Dear Alex,
Our 21-year-old son hopes to pass his automatic driving test next month. We wish to buy him a car to drive to university and back. It would be useful if it had five seats and be cheap to insure. If it could also fit a Bernese mountain dog in the back, that would be a bonus. We have a maximum budget of £8,000, to include insurance of about £3,000. What should we consider?
– EL
Dear EL,
That means an effective budget of £5,000 to spend on the car itself. And if you want something that’s small enough to be insurable for a 21-year-old but large enough for a Bernese, you’re going to need to go either up, or out.
By which I mean you either need a tall, small car, or a small estate. The most obvious solution comes in the shape of the former: the Honda Jazz.
Its tall profile means it’ll be easier to fit a large dog in the boot, or he can flip up the rear seat bases and let the dog sit there – appropriately restrained, of course.
For your budget, you can afford one of the second-generation hybrid Jazzes, which will keep his fuel costs down.
These aren’t the most sophisticated small cars and they ride a little harshly, but should be reliable. I found a 2012 example with 65,000 miles for £4,195.
Alternatively, he could plump for an automatic version of the standard petrol Jazz – this is less mechanically complex, but will cost slightly more to fuel. A 2012 example with 66,000 miles can be had for a fiver less than the budget.
The only trouble is that with its group 16 insurance, the Jazz will likely incur quite a high premium. As an alternative, therefore, the Citroën C3 Picasso is worth a look.
You don’t get the Jazz’s clever folding rear seats, but instead there’s a sliding rear bench, which can be moved forward for dog-carrying duties and back again for humans. The tall profile and squared-off tail mean doggo shouldn’t feel too cramped in the back, either.
A top-of-the-range 1.6 VTi Exclusive from 2013 and with 62,000 miles can be yours for £4,990 – and with more affordable group 13 insurance.
There are a couple of downsides, however; firstly, the C3 has a rather unpleasant “automated manual” gearbox that can feel jerky when it changes gear, and secondly its reliability record isn’t as good as the Honda’s.
My final suggestion is to go out instead of up with a small estate – namely, the second-generation Skoda Fabia, produced from 2008-2014. The difficulty here is that automatic Fabia estates are thin on the ground, so you can’t afford to be too choosy.
You can either opt for the perky 1.2-litre engine, but beware that it will be mated to an early DSG automatic gearbox that’s prone to expensive issues.
The safer bet is to choose the older 1.6-litre engine with its slower, but more reliable, torque converter automatic. Both sit in group 13 for insurance. I found a 2008 1.6 2 with 78,000 miles and a full service history for a very reasonable £3,050 – I’d be pretty tempted by that option myself.