17 year old - insurance comparison sites

[cradock]

Hello - is there any way to get an approximate idea of insurance costs for a young driver who is about to start learning? The comparison sites all want every single conceivable piece of information for "an accurate quote" and then caveat that if the data are incorrect it will invalidate everything and could be illegal...

I just want to get a very rough idea of what my daughter would pay in a VW polo (1.0 SE vs. 1.0 TSI - group 1 and group 8 respectively) first while she's still learning, and then later in the year when she has (hopefully) passed her test. The usual comparison sites just don't seem set up to allow someone to browse and get a rough idea. Is it a case of setting up a dummy account? or just finding a friendly insurance broker who can give an approximate idea of cost.

Its a material consideration in buying the car for her, so I'm surprised that the sites themselves require such extraordinary detail just for a rough guide. Thanks in advance!

[Paddymcc]

Confused.com is setup perfect for this.

Also found that taking out a policy and adding myself under my son's name give him the best price for insurance too for learning.

£275 on a low insurance group Renault Clio.

When he passes it goes to around £1350.

[easy_rider33]

Similar position with my son, incidentally looking at a Polo. Comparison sites are showing circa £1400 for fully comp (assuming passed) with a black box as main driver. It looks to be about £300 to add him to a policy as a provisional license holder on the same car from memory.

[4Q]

Slightly OT but take out a policy in their own name as soon as possible whilst on a provisional licence and it will be really cheap, then they’ll have a years no claims once they pass their test. I did this for two of mine and the savings were greater than the cost of the year whilst learning.

[anonymous-user]

We used these https://www.collingwood.co.uk/learner-driver-insur...

£250 to insure my daughter on her own Fiesta. Whilst she’s learning you put in her driving license number to prove she’s a learner and then you tell them when she’s passed so they can end the policy. It works really well.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 27th December 09:30

[cradock]

Many thanks for the tips - very good point about getting her set up once she has her provisional.

Funny thing is, it was my experience with confused website that had me tearing my hair out... she's 17 in a few days time and the website won't let me go further unless I give her a fictitious DoB... which according to the website's warnings is a terrible thing to do and will invalidate everything for ever... What the website "remembers" about me when I go back in also makes me rather wary of fiddling around with it too much!

[Rozzers]

Absolutely the best thing to do is insure it in their name with family named drivers, it’s very inexpensive and if it takes a year to pass, they will have NCD.

Finding out the post pass price will mean hooky details and email address, I’d suggest a nearby address as well and a false name so it does t flag anything against you. This may change a lot over time though.

My daughter has been insured since she was 17, never had a tracking box fitted, never paid more than £900 post pass, during learning was about £350.00 Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge.

[eliot]

in lockdown two years ago, before my lad had bought a car - I insured him as a learner on my P38 range rover, only cost £200. After about two months or so, he then bought a 2007 1.2L polo which is one of the cheapest cars to insure.

[cradock]

Rozzers said:

Finding out the post pass price will mean hooky details and email address, I’d suggest a nearby address as well and a false name so it does t flag anything against you. This may change a lot over time though.

This is exactly it! I'm just surprised its not straightforward to estimate what the future costs will be. I'm toying with two cars - a group 1 which is utterly gutless, and a group 8 which seems better in every way (the two Polo versions - 64BHP vs. 94BHP basically). Since I will probably drive it myself a bit, I'd be minded to the slightly more powerful one (hardly a porsche even then!) but am wary it'd mean thousands more on the insurance bill once she passes. I quit trying to get an estimate out of the website as soon as I couldn't shake the deleted cookies out of the search history! these things are persistent it seems.

As an aside, all the young driver specialist brokers seem to want telematics - but the regular insurance firms seem to offer with or without - I'm sure the topic has been done to death but am I being naive in preferring not to have the tracking?

[anonymous-user]

I think you’re looking too far ahead. Get her driving first, then worry about what you do about black boxes when she’s passed. Tests are still difficult to come by where we live, and she will probably fail the first one. My daughter’s been test ready since Oct and failed first time, now we are looking at Jan for a second test. It’s an expensive nightmare! As for cars, we bought a MK6 Fiesta 1.25 Zetec. It’s not fast but it’s fun to drive and fast enough. It’s comes with air conditioning, electric windows and a heated front screen. It also costs buttons to run. In summary - don’t over think it, main thing is to get her some lessons and a test date!

