10 alternative used cars for first time drivers for £4k or less

According to new research, four thousand British pounds is the average a first time driver spends on a used car. So what better way for entry-level drivers to hone their newly-licensed skills than in an entry-level Porsche. Yes, the 924 was designed by Porsche for VW, and eventually built by Audi.

But you’re a first time driver! You don’t care about VW Group politics or chassis principles! You care about a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive Porsche that’ll make your Corsa-driving friends pea-green with envy! And quite possibly you care about ruinous insurance costs!

In fact, TopGear.com may have entirely misunderstood the brief on this one, because insuring a Porsche - or any of these finds - might prove troublesome.

Setting that aside for but a moment, here's a brown 924 we found for £4k.

In no rational universe can TopGear.com confidently suggest a giant Chinese pick-up truck as a suitable vehicle for a first-time driver. Which is exactly why it features on this really not very serious list. Because if you’re already shopping in the ‘reasonably average car’ section in the classifieds, why not fully embrace that ideal?

Here’s a diesel one with bullbars and a cab cover we found for £4k.

A big, American car designed for European tastes with a big, American V8. You can almost taste the burger n’ fries through the screen, can’t you?

Grab a super-sized first car for less than £3.5k with this silver saloon.

You’re a first time driver. You're likely a young person. Young people cannot fault the legitimate comedy in a name like Bongo. That it’s actually a nice little van is a bonus.

Here’s a bullbarred Bongo with different alloys and an ‘animal’ sticker on the side.

The repair bills will likely prove ruinous. And the one we found is only the V6. However… it’s a Mercedes-Benz SL. One of the car world’s ‘great automotive oaks’. Don’t tell your friends you’re driving a ‘great automotive oak’, of course, unless you want them to cease being your friends.

Though you only need one other friend for this two-tone silver und black two-seater we found for £4k.

From an era where the word ‘Jaguar’ could only mean an enormously bonneted, V8 saloon.

Buy an old sheepskin coat. Wear tinted aviators. Get this enormously bonneted, enormously purple V8 saloon we found for £4k.

It’s a long-wheelbase version of a luxury British car that’s already very long indeed. Welcome, first time drivers, to possibly one of the cheapest and potentially financially ruinous entry points into the very heart of the British motor industry: a very old 6.75-litre V8 Rolls!

Do not think about servicing costs. Or maintenance. Or fuel bills. Or width restrictors.

Or the fact this particular example is only offered as a ‘spares or repair’ car. For the sum of £3,695, you’ve got yourself a V8 Rolls that needs a bit of work. But when, if that day arrives, you can afford to get it to work, well…

When an old Alfa Romeo becomes one of the more ‘sensible’ options on offer here, you know just how seriously TopGear.com has taken this brief.

So become the most stylish first time driver out there in one of the most stylish four-door saloons ever crafted.

What’s this, one of the best British sportscars available under budget? Admittedly this one’s a ‘restoration’ spec project car, but the old Spitfire’s a good car to learn the ropes on. Your knuckles on the other hand, might not be so welcoming.

Here’s a square-tailed 1973 car we found for under £4k.

Regale all your best friends with the fact that both Opel and Vauxhall had essentially the same car on sale competing against each other at one point in the UK! Wow them with this 1980 car’s crushed red velvet interior! Show off your thrift with a ULEZ and road tax-exempt classic car they’ve never heard of!

Here’s a maroon one we found for less than £3k.

Image: Rudolf Stricker