Car type and insurance advice for new driver (18)
Discussion
Well the time has come for me to buy my son his first car after he has just passed his test last week (my other son starts driving next week to 
)
I have used the compare Internet websites and used a 1ltr Vax Corsa as an example. The cheapest quotes are from £3700!! Yep insurance companies certainly know how to hurt parents, and i can understand why so many young drivers risk driving without it I can see why insurance company's are in league with the Devil and bankers 
Can any one suggest what car is a good one for a new driver along with were to get it insured at a low reasonable cost. Any suggestions or links would be very welcome guy? Would be good to hear from parents who have been through the same experiences or even our younger new driver members.
)I have used the compare Internet websites and used a 1ltr Vax Corsa as an example. The cheapest quotes are from £3700!! Yep insurance companies certainly know how to hurt parents, and i can understand why so many young drivers risk driving without it
I can see why insurance company's are in league with the Devil and bankers Can any one suggest what car is a good one for a new driver along with were to get it insured at a low reasonable cost. Any suggestions or links would be very welcome guy? Would be good to hear from parents who have been through the same experiences or even our younger new driver members.
The absolute minimum you will be able to get insurance for him is likely to be around £2k and that will cover him on something like a mk1/2 Ford fiesta or a breadvan shape VW Polo. A little bit more may get him in a Mini, but if you want him in something modern then don't expect to pay less than £3k.
Honestly though my advice, as someone who is in the same boat as him, is to get him through his test and tell him to forget about driving, there is no way it is worth that amount of money. Especially so if he plans to go to University, as running a car at Uni with insurance and fuel prices the way they are is a rediculous idea, so that 1 year he spends behind the wheel will be of no benefit to him at all as the NCB will expire. Instead I'd just put the money towards University costs for him, that'll be an awful lot better for him than a year behind the wheel.
Honestly though my advice, as someone who is in the same boat as him, is to get him through his test and tell him to forget about driving, there is no way it is worth that amount of money. Especially so if he plans to go to University, as running a car at Uni with insurance and fuel prices the way they are is a rediculous idea, so that 1 year he spends behind the wheel will be of no benefit to him at all as the NCB will expire. Instead I'd just put the money towards University costs for him, that'll be an awful lot better for him than a year behind the wheel.
chrisispringles said:
Honestly though my advice, as someone who is in the same boat as him, is to get him through his test and tell him to forget about driving, there is no way it is worth that amount of money. Especially so if he plans to go to University, as running a car at Uni with insurance and fuel prices the way they are is a rediculous idea, so that 1 year he spends behind the wheel will be of no benefit to him at all as the NCB will expire. Instead I'd just put the money towards University costs for him, that'll be an awful lot better for him than a year behind the wheel.
Agreed. The advice i give to anyone who asks for it is to do their test and get their licence as soon as possible and then if possible, forget about driving until they're 21/22ish. I doubt you'll ever get it down to 'cheap'. But, add a good few named drivers on (older and female work best). As long as your son is still down as the main driver this is completely legit and should reduce the premiums quite a bit.
Also, when I was 18 the only way to get a decent quote was to have a massive excess. £1000 voluntary, so probably around £1,250 including compulsory excess.
Other than that... Try less mainstream cars, or at the very least check quotes for the different possible cars. Quotes for entry level Corsas, Fiestas, Puntos, etc varied quite a lot for me.
Admiral/Bell/Elephant site is great for tweaking bits of the policy to find the cheapest way of doing it (albeit, with those companies). Have a mess around with job titles, excess, etc to see how it effects the price. Also, Admiral (maybe other companies, too?) do multi-car insurance which may be worth looking at.
That's about all I can think of. Either way I think you'll do well to get a quote considerably south of £2k.
ETA: You may already be aware, but it always seems to be cheaper to insure fully comp than TPFT/TPO. So have a look at that, too.
Also, when I was 18 the only way to get a decent quote was to have a massive excess. £1000 voluntary, so probably around £1,250 including compulsory excess.
Other than that... Try less mainstream cars, or at the very least check quotes for the different possible cars. Quotes for entry level Corsas, Fiestas, Puntos, etc varied quite a lot for me.
Admiral/Bell/Elephant site is great for tweaking bits of the policy to find the cheapest way of doing it (albeit, with those companies). Have a mess around with job titles, excess, etc to see how it effects the price. Also, Admiral (maybe other companies, too?) do multi-car insurance which may be worth looking at.
That's about all I can think of. Either way I think you'll do well to get a quote considerably south of £2k.
ETA: You may already be aware, but it always seems to be cheaper to insure fully comp than TPFT/TPO. So have a look at that, too.
Yes smaller cars tend to be worse for youngsters. Corsa, Fiesta etc. Go for something which has less of a reputation for a young lad wrapping it round a lamp post, like an old Volvo S40 or a rusted/ducktaped Mondeo. In fact on a car like that you'd probably get away with 'fronting' it because no sane person would believe its his!
