5 Cheap 'N Cheerful Rides That Won't Bleed You Dry

Car insurance has always been an expensive nightmare for young drivers. And with the recent gender directive insurance shake-up, things have just got confusing. To help out, we're taking a look at five nearly new cars that can get you going on the smallest of premiums.

1. Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo/VW Up

This trio is ensconced as firm favourites at Car Throttle, with the Citigo version meriting a COTY nomination from Adnan himself.

All three of these badge brothers have models that sit in the lowest insurance group on the current 1-50 system. Insurance grouping isn't the be-all and end-all of premium pricing, but it's a good start point. Pushing the details of our sample 18-year-old through a comparison website produced these quotes for comprehensive insurance:

2012 Seat Mii S 1.0 - £1,2542012 Skoda Citigo S 1.0 - £1,2542012 VW Up Take 1.0 - £1,254

2. Citroën C1

Like the VAG triplets above, the C1 is part of a badge-engineered common platform - sharing bits with the Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo. However, the C1 is alone in having an example in the lowest insurance group. We've gone for an older model on the basis that a car that costs less to replace should cost less to insure...

2006 Citroën C1 Vibe 1.0 - £1,351

3. Nissan Pixo/Suzuki Alto

Another exercise in badge-engineering with a low insurance group, the Alto and Pixo are just about the cheapest new cars money can buy in the UK. Although neither manage to break into the lowest insurance group, the group 2 Pixo is one of the cheapest cars on this list.

2012 Nissan Pixo Visia 1.0 - £1,2412012 Suzuki Alto Play 1.0 - £1,352

4. Smart ForTwo

The Smart redefined small cars when it came to the market in 1999 and even a decade later there's not a lot else in the segment. Though not quite the last word in handling, the compact two-seater sits in a low insurance group and there's plenty of used examples on the market, making this probably the lowest combined insurance and purchase price car here.

2008 Smart ForTwo Pure Hatchback - £1,209

5. Kia Picanto

This little Kia is so good that they made the guy who drew it CEO of the entire company. Replacing the slightly Shrek-like Picanto of old, the smallest Kia is another insurance winner. Although it shares origins with the Hyundai i10, the 1.0 version undercuts the Hyundai's best insurance grouping by a whole 5 groups.

2012 Kia Picanto 1 1.0 - £1,312

For comparison we checked a couple of perennial teen favourites with the same details:1999 Citroën Saxo East Coast 1.1 - £2,1911999 Vauxhall Corsa SXi 1.2 - £2,448

All of the above quotes include the increasingly common and controversial black box insurance, whereby a data logger in your car records your behaviour in the event of an incident. Without this component the lowest quotes were between 40 and 60 per cent higher.