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I'd just buy a Dacia
You can get a good Jazz for <£3k.
fwiw when I was looking into it, £5k 2nd hand seemed to be the lease tipping point. Obviously ymmv, but past that point it seemed to be hard to justify 2nd hand. for Amey the big thing would be getting insurance rolled into the lease - on a 2yr lease that would be a game changer, as at his age 2yrs NCB would mean at the end of the lease he could probably buy what he wants without regard to insurance.
You are bang on the money - Amey should (IMHO) lease something brand new that he literally has to give zero thought too, that has a warranty longer than the lease, and that he can always rely on. With a bit of luck insurance and VED would be included - a significant saving for a new driver.