a what '90's / early 00's car challenge

[hot66]

My youngest daughter is very car savvy and had quite a specific list of cars she wants , starting with an e30 BMW , MK2 escort, early porsche 911 ( ideally white swb with red interior ) and a ferrari F50 .... intermixed with these she loves retro cars of all kinds and 90's jdm .

She's 17 in a few months and we are now looking for her first car .. something that usually would be straight forward for a teenager , just get them a cheap 1.0 kia . Not with my daughter though .. she wants something interesting but obviously with her being only 17 it limits what she can get. To throw a big spanner in the works my wife has specifically said any car she gets MUST have an airbag at bare minimum !

So asking for suggestions , what cars could we come up with that fit the below critieria ?

90's / early 00's car ... might have been craap then but is ironically cool now ( eg nissan micras )
cheap to insure
airbag
budget upto £5k ish

as an example of a car we have found that fits the above .. a 'new beetle' convertible 1.6 is surprisingly cheap to insure and she likes them a lot , but very colour specific. This is her back up plan if we cant find anything else.

any more suggestions ?

[PeterK]

New mini
Toyota MR2

[Gary71]

We found trying to insure anything more than 15 years old for both my kids at 17 was like a red flag. Seemed to disproportionately inflate the premium.

We ended up with a ‘09 Mini Cooper, bit of character, ok to drive (if you don’t have a sensitive spine…) and with 120bhp more than quick enough.

Plenty of opportunities to learn car maintenance as well (hateful things…)

[jonno1]

Panda 100hp?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185220848722 ... Sw~ddhvv9Z

[Gary71]

That was on our list, but was given a strong teenage veto on basis of its looks! I quite like them…

[PeterK]

I quite like the Fiesta S with the 1 litre Eco motor - no car tax & goes like stink (sold twin 2's 2009 1 series BMW (was 2 litre but less BHP than the 2016 Fiesta !)

[neilbardsley]

Got 2 Yaris just for this purpose. Easy to maintain and cheap to insure. It's very rare that kids don't damage their first car in some way. I would save your money

Sent from my M2004J19C using Tapatalk

[hot66]

should add .. she specifically doesnt want a round edged small generic hatchback

her older sister has a lovely fiat 500 .. but it appears fiats are out / Not sure what the insurance will be like for a panda 100 though ? I did suggest the panda 4x4 but that idea didnt go down well

[Timo]

Volkswagen lupo or up?

My nephew bought an up for his first car and absolutely loves it.

[Gary71]

The 100hp Panda was cheaper than the Mini, for our lot anyway.

[markm]

Vw Lupo

[Hannibales]

An Up! is great fun, decent quality and can be customised if she wants.....

The Mighty Car Mods guys on youtube have used one on their latest road trip

[210bhp]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STUNNING-LIT ... 635-2958-0


Regards
Mike

[willbrown]

Suzuki Swift Sport.

Might not pass the sniff test for your daughter, but a brilliant little car to drive. 125 hp and lightweight. Cracking VVT engine.

[misteralz]

Swifts are horrible. The Ignis is even horribler, but does have Recaros. And is a cracking drive, to be fair.