Insurance for sprogs, thinking outside the box
Discussion
Gmlgml said:
mightymoose said:
Classic mini worked for me, 998 1990 Mayfair was sub 1k to insure at 18 with Adrian Flux
Quite dear to buy one of those now I’m guessing? Anyone who puts their teenage kid in a classic car, especially something like a BL Mini, must be crazy. At that age, and with the claims record of teenagers, mine went into something modern and comparatively safe.
And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Anyone who puts their teenage kid in a classic car, especially something like a BL Mini, must be crazy. At that age, and with the claims record of teenagers, mine went into something modern and comparatively safe.
And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
What did they end up in? And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
Gmlgml said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Anyone who puts their teenage kid in a classic car, especially something like a BL Mini, must be crazy. At that age, and with the claims record of teenagers, mine went into something modern and comparatively safe.
And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
What did they end up in? And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
But had they been getting their own car, I would have subbed whatever they could afford to put them into something modern with air bags, abs, crumple zones, esc and all the other stuff we take for granted that didn't exist when I was a teenager.
I'm not an expert, but my guess is even something small like a Citroen C1 is a damn site safer than a large 70s saloon like a Ford Granada, let alone a classic Mini.
It won't help your insurance (sadly) but recommend under17driver.co.uk week-long courses for your "nearly 17 year old".
From my experience lots of 17-year-olds end up on a multi-car policy with Admiral (or similar) for 12 months. Also they seem to go for "different" cars - like Astra not Corsa, Golf not Polo for the first year as they are no more expensive to insure (or cheaper in some cases).
Caveat: I've been involved with under17driver for some time but we are a charity rather than a commercial enterprise :-)
From my experience lots of 17-year-olds end up on a multi-car policy with Admiral (or similar) for 12 months. Also they seem to go for "different" cars - like Astra not Corsa, Golf not Polo for the first year as they are no more expensive to insure (or cheaper in some cases).
Caveat: I've been involved with under17driver for some time but we are a charity rather than a commercial enterprise :-)
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Anyone who puts their teenage kid in a classic car, especially something like a BL Mini, must be crazy. At that age, and with the claims record of teenagers, mine went into something modern and comparatively safe.
I'm with this. When I got the 106 Rallye for Miss Bert, it had two problems. One was that it had not much in the way of safety features and the other was that it was unreliable. I thought that would be fine for her use which would be short journeys. But she just went here there and everywhere going on lots of long journeys. After a few breakdowns, we called it a day and got a proper car. When she smacked it up at least it was safer!Well when I say proper car, it was a rover 25 which at least has airbags and (strangely) was reliable! And it's a super fun car to drive around. At the age of 18 and on the way, being the first car for two teenagers, it's getting to the end of its time now.
Bert
Leading the race so far are a Suzuki Jimny (slow, basic and cheap to fix- minus of not a lot of safety) Similar for a diesel Smart car, same good/bad as the Jimny. Bit more money to insure (and thanks to someone pointing it out) is a circa 2001/2002 1.4 engined Honda Civic or a Daihatsu something or other (so boring I can’t currently recall what’s it’s called. Truly ugly thing so not sure I can do all the plastic chrome to him!) but at least both of these more substantial and a better (but still not great) safety rating. Decisions, decisions.
Gmlgml said:
Eldest brat 17 soon, l have a vague notion that car insurance group rates aren’t the be all and end all to get a cheap quote (I.e I’m sure I read a 21 yr old insured a Noble cheaper than a Ford Focus simply as hardly any Nobles had been crashed and lots of Focus had; hence the insurance regarded a Focus as more of a “risk” than a sports car.)
I want it to be in his name for obvious NCB accrual and don’t “front it” aspects, nor can I stomach paying 200 a month for a tin box with “free “ insurance.
I did a play about and for example got a Suzuki Jimny (slowest thing I could find) quoted cheaper than a Ka despite being groups apart; any one got any left field suggestions of what may be insurable for a 17yr old boy or legal ways to reduce the premium (apart from the obvious excess, black box, add his mum as a named driver).) I’d consider anything classic, no street cred, embarrassing or bizarre. Saves giving it lifts.
