First car advice for 17 year old. Not me!!

I'd vote for a Jazz - my parents have got one and it's the easiest thing in the world to drive, mainly because it's designed for people who have no interest in or passion for driving, therefore is almost exclusively driven by older drivers and this would mean cheap running and good learning range for a new driver. One thing that your offspring needs to be wary of - you are twice as likely to have people pull out on you or seemingly act like you aren't there while driving one, as other drivers see a Jazz and assume it will be doing a maximum of 12mph.

I think he would disown us! 🤣

Had a insurance quote for another Audi A2 I've seen for sale, comes out at 890 with me and the other half on it as named drivers, That's with a phantom test pass, or 390 with him as a pervisional - which is of course he will be.
That's a 1.4tdi - which gets you 30 quid a year tax and 50 odd mpg. Think they will be a nailed on classic car of the future too!
How do people get on with starting insurance as a learner and changing it over to a full license? I presume there's a lump sum as he becomes a liability and an admin charge?

In my experience older Hondas (we have two including a Jazz) tend to be relatively expensive to insure compared to European made cars with French manufacturers being least expensive.

If you can manage to find a Peugeot 306 in budget you'll get a great car that almost certainly won't lose value over what ever time period he keeps it.

I guessed as much!

I just got NZ$20 million third party liability cover on my youngest's '96 Pulsar (GA15DE automatic) for NZ$97.20 per year. It's registered in my name cos he's not quite old enough to have a licence/own a car yet. Told the insurance sheila the boy will be driving it a lot when he gets his learners licence later this year and will become the main driver when he gets his restricted. She said to put him on as a named driver as soon as he passes the written test and that the premium will go up a bit when he becomes the main driver. Will be interesting to see how much. The excess is loaded up a bit for young/inexperienced drivers but not excessively so as long as they're named on the policy.
Disclaimer. This may not be totally relevant to the current discussion as the insurance market in New Zealand is completely different to that in the UK because we don't have compulsory insurance here.

There you go... Honda Jazz = automotive porn. S'what I'm saying!

We have a 1.4 (actually a 1.3 but badged 1.4 to differentiate from the 1.2 engine). Cam chain but 8 spark plugs which are relatively expensive and I found the back 4 hard to replace. Except for routine servicing and fair wear nothing to date has gone wrong so cheap to run and very practical.

Have you thought about a Skoda Felicia pick up? Only 1200cc just two seats so you can't have all your mates in the back egging you on to do something stupid and big enough to carry a whole drum kit. My daughter has one and I can't remember what the insurance was, but it was in hundreds of pounds, not thousands.