Car Choice: Best performance for a young drivers with high insurance premiums

Need a new or used car but not sure what make or model? James Ruppert can help you decide

Ford Fiesta Ghia: it doesn’t have to be fast to be entertaining (Ford)

Keith Flower’s son has a high performance Ford Focus ST, but this carries an expensive insurance premium for a young driver. He has £2,500 to spend on a cheaper replacement.

A car for the head

It seems daft to be paying most of your weekly earnings on car insurance, so Keith is right to be concerned. Our mission then is find a vehicle in a low insurance group, which is cheap to run, and will allow his son to actually save some money, but still get to work. Considering a choice for “the head” rather than “the heart”, I think that a Volkswagen Golf would be a classy sort of replacement. A 1.4 petrol would not be fast, but it is solid, has reasonable looks and it will deliver 40mpg. I came across a 2007 1.4S being sold by a private buyer with 86,000 miles on the clock. Perfect.

The VW Golf is faily cheap to run and is a solid car

A car for the heart

Keith’s son could have withdrawal symptoms from running his performance Ford. In that case it might be a good idea to downsize to a Ford Fiesta. That is not as silly as it sounds because the Fiesta is generally a sporty car to drive. It really does not have to be that quick to be fun and the 1.4 model is certainly not fast. However, a Ghia specification model has all the extras anyone would need on a commute. A privately advertised example, in this case a 2006 model with fewer than 50,000 miles with leather trim comes within budget.

If you would like James Ruppert to help with your car choice, email james@bangernomics.com. For more motoring views, visit freecarmag.co.uk