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After nearly three years of putting it off, Boy1 is fretting about getting a driving licence in time for his placement year, due to start in September. No prospect of lessons till April, and test appointments begin in June.

So I started to think extracartonically and wondered whether a car kept here would allow him enough supervised practice to make the reduced number of lessons he’s likely to get in less of a problem.

Which means a car and some insurance, say £3500 for a 2008 C30 1.6 petrol and — small gulp — £1700 to insure it, rising to £2200 once he has a full licence. The C30 may not be the cheapest option but has the big advantage that I know I can fit in one, which means his taller little brother will be able to drive it too. (Small French cars don’t do well on this criterion.) It’s also a rather nice machine, if not exactly a Saab 900.

I’m not an instructor and don’t propose to instruct him. But he will have no difficulty with the technical side of driving, and I could give him a lot of supervised practice. Daft idea? Recipe for family rifts?

Had to look: a £2500 1991 900i adds about 40% to each premium.

I’m staggered. A poke around on Moneysupermarket brings quotes for either Swede down into the £550 (provisional) to £800 (newly full) range. No punitive excess either — typically £390; that’s less than Aviva plonked on me for driving the CLS. For that much, I’m tempted just to pop out tomorrow and buy one.

Incidentally, after a while, we stopped regarding every outing as a driving "lesson". It just became the norm that if he or we needed to go anywhere, that he would drive with one of us riding shotgun. My thinking was that he should quickly come to regard driving as a normal activity rather than a challenge or test.

This info may be of no interest or use to you WDB, but, there's a young lad who works in our office who is 6' 5". He has an old (ish) Clio and fits into it no bother. He's had it a couple of years and it has been his daily driver for his 40 mile round trip commute during that time. He's Italian, but UK resident, and pre-Covid had taken it home to Italy on at least two occasions without any mechanical grief.

Want to remember that it's a 2010 model with a 1.2 engine. Anyway, it might not be your sort of thing, so feel free to ignore, but it was the factor of him being tall, it being small, and him being still able to use it comfortably that struck me. Cheap to maintain/insure etc too you'd think.

Depends what you call "little" I guess. He's shoe size 14. But, fair enough, bigger is almost always better with cars !

I saw one of those C30 thingies this morning in town, a red one. Can't decide whether I like them or not to be honest. Definitely a Marmite car.

Hard not to say that a Focus could be a good thing.

Anyway, whatever you decide on, good hunting, and you might find that you enjoy teaching him. If you're interested in driving and cars, which I know you are, it's good to pass on some of that experience and enthusiasm.

Thanks Esp, but don’t confuse 6ft with tall. That’s strictly ‘medium height’ territory. 🤠 Squashy French seats aren’t a great mix with long backs either.

This still may not happen at all but for a probable difference of a few hundred quid, the C30 is a quantity I know and like.

It was raining.