Insurance!

[Yadash]

I turned 17 in July and live in the London area, I've only just applied for my provisional license and checked what insurance would be like once I had a full license. £4005 on a Fiat Panda, 6,000 miles a year with both my parents as additional drivers! Friends have had quotes of £2,000 and live within a 5 mile radius of me.

What am I doing wrong?

[jimbop1]

The only way I could get insured when I passed my test was being an additional driver on my parents insurance. It's st because you can't get any no claims but it worked out alot cheaper.

[MegaMinion]

Elephant seem to be the best for young drivers at the moment, have you tried them?

[Yadash]

I have used 3 comparison sites so far; confused.com, moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com

Confused.com gave me some frankly terrifying quotes of £15,000 on an Aygo

moneysupermarket.com gave me £6,500 as a cheapest quote on a Chevrolet Spark

comparethemarket.com has been cheapest so far with a quote of £4005 on a Panda

I've tried going on as a secondary driver on my parents but the quote is actually more expensive, which is a tad annoying as I'm going to have to share the Panda with my Mum, and she'll be the main user

[MiniBeej]

My advice is just keep it legal. As tempting as it is to 'bend' the truth for a cheaper quote, it's expensive finding out that you aren't insured.

Looks like you are doing the right thing, ring around, talk to companies like Direct Line who aren't on comparison websites and as I mentioned on another thread; Admiral, Elephant and Diamond all offer a 10 month 'bonus builder' policy for when you do get your first insurance. Builds no claims quickly and can save you in the long run.

As for adding yourself on to your moms insurance, make sure the insurer is aware that your mom is still the main driver and you will only really be 'borrowing' the car. *this is why it's best to ring once you have had a reply from a website!)

[lockhart flawse]

See the other thread. We have been quoted £1600 by Ingenie for our 18 year old son on the same car but we are in a much cheaper postcode. He is just about to take his test.

[scorcher]

All sound like newish cars you are trying to insure. Try something older/less valuable?

[Yadash]

I've tried a couple of quotes on older cars like a k11 micra and the quote was £11,000 which is a little ridiculous. For some reason though, an Aventador with all the possible listed modifications only costs £9,000 a year under the same circumstances.

The reason I'm trying the Fiat Panda is because my Dad just ordered one for my Mum and she agreed to allow me to use it to learn and use when she doesn't need it.

[briang9]

lockhart flawse said:

See the other thread. We have been quoted £1600 by Ingenie for our 18 year old son on the same car but we are in a much cheaper postcode. He is just about to take his test.

I suspect once he has passed his test that could go up?

[pwd95]

Try loads of different cars, the cheapest for my daughter when she was 17 was a 52 reg Fiesta 1.3!?

[Monkeylegend]

Yadash said:

I've tried a couple of quotes on older cars like a k11 micra and the quote was £11,000 which is a little ridiculous. For some reason though, an Aventador with all the possible listed modifications only costs £9,000 a year under the same circumstances.

The reason I'm trying the Fiat Panda is because my Dad just ordered one for my Mum and she agreed to allow me to use it to learn and use when she doesn't need it.

I think I would go for the Lambo then.

[.blue]

I suggest trying:

Elephant/Admiral (by far best customer service and cheapest prices in my experience)
Adrian Flux (horrible service, will mess you around on quotes - i.e. will not honour prices they initially quote but were cheapest in my 2nd year of driving)
Tesco (never used them but they gave someone I know a decent black box quote which isn't likely to be jacked up by more than 20% after getting a full license)

(Yes I hate black boxes but it sounds like there is just no other option for young drivers these days. Live with it for a year or 2 tops then move on).

When I was your age, I never got the cheapest quotes on any comparison website. Oh and a trick that worked with Admiral (and if you can honestly make the change) is that it's cheaper for me to insure my car when it's parked on the street than when it's on driveway or in garage.

Finally, don't assume a higher excess = cheaper insurance. Underwriting and the industry is messed up.

Edited by .blue on Saturday 16th November 12:48

[JagXJR]

Heard some say classic car insurance can be very cheap on older cars, suppose because the value of the car is less? No experience though so is only hearsay.

Ditto on the black box, can't stand the idea but if it allows you to build up some no-claims at an affordable price ................

You really need to shop around these days and try different cars, I was quoted cheaper on an XJR (group 20) than an X type (group 16)

Seems they calculate many variables and if a particular car has less claims in a postcode to a different one this can make it cheaper despite a higher insurance group. This can change from company to company, when I asked one why they were more expensive that a different company on the same car, they said other company must have had less claims in that postcode on that vehicle than they had, so assessed risk as less.

Good luck, insurance is a minefield for most of us.

[.blue]

^^ Yeah that's another good tip. Car wise try:

Nissan Almera (actually quite good, even in 1.5)
Proton Satria Neo (OK car and drives well, doubt it's reliable but it looks good)
Suzuki Ignis

Anything odd-looking or thought of as boring and you're likely to get a much better quote.

[New POD]

What would it look like at age 18 ?
Try same quote without one of the parents.
Try different cars. Micra 1.0 Cira 1996 will be lowest ?
Play with the JOB title, add commuting, add your mum with business use.

[lockhart flawse]

briang9 said:

I suspect once he has passed his test that could go up?

No - that's what we got as a quotation had he passed his test last week.

[Yadash]

I wanted to go down the classic car insurance route, however many of the insurers require you to be over the age of 25

I've tried many different cars and the quotes have been pretty ridiculous for many of them, one of the most shocking was £42,000 on a 1999 Honda Accord 2.0.

I will have a play with additional drivers and occupation too thanks for the advice!

Any other cars you would recommend me trying?

[JagXJR]

Old Land rover very low risk but would not do your street cred much good

[MonkeyHanger]

I'm currently having similar fun & games with my 17 year old nephew. His parents don't drive so yours truly has ended up helping him look for "cheap" insurance.

The black box schemes have been a joke so far and have been higher than a normal policy.

The current leader is £1400 on a VW Lupo with another £100 extra for a 1.2 Polo. Fiestas and the like come in slightly higher. That's with me on the policy as a named driver which makes a surprising difference!

[ezi]

Stop using comparison companies and do some proper quotes approaching companies, you'll be amazed.