Car insurance and car for 17 yr old

[Rammon]

Hi all
I'm sure this has been asked so many times before but now it's happening to me and I'm after a bit of advice
The time has come for my seventeen year old daughter to get her first car
Been looking at 1.0 litre cars, corsas, yaris's or micra's. So first question, which out of these three would be recommended or are there any others to consider within the £2000 budget?
Also been on the usual price comparison sites for insurance and all I can say is it's extortionate, anywhere else I should be looking?
I don't remember insurance being this bad when I started out many years ago

[Rammon]

Squishey said:

Out of the 3 I'd recommend the Yaris. My wife has had her 2003 for 4 years without a fault or MOT failure in that time. Routine maintenance and consumables is all that it's cost which is the same for any car. I suspect the Mirca would drive similarly, be just as reliable and cheap to run but IMO they are not as good looking as the Yaris. Personally, I'd steer clear of Corsas.

Can't help with insurance, sorry.

I think I'm leaning toward a Yaris too but I think she may have her heart set on a corsa, God knows why as she knows nothing about cars
Is there any specific reason against a corsa? Worse on insurance?
I imagine they're a bit gutless, but is there any significant difference in "performance" in these small cars?

[Rammon]

ferrariF50lover said:

General consensus from dearly departed insurance expert was that the overwhelming majority of the cost of insurance for inexperienced drivers was the costs associated with the third parties. I never could work out why it would cost more to to repair a third party vehicle hit by, say, a Corsa as opposed to, say, a 206, but there you go.

Cars are rated by groups which take into account a whole range of things (supposedly). Google will find you an insurance group calculator, try searching that.

Anothet very important factor is your postcode. For my circumstances, a quiet part of Devon is around 1/10 the price of Moss Side. Fortunately, the former is where I actually live.

Buying as far in advance as possible saves money too, as does being married, having the 'right' job (MSE has a job calculator, it's only a few quid, but for the sake of typing different letters on your keyboard, you might as well have it) and owning your own home. Stick yourselves on the insurance too, but as additional drivers (no fronting allowed), that'll likely help.

They'll still pluck the prices out of their arse and it'll still be ruinously expensive, so prepare yourself.

Ok thanks for that, I'll check out the insurance groups
Postcode should be ok, village in Kent
She is only seventeen so not married and living at home
Didn't know putting myself on as named driver would help though, thanks

[Rammon]

ferrariF50lover said:

Oooh, interesting, tell us why, what were you daft enough to get caught doing?

????

[Rammon]

V8RX7 said:

Keep trying different variations and I think you'll find the "cool" cars like Corsas are more expensive to insure as more kids drive them, hence more kids crash them.

I bought my daughter a 206 as of the cars on offer at the time it had decent Ncap rating.

Having driven some of her friends cars the Clios are as far better drive.

I also found that 1ltr or 1.4 made no difference to the quotes.

Adding me, her mum and Grandfather to the policy reduced it massively.

Thought that may be the case with corsas
That's surprising re. the engine size

[Rammon]

98elise said:

Try a fiesta. We have a 1.4 petrol fiesta that we will pass onto our son (i'm currently teaching him to drive). Insurance quotes are coming in at around £1500, which seems quite reasonable these days.

Thanks I'll have a look

[Rammon]

Have tried putting both myself and her mother on as named drivers and it's made no difference ffs

[Rammon]

Rammon said:

Have tried putting both myself and her mother on as named drivers and it's made no difference ffs

Just to clarify, both been driving 30 plus years with no claims at all, I have three points 2 years ago and I drive a monaro!

[Rammon]

bomma220 said:

OP, has your daughter passed her driving test yet? We got mine (also 17) a cracking 'learners' deal from Adrian Flux for around £500 ish, obviously will increase when she passes her test but does take the sting out a bit !

She has an 02 Corsa 1.0 (ebay £160 with a blown engine, put in a used one £120 + £50 new timing chain kit - job done, very smart little car). Couple of things if you go down the Corsa route - the 1.0 does have timing chain / seizure issues but this is mostly due to the small oil capacity (about 3 litres) & failure to keep it topped up ! Re insurance again, I did find there's a difference between the various Corsa 1.0 models (GLS, Life, Expression etc) - check before you buy.

