Why is driving uninsured such a big deal?
Discussion
AW111 said:
Another difference is that insurance generally applies to the vehicle, not driver : most polices cover additional drivers as well.
You can get named driver only insurance, but not many do.
eg anyone who drives my car is fully covered, but if they are under 25 or on a probationary license, a much higher excess applies.
Van is 3rd party only : you bend it, you mend it (and pay the excess for 3rd party damage).
It is not a perfect system, but it seems to work fairly well. I think NZ has a similar system.
You can get named driver only insurance, but not many do.
eg anyone who drives my car is fully covered, but if they are under 25 or on a probationary license, a much higher excess applies.
Van is 3rd party only : you bend it, you mend it (and pay the excess for 3rd party damage).
It is not a perfect system, but it seems to work fairly well. I think NZ has a similar system.
Yep, pretty similar. A lot of policies (especially for 'high-risk' cars) do exclude under 25s from driving the vehicle unless named on the policy with a much higher excess (and usually a higher premium to have them listed as well).
Sometimes the implementation is a bit hit and miss though, as a teenager an insurance company point blank refused to cover me driving my dad's Isuzu Bighorn... because it had a turbo.
Toltec said:
He has a point in that seizing the car is a bit disproportionate, it should be possible to, for instance, stump up £100 on the spot to get temporary cover to get you home. Alternatively just insure the car online there and then.
Yes but if they are unable to do it in 5minutes then the illegal drivers, uninsured, DIC, drug drivers and morons should have their cars machine guns into fragments at the roadside and be made to clean up the mess before they are jailed and fined into oblivion.IF something is the law and I HAVE to do it then you bl**dy well have to too and I have the right to see you punished for being a c*ck and breaking the law.
The vast majority of punishments are too lenient... all the OP is getting is a little gentle flaming, why can someone not send the Police round for "damaging the gene pool" and have him deported or something? ;-)
The Crack Fox said:
Hello Flynn! Still bothering cats?
Still banned from elsewhere online I see: http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/topic/130184-insura...
Looks like our troll has already changed his username since the beginning of the week.Still banned from elsewhere online I see: http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/topic/130184-insura...
Maybe he is depressed?
Lost for words with this thread. The OP clearly wanted everyone to agree with him and start some kind of revolt.
Car insurance is expensive, it's a con and these companies make a fortune on the premiums. However, it's a legal requirement and if you can't afford to do it properly you shouldn't be driving at all.
Get on with it like everyone else does rather than crying about it and trying to get the laws changed. It will never happen and would just turn the country into a frenzy of bumper-car madness.
Car insurance is expensive, it's a con and these companies make a fortune on the premiums. However, it's a legal requirement and if you can't afford to do it properly you shouldn't be driving at all.
Get on with it like everyone else does rather than crying about it and trying to get the laws changed. It will never happen and would just turn the country into a frenzy of bumper-car madness.
I paid £1500 for my first year driving a 1.4 Golf at the age of 18. It comes with the territory, you just need to look around at what cars are deemed more high risk than others, there are quite a few cars with fairly good performance compares to the usual first car s
t box that seem to be mis-valued by insurers.
I paid less for a 2 litre turbo petrol Vauxhall as it was an "odd" car (signum), and for some reason was considered lower risk, than mates in the same age/driver profile/postcode who had corsas, fiestas etc. I also had the lowest insurance I've ever had driving a 2 litre MX-5, was something like £600 at the age of 20 when others were paying nearly double that for fiesta STs etc
t box that seem to be mis-valued by insurers.I paid less for a 2 litre turbo petrol Vauxhall as it was an "odd" car (signum), and for some reason was considered lower risk, than mates in the same age/driver profile/postcode who had corsas, fiestas etc. I also had the lowest insurance I've ever had driving a 2 litre MX-5, was something like £600 at the age of 20 when others were paying nearly double that for fiesta STs etc
culpz said:
Car insurance is expensive
Not for what it provides.culpz said:
it's a con
A fairly serious accusation...culpz said:
and these companies make a fortune on the premiums.
Do they? Do they really? Odd. IIRC Loon telling us that many insurers were getting out of the personal lines business because profits were so low.If it was so massively profitable, then surely it'd just take one company to "break ranks" and make merely a hefty margin, and they'd clean up the market?
But, hey, what do I know. All of my premiums are <£100/yr. What a rip-off.
TooMany2cvs said:
culpz said:
Car insurance is expensive
Not for what it provides.culpz said:
it's a con
A fairly serious accusation...culpz said:
and these companies make a fortune on the premiums.
Do they? Do they really? Odd. IIRC Loon telling us that many insurers were getting out of the personal lines business because profits were so low.If it was so massively profitable, then surely it'd just take one company to "break ranks" and make merely a hefty margin, and they'd clean up the market?
