It doesn’t matter if you’ve grown up with ambitions of becoming the next Lewis Hamilton or if you regard driving as a necessary evil – the acts of passing your driving test and buying your first car have a certain thrill to them. You'll also need to decide whether to buy a new model or a used one.
In this guide we weigh up some of the pros and cons for each option. For suggestions of particular models, check out our guides to the best cheap first cars and the cheapest new cars in the UK.
Buying Your First Car
- Understanding Car Insurance
- Why Small Cars are Best for New Drivers
- Electric Cars and New Drivers
- Buying a Used First Car
- Viewing a Used Car
- Used Car Inspections
- Buying a New First Car
- New Car vs Used Car Safety
- Dealer Incentives
- FAQs
Understanding Car Insurance
Your choice of first car might well be dictated by the cost of car insurance as much as it is by the cost of the car itself. Insurance premiums for young drivers can be terrifying. According to Compare the Market, insurance premiums for drivers under 25 can reach almost £1,900 per year, whereas for all drivers the figure is just over £800. But at the very least, you can minimise your outlay by choosing the right car.
This means avoiding expensive or high-performance models as well as those lacking in safety and security equipment. Almost any car you buy today will have the basics covered, such as seatbelts and anti-lock brakes, but this technology improves all the time so newer models may well have more features.
Cars without such features are likely to be in a higher insurance group. These groups run from 1 to 50, getting more expensive the higher you go. You can find out a car’s insurance group by performing a quick Google search, for example: ‘Toyota Prius insurance group’. Low insurance group cars include the Citroen C1, the Toyota Aygo and the Skoda Citigo, but note that different engines and trim levels can be in different insurance groups, so pay attention to the details. Our guide to the cheapest cars to insure is a great place to start.
Many insurance providers offer telematics-based policies for new or young drivers; these typically offer cheaper premiums in exchange for fitting a black box to the vehicle, which records how it has been driven. It gives insurers a clearer picture of the driver’s behaviour, and can potentially lead to lower future premiums for good drivers.
Why Small Cars are Best for New Drivers
Insurance aside, small cars, particularly hatchbacks, tend to be the best first-time option for new drivers. There are plenty of examples, from the Ford Fiesta to the Vauxhall Corsa, or the Hyundai i10 to the Peugeot 108, the Kia Picanto and the tiny Volkswagen Up.
Not only are smaller cars easier to park (and therefore harder to damage when parking), they are also lighter, with smaller engine sizes, and thus more fuel efficient, so they put less wear on components such as suspension and brakes. Also, if you buy a car with small wheels, replacement tyres will be much cheaper.
Car buyers also need to factor in the cost Vehicle Excise Duty, often known as road tax, which is closely tied to vehicle emissions and is usually higher on more powerful cars and older cars. Our guide to Vehicle Excise Duty explains all. These savings might seem small in isolation, but they do all add up when it comes to overall running costs.
Electric Cars and New Drivers
Electric cars are certainly desirable and better for local air quality, but they also tend to cost more to buy and insure than small petrol cars, so many will likely be out of reach of young drivers on a strict budget. However, if you can afford an electric car, again it'll pay to focus your search on smaller and more affordable models to help keep insurance premiums in check. The Dacia Spring, Renault Zoe, Volkswagen e-Up and Fiat 500 Electric would be great places to start, although both the Volkswagen and the Renault are no longer available as new cars and the Fiat 500 Electric is comparatively expensive.
Remember, too, that while electric cars might be often more expensive to buy, they can be much cheaper to run, with much cheaper refuelling costs if you can have a home charger and avoid possibly expensive motorway rapid chargers as much as possible. Just keep in mind that some of the earliest electric cars from Renault and Nissan were sold with battery leases, which can wipe out any savings in running costs.
Buying a Used First Car
For many people buying a first car means looking at used models — and cheap ones at that. The good news is that even a modest budget can be enough to pick up a pretty decent car.
When using CarGurus specifically to search for your first car, a good approach is to forgo searching for specific makes and models and instead use the "By Price" function on our Used Cars search page to set your maximum value. See what comes up, and use the filters on the page to narrow down your search by fuel type, gearbox type, and any other desirable features such as the number of doors. While doing this, use the engine size filter to choose a smaller engine capacity - preferably under 1.6 litres. You can then use the “Save” function to create a shortlist.
