Top Ten Cars for Teens - Cheapest Young Driver Insurance

There's no getting away from it. Car insurance for 17 year olds is expensive. The simple fact is, the youngest drivers on our roads are, on the whole more dangerous, owing to their understandable lack of experience behind the wheel.

But if you are a young driver, there are things you can do to help yourself. First off, do an advanced driving course, like PassPlus, IAM, RoSPA or Max Driver. By getting extra skills and experience, you'll be making yourself a safer driver and young drivers will save much more than the cost of the course on their first insurance premium.

Second, take a limited mileage policy if you can commit to driving less than, say 3,000 or 5,000 miles a year. This will save you money, and is a more convenient way of getting a discount than installing a "Pay as You Drive" black box into your car, which is just a high tech way of charging less for a limited mileage anyway.

Joining an owners club can drop your premium by up to 15%, parking your car in the garage will probably save you more than your dad, and fitting an alarm will bring down the premium too.

So far, so good, but there are some factors you can't, or are unlikely to change. You can't make yourself any older, and you probably don't want to move house just to get cheaper car insurance. So that leaves the car that you choose as the main factor in determining the price you will pay.

So what is the cheapest car to insure. We did some research and the result may surprise you.

The cheapest car to insure, for a teenage driver, is, by a country mile, the classic VW Beetle. Other classics have also done well, with the Classic Mini coming in 5th and the Renault 5 in 9th, but it's not just a list of bangers with respectable modern motors like the Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 106 and the quirky Vauxhall Agila all doing very well.

Of course, not all classic beetles are all that old - production continued in Mexico and Brazil right up to 2003, and some enthusiasts import these to the UK enjoying the classic Beetle styling and air-cooled power, with a few (slightly) more modern creature comforts. Check out mexibugs, for more details.

And you know where to come for classic beetle insurance!
And for young driver insurance too!

Here is the list of cars, you'll notice that almost all of them are low powered 1 litre engines - if you go for a more powerful car too soon, your premium will accelerate faster than your car, for example, if that Renault 5 at number nine were the turbo version, the premium for a bloke would be £4,000, so watch out. All the quotes below are for Third Party Fire & Theft Cover for a 17 year old driver living in a moderate-to-low risk area and assume the car is valued at less than £5,000.

Car model/engine size	Male	Female
(1) Volkswagen Beetle (old shape, up to 1600cc)	£932.00	£714.00
(2) Vauxhall Corsa 1000cc	£1320.00	£1052.00
(3) Peugeot 106 1000cc	£1320.00	£1055.00
(4) Fiat Panda 1000cc	£1323.00	£1058.00
(5) Austin Mini 1000cc	£1325.00	£1058.00
(6) Fiat Uno 1000cc	£1330.00	£1058.00
(7) Citroen Ax 1000cc	£1334.00	£1060.00
(8) Peugeot 205 950cc	£1334.00	£1060.00
(9) Renault 5 1000cc	£1336.00	£1060.00
(10) Vauxhall Agila 1000cc	£1336.00	£1060.00