The link I posted above for Collingwood don’t require any black box to be installed, it’s specifically for learner drivers so only covers whilst they are learning. It also allows the learner to build up their own NCD which they can transfer when they get “proper” insurance.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 27th December 10:08

[spookly]

Also look at more obscure cars.
If there's less of them on the road, especially those not owned by young drivers, then there's less that'll have been crashed.
I found that certain cars were far cheaper despite being similar size/power to others that were more expensive to insure. Minis seemed to be cheap for some reason.
Seemed to be a ceiling in terms of what will remain cheap. Anything less than 10s to 60, or over about 110hp seemed to not be viewed favourably.
Anything over 20 years seemed much more expensive and a lot of the black box insurers wouldn't even quote.

I was amazed at how expensive to insure some low group cars were despite being small and gutless.

Ended up getting my boy a Seat Ibiza ST 1.6 diesel. 10.5s to 60, 104bhp. £30 tax a year and 60mpg. Current learner insurance is £230 a year with no additional drivers on the policy. Had quotes of about £1400 to £1500 a year once he's passed.

Perfect for him as he wanted something not too small so he can go off on camping trips with his mates. So a small estate was perfect.

[Ffordd Ar Gau]

cradock said:

I'm toying with two cars - a group 1 which is utterly gutless, and a group 8 which seems better in every way (the two Polo versions - 64BHP vs. 94BHP basically).

Surely the group 8 TSI is a no brainier? I had a group 16 car with a 1.6 and 115bhp and was little more than other people have mentioned paying for Polos etc. Granted it was a diesel, whether that makes a difference I don’t know?

craddock said:

As an aside, all the young driver specialist brokers seem to want telematics - but the regular insurance firms seem to offer with or without - I'm sure the topic has been done to death but am I being naive in preferring not to have the tracking?

I would say that, especially whilst learning and in the first year as a fully qualified driver, the box recorder will make a big difference. I can’t speak for the Polo but, back when I was insuring the V60 for the first time it was a case of circa. £1500 with a black box, against £2k up without, there was little justification to pay such premium to be without the box. If you are going to use the car, you will just have to remember the box is there! It teaches a level of restraint which I believe is good for learning to drive independently in the early stages. After a first year I ditched telematics insurance for ‘standard’ and now pay little more than average prices, I’d say, and have NCB on the policy, and now have another policy for my V60 which is dirt cheap. The one with the NCB I will now insure my ‘fun’ car(s) as the obsession, sorry collection grows!

[eliot]

I think my lad paid about £1500 on his 1.2 polo once he passed - putting both parents down as named drivers made it cheaper for some unknown reason, but we tested it and it was cheaper

[595Heaven]

We used Collingswood as well for my son. They have a provisional licence hoder's policy which expires after a year or when they pass their test. Really cheap and has me as a named driver.

[ClaphamGT3]

Got all this to come in just over a year.

Current aspiration from the elder Claphamette is for an original Defender 90 as her 1st car - apparently this is what "everybody" in 6th form at school has. God only knows what that's going to cost to insure for a 17 year-old

[anonymous-user]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Got all this to come in just over a year.

Current aspiration from the elder Claphamette is for an original Defender 90 as her 1st car - apparently this is what "everybody" in 6th form at school has. God only knows what that's going to cost to insure for a 17 year-old

Hmmm, expensive (overpriced imho), easy to steal unless you're prepared to take the steering wheel when you leave it, rotten chassis and bulkhead, uncomfortable, noisy and absolutely no crash protection. Oh, and last time I looked, it was about 5k to insure a new driver on one. I can think of better choices.

[carinaman]

There was a Readers' Cars thread about a Volvo C30 for a newly qualified young driver. The insurance premium didn't seem too bad.

[paintman]

Rozzers said:

Absolutely the best thing to do is insure it in their name with family named drivers, it’s very inexpensive and if it takes a year to pass, they will have NCD.

Did that with my sons when they started driving.
Had their own cars - bangernomics.

ClaphamGT3 said:

Got all this to come in just over a year.

Current aspiration from the elder Claphamette is for an original Defender 90 as her 1st car - apparently this is what "everybody" in 6th form at school has. God only knows what that's going to cost to insure for a 17 year-old

Just tell her she will have to arrange - and pay for - her own insurance.
Mine had the choice of a small cheapish car with me paying the insurance or a first class walk.

[RicksAlfas]

Have a look at veygo.com for when they are learning.

Hastings Direct black box ended up cheapest for when my son passed (with me, Mum and Grandad) on his own named insurance. £800 for a 100bhp Clio including commuting.

[LuS1fer]

Money Supermarket.

You can put in any DOB and then once you have a quote you can go back and change the cars using a reg off Auto Trader etc.

You're not creating any contract or making any declarations until you actually follow through to the company and pay.

It's very handy for getting an idea of costs. One thing I have found is older classic cars are expensive, no matter how small the engine.