If this isn't left field then I do not know what is: Get him to move to France where he can drive an electric car without even having a driving licence. He can then build up his driving experience, learn French, experience the pleasures of a French girl and come back when insurance is cheaper over here. I want it to be in his name for obvious NCB accrual and don’t “front it” aspects, nor can I stomach paying 200 a month for a tin box with “free “ insurance.
I did a play about and for example got a Suzuki Jimny (slowest thing I could find) quoted cheaper than a Ka despite being groups apart; any one got any left field suggestions of what may be insurable for a 17yr old boy or legal ways to reduce the premium (apart from the obvious excess, black box, add his mum as a named driver).) I’d consider anything classic, no street cred, embarrassing or bizarre. Saves giving it lifts.
By then we will be in those automated sh#t self driving cars anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35210572
Pip
Pip1968 said:
If this isn't left field then I do not know what is: Get him to move to France where he can drive an electric car without even having a driving licence. He can then build up his driving experience, learn French, experience the pleasures of a French girl and come back when insurance is cheaper over here.
By then we will be in those automated sh#t self driving cars anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35210572
Pip
His mum said “non”. Merde. Back to English insurance prices. By then we will be in those automated sh#t self driving cars anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35210572
Pip
We bought the "eldest brat" a Seat Arosa when he was learning, and he's used it for two years since he passed his test, and gained some important experience and No-Claim Bonus.
Now he wants a Polo GTI, because he can now insure one at what he considers a sensible cost.
When I passed my test at 17 (and a half) I was driving air-cooled VW Beetles, which were cheap to insure, even if they became modified, and at 23 I bought my first Golf GTI.
Any way you look at it, for those important couple of years after passing the test and then actually learning to drive, youngsters nowadays are condemned to something dull while they accumulate some NCB, but once they have, as the great Arthur Daley once said, "the world is their lobster". The trick is to find something which the statistics show isn't commonly crashed by teenagers.
Volvo or Land Rover?
Now he wants a Polo GTI, because he can now insure one at what he considers a sensible cost.
When I passed my test at 17 (and a half) I was driving air-cooled VW Beetles, which were cheap to insure, even if they became modified, and at 23 I bought my first Golf GTI.
Any way you look at it, for those important couple of years after passing the test and then actually learning to drive, youngsters nowadays are condemned to something dull while they accumulate some NCB, but once they have, as the great Arthur Daley once said, "the world is their lobster". The trick is to find something which the statistics show isn't commonly crashed by teenagers.
Volvo or Land Rover?
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Anyone who puts their teenage kid in a classic car, especially something like a BL Mini, must be crazy. At that age, and with the claims record of teenagers, mine went into something modern and comparatively safe.
And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
We could go down the bike helmet route with this ie safer the vehicle the more risk they will take. Personally you need to let them learn their own lessons. How many 'kids' have dies in modern safe cars compared to old 'unsafe' ones ?And before anyone posts "I drove on old mini thru my teenage years and didn't die", well so did I, but plenty did die, and they aren't going to be posting to tell us about it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-5...
I am guessing this was no cheap 'unsafe' motor.
Give him a SUV and he can kill safely kill someone else instead of himself.
Pip
Gmlgml said:
I want it to be in his name for obvious NCB accrual and don’t “front it” aspects, nor can I stomach paying 200 a month for a tin box with “free “ insurance.
When I was 17 it was me who had to stomach paying 200 quid a month lol. Back then it was a years free, I used to trade in and get a new motor after the year from distant memory i was never usually upside down and if I was it was minimal, however after a few years and PCP's becoming the rotting apple they are it became slightly uneconomical.
Plus, the insurers do free insurance on tin boxes because they are lower risk.
Apologies for the long post.... We've been through a similar exercise with our 22-year-old son who's just passed his test and has no previous insurance , either in his own name or on our policies.
We found that even cars which are nominally quite similar can vary widely in insurance cost, that mileage is also a significant factor and black box policies can be (but are not always) cheaper too.
We created an account on a couple of the big comparison sites as they allow you to save the quote and then just edit the car reg and get a new quotes, based on the cars we could find for sale locally that we thought might suit him. You may prefer to use disposable email addresses so you don't end up with a mailbox full of quotes though. I also found that some of the insurers on the comparison sites may be cheap but also dont get great reviews on sites like trustpilot so it pays to check who the insurers are.
