Car insurance: garaged vs driveway

[CarDoodle]

That time of the year again!

I have finally cleared space in my garage that the car can fit in it. It won’t be in 100% of the time (mainly winter) so could be 50/50.

For car insurance what is best to go with? Minor £20 increase to say it’s garaged but then don’t want to be left with issues of anything happened when it was on the drive, or vice versa!

Not an issue I’ve had to consider before so appreciate the PH collective view, or those with experience with claims in these situations!

[Ninja59]

Personally I prefer garaged, a controlled environment. Current car has a garaging condition between specific hours...

[Pica-Pica]

Surely they ask ‘where is the car USUALLY kept’ ?
Answer that honestly, and as far as you can be sure.

[steveo3002]

cheapest is often parked in the street

is there a clause where parking in the garage /driveway /car park would invalidate it ?

[Bennet]

Depends on what the car is, what sort of garage we are talking about, what sort of area you live in, and how busy the road outside your house tends to be.

[walnut3]

From my limited experience, specifying the car is left garaged usually comes with certain conditions in the fine print - my current insurer requires the car to be in the garage between specific times (overnight) if within a certain range of the house (few miles).

If you're half as lazy as me that is enough deterrent

[Saleen836]

walnut3 said:

From my limited experience, specifying the car is left garaged usually comes with certain conditions in the fine print - my current insurer requires the car to be in the garage between specific times (overnight) if within a certain range of the house (few miles).

If you're half as lazy as me that is enough deterrent

mine has a clause like this but my insurance is for very limited (3k pa) miles anyway

[thompson9745]

I had ‘garaged’ insurance requiring the vehicle to be in the garage overnight between 11-6 if parked within a 1/4 mile. Was fine until we had a new kitchen put in and the garage storage space would’ve been very useful when the kitchen was delivered in many, many assorted different large boxes…

Now I’ve reverted to ‘driveway’ insurance at no extra cost but still mostly park in the garage.

[motco]

How can it be cheaper to have the car outside and accessible to scrotes of all stripes, rather than locked up safely in a garage? And as for cheapest parked on the street, that's barmy!

[Dog Star]

motco said:

How can it be cheaper to have the car outside and accessible to scrotes of all stripes, rather than locked up safely in a garage? And as for cheapest parked on the street, that's barmy!

+1

My car is usually in the garage, but sometimes Mrs DSs car is and mine is under the carport or perhaps they’re all outside if I’ve a motorbike in bits.

I’ve never noticed a clause about it needing to be inside - there is such a clause on the bike policies and it’s very prominent.

[Pica-Pica]

motco said:

How can it be cheaper to have the car outside and accessible to scrotes of all stripes, rather than locked up safely in a garage? And as for cheapest parked on the street, that's barmy!

Mostly because of damage by the owner when manoeuvring in tight spaces. (PS. Not everywhere has scrotes anyway !)

[samoht]

I asked my insurer about this,
'garaged' - must be in garage overnight (as mentioned)
'driveway' - can be kept on drive or in garage

that is, they saw garaged as the lowest risk, so if I paid for driveway, they were happy if I wanted to garage it sometimes.

And 'street' was the highest risk.


There are indeed counter-arguments to the above, but for me at my house with my insurer, that's what they specifically said.

I suggest ringing up and explaining it'll sometimes be in the garage, sometimes on the drive, and they can tell you.

[spikeyhead]

motco said:

How can it be cheaper to have the car outside and accessible to scrotes of all stripes, rather than locked up safely in a garage? And as for cheapest parked on the street, that's barmy!

It's because people regularly scrap their car reversing in their garage.

[grumpyscot]

spikeyhead said:

It's because people regularly scrap their car reversing in their garage.

Mainly because few cars can fit in a single car garage. I only have a single car one, got my old Peugeot 106 in it, but couldn't get out because of the width /length of the car doors.

The only people in our street who I see garage their car, all have double sized garages.

And one person no longer garages his car, since he ripped off his £3,000 bike off the car roof when he forgot it was there!

[souper]

Living in London, I see & walk past plenty of classic cars permanently parked up on the roads overnight & in the daytime, Porsches Saabs Minis American 60-70s classics etc. What insurance would these cars be on as hardly anyone in London zones 1-2-3 have garages or driveways?

[CanAm]

spikeyhead said:

motco said:

How can it be cheaper to have the car outside and accessible to scrotes of all stripes, rather than locked up safely in a garage? And as for cheapest parked on the street, that's barmy!

It's because people regularly scrap their car reversing in their garage.

A colleague recently reversed his Lexus SUV thing into his garage. Unfortunately the rear hatch was wide open - quite an expensive repair!

[James_33]

I once was playing about with quotes, mines on a driveway but not garaged, then i put it in to see what it would be parked on the street, and for some reason it came out cheaper?

If someone can get their head around that let me know.

[SkodaIan]

Does the car have keyless entry?

If so, parking on the street is a lower risk than on the drive as the car will normally be further away from the house and less prone to relay theft. Even for a normal key, the thieves then don't know which house to break into to look for the key....

[Pica-Pica]

James_33 said:

I once was playing about with quotes, mines on a driveway but not garaged, then i put it in to see what it would be parked on the street, and for some reason it came out cheaper?

If someone can get their head around that let me know.

Parked on the drive, house clearly unoccupied - easy meat.
Parked on the road, who’s to know which house the car is connected with? Plus, moving away from a street parked position is easier than pulling out of a driveway, so less likelihood of a collision.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Pica-Pica said:

Parked on the drive, house clearly unoccupied - easy meat.

How do you work that out? Surely the opposite is true, car on the drive, house more likely to be occupied.