I hope to be in a similar position to you once my son has pased his driving test later this year. The advice I have been give is that the main driver (the new driver) should always have another mature driver on the insurance - a parent for instance - as that can dramatically reduce the premium.

Firstly, you will find that the premium on say a 2005 Fiesta may be cheaper than a 2004 Fiesta, which in turn may be cheaper than a 2003 model. Worth running quotes on all possible cars/variants as it makes sense to put the money into a car rather than insurance premium.

The route we took, and it depends on what car you or your wife drive and your NCB, was for my wife to own and insure the car our son drove using her full NCB to bring the premium down. He was, of course, named as the main driver. She became the main driver of my CMax (made no difference to the premium) and I bought a C1 and took out a new policy in my name with no NCB. We didn't pay more than £800 for his first year. Downside is that he didn't earn any NCB of his own, but when he did come to buy his first policy, he was older and had some driving experience under his belt.

I've been doing loads and loads of quotes on comparison sites etc recently on more cars than I can count. I'm 22 but this will be my first policy. Diamond and Elephant (subsiduaries of Admiral) have both been the cheapest by some considerably distance - usually £200 cheaper than the next nearest without even a black box.