But, hey, what do I know. All of my premiums are <£100/yr. What a rip-off.
I sometimes feel I only have insurance because I have to...
My current stter is worth <£200 to anyone but me, probably nearer just scrap value, although I'd break it for spares to get as much as I could should it ever die. My excess is £350 on a fully comp policy (as that's what made the numbers work out best)...
I generally go with the thought process that I'll try very hard to not hit anyone else. If I get hit, unless the other party REALLY wants to go down the insurance route, a sincere apology and no further action will be financially better for me that it going through insurance. A chipped windscreen would probably write my car off, so I'll instantly be out of pocket by £350. If they were arsey about them hitting me, I'd go down the "well, I'll accept £200 and we can say no more about it", if their genuinely apologetic about it and the car was still driveable/MOT passable I wouldnt even do that.
If I bin it myself with no other party involved I'd get it towed home, scrap it, buy another and the first the insurance co would know is when I changed my car on the policy...
I generally just drive with care and attention to avoid any incidents. I know accidents do happen, but I'd try and bin it up the verge into a hedge before hitting anyone/thing else. I potter everywhere anyway as my car's not exactly a speed machine, so can't forsee any L3 high speed crashes anytime soon.
This is reflected on our multicar policy in that my car costs <£400 fully comp, whereas SWMBO's Meriva is £850/£900ish, despite her being female and a few years older than me, and driving for a longer period of time.
My current s
tter is worth <£200 to anyone but me, probably nearer just scrap value, although I'd break it for spares to get as much as I could should it ever die. My excess is £350 on a fully comp policy (as that's what made the numbers work out best)...I generally go with the thought process that I'll try very hard to not hit anyone else. If I get hit, unless the other party REALLY wants to go down the insurance route, a sincere apology and no further action will be financially better for me that it going through insurance. A chipped windscreen would probably write my car off, so I'll instantly be out of pocket by £350. If they were arsey about them hitting me, I'd go down the "well, I'll accept £200 and we can say no more about it", if their genuinely apologetic about it and the car was still driveable/MOT passable I wouldnt even do that.
If I bin it myself with no other party involved I'd get it towed home, scrap it, buy another and the first the insurance co would know is when I changed my car on the policy...
I generally just drive with care and attention to avoid any incidents. I know accidents do happen, but I'd try and bin it up the verge into a hedge before hitting anyone/thing else. I potter everywhere anyway as my car's not exactly a speed machine, so can't forsee any L3 high speed crashes anytime soon.
This is reflected on our multicar policy in that my car costs <£400 fully comp, whereas SWMBO's Meriva is £850/£900ish, despite her being female and a few years older than me, and driving for a longer period of time.
GravelBen said:
culpz said:
It will never happen and would just turn the country into a frenzy of bumper-car madness.
Or maybe people would drive more carefully if they were footing the bill more directly themselves...GravelBen said:
MJK 24 said:
I've just spent a few months in NZ. You're correct in saying that there's no legal requirement for third party insurance cover. However, should you have an accident that is deemed to be your fault, and you don't have insurance, the third parties insurers will take you to court to recover their losses. This can lead to people being forced by the courts to sell assets - ie their home!
In theory it could happen, but that extreme is highly unlikely as the courts here are very soft. More common is a long-term payment scheme based on what the liable party can afford. A mate of mine hit someone's late model BMW while uninsured as a teenager and spent the next few years spending most of his disposable income paying off the damage. A hard lesson but a good one for a young bloke to learn.I suspect that part of the reason insurance is so much cheaper here is that it isn't compulsory, so supply and demand actually has an effect. If the premiums are too high, its cheaper for people to take the risk or put money aside themselves in case of accident. Different risk balance with those options, but freedom to choose.
As has been said there is also govt administered accident/injury cover which is paid for partly out of fuel tax, car registration costs etc as well as from income and business taxes.
Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 27th May 09:47
People who drive without insurance generally do so because they see it as an expense they could do without. Most often they do not have a cash buffer they could call upon. Worse than that, they're often pretty much worthless financially with no sellable assets.
I'll repeat that I don't care whether the uninsured lives or dies frankly.
What is important is how fast the victims are fully compensated. I don't need my car replaced when some dole sponger can pay it off at £5/week out of his giro - I need it now.
I don't need my living room rebuilt after OP pays it off at £5/week, I need it now.
The victim should never be left funding an uninsured person's f
k up. If the state fronts the money and the uninsured pays it back at £5/week then we're all paying for the uninsured.I pay £250 to insure a 350Z, it just isn't fair is it, the old farts like me with money and nice cars have all the fun dont they ?
