Insurance on the rise??

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Wed 30 Apr 2008 22:37
Insurance on the rise?? - daveym
My premium is near enough £500 on my old Ford Ka. Seeing as the MOT is coming soon and I don't know how much the oil burning issues (as posted elsewhere) will cost to fix along with anything unforeseen but safety related for the MOT, I've been toying with the idea with upgrading to something newer. One is quite a substantial performance upgrade - Seat Ibiza Cupra of a friend's (very good price and 12mths MOT if she chooses to sell) so I wasn't surprised to get a quote of over £1k.

I was however surprised to find some more sensible cars would sting me:

New Punto 1.4 16v (not the Sporting) £900
Sport Ka £1000
X reg Mondeo 2.0.... also £1000!! even though a fair bit more powerful??

Curious as to whether or not my insurance company has been increasing its prices, I did a quote on my own car (P reg, 59bhp Ka) as though I was a new customer... £700

It makes no sense - is insurance quickly going up in price along with everything else? The figures I was getting for new cars just makes me think I should go for whatever slightly older (but newer than mine) thing I feel like given that there doesnt seem to be a huge difference in their prices - £700 is crazy for an old Ka and I fear if my policy will go up next year on what I have now I may as well upgrade???

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Wed 30 Apr 2008 23:16
Insurance on the rise?? - movilogo
Higher the premium, more people will drive without insurance - which will push price further and cycle will continue.
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Wed 30 Apr 2008 23:33
Insurance on the rise?? - Optimist
The common factor in the insurance quotes is the driver. Not clear from the start of the thread how old he is, whether he has any NCD, where he lives etec, etc.

Car insurance is expensive. Most of us don't feel that because we have substantial NCD. It does go up in response to market forces, but if you're relatively young and inexperienced you have to pay a lot of money for the first few years.

Inconvenient truth.
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Thu 1 May 2008 00:21
Insurance on the rise?? - daveym
Sorry I should have clarified - I'm 24, and inexperienced, so I expect my insurance to be high.

Point is I'm surprised that I got my car in January, my policy is £500, today on the same car just a few months later would be £700. On a new car, I pay more, even though surely the risks should be seen as lower - more safety features??

The biggest suprise is that assuming today I'd pay £700 (a big rise from the 500 a few months ago) yet for not a lot more than this, given the power increase over what I have now, I can get a 2.0 Mondeo or an Ibiza Cupra GTi for near enough the same money as a Sport Ka or 1.4 Punto.
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Thu 1 May 2008 09:00
Insurance on the rise?? - Round The Bend
For my first car (in 1979) the cost of TPF&T insurance was about the same as the cost of the car being around £300. I don't think things have actually changed that much in real terms.

It really does pay to shop around. And that does n't just mean using a comparison website. As a younger driver it would be well worth visiting a high street broker to see what they can do for you.

I assume you are not insuring the Ka fully comp?

Edited by Round The Bend on 01/05/2008 at 09:03

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Thu 1 May 2008 14:04
Insurance on the rise?? - daveym
Fully comp, possibly with protected ncb and/or legal assistance... need to remind myself which options I went for!

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Thu 1 May 2008 14:47
Insurance on the rise?? - Optimist
Fully comp, possibly with protected ncb and/or legal assistance >>


Is fully comp really worth the cost? Get some quotes not fully comp.
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Thu 1 May 2008 09:11
Insurance on the rise?? - L'escargot
£700 is crazy
for an old Ka .............


The following is an extract from the Rospa website.

"The cost of road accidents is enormous - research suggests that the real cost of a road accident could be between 4 and 32 times the `bent metal' cost, i.e., a minimum of £2,800. Government figures state the real cost of a fatal road accident to Society is in excess of £1 million."

If you were involved in a single accident (and this is likely sooner or later) it could cost more than the total of all the premiums you're likely to pay in your motoring lifetime.
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Thu 1 May 2008 14:56
Insurance on the rise?? - David Horn
The insurance companies don't help themselves, though. I'm taking one to Court after I got squished by a car. Things have now been running on for nearly 4 years, and the bulk of this time is taken up waiting for them to reply to our letters. At one point we had to apply to the Court simply to force them to acknowledge the claim.

4 years worth of legal costs on both sides - for a claim that's likely to be under 10k. That's why premiums are shooting up.
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