How much insurance would you pay.....

[versus]

.... to drive the car you want?

A friend of mine bought an M5 and his insurance is £3k a year! I was looking at quotes for myself for a Boxster S and its going to cost more than double to insurance it than what it does for an equally powerful standard car e.g. Volvo S60 T6.

Does anyone here knowingly pay more than double the 'normal' price for insurance to drive the car they want and more importantly, is it worth it?

[anonymous-user]

I would say most car enthusiasts do just that.

[LukeBird]

garyhun said:

I would say most car enthusiasts do just that.

Agreed.

I've never gone totally silly with insurance though, I've never paid more than £1000 since my first car.

[falkster]

Insurance really is something that would make me decide on a car.
I know my daily (ML55) is literally a daily hack but I've always wanted one. When I was getting quotes for £1000 it made me think again.
I ended up getting it for £500 through admiral multicar which really pleased me.

[CBR JGWRR]

At my age all insurance is silly.

When I was 17, a Micra was 2900 pounds.

I thought stuff that, how much is a 'vette for a laugh...

£5703 is quite reasonable in context - V8, rear wheel drive, first car. And fibreglass, and I can make fibreglass...

[anonymous-user]

You never know what's round the corner or if you'll be here next year when your insurance may be cheaper!

If you can afford it, go for it.

[Nedzilla]

I think £1500 would be my limit.That is the most i have ever paid to insure a car on an escort rs cosworth about 10 yrs ago.I am at the stage now though at 37 with a clean driving record that i can insure just about any performance car i want certainly up to a value of £50k for less than £1k. Happy days.

[falkster]

CBR JGWRR said:

At my age all insurance is silly.

When I was 17, a Micra was 2900 pounds.

I thought stuff that, how much is a 'vette for a laugh...

£5703 is quite reasonable in context - V8, rear wheel drive, first car. And fibreglass, and I can make fibreglass...

I think ive been really fortunate in my 20 years driving. I had an XR2 at 17 and I paid £600 3rd party but a friend, the same age, insured his 12 months later and he paid £1500 through the same insurance company I used.

[redtwin]

I won't pay 4 figures for insurance. I have disregarded cars in the past simply because the insurance would have cost in excess of a grand. Not talking high performance "sports" stuff either, two in recent memory were a Lexus GS430 and a BMW 740.

[otolith]

We've had the situation where we were insuring our old Subaru shed for about half what the 350Z or Lotus were costing - but then the Subaru only cost £250-ish, so it's not a big deal. If double the premium is a couple of thousand quid more, that's another matter.

[versus]

The 350Z is coming back with quotes just as much as the Boxster S so I just can't understand giving away £1000+ for 'nothing' in effect.

To the people who say just go for it, have you done it and is it worth it? Did you really get double the satisfaction from the car you had to pay double insurance for?

[Vulgar LS2]

£600 is my cut off point for any car, although my first years insurance on my bike has cost £800 this should more than half next year.

[Zwolf]

For driving what I want to drive, I accept all the costs over and above the cost to my happiness of driving a car that isn't one I want to save a few £.

As far as I'm concerned, every single £ spent on driving something I don't want to is wasted money. Not a saving at all.

That said, changing the wife's MINI Cooper for a 1.8 Focus was no different (as you'd expect), but changing that for a 323i saw the insurance drop go up by less than £100. Fuel and tax is no different, but the BM is much nicer to drive.

Shopping around is key and just plugging your details into comparison sites isn't usually the best deal for performance oriented stuff. Specialist brokers tend to yield better results, the trade-off being that they're not as instant and will require more work on your part to get a decent range of quotes and have a little haggle.

[Dangerous Dan]

£2k would be my limit, but it'd have to be for something "good".

I don't see sense in paying over x% of the car's value on insurance unless you haven't got a choice (i.e. lad just passed test, insurance co asking for several K to cover a car worth less than £600 etc)

[TaffRichie]

Most I paid was 1200 on a 300zx twin turbo when I was 21 (over 10 years ago) with Tesco insurance LOL as they were a 1000 cheaper than anyone else, but the renewal came in a 3k so then went with flux...

But maybe next year if I get a GTR I suspect I will get raped, but will have to pay to play...

[otolith]

Dangerous Dan said:

I don't see sense in paying over x% of the car's value on insurance unless you haven't got a choice (i.e. lad just passed test, insurance co asking for several K to cover a car worth less than £600 etc)

The cost of replacing the car is almost irrelevant, so it makes little difference to the costs whether it is worth £500 or £10,000.

[m444ttb]

I suppose I lay a fair amount vs the value of the cars. The real 'enthusiast' cost is having a 2nd car to tax and insure for bigger all usage though.