Your next step is to read a few ads to see how many previous owners each car has had. Generally speaking the fewer the better, because it’ll be easier to ascertain how well a car’s been cared for, so try and stick to vehicles with only two or three registered keepers from new. A full service history is great, but the chances of finding it at the cheapest end of the market is unlikely. However, there should at least be evidence of a recent service and hopefully a fresh 12-month MOT test.
Viewing a Used Car
When it comes to viewing cheaper used cars, bear in mind they are likely to be in less-than-perfect condition, and anything you can do to get a better idea of the car's history is worth it. If you’ve got a mechanically minded friend who knows their bottom end from their elbow, take them along. But even if you’re heading to see the car alone, it’s worth brushing up on how to tell real damage from superficial marks. Always make sure the tyres are in good condition, too, or the first few miles in your new car will be spent driving straight to the tyre fitters to spend even more money.
Second-hand cars from a dealership may well come with a warranty and they’ll be covered by the Consumer Rights Act if something goes wrong. You'll likely pay more than you would for the same car from a private seller, but that premium could be worth it for extra peace of mind.
Used Car Inspections
As your first car budget increases, so too does the chance of finding something that will provide years of cheap and trouble-free motoring. If you’re spending several thousand pounds, it might also be worth booking a professional inspection. If not, you can still glean a lot from checking over the condition of the car yourself and taking it for a decent test drive.
Remember that, regardless of how much you’re spending or how long you’ve been driving, the golden rule of buying a used first car is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Buying a New First Car
If you’re in the fortunate position of being able to buy your first car new, then the same basic principles apply. The smaller and cheaper it is, the less likely you are to be hit with a painful insurance bill. Where things differ is that you’ll get something with almost guaranteed reliability (and a manufacturer-backed warranty in case it does go wrong) and better fuel economy, not to mention that all-important new car smell.
New Car vs Used Car Safety
It's no secret that modern cars are also much safer than older ones in the event of a crash, which is one of the most compelling reasons new drivers might want to consider one. One of the reasons for this is that they have much stronger body shells and more hidden airbags. Bear in mind, however, that one of the ways this is achieved is by increasing the thickness of the pillars on either side of the front and rear screens, which in turn comes with a downside because it often creates blind spots. Some cars are worse than others in this respect, so test drive a few to see which suits you best.
Also with safety in mind, almost all new cars now come with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB). This system uses either cameras or radar to monitor the road ahead and can automatically slam on the brakes to avoid an impact if the driver fails to react in time. AEB has been proven to reduce front-into-rear crashes by almost 40% and in turn has gained the approval of insurers, meaning cars with the system fitted land in lower groupings than those without.
In addition to reading reviews of particular models, it is easy to check their safety rating and whether they include features such as AEB by using the search function on the EuroNCAP website.
Dealer Incentives
Dealers can offer incentives and special offers on new or used cars. However, it's more common to see them going the extra mile to shift new models. Some, for example, might bundle the first year of insurance with the car, potentially saving a new driver thousands of pounds. Others will have low interest rates if you take out a finance option such as a Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), meaning you pay a smaller deposit upfront followed by a number of monthly payments and the option to buy the car outright at the end. These kind of offers provide a more accessible way to get into a new car, but always check the how they stack up over the whole life of the deal.
FAQs
What are the best first cars to buy in the UK?
The Toyota Aygo was named in our study as the best first car available to buy in the UK. This followed a poll of 1,000 new drivers that identified what mattered most in thier first car. You can read why the Aygo won, as well as what other cars were recommended by our team of experts, in our full guide: Why the Toyota Aygo is the Best Car for New Drivers.
What are the legal requirements for owning a car in the UK?
There are several legal requirements for owning a car in the UK. You'll need to register it with the DVLA using the car's unique V5C registration form (the seller will provide you with this), insure it, pay vehicle excise duty (road tax), and ensure the car has a valid MOT certificate. To drive the car you'll also need a driving licence.
What is the legal driving age in the UK?
The legal driving age in the UK is 17. However, you can apply for a provisional driving licence when aged 15 years and 9 months. For more information, see our guide on how to pass your driving test.