What people dont see is those years building no claims, driving st boxes like the mighty Metro Clubman 1.0, Peugeot 309 "Look" and the Polo 1050, they don't see the times I had to leave my car at home and cycle in the pissing rain because I had no money for petrol. I had to work long hours, do exams, change jobs and generally get on with it, all for eight grands worth of aging Japanese sportscar
You are either born rich or you have to do your time, either without a car or with one you can afford to insure, you have to get older, prove responsibility, skill and care, or at least get away with being a dick.
So, it really annoys me when people still drive despite not being insured, taxed or MOT'd, I did my time, I took responsibility for my place on the road and am enjoying the benefits of that (and still paying for the privilege) so I don't want some scratter, smoking a spliff, driving a Punto they bought for £100 like a tt ruining that by piling into me, then running off like a marauding baboon rather than facing any consequences.
Sometimes, if your life is st, it may not be anyone else's fault other than your own, or you just haven't done your time and paid your dues, effort in generally equals rewards out and nobody is going to change the rules just for you, there are rarely short cuts.
What people dont see is those years building no claims, driving s
t boxes like the mighty Metro Clubman 1.0, Peugeot 309 "Look" and the Polo 1050, they don't see the times I had to leave my car at home and cycle in the pissing rain because I had no money for petrol. I had to work long hours, do exams, change jobs and generally get on with it, all for eight grands worth of aging Japanese sportscarYou are either born rich or you have to do your time, either without a car or with one you can afford to insure, you have to get older, prove responsibility, skill and care, or at least get away with being a dick.
So, it really annoys me when people still drive despite not being insured, taxed or MOT'd, I did my time, I took responsibility for my place on the road and am enjoying the benefits of that (and still paying for the privilege) so I don't want some scratter, smoking a spliff, driving a Punto they bought for £100 like a t
t ruining that by piling into me, then running off like a marauding baboon rather than facing any consequences.Sometimes, if your life is s
t, it may not be anyone else's fault other than your own, or you just haven't done your time and paid your dues, effort in generally equals rewards out and nobody is going to change the rules just for you, there are rarely short cuts.J4CKO said:
I pay £250 to insure a 350Z, it just isn't fair is it, the old farts like me with money and nice cars have all the fun dont they ?
What people dont see is those years building no claims, driving st boxes like the mighty Metro Clubman 1.0, Peugeot 309 "Look" and the Polo 1050, they don't see the times I had to leave my car at home and cycle in the pissing rain because I had no money for petrol. I had to work long hours, do exams, change jobs and generally get on with it, all for eight grands worth of aging Japanese sportscar
You are either born rich or you have to do your time, either without a car or with one you can afford to insure, you have to get older, prove responsibility, skill and care, or at least get away with being a dick.
So, it really annoys me when people still drive despite not being insured, taxed or MOT'd, I did my time, I took responsibility for my place on the road and am enjoying the benefits of that (and still paying for the privilege) so I don't want some scratter, smoking a spliff, driving a Punto they bought for £100 like a tt ruining that by piling into me, then running off like a marauding baboon rather than facing any consequences.
Sometimes, if your life is st, it may not be anyone else's fault other than your own, or you just haven't done your time and paid your dues, effort in generally equals rewards out and nobody is going to change the rules just for you, there are rarely short cuts.
What people dont see is those years building no claims, driving s
t boxes like the mighty Metro Clubman 1.0, Peugeot 309 "Look" and the Polo 1050, they don't see the times I had to leave my car at home and cycle in the pissing rain because I had no money for petrol. I had to work long hours, do exams, change jobs and generally get on with it, all for eight grands worth of aging Japanese sportscarYou are either born rich or you have to do your time, either without a car or with one you can afford to insure, you have to get older, prove responsibility, skill and care, or at least get away with being a dick.
So, it really annoys me when people still drive despite not being insured, taxed or MOT'd, I did my time, I took responsibility for my place on the road and am enjoying the benefits of that (and still paying for the privilege) so I don't want some scratter, smoking a spliff, driving a Punto they bought for £100 like a t
t ruining that by piling into me, then running off like a marauding baboon rather than facing any consequences.Sometimes, if your life is s
t, it may not be anyone else's fault other than your own, or you just haven't done your time and paid your dues, effort in generally equals rewards out and nobody is going to change the rules just for you, there are rarely short cuts.
sidaorb said:
Now could that be because so many uninsured drivers on the road have pushed premiums up.
Scenario 1: Driver 1 is insured, driver 2 is insured – insurers pay out.
Scenario 2: Driver 1 is insured, driver 2 is uninsured but causes the accident – driver 1 insurers pay out to driver 1.
The insurance industry as a whole never has to pay any more money regardless of liability and insurance cover - so how would that put premiums up?
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff