Might be worth thinking outside the box a little when it comes to car choice. All the traditional small cars - Ka, Fiesta, 106, Saxo, Corsa, Clio etc etc tend to be driven by first-time drivers, and tend to have a lot of crashes (as far as the insurance companies are concerned - whether it's true or not is a debate for another day).

My first car when I was 18 was £1100 3rd party for a 2.0i Saff GLS - although I concede that was 9 years ago and things have changed. Plus being the opposite gender helps too in these matters.

I also heard once from someone who worked in the insurance industry that they tended to give cheaper quotes for teenagers who rang up the company themselves rather than getting their parents to do it for them - sounds like a load of crap to me, but may be worth him doing as much of the legwork as possible, on the off chance.

Hope you can get something sorted for him.