We also found that each insurer seems to have their own banding for mileage, so once you've found something that suits price-wise experiment with increasing the mileage until the premium goes up; you may be able to get a few thousand miles more cover for no extra cost and its a lot easier to do it upfront than pay through the nose for additional mileage partway through the policy
Once we'd found the happy combination of a car he liked, that was in the right price range and wasn't too expensive to insure (relatively....), we also tried a few of the bigger insurer's own sites and ended up with a Direct Line black box policy. FWIW it was (I think) about £1150 for a 1.2L Hyundai i10, in Norfolk, for 19,000 miles per year ( he commutes 25 miles each way each day, and we found that 19k miles was no more expensive than 15K).
Its early days at the moment but the black box is giving him good marks for his driving so far. Where it seems odd is that we've had two low scores simply from letting the car idle in the drive and then stopping the engine (e.g when defrosting it) We've challenged those as they are bringing his overall score down , although we've yet to have a response back (this was only yesterday)
We found that even cars which are nominally quite similar can vary widely in insurance cost, that mileage is also a significant factor and black box policies can be (but are not always) cheaper too.
We created an account on a couple of the big comparison sites as they allow you to save the quote and then just edit the car reg and get a new quotes, based on the cars we could find for sale locally that we thought might suit him. You may prefer to use disposable email addresses so you don't end up with a mailbox full of quotes though. I also found that some of the insurers on the comparison sites may be cheap but also dont get great reviews on sites like trustpilot so it pays to check who the insurers are.
We also found that each insurer seems to have their own banding for mileage, so once you've found something that suits price-wise experiment with increasing the mileage until the premium goes up; you may be able to get a few thousand miles more cover for no extra cost and its a lot easier to do it upfront than pay through the nose for additional mileage partway through the policy
Once we'd found the happy combination of a car he liked, that was in the right price range and wasn't too expensive to insure (relatively....), we also tried a few of the bigger insurer's own sites and ended up with a Direct Line black box policy. FWIW it was (I think) about £1150 for a 1.2L Hyundai i10, in Norfolk, for 19,000 miles per year ( he commutes 25 miles each way each day, and we found that 19k miles was no more expensive than 15K).
Its early days at the moment but the black box is giving him good marks for his driving so far. Where it seems odd is that we've had two low scores simply from letting the car idle in the drive and then stopping the engine (e.g when defrosting it) We've challenged those as they are bringing his overall score down , although we've yet to have a response back (this was only yesterday)
Some of the suggestions on here, for a young inexperienced driver who statistically may well crash, BL Mini, kit car, Westfield, Renault Twizzy. I don't know about thinking outside the box, but these are far more likely to put your kid in a box!
Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Some of the suggestions on here, for a young inexperienced driver who statistically may well crash, BL Mini, kit car, Westfield, Renault Twizzy. I don't know about thinking outside the box, but these are far more likely to put your kid in a box!
Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
From persona experience I went into drive a BL Mini as my first car full well know the A-Pillars are twigs the the crumple zones include words such as knees and face, and therefore opted for a slightly different driving style compared to my fiesta owning friends in their much safer cars, who inevitably, ended up rolling/crashing, sometime multiple times, because they knew their cars were safer than mine and could therefore drive less cautiously. I just chose to drive to the ability of not only my experience, but also my vehicles engineering which reflected well in my insurance premium.Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
Obviously doesnt stop other drivers on the road driving into said Mini/Twizzy, but then again would a Fiesta/VW UP! survive a speedy front end shunt with a Range Rover?
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Some of the suggestions on here, for a young inexperienced driver who statistically may well crash, BL Mini, kit car, Westfield, Renault Twizzy. I don't know about thinking outside the box, but these are far more likely to put your kid in a box!
Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
Is anyone, apart from me & Bert, remotely concerned about their kid's safety? Their likelihood to walk away from a big accident?
To be fair I have referenced safety as a concern on the cars I’ve found. Hence my reticence to push the button on a Jimny. Whilst it seems built like a tank and with a ladder chassis and straight corners I guess reasonably impervious to lower speed damage I’m also conscious it doesn’t have a) a good safety score or b) much in the way of a safety kit.
Having said that my first car was an 80’s escort and his mum’s an older Talbot. We are both still here.
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