around. Most people don't give a damn about the standard of cover either they just want the cheapest price.

They should get the cheapest price because the insurance cost is a joke.

It cost me the equilivent of 200 pounds when i was 17 to insure a Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS.

Explain how your countrys insurance is probably about 20 times that for the same age person.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I had whiplash. I got rear-ended whilst waiting to turn right by someone doing about 40mph. I heard him locked up just before impact so came off the brake to reduce the judder and looked into the rear view mirror to see his somewhat surprised face looming ever closer.

Whether it was the impact speed (my car was 2" shorter afterwards) or because my torso and neck was turned slightly whilst I looked in the mirror, I got whiplash.

It was a constant feature of my life for several years, and it caused me some discomfort when trying to sleep. To this day I have never gotten used to sleeping on my side again (hey I could blame it for my snoring!).

I got a couple of grand payout for the injury, but I never got the replacement value of the car out of them - despite it having lost over half of its value a month or so earlier when Rover went bust. (It was worth over £4000 two months previously, I got £1100 and £100 of that was for the tow hook!)

Nowadays it rarely bothers me, but I do sometimes get a stiff neck. Although that might be routed in the injury, my general middle aged lack of health doesn't help!

So whilst I do agree there are spurious whiplash claims I think it's a bit misguided to say that it barely ever has happened. That impact was roughly 40mph.

Having said that, I was shocked when they recently announced a ban on whiplash payouts for accidents where the speed was under 5mph! Bumpers absorb that speed effortlessly!

We have ACC ( google it ! ) which is ok, but tbh I'd prefer the right to sue. But that's only my opinion.

But insurance companies write downs are a farce, I had an old dunger that was hit by a bus while parked, ripped the whole back side off the bus but the driver 'didn't notice or stop'
Got his number, hassled Stagecoach for a settlement, got offered nothing, basicly 'sod off', so had to make the threat to privately sue the driver, as he was clearly responcible and Stagecoach weren't prepaired to support their staff by paying for their accidents, whilst Stagecoach were in contract negociations with their staff, to the NZ MD, who thought I was a manipulative piece of s#!+, BUT, LOLZ, but I still got a payout for about the cars worth.

But that's the stupid level you need to go to to actually get a fair payout.

Quote from KiRmelius :

Opel Manta is definitely NOT a good car for beginner driver. Get a saxo with smallest engine or any other shitbox UK teenagers drive, as you're going to put all your savings into insurance anyway.


Don't think much about your first car as you're going to crash it anyway.

I've been driving a '98 Saxo with 1.4 55kW engine and I gotta say that it's quite agile. Handling is decent etc.

Well. My daughter had a citreon C2 and it was crap and I mean really horrible to drive. The gears were awful so I was glad she wrote it off by ploughing into the back of an X5 (That sound bad, but she was fine and I was delighted the car was a right off)

So now she has a 1.2 Toyota Yaris and it's pretty darned good for a wee car with cheap (ish) insurance. The car is 55 plate and only cost £1600 and another £1600 nearly for bleedin insurance! It's a shame young people get screwed with mad insurance costs.

God it makes me feel old that for me and my wife on a 3 litre diesel 5 series BMW it is only £185 per year fully comp and I pay only £215 per year for me and my wife in my slightly mad and modified and insurance declared track WRX which I hate to drive as I feel and look and sound like a complete ricer!

Quote from hazaky :

I've been driving a '98 Saxo with 1.4 55kW engine and I gotta say that it's quite agile. Handling is decent etc.

I've had Peugeot 205 1.1 . Well it lacked a lot of power, but was actually pretty fun to drive. If it was 1.6 or 1.9 GTI, I wouldn't have sold it.


And +1 for Yaris. Friend has one, it's apparently a pretty good shitbox. Interior is suprisingly spacious for such a small car and that 1.3 VVTi engine is just great too, really low fuel consumption and power output is just about enough for that car. With 5 persons onboard we've took it to 175 km/h! It was in 5th gear tho, I believe 190 or even 200 is possible in 4th. Also really reliable, so if you don't mind looking a bit funny while driving, you can get one.