zenicman: Car insurance sucks - you seem to be just discovering this but trust me most of us already know! I'm sure we've all had our share of ludicrous insurance quotes, and yes you are unfortunately in the worst possible situation of being a young, inexperienced, male driver with no accumulated NCB.

There are really only two ways round this:

(1) Get insured as a second driver on someone else's policy (preferably an oder someone with a few years NCB who doesn't mind the risk of having you on their policy). The problems with this approach have already been pointed out, and unless you go with one of the few insurers who will give named drivers a NCB, you won't accumulate any and you'll probably still be stuck having to insure yourself in a few years anyway.

(2) Get a seriously cheap car with a seriously low insurance group. This does NOT include a Zetec S, and as you've discovered may actually require you to choose something cheaper and crapper even than an older Fiesta 1.4 - sorry, but that's just the way insurance is. It isn't always logical, and it IS always expensive.

We can all appreciate that you're frustrated, but it's a necessary evil Unless you're prepared to accept Third Party, or Third Party, Fire and Theft rather than Fully Comp (something you could maybe consider if you get a really cheap car...), then you are going to have to pay to insure yourself.

Best thing you can do is keep ringing around insurers and getting quotes. Have you tried asking the insurers themselves why it's cheaper to insure a Zetec S than a 1.4? It might be a mistake on their system for all we know...

Anyways: Best of luck to you, hope you find something suitable.

Be sure to try Greenlight, More Than and Adrian Flux, I've heard good things about all of them!

EDIT:

By the way, it's clearly not all insurers who charge more for the 1.25 Firefly. I just went and got some quotes from Direct Line, assuming the following information (since I don't know your details):

19 years old
0 NCB
CV32 postcode

For the Firefly 1.25 (2004), I got quoted:

£1,582 (driving for 1 year)
£1,367 (driving for 2 years)

and for the Zetec S (2007):

£1,980 (for 1 year)
£1,710 (for 2 years)

Just FYI.