Hope this helps

She has her 2nd test tomorrow lol only just failed first time round
But is very keen to get a car very soon as soon as she's passed as she's got some money saved and its burning a hole in her pocket
Thanks on info on corsas

[Rammon]

Impasse said:

Another vote for the Yaris. My daughter spent her first few years of driving trundling around in one. For their age they have a reasonable NCAP rating and there's always the comfort that you'll know it will start in the morning. A plus point compared with its contemporaries came from rear seat passengers. They were always complimentary of its legroom when compared with the usual Corsa/Clio etc.
We are in a respectable postcode and she stuck her mother down as a named driver. Once she had passed her test it was about £1200 FC for the first year's insurance.

Good points on the Yaris, but she's still coming up at £1500 with both myself and her mother on as named drivers (it didn't change much putting us on) on a 1.0 litre corsa or Yaris, I suppose that's going to be the going rate, guess we'll just have to suck it up, extortion!

[Rammon]

EazyDuz said:

With regards to lower insurance, you can:

Have her as a named driver. You risk her ruining your NCB though
This is not an option lol
Have her as the policy holder with you as a named driver, this can drop £100 or so
Check Aviva, by far the cheapest for me compared to any on comparison sites

Aviva? I'll have a look

[Rammon]

MrBarry123 said:

I've heard a few times that adding a child* onto a multi-car policy reduces their premium significantly - so maybe worth a shot?

*Not just a random child but typically one's own child/children.

Haha I'll have a look

[Rammon]

V8RX7 said:

To clarify we are talking about insurance for after she's passed her test and insurance in her own name ?

Because it knocked over 20% off my daughter's and we only insured her a couple of weeks ago.

Yes that's right, have got quotes based on her having full licence

[Rammon]

V8RX7 said:

Have you tried all 3 of the larger compare sites ?

Money...
Confused...
Compare...

No just confused so far

[Rammon]

mblade123 said:

I had the same dilemma a few years ago with my daughter. She wanted a mini but I told her to sod off as the insurance was over £2000.
So we went down the Fiat 500 route. Brilliant little car and she loves it to bits. The plus is that it was cheap to insure.
We also have a multi car policy with Admiral. I added her to it with her own policy with myself and her mum on it as named drivers. This brought it down to about £600. Not bad for a 17 year old.

What's more we added her to the multi car policy in the September and the policy needed renewing in the Jan. So thats 5 months.
When it was renewed she then had 1year NCB automatically.

That's bloody good!
I'm with admiral myself so that may well be worth a look
Won't affect my policy though will it, especially if she has a little shunt?

[Rammon]

mblade123 said:

Nope. If it's a multi car policy she is completely independent..
What I would say is when it comes for renual. Do a price comparison on each individually. Then ring them if the renual is dearer than what you find. I did it this year and got £400 knocked off the total price.

Absolutely, I always shop around then use that as ammunition to go back to current insurer

[Rammon]

JakeT said:

Insurers won't allow a new driver as a named driver typically. This is also called Fronting, is insurance fraud and is illegal.

Exactly, wasn't considering doing that

[Rammon]

jayemm89 said:

As others have said:

Try ALL of the insurance comparison sites. You'd be surprised at the difference. I sometimes see a three-figure difference for the same insurer, just going through different comparison sites.

going through these now

jayemm89 said:

Don't forget the companies who don't go through comparison sites - direct line, co-op, Aviva,

These next

jayemm89 said:

Make sure you get quotes for TPFT, TPO and fully comp. Sometimes fully comp is cheaper.

Mix things up - sometimes weird things make a difference. EG> I've had quotes where it is more expensive to park a car in a garage than on my drive!

Surprising!!

[Rammon]

ferrariF50lover said:

It's that old fight. You and I both know that insurance is pure abuse of statistics. No one has ever crashed a Corsa purely because they weren't driving a 206. Correlation attributed the false weight of causation.

Nicely put

[Rammon]

maverickdrives said:

I found that for my first car british and french cars were cheaper to insure than japs which might not be the case for you since you're getting £1500 for all of them. If she is okay with a telematics box then co-op blackbox insurance is cheaper however I don't know what they're like to deal with as I have never used them just got a quote from them. Also 1.0L or 1.4L engine does not make too much of a difference.

Edited by maverickdrives on Sunday 7th February 18:35

Ok been on confused, compare and Aviva all broadly the same at £1500, putting myself and her mother on did not make a lot of difference
Just been on money supermarket and its come up at £1000
All the above based on a yaris