Thanks for your input fellas That i-qube link is a good find thanks, a curfew(via a black box) from between 11pm-5am with a premium of bellow 2k is looking a lot better than 4K!!!! And next year i have another son who will want a car to 
Neither of my sons will be paying for there cars or insurance for the first year or two because as students they could never afford it. So like many others is down to mum and dad. Bloody insurance company's
Thanks again
That i-qube link is a good find thanks, a curfew(via a black box) from between 11pm-5am with a premium of bellow 2k is looking a lot better than 4K!!!! And next year i have another son who will want a car to Neither of my sons will be paying for there cars or insurance for the first year or two because as students they could never afford it. So like many others is down to mum and dad. Bloody insurance company's
Thanks again
Benbay001 said:
Try a more obscure car, one not nessesarily "young driver"ish. Yaris?
Agreed. I had a surprisingly good quote on a Smart ForFour, so I'd try less common/mainstream cars. Suzuki alto? Mitsubishi colt? Skoda Fabia?I'm paying the cheapest insurance out of all my friends in an '03 diesel mondeo- it doesn't have a reputation for young drivers! One of them is paying more for that same terrible 1.0 corsa 3-cylinder you mentioned (terrible, by the way!)
With that icube if you move the car more than 200yds you get charged something like 150 quid. Not sure what would happen if you were heading home at say half ten and got held up? Sounds like a big risk with little benefit to me. Try more obscure cars or older cars. Seemed to work for me and my mates.
Try some specialist young driver websites, also add yourself onto the policy and/or lower the mielage/ change the policy type to third party fire/theft.
Failing that would you consider getting a classic car, the premiums can be drasticly lower especially if you are part of a club.
Just an idea...
Good luck, insurance is a b
ch, I know I'm 18 too!
Failing that would you consider getting a classic car, the premiums can be drasticly lower especially if you are part of a club.
Just an idea...
Good luck, insurance is a b
ch, I know I'm 18 too!Insurance for young drivers is a bit of a joke tbh. I know they are high risk etc, but nowadays premiums of £3k upwards seem the norm, quite simply most parents would struggle to pay these let alone youngsters on low or no income.
The average UK household income gross is something like £33k, so call it approx. £22-24k net. There is no way the average family can afford to spend £3k of that on insuring 1 child.
I appreciate that driving is a privilege, but at the moment it is one which is legally the preserve of middle or upper class youngsters. The only thing the current mind boggling prices will lead to are more youngsters driving uninsured. Hmm, £3k insurance premium or a few hundred quid fine and slap on the wrist if caught- doesn't take a genius to realise that a good number of youngsters will take the risk. To be honest, I find it a little difficult to blame them.
When I first started driving 6 years ago aged 18, I was a named driver on the families 2nd car, a 1.4 Cavalier. The insurance was approx £900. Fast forward to present day and my brother should hopefully pass his test soon, he will likely be 20 when he passes. I ran a quote on the family run around, a 1.6 2001 Astra, with him as named driver and it was over £3k. No way him or my parents can afford that and simply not worth it considering he'd only be able to use the car during uni holidays. Thankfully he is a sensible lad and wouldn't entertain driving uninsured.
The average UK household income gross is something like £33k, so call it approx. £22-24k net. There is no way the average family can afford to spend £3k of that on insuring 1 child.
I appreciate that driving is a privilege, but at the moment it is one which is legally the preserve of middle or upper class youngsters. The only thing the current mind boggling prices will lead to are more youngsters driving uninsured. Hmm, £3k insurance premium or a few hundred quid fine and slap on the wrist if caught- doesn't take a genius to realise that a good number of youngsters will take the risk. To be honest, I find it a little difficult to blame them.
When I first started driving 6 years ago aged 18, I was a named driver on the families 2nd car, a 1.4 Cavalier. The insurance was approx £900. Fast forward to present day and my brother should hopefully pass his test soon, he will likely be 20 when he passes. I ran a quote on the family run around, a 1.6 2001 Astra, with him as named driver and it was over £3k. No way him or my parents can afford that and simply not worth it considering he'd only be able to use the car during uni holidays. Thankfully he is a sensible lad and wouldn't entertain driving uninsured.
I've always found that Admiral Group companies are the cheapest for me and I'm about as high risk as young drivers come (2 fault accidents in 3 years). I do live in a low risk postcode area though, which seems to help tremendously compared with some of my mates who have far better driving histories.
Never had the typical young driver car, right enough
Never had the typical young driver car, right enough
Classic Grad 98 said:
Agreed. I had a surprisingly good quote on a Smart ForFour, so I'd try less common/mainstream cars. Suzuki alto? Mitsubishi colt? Skoda Fabia?
I'm paying the cheapest insurance out of all my friends in an '03 diesel mondeo- it doesn't have a reputation for young drivers! One of them is paying more for that same terrible 1.0 corsa 3-cylinder you mentioned (terrible, by the way!)
+2I'm paying the cheapest insurance out of all my friends in an '03 diesel mondeo- it doesn't have a reputation for young drivers! One of them is paying more for that same terrible 1.0 corsa 3-cylinder you mentioned (terrible, by the way!)
When I first started driving I was looking at corsas, 206s etc. but the insurance put me way off. Ended up with a mk4 golf 1.4 which even though cost me £2000, was a lot cheaper than "typical new driver cars"
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