Insurance - no prior history

[Travellervet]

Hi All - I'm trying to get a quote for buying an mx5 2008, 1.8L, not modified, used only for social under 10K/m/yr and I'm being quoted @800 a year! Is this correct? This is extraordinary for insurance. Anyone know of a good insurance company I could use, please? I'm 46 female and my driving record is from Australia and I have an Aussie license. I was planning on changing it over here in the UK, but I want to buy the car first. My record is fine - I just can't imagine why the online quote would be so large. I checked go compare.com and another auto insurer that does breakdown assistance.
Thanks,
Faithe

[lucido grigio]

You have zero no claims bonus.

You can try and prove your Australian record is clean but insurers don't need to take it into account.

[Travellervet]

Any idea what the cost of insurance should be for me and who is best to contact?

[randlemarcus]

From their perspective,you are a huge risk. No driving history, foreign licence they have no clue how to query, sports car.

Eight hundred isn't too bad. Try the meerkats to see if a UK licence makes that much of a difference.

[Travellervet]

Thanks what is Meetkats? What if I change my license to an English one?

[lucido grigio]

Meerkats is check the market .com ,another comparison site.

You should see the adverts.

No one on here will be able to give an accurate figure for insurance as the UK ins industry operates to its own rules with no logic whatsoever.

[Travellervet]

Okay - thanks everyone. Do you think that aver a year of having insurance and no issues, that my insurance will go down? I would assume it would .

[randlemarcus]

Yes, but not by as much as you might think. Looking more like their usual customer will help more, i.e. having a UK licence, and a UK address.

[Travellervet]

I have a UK address and I'm switching my Australian to a UK license. I just can't believe the quotes I'm getting.

[randlemarcus]

Then you need to revisit your perception a bit.

Eight hundred pounds for a liability of up to twenty million pounds when you skid off the motorway into a passenger train isn't hideous. You are an edge case in their probability models right now, with a few high risk indicators thrown in. What would you like them to do - introduce new use cases for foreign vets of a certain age with no demonstrable ability to drive sports cars? That's a fairly low probability of reuse

You could abandon the aggregator web sites, and get busy with the phone, or try a few of the brokers out there that like edge cases, like modified cars or high risk customers, you might find them more open to listening to your actual circumstances. But do remember that motor insurance is not a profitable business in the UK (probably because of the number of ridiculously high claims, and the blooming Injury lot), so dont expect to be getting really low premiums.

Have you tried any of the Classic insurers? Car might not be old enough for most of them, but my Mk 1 is on a classic policy for around £150 (